Finding their thing
Every child has a thing. The subject, the skill, the moment where something clicks and they realise what they can do.
Our job is to help them find it. Then help them go further with it than they ever imagined.
We don’t believe high standards and loving school are opposites. One makes the other. When children know more, they can do more. When they can do more, they start to believe in themselves. That’s the cycle we’re building for every child who walks through our doors.
What we teach
Our curriculum is ambitious, knowledge-rich and carefully sequenced. Learning builds year on year. Nothing is left to chance.
Children study the full range: English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Art and Design, Design Technology, Computing, Music, PE, RE and PSHE, with French from Year 3. English and Maths are taught every day. Other subjects are taught weekly or in focused blocks, so children can go deeper and remember more.
Every subject matters. Every lesson counts.
The programmes behind it
We’ve chosen the best evidence-informed programmes we could find, because our children deserve nothing less.
English: Lancashire LPDS Units of Work Maths: NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics) Science, History, Geography, Art and Design, Design Technology: CUSP (Curriculum with Unity Schools Partnership) Computing: our own scheme, in line with Teach Computing (National Centre for Computing Education) Music: Kapow PSHE: our own scheme, in line with the PSHE Association PE: AfPE-accredited Lancashire Scheme of Work RE: Lancashire Agreed Syllabus 2021 (moving to the new syllabus from October 2026)
Art and DT
We’re not shy about this one. Our art and design technology is something special.
Through CUSP, children work with real materials and learn real techniques, building on them year after year. They study proper artists and designers. They draw, paint, print, sculpt, sew, build and cook. And the work they produce stops visitors in the corridor.
The best of it is shown in the Strive Gallery at special art events throughout the year. Achievement deserves an audience.
Words
One of our biggest priorities is helping children talk and write with confidence and precision.
A lot of our children arrive with fewer words than they should have. We take that seriously. Rich vocabulary runs through every subject, every day, so children have the language to think deeply, say what they mean and hold their own in any room they walk into.
Play
We think play is part of the curriculum, not a break from it. Playtime is more than a fifth of a child’s time at primary school, so we make it count.
We hold the OPAL Platinum Award, the highest a school can get. Our playtimes mean loose parts, a mud café, a scooter track, a sand pit, fancy dress, a sensory garden and music across the field. Children from different year groups play together, sort things out together and look after each other. It’s where a lot of the confidence, kindness and resilience gets built.
Beyond the classroom
Some of the best learning happens outside it. We want our children to see more of the world, feel at ease with new experiences and carry memories that last a lifetime.
This is where #daretodream really lives. We have our own minibuses and they’re out constantly. Local visits that connect learning to the community around us. Museums, theatres, beaches, woods. Visitors in school nearly every week with a job to explain and a story to tell. All of it planned carefully so it’s woven into the curriculum and actually deepens learning, not just a day out.
Every child gets the chance to go to London. Every child gets the chance to go on an outward bound residential. And when we said we’d take our children to New York, we were told it couldn’t be done. We found the funding, we took them, and for our families it was pretty much free.
These are the moments children talk about for years.
Enterprise at Strive
We’re very proud of this one.
As part of our Design Technology work on food and nutrition, children plan, cost, advertise and sell a special menu item at Strive, our own community coffee shop on site. Then they work in Strive itself, serving real customers and handling real money. They learn teamwork, communication and what the world of work actually feels like. They’re brilliant at it, and the customers love it.
The big picture
We want every child at Flakefleet to grow up knowing that the world is a big place, and that it’s waiting for them.