Curriculum

What does your child learn at school each day? You will find information about our curriculum subjects below – If you have any questions regarding the curriculum we teach, please contact the school directly.

Our Primary Environment

We believe that our central role in school is to ensure learning. Our pupils need to learn the skills, knowledge and behaviours required for their futures as citizens of the world. To this end, we see our pupils both as individuals and as part of groups and communities of learners, with ever-changing needs. We also see our school staff as learners and believe that they have a key role in modelling positive attitudes to learning and education, especially for those, who do not have these role models elsewhere in their lives.

Our philosophy is therefore simple, we want the best for all those connected with our school, we have high aspirations in terms of learning and we believe we will get these through staff professional development and aspiration, by having a key focus on how children learn and by knowing our pupils and community well.

Our Curriculum is a reflection of this, it is flexible enough to allow for personalisation, creativity and developments in pedagogy. However, it still has a central focus on ensuring that the key skills our children need for their future are taught, refined and retained.

Our aim is to meet the needs of our community by working with our families to support children in the very earliest stages of their lives.

We intend that all pupils, regardless of their socio-economic background, needs or academic starting point, will leave the school ready to embark on the next stages of their journey as young people. That they will:

  • Be able to read, write and speak effectively to allow them to communicate with others and learn effectively
  • That they will be able to calculate and problem solve effectively with a working knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
  • That they will have a good understanding of their locality having visited areas of historical and geographical interest
  • That they will have the skills and knowledge to make healthy decisions about their wellbeing and to take appropriate risks
  • That they will have enjoyed an engaging Curriculum which has exposed them to a wide variety of learning experiences
  • That they will be citizens of the world, with an understanding of the similarities and differences between people, global issues and their roles as part of a global community
  • Be resilient, independent, thoughtful, tolerant and kind

 

Writing

Our pupils are expected to write in all subjects and from the very beginning of their time in school, they are given opportunities to communicate in this way.  In the EYFS, early writing is encouraged in all areas of the continuous provision. Our staff model writing in the role-play area so that pupils feel confident in having a go- this might include writing a shopping list, planning a model or writing a postcard. We teach letters alongside their sounds in phonics from the nursery onwards using the ‘Read, write, ink’ programme.

Writing is taught as part of whole English lessons and staff use a variety of methods to teach the mechanical elements as well as the creative ones. The key to success in writing is a good understanding and assessment of the pupil’s needs and using these to plan and support the next steps in learning. Our staff use writing checklists alongside the National Curriculum and their own experience, to help with this. As with the EYFS, we do believe that modelling and talking about the writing process, in whole class or small groups, is essential for children to understand what is expected and raise standards.

We believe that it is important for pupils to be able to write confidently in a variety of ways and seek to give them opportunities to do so and to learn from the re-drafting process. We use a ‘Talk for Writing’ approach to teaching writing that encompasses a three-stage pedagogy: ‘imitation’ (where pupils learn and internalise texts, to identify transferrable ideas and structures), ‘innovation’ (where pupils use these ideas and structures to co-construct new versions with their teachers), and ‘invention’ (where teachers help pupils to create original texts independently). These tasks aim to improve writing ability by giving pupils an understanding of the structure and elements of written language. This approach is used as a half termly focus. More information about this can be found at https://www.talk4writing.co.uk/.

NB- Story Writing fits into several key plots: Wishing tale, Warning tale, Conquering the monster tale, Finding Tale, Journey tale, losing tale, Rags to riches, Tale of fear, Meeting tale, Character flaw

We teach these using a simple plot structure- opening-problem-resolution- ending

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

A key focus of the curriculum is the knowledge and application of grammar and accurate spelling. Our pupils have weekly sessions which centrally focus on these elements of learning and these are followed up in other sessions too. It is important that pupils understand that grammar and spelling runs through all the writing that they do and that we see their learning reflected in work scrutiny in a range of subjects.

Key Stage One pupils learn spellings through phonics and a particular focus on ‘tricky words’.

In Key Stage Two, rules are taught in school and revised for homework.

Speaking and listening

We recognise that key to the development of learning is being able to articulate your ideas in a sensible way, orally. Through the process of speaking to another person, ideas can be organised, refined and rehearsed.

We encourage our pupils to be good listeners both in whole class and smaller, more intimate situations. However, we expect pupils to be active in their listening, engaging with the speaker and listening in order to learn from what is being said or to ask questions about it. Our staff model active listening with their students and teach the key elements which include making eye contact, using appropriate body language and being able to isolate the main points, tone and response needed to move a conversation on. We also discourage calling-out in class and other disrespectful behaviours like speaking over someone or disparaging remarks.

Being able to speak confidently in public is an important skill to develop. We use the opportunities provided by daily assemblies, regular drama and play events to support this. Moreover, we encourage our pupils to speak for themselves to visitors and guests. Our yearly Poetry Recital and Public Speaking events are another way in which our pupils develop their confidence and capability in this regard.

Cross-curricular

Aspects of the English Curriculum are to be found in all other curriculum areas. Where possible our lessons in other subjects, help pupils to embed their learning in this area. For example pupils might write reports in Geography, History or Science. They might carry out a discussion or debate in Religious Education and PHSE and they are likely to develop comprehension skills when reading any text in another subject.