The Barnfield Way – Quality of Education (2025)
At Barnfield, we provide a happy, positive and nurturing environment where every child’s individuality is celebrated. Everything we do is guided by our whole-school vision:
Be the best we can be
We follow the National Curriculum (2014) and have carefully designed and enhanced our curriculum to meet the needs of Barnfield children. Our bespoke curriculum is inclusive, ambitious, well-sequenced and progressive, ensuring all pupils develop secure knowledge, essential skills and strong character.
We are committed to building cultural capital by exposing children to rich experiences across literature, the arts, science, technology and sport.
We want our pupils to leave Barnfield as confident, creative, curious and compassionate learners.
We also believe in the power of YET:
“I can’t do this… yet.”
This growth-mindset approach encourages resilience, determination and a lifelong love of learning.
Our text-based learning approach ensures that every child engages with high-quality texts that inspire discussion, creativity and deeper thinking. A wide range of teaching approaches ensures that all learning styles are supported and celebrated.
Quality of Education at Barnfield
We know that knowledge does not sit in isolation. Children need to develop a deep body of knowledge that can be remembered, applied and built upon over time.
- Knowledge is what children learn and remember.
- Skill is the ability to apply that knowledge confidently and accurately.
- Oracy underpins both—supporting communication, collaboration, vocabulary and confidence.
At Barnfield, our curriculum has been strengthened so that:
- Progression of knowledge
- Progression of skills, and
- Progression of oracy
are planned in harmony, ensuring pupils develop breadth and depth within every subject.
We distinguish clearly between:
- Subject Topics – the specific content taught
- Threshold (Substantive) Concepts – the “big ideas” that are revisited and developed over time
Children revisit these concepts in different contexts, gradually deepening and securing their understanding.
Our progression model supports children at different stages of learning through three cognitive domains:
- Basic – guided practice and clear modelling
- Advancing – increasing independence and reasoning
- Deep – problem-solving, application and challenge
Implementation – The Barnfield Way in the Classroom
The Barnfield Way is our shared approach to high-quality teaching and learning. It ensures consistency, clarity and high expectations across the school.
It focuses on:
- Positive relationships grounded in respect
- Clear explanations and engaging modelling
- Opportunities for talk, collaboration and reasoning
- High-quality questioning to unpick misconceptions
- Responsive teaching that adapts to pupils’ needs
- Purposeful practice that strengthens fluency and confidence
- Meaningful challenge for all learners
- A calm, inclusive environment where children feel safe to take risks
This shared pedagogy ensures that children not only gain knowledge and skills, but also become motivated, enthusiastic learners who enjoy challenge and celebrate success.
Impact
We understand that meaningful learning is a change in long-term memory, so progress is not always instantly visible. Instead, we look for evidence over time that pupils are knowing more, remembering more and doing more.
Our assessment approach focuses on:
1. In-Unit Progress
Teachers set “proof of progress” tasks to assess how well children can independently apply their learning at different points in a unit. These tasks help identify whether a pupil is working in the basic, advancing or deep domain.
2. Progress Over Time
By reviewing children’s independent work, responses, talk and application across the term, teachers can make secure judgements about each pupil’s learning journey.
Monitoring and Review
Whole-school curriculum impact is evaluated through our agreed Monitoring and Review Schedule. Subject Leaders monitor progress within their subjects through:
- Learning walks
- Pupil voice
- Book looks
- Data analysis
- Planning scrutiny
- Support and coaching within teams
This ongoing process ensures our curriculum continues to evolve, strengthen and meet the needs of our Barnfield children.