Concordia Crescimus Curriculum
The character curriculum is as important at Polam as the academic. Developing the whole person has never been as important as it is today. Confidence and resilience, alongside excellent academic qualifications, open doors for our students when they leave us.
At Polam we ensure that every pupil benefits from the opportunities to build character and resilience by delivering them through our Concordia Cresciumus curriculum, which is built into the school day. In Junior School this means that one afternoon per week is dedicated to the activities programme. In Senior School, every pupil undertakes activities on a Wednesday afternoon. Seniors also have Concordia Crescimus time each day, when PSHE, Reading and other activities take place in form groups and, on Fridays, in vertical House groups.
The six strands of our Concordia Cresciumus Curriculum are as follows:
SPORT AND THE OUTDOORS
Intent:
- To develop pupils’ skills of teamwork, responsibility and leadership through the experience of a range of sports and outdoor activities.
- For pupils to experience both winning and losing in order to develop resilience, sportsmanship, respect for others and for the rules of the game.
- To develop lifelong healthy lifestyle habits in our pupils that improve self-esteem and positive mental and physical health.
CREATIVITY
Intent:
- To develop the skills, confidence and imagination required to solve problems, take risks and innovate.
- To ensure that our pupils understand how creative fields, such as the arts, enhance our lives and how they inform our culture, heritage and British Values.
- To cultivate our pupils’ ability to express themselves creatively in a range of fields.
PERFORMANCE
Intent:
- To develop the confidence necessary to perform in front of an audience and the importance of constructive feedback in learning how to improve.
- To engage in creative collaboration, learning how to work as a team and the importance of individual contributions to a collective effort.
- To improve our pupils’ communication and language skills so that they can communicate effectively with others with confidence.
VOLUNTEERING AND MEMBERSHIP
Intent:
- To understand the moral imperative to serve others in order to promote a better and fairer society, developing a lifelong commitment to charity and service.
- To develop leadership skills and understand the importance of taking responsibility for others both as a leader and as a member of an organisation.
- To develop the resilience and the confidence to lead and to serve those who are in need.
WORLD OF WORK
Intent:
- For our pupils to understand the world of work by experiencing a wide range of interactions with institutions and people from different careers.
- To develop in every pupil an understanding of their own interests and aptitudes and how these could be used in the world of work and for this to lead to career planning which connects current endeavour in school to future outcomes.
- For every pupil to develop high ambitions and expectations for their future, along with good career management and employability skills, influenced by independent careers advice and guidance.
PSHE
Intent:
- To develop in our pupils the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage many of the critical opportunities, challenges and responsibilities they will face as they grow up and in adulthood.
- To ensure that all pupils understandhow to keep themselves safe from relevant risks such as abuse, sexual exploitation and extremism, including when using the internet and social media and that they know how to keep themselves healthy, both emotionally and physically.
- To prepare our pupils positively for life in modern Britain, promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.
