Running through our curriculum are four themes of learning. Along with ensuring we teach the content of the National Curriculum in a systematic way, these themes are woven through the subjects to ensure that our curriculum is uniquely 'Southville', reflecting our values and location.

When we began to re-imagine our curriculum, staff and governors were clear that we wanted it to be rooted in our local area, and intentional in its development of knowledge that supports anti-racist views. These themes evolved as a direct result of that intent. 

Here is an overview of each theme. Please click on the link to see an overview of how each of these themes is layered through the school. 

Diverse Figures

Every school curriculum is filled with stories about people and their achievements, and our curriculum sets out to ensure that the people we focus upon are representative of the global population. This is important for three main reasons:

1. we are sharing an accurate view of the people who have shaped the world;

2. the stories we share are not solely related to overcoming oppression or discrimination;

3. all children are able to see, and be inspired by, people who look like them, and/or have a similar background.

We incorporate some of the CARGO Classroom artwork and resources within our curriculum, as well as using books and online resources to bring the stories to life. 

The overview below provides some examples of the people we study in each year group. However this is an ever-growing list because whether our teachers are looking for authors, scientists, artists, visitors or somebody else to enhance our curriculum, increasing the diversity of our references is a priority.

Link: Diverse Figures Overview

Local Anchor Points

To enable children to connect with their learning and see the immediate relevance of each aspect of the curriculum, we endeavour to ensure that every unit has a meaningful local link. Some units are all about the local area, which makes this easy, whilst others, with a more international focus, have required us to delve deeper into the stories and find the connections to BS3 and Bristol. We have worked with local History experts to embed this knowledge into our curriculum. 

Link: Local Anchor Overview

Global Citizen

Alongside establishing local anchor-points, our Connection value means we want our children to 'Be a Global Citizen' and so we ensure that throughout our curriculum, children get to study a variety of places around the world. Often, these are chosen because they specifically link to other themes. For example, in Year 2 children study Jamaica, which provides a rich context for the later Year 5 unit about Windrush and St Paul's Carnival.

Link: Global Citizen Overview

Human Migration

It is important to us that children understand what migration is, how the movement of people around the world has come about at different points in time and the impact of this both on the people and places. The concept of movement around the world is first introduced in Key Stage 1, by learning about air travel and the evolution of the global chocolate trade, and further developed throughout Key Stage 2 by exploring different forms of migration including, in Year 6, the forced migration of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 

Link: Human Migration Overview