Welcome to Our Curriculum

At the Bushey Federation, we deliver an ambitious, rich, and precisely sequenced curriculum that inspires a lifelong love of learning. We believe every child deserves an exceptional education, rooted in strong relationships and a culture of excellence.

Our ultimate goal is to prepare our children to become grounded, resilient individuals who confidently challenge injustice, think critically, and make a meaningful difference in the world of tomorrow.

Our Philosophy: Deep Mastery over Pace

We reject surface-level learning. Instead, we embrace a mastery and enquiry-led model, highly supported by the creative thinking research of Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer. By pausing to notice, question, and explore, our children secure a concrete, deep understanding of the National Curriculum.

Rather than rushing ahead to new year-group content, we challenge our children to become true masters of their learning, systematically applying their knowledge in creative, diverse, and purposeful ways.

Teaching ORACY at Bushey Primary Education Federation

Finding Our Voice, Developing Our Thinking

At Bushey Primary Education Federation, we believe that every child deserves not only to have a voice, but to develop the confidence, vocabulary and skills to use it thoughtfully, purposefully and effectively. We want our children to become articulate, curious and reflective learners who can express their ideas, listen to others and engage confidently with the world around them.

Although 'Oracy' has become something of a national educational buzzword this academic year (2026/2027), its underlying principles have been central to our approach to teaching and curriculum development for many years. We have long understood that talk is not simply a way of communicating what we have learned; it is one of the most powerful ways in which learning itself happens, and indeed this statement has sat on our website since we started to develop our Curriculum. 

However, we are now in our second year of working with 'Voice 21', the national oracy education charity, we are developing an increasingly intentional and progressive approach to oracy across both our schools. This builds upon our established practice, ensuring that children are explicitly taught how to speak, listen, question, reason, explain and collaborate, rather than assuming these skills will develop naturally.

Talk as a Tool for Learning

Oracy is woven into our Federation Teaching Model: Teach Simply, Model Effectively, Practise Thoroughly, Feedback Constructively and Aspire for Excellence.

We recognise that productive classroom talk requires careful planning, explicit teaching and thoughtful scaffolding. Teachers model the language of learning, introduce and revisit ambitious vocabulary, and provide structures that enable every child to participate meaningfully.

Through carefully designed questions, cumulative questioning, partner talk, collaborative discussion and opportunities to explain and justify their thinking, children are encouraged to move beyond simply giving an answer. They learn to elaborate, make connections, challenge ideas respectfully and build upon the contributions of others.

We understand that effective oracy is not about the amount of talk taking place in a classroom, but its quality, purpose and impact upon learning.

Sometimes children need time to think independently before speaking; sometimes they benefit from rehearsing an idea with a partner before sharing it more widely. At other times, attentive listening, purposeful silence and reflection are equally valuable.

Our approach is deliberately inclusive. Through modelling, sentence stems, visual prompts, carefully structured discussion and supportive feedback, we create opportunities for all children, including those who may find communication challenging, to participate and experience success.

Thinking About Our Thinking

Oracy also plays an important role in developing metacognition; children's awareness and understanding of their own thinking and learning and a few years ago our staff led some interesting action research in this area.

When children explain their reasoning, consider alternative viewpoints or reflect on how their ideas have changed, they begin to understand not only WHAT they know, but HOW they have come to know it.

Our teachers encourage children to make their thinking visible, articulate uncertainty, ask questions and recognise that learning often involves reconsidering an initial idea. Mistakes, misconceptions and differences of opinion become valuable opportunities for deeper understanding.

Oracy, Creativity and Collaboration

Our commitment to oracy is closely connected to our work as part of the national 'Creativity Collaboratives' over the last four years, largely informed by the 'Tallis Wheel' of creative thinking.

Shared focus, purposeful enquiry, collaboration, exploration and reflection are fundamental to the learning experiences we have designed, and which are amended, replanned or adapted each day. Children are encouraged to wonder, investigate, imagine possibilities and develop ideas together.

Whether through storytelling, philosophical enquiry, scientific investigation, mathematical reasoning, drama, poetry, performance or collaborative problem-solving, talk enables children to make connections, explore possibilities and build knowledge collectively. We proudly hold a GILT award for the National Science Mark (awarded Autumn 2026) to give further confidence to parents of our successful work in this area. In addition our schools have also earned the GOLD standard, in the national Artsmark award (Autumn 2026), as part of our work on developing creativity in our approaches to teaching and learning in all curriculum areas. 

We want our classrooms to be places where children's ideas matter, where questions are welcomed, where different perspectives enrich understanding and where every child feels able to contribute.

Finding a Voice for Life

From the earliest conversations in Reception through to increasingly sophisticated discussion, presentation and debate in Year 6, we aim to develop confident, thoughtful and respectful communicators.

Ultimately, oracy is about much more than speaking well. It is about thinking deeply, listening generously, learning collaboratively and developing the confidence to participate fully in school and in life.

It is an essential part of our commitment to aspiration, respect and kindness, and to our enduring ambition:

To Educate Today's Child for Tomorrow.

BPEF

Curriculum Road Maps 

What Exemplary Learning Looks Like in Our Classrooms

To secure the highest possible outcomes for every child, our teaching practice focuses on high-impact, evidence-based strategies:

• Inclusive Whole-Class Teaching: We teach children together, avoiding rigid ability grouping and fostering a shared culture of high expectations.

• Bespoke Spiral Curriculum: We deliberately return to key concepts, ensuring knowledge and language are permanently ingrained.

• More Pupil Talk, Less Teacher Talk: We maximise active learning, giving children the space to articulate, debate, and own their discoveries.

• Responsive, Real-Time Feedback: We prioritise high-impact verbal feedback and direct support during lessons over heavy, retrospective written marking.

• Low-Stakes, Cumulative Assessment: Regular quizzes and mini-assessments are woven seamlessly into learning to confidently check for understanding without testing anxiety.

• Adaptive & Inclusive: Our dynamic curriculum is continuously refined to offer diverse, creative learning pathways. Through robust reasonable adjustments, we ensure our curriculum is accessible and demanding for every single learner.

Partnering with Families

We know that collaborative, supportive home-school links are the absolute key to your child’s success. We look forward to working alongside you to help your child flourish.

To see how our curriculum is continuously evolving, please view our School Development Plan attached above.