Curriculum

🌱 Curriculum Intent: Trauma-Informed, Project-Based Learning Primary School

At our school, our curriculum is intentionally designed to nurture the whole child—academically, emotionally, socially, and creatively—through the integration of trauma-informed practices and project-based learning.

We believe that safety, connection, and empowerment are the foundation of all learning. Our curriculum is built around the understanding that children bring diverse life experiences to the classroom, and many may carry hidden or visible effects of trauma. Therefore, we are committed to creating safe, predictable, and supportive learning environments where every child feels valued, heard, and understood.

Through our project-based learning approach, we offer real-world, meaningful learning experiences that:

• Foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking
• Encourage student voice and choice, helping children reclaim agency over their learning
• Promote collaboration and community, building strong peer relationships and social-emotional resilience
• Are flexible and responsive, allowing children to work at their own pace and build confidence through mastery
• Integrate SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) across all subjects to explicitly teach self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, and responsible decision-making

We aim to:

• Provide equity, not just equality—adapting the curriculum and support structures to meet individual needs
• Create interdisciplinary projects that connect core knowledge (maths, literacy, science, etc.) to students’ lives, communities, and futures
• Equip learners with lifelong skills, including problem-solving, communication, and self-reflection
• Empower teachers as facilitators who model regulation, resilience, and restorative practices

Ultimately, our curriculum intends to heal, inspire, and ignite—supporting every child to thrive, succeed, and become compassionate, capable learners and citizens in a complex world.

🔧 Curriculum Implementation: Trauma-Informed, Project-Based Learning Primary School

At our school, curriculum implementation is shaped by our commitment to both trauma-informed principles and project-based learning pedagogy. This dual approach ensures that learning is not only engaging and purposeful but also safe, relational, and inclusive for every child.

🌟 1. Trauma-Informed Foundations

We recognise that trauma can impact a child’s ability to learn, engage, and feel safe in school. To address this, our curriculum is delivered in ways that consistently:

• Prioritise emotional and physical safety through predictable routines, calm environments, and clear expectations
• Embed co-regulation and restorative practices, enabling children to manage emotions and repair relationships
• Promote relational teaching, where strong, trusting relationships between staff and pupils are central to learning
• Support student agency, giving children appropriate levels of control and choice in their learning to rebuild a sense of autonomy
• Use universal and targeted emotional support, including regular check-ins, safe spaces, and access to wellbeing staff where needed

🧠 2. Project-Based Learning in Action

We implement a Project-Based Learning model that allows children to explore authentic, cross-curricular projects that matter to them and connect learning to the real world. This includes:

• Driving questions and real-world challenges that spark curiosity and problem-solving
• Interdisciplinary learning, weaving together subjects like literacy, science, maths, and the arts around meaningful themes
• Student voice and choice, allowing learners to shape how they explore content, present findings, and reflect on progress
• Public products, where children share their work with real audiences, promoting pride, ownership, and confidence
• Collaborative learning structures, where teamwork, dialogue, and reflection are encouraged and explicitly taught

🧩 3. Adaptation and Flexibility

We recognise that learning is not linear for all children, especially those affected by trauma. Therefore, we:

• Adapt teaching and pacing to meet diverse needs without compromising depth or challenge
• Allow time for revisiting key concepts, and for children to process learning in ways that suit their emotional readiness
• Use formative assessment to monitor understanding and emotional wellbeing, adjusting support as needed
• Encourage multiple ways of demonstrating understanding, valuing creativity, practical skills, and storytelling alongside traditional outputs

🤝 4. Staff Development and Consistency

Effective implementation requires all staff to be confident in both trauma-informed practice and PBL delivery. We ensure this by:

• Providing ongoing professional development in both areas
• Embedding consistent language and approaches across the school (e.g., emotional literacy, behaviour regulation, reflection)
• Using collaborative planning time so staff can co-design rich projects and share strategies
• Maintaining a whole-school culture of compassion, curiosity, and high expectations

 

Through this implementation, we aim to ensure that all pupils—regardless of background or experience—can access a broad, balanced, and empowering curriculum that builds academic success, emotional resilience, and a lifelong love of learning.

🎯 Curriculum Impact: Trauma-Informed, Project-Based Learning Primary School

At our school, the impact of our trauma-informed, project-based curriculum is seen in the growth, confidence, and capability of every child. We evaluate impact not only through academic outcomes, but also through the development of emotional wellbeing, social competence, creativity, and resilience—all vital indicators of true readiness for future learning and life.

📚 1. Academic Achievement and Deep Learning

Through engaging, authentic projects, pupils:

 

• Gain secure understanding of core knowledge and skills across subjects, especially in reading, writing, maths, and science
• Develop the ability to apply their learning in meaningful, real-world contexts
• Demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration, as shown in project outcomes and pupil voice
• Make strong progress from their individual starting points, especially those with additional needs or barriers due to trauma

We assess learning through a combination of:

• High-quality pupil work and project products
• Teacher observation, dialogue, and reflection
• Formative and summative assessments, adapted where necessary for trauma-sensitive contexts

 

💬 2. Emotional Resilience and Self-Regulation

The impact of trauma-informed practice is evident in:

• Pupils’ growing ability to understand and manage their emotions
• Increased use of self-regulation strategies and recovery tools embedded across the school day
• A decline in behavioural incidents, replaced by restorative conversations and relationship repair
• Improved engagement and attendance, as pupils feel safe, respected, and motivated to learn

We track this through:

• Pupil wellbeing measures
• Behaviour and safeguarding data
• Teacher reflection and pastoral records
• Pupil voice and family feedback

🤝 3. Social Skills and Relationships

Our curriculum intentionally builds:

• Empathy, communication, and teamwork through collaborative project work
• Respectful relationships with peers and adults, underpinned by relational teaching practices
• A strong sense of community and belonging, where every child feels included and able to contribute meaningfully

We see this impact in:

• Confident group participation and shared responsibility in learning
• Peer support, conflict resolution, and kindness in action
• Rich classroom dialogue and peer feedback within project-based work

 

🌟 4. Personal Development and Pupil Voice

Most importantly, our pupils leave us as:

• Curious, capable, and confident learners
• Emotionally literate and socially aware young people
• Equipped with the agency and aspiration to shape their futures positively

They know how to ask questions, solve problems, reflect on their experiences, and make a difference in their communities—now and in the future.

In a trauma-informed, project-based learning school, the impact is holistic: academic success is not pursued at the expense of wellbeing—it is achieved because wellbeing is prioritised. Our curriculum empowers every child to not only recover and grow, but to flourish.

 

Example Timetable 

Blossom Rose School provides a curriculum that is planned and delivered in a personalised and differentiated approach. We recognise that children learn in separate ways, so we provide visual, kinaesthetic, and auditory (where appropriate) resources. (please see example timetable offering )

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00–9:15	Morning Check-in	Morning Check-in	Morning Check-in	Morning Check-in	Morning Check-in
9:15–9:50	Literacy Block 1	Literacy Block 1	Literacy Block 1	Literacy Block 1	Literacy Block 1
9:50–10:25	Literacy Block 2	Literacy Block 2	Literacy Block 2	Literacy Block 2	Literacy Block 2
10:25–11:00	Numeracy Block 1	Numeracy Block 1	Numeracy Block 1	Numeracy Block 1	Numeracy Block 1
11:00–11:15	Break & Snack	Break & Snack	Break & Snack	Break & Snack	Break & Snack
11:15–11:50	Numeracy Block 2	Numeracy Block 2	Numeracy Block 2	Numeracy Block 2	Numeracy Block 2
11:50–12:25	PSHE (SEL focus)	Circle Time & Role Play	Mindfulness & Stories	Zones of Regulation	Class Assembly
12:25–1:15	Lunch & Free Play	Lunch & Free Play	Lunch & Free Play	Lunch & Free Play	Lunch & Free Play
1:15–1:50	PBL Block 1 (Art/Science)	PBL Block 1 (Humanities)	PBL Block 1 (STEM)	PBL Block 1 (Community)	Creative Friday (child-led)
1:50–2:25	PBL Block 2	PBL Block 2	PBL Block 2	PBL Block 2	Creative Friday continued
2:25–2:40	Brain Break / Movement	Outdoor Game	Dance/Yoga	Forest School	Group Game / Rest
2:40–3:15	Wellbeing Activity	Journaling / Art	Music / Nature Time	Free Choice Centers	Gratitude Circle
3:15–3:30	Daily Reflection	Daily Reflection	Daily Reflection	Daily Reflection	Weekly Reflection

Templecroft School provides a curriculum that is planned and delivered in a personalised and differentiated approach. We recognise that children learn in separate ways, so we provide visual, kinaesthetic, and auditory (where appropriate) resources.

Pupils are taught by Qualified Teachers in small class groups supported by specialist Teaching Assistants. The prominent level of staffing allows for individual and small group work as needed and the pace and style of teaching is modified to ensure all children can access lessons and make good progress. All staff have specialist qualifications ensuring an excellent quality of support for children’s individual learning needs.

PSHE/RHE is an important area of our curriculum and helps prepare our children for future independence, citizenship, healthy lifestyles, and personal safety. This includes an adapted PSHE curriculum that includes relevant research. PSHE runs throughout our school daily through PSHE lessons and activities, forest school, enrichment activities, and focused assembly time linked to our school values.

Our pupils need access to wider experiences to consolidate their learning and provide purposeful learning. As a school, we provide a wide range of educational visits and a variety of sporting events, including attending competitions with other local schools.

Pupils at Templecroft School make excellent progress. As a team, we constantly assess our pupils learning and progress. We use a range of assessment tools to monitor whether our curriculum is having an impact on teaching and learning. All teachers follow clearly adapted long term plans and medium-term plans for each subject.

Teachers are highly skilled and able to adapt to the needs of each individual pupil. As a school, we use teacher assessments to collate progress and assessment data. This is collected six times a year and then used to provide pupil progress meetings to discuss pupils’ achievements and identify any barriers to learning that may need extra intervention.

School council meet regularly and discuss how to improve the school and whether the curriculum is engaging and inspiring! All pupil feedback is shared and discussed in pastoral meetings with the pastoral team.

Baseline assessments are used when pupils start of their educational journey – This measures pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills.