Beyond the Curriculum
The extent that the curriculum goes beyond the academic, vocational or technical.
- Importance of global citizenship being representative of the community we serve through our sister school Beam County School Ghana https://www.beamcountyschool.org/beam2/ to raise pupils’ awareness of the world around them.
- An archaic language is taught as there is a large body of evidence which points to the fact that children who study Latin gain an advantage in multiple other academic areas that are applicable to a wide range of careers. Latin supplies many of the root words for the specialised vocabularies of the modern sciences. It is also the language of law, politics, logic, and theology. Indeed, all legal terms come from Latin. Furthermore, Studying Latin provides the foundation for learning other modern foreign languages – even German or Russian. Beam was awarded in 2023 for its outstanding achievement by Classics for All: https://classicsforall.org.uk/news-and-events/events/teaching-awards-2023
- We have a free offer of violin lessons to pupils in KS2.
- All pupils are encouraged to join one of two choir extra-curricular lessons.
- Annual visits to pantomimes or the theatre for our pupils to immerse children in professional theatre.
- A SEND specific curriculum is offered to all complex pupils who are non-verbal and have low cognition. Speech and language therapy and sensory integration are available to support. Beam County Primary School is fully inclusive.
- Specialist teaching is offered in Music, PE, and Art.
- Chess is taught as a lunch- time club to develop critical thinking skills. We are seeking to develop this into year 4 (2023 – 2024).
- Ongoing visits each half-term to museums, galleries and places of interest to support curriculum study.
- Outside agencies and specialist delivering presentations in school to support the curriculum.
- Outside safeguarding agencies working with the school to promote keeping safe in the community eg. knife crime, drugs, gangs.
- Ongoing partnership with professional actors from the local community. Recently (2021 – 2023) we were part of the Paul Hamlyn Project to strengthen drama, oracy, performance, curriculum, teaching and learning.
- Ongoing partnership with local artists to support creativity and art installation.
- Ongoing partnership with community links to film and music production for our pupils.
Story of Me
Ground-breaking literacy programme for local schools
Working alongside The Barking and Dagenham Cultural Education Partnership, we were the lead school and were thrilled to be awarded funding from the Paul Hamlyn Project. We worked alongside seven other schools from the borough and Inspiring Future to construct and design a new literacy programme.
The programme, called ‘The Story of Me’, looks at non-Western approaches to literacy development and uses storytelling to overcome barriers to learning, including students with English as an additional language. We worked alongside local artists to develop new ways of teaching to reflect the diversity and multiculturalism of the borough so that all pupils see themselves reflected in the stories and storytelling in school.
Catherine Sutton, Head of Programme: Education at Paul Hamlyn Trust, said:
“We are delighted to support this project, which brings together a dynamic group of partners to develop an immersive programme of teacher continuing professional development and learning.
“The project will explore how representative and diverse models of storytelling and theatre-making can enhance teachers’ literacy development and language acquisition skills.”
Councillor Carpenter, Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement, said:
“Congratulations to all the staff involved in securing the funding for this pioneering programme.
“I look forward to seeing how the collaboration between teachers and arts organisations supports the development of children’s literacy skills.
“The arts can play an important role in enriching young people’s learning and educational experiences.”
For this academic year, we have further developed this by implementing the 'Story of I'.