Our Curriculum

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Learning at Dunalley is a progressive journey with common approaches and themes threaded from the Early Years through to the end of Key Stage 2. Our curriculum provides our pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We aim to give them everything they need for what comes next in their learning and development. This is achieved through our curriculum and a range of experiences and opportunities to help them progress and achieve success.

During our Early Years, children start their learning in a play-based, child-led, active environment. After the children enter year 1, we balance success in English, mathematics and science within a broad and enriched curriculum that allows our children plenty of opportunities to explore art and design, design and technology, computing, music, history, geography, RE, physical education and French at Key Stage 2. 

Enhancements to our curriculum are provided through a variety of different experiences and opportunities to enable children to further develop their learning, make progress, build their cultural capital and achieve success within the EYFS educational programmes and the Key Stage 1 and 2 curriculum. 

We use our school and local environment to provide opportunities to enhance our curriculum such as using our outdoor spaces for science learning, the local park for geography fieldwork, or local venues such as the Holst Museum for history learning as well as taking advantage of Cheltenham’s Literature and Science Festivals. 

We also actively encourage our children to discuss topical news items through ‘Picture News’ - a resource which presents a topical issue to discuss each week both at school and at home. These sessions are also used to highlight and foster British values. 

Our ’50 things to do before you leave Dunalley’ initiative allows children to participate in a range of physical and creative activities and experiences to develop pupils’ well-being as well as experiencing the great outdoors by taking learning outside. 

Developing an appreciation for our environment, and understanding the impact we can have on it, is also an important area of our children’s learning. We aim to develop this using our fabulous outdoor areas, encouraging re-using, re-cycling and reducing waste and having the environment as a theme that runs through many of our subject areas, from the literature we read in English, to re-using items to create pieces of art. 

Throughout our year we hold a range of themed weeks or days to support learning such as our Health Week, PSHE weeks and Geography Day as well as national events such as World Book Day and Anti-bullying Week. 

Commando Joe's, a programme based on developing RESPECT (resilience, empathy, self-aware, positivity, excellence, communication and teamwork), is run by our very own Commando Joe - Callam. This programme provides children from Y1-6 with important life-skills, through collaborative, active challenges and compliments our PSHE curriculum and positive behaviour policy.

We value the range of extra-curricular opportunities we offer to all pupils as this enables them to pursue and develop their interests beyond the curriculum. Thanks to the staff and external specialists, we are able to offer a diverse range of opportunities including sporting activities, art and craft, computing and music.

Our children’s learning is enhanced through a range of visits and visitors. These provide opportunities for all children to gain experiences to support their learning in class. These vary from history visits to places such as Caerleon to learn about Roman soldiers, to Skillzone to learn how to keep safe in the real and on-line world or visits from authors to inspire reading and writing. 

Our Year 6 children benefit from a week of outdoor and adventurous activities on their residential visit during the Autumn term - a memorable highlight of their time at Dunalley. This allows them to develop, amongst other things, perseverance, resilience and teamwork by undertaking a range of challenging activities such as caving, rock climbing and gorge walking. This experience helps them to prepare for their final year at primary school and the subsequent transition to secondary education.  

Please click on the buttons to access information about the Early Years Foundation Stage and subject specific information.

Our curriculum is based on:

The Early Years Statutory Framework for Nursery to Reception age children 
The statutory requirements for the EYFS can be accessed using the link below:
EYFS Statutory Requirements
A helpful parent guide is also available here.

The National Curriculum core and foundation subjects for Key Stage 1 and 2  
The National Curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge, skills and understanding around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating units of work and lessons. Our staff have spent a great deal of time developing their long-term curriculum maps to ensure that the full requirements of the National Curriculum are met. You can access the requirements here:

National Primary Curriculum in England 
Key Stage 1 and 2 Framework

We also follow the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education and the Jigsaw Scheme of Work for PSHE. 

To obtain additional information on the curriculum we offer please email us at [email protected]

NEW - Dunalley Diddies

07 Mar 2024

Open to parents/carers of babies 0-1yrs old, on Wednesday afternoons, 1.45pm-3pm. For more information pop along and speak to Hannah Street in...

Easter Holiday Camp

04 Mar 2024

With the Easter break less than 4 weeks away, with our award-winning multi-activity camps running throughout the Easter holidays!

Year 6 Trip

01 Mar 2024

Our Year 6 children enjoyed an adventurous trip to Swindon Steam Museum on Friday.
Their outfits for the World War 11 experience were just fabulous.

OPEN DAY for 2024 Starters

20 Nov 2023

Another OPEN DAY for September 2024 Starters will take place on January 9th 2024 at 9.30am to 10.30am - please just come along!
Please email...

OPAL Bingo - Winners

15 Nov 2023

Coming Soon !
Another OPAL Bingo opportunity

OPAL Platinum Award

18 Apr 2023

Awarded Platinum
This award means that Dunalley primary has some of the best lunchtime play opportunities in the country for all their pupils.

Sports Day

24 Mar 2023

Sports Day 
KS2 - 11th July 
KS1 - 13th July

OPAL Bingo

31 Jan 2023

The competition has started, which class can conmplete their OPAL Bingo card?

Parent Walkthrough - Read, Write Inc KS1

13 Jan 2023

Parents/Carers are invited to our Walk through on Thursday 2nd February from 9am to 9.30am

Healthy Schools Award

16 Dec 2022

We are thrilled to have been awarded the Healthy Schools Award