Curriculum | Feckenham CE Primary School

Curriculum Intent Statement

‘Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.’

Timothy 4:12

Curriculum Intent Statement

Learning is a change to long term memory.

We want all of our pupils to experience a wide breadth of study across all areas of the curriculum so at the end of each key stage they have an ambitious body of knowledge schemas.

Our Curriculum Model

Curriculum Drivers: Our vision and valuesas a Church of England school is one of our main drivers (please refer to our Vision and Values section) but as a school with most of our pupils coming from a white British background, diversity is particularly important to us. We endeavour to accurately reflect the rich diversity of Britain alongside the important British values of living a life respectful of: the rule of law, democracy, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of people and communities who hold different beliefs and faiths.

Cultural Capital: Knowledge of a wide range of subject disciplines is essential if we are to fully understand and appreciate our world and each other. This helps to support our shared British Values and equality for all regardless of their starting points.
Curriculum breadth: This is shaped by our curriculum drivers, cultural capital and subjectdisciplines. Our ambition is for our pupils to study the best of what has been thought and said by many generations of academics and scholars.
Threshold Concepts: These tie together subject topics into meaningful schema. The same concepts are explored in a wide range of topics. Through this ‘forwards-and-backwards engineering’ of the curriculum, pupils return to the same concepts over and over and gradually build an understanding of them.
Cognitive Science tells us that working memory is limited and that cognitive load is too high if students are rushed through content. This limits the acquisition of long-term memory. Cognitive science also tells us that in order for students to become creative thinkers, or have a greater depth of understanding they must first master the basics, which takes time.
Milestones: We divide the primary age range into three milestones to acknowledge that learning builds from one year to the next and that it also takes time to secure the basics before moving forward. Therefore Milestone 1 covers Years 1 and 2; Milestone 2 covers Years 3 and 4 and Milestone 3 covers Years 5 and 6.
Within eachMilestone students gradually progress through three possible domains of Basic, Advanced and Deep. The goal is for pupils to display sustained mastery at the Advancing stage of understanding by the end of each Milestone and for the most able to have a greater depth of understanding at the Deep stage. The time scale for sustained mastery or greater depth is therefore two years of study as described above.
As part of our progression model, we usedifferent pedagogical style in each cognitive domain of basic, advancing and deep. We use direct instruction in the basic domain and problem-based discovery in the deep domain.
Also, as part of our progression model we use Portrayal of Progress Tasks (POP Tasks)which shows curriculum expectations in each cognitive domain.

Implementation

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science:

Learning is most effective with spaced repetition

Interleaving helps children to discriminate between topics and aids long term retention

Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength

We understand thatlearning is invisible in the short term and that sustained mastery takes time.
Our content issubject specific. We make intra-curricular links to strengthen schema
Continuous provision in the form of daily routines replaces the teaching of some aspects of the curriculum and on other cases provides retrieval practice for previously learned content.

Impact

Because learning is a change to long term memory it is impossible to see impact in the short term.
We use comparative judgement in two ways: in the tasks we set portrayal of progress tasks (POP tasks) and in comparing a student’s work over time.
We use lesson observations to see if the pedagogical style matches our depth expectations.

National Curriculum Framework

At Feckenham CE Primary School we value our freedom as professionals to react to what our pupils need right now in order for them to succeed, progress and thoroughly enjoy their educational experiences. Therefore, as well as covering the National Curriculum we have a ‘Feckenham Curriculum’ that ensures enrichment opportunities.

We are a Church of England school and our Christian values are promoted actively through a half termly focus. This is not only recognised in Acts of Worship but also in the everyday life of the school, in and out of the classroom.

Early Years / Reception

Our Early Years team in Reception use a themed approach to learning which changes when the children are ready for a new ‘learning journey’.

We deliver an Early Years curriculum that focuses on the three prime areas of learning:

Communication and Language
Physical Development and Personal
Social and Emotional Development

The above are essential for children’s readiness for future learning and healthy development. As well as this we deliver high quality learning experiences in the four specific areas of learning; Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

Phonics is taught daily and systematically through our chosen scheme, Little Wandle. Matched books are used alongside whole class teaching sessions to develop the children’s phonic knowledge so they are well on track to learn our phonic code and apply it securely by the time they complete Key Stage 1. Reading books are sent home when we know children can read the words on the page, so we are building confidence and a joy of reading. Pupils also have the autonomy to choose their own book from the Reception Library area to share with an adult at home.

Parents and Carers of Reception children are invited into school for an information evening about phonics early in the new academic year, so they are best equipped to assist their child at home.

Books are carefully chosen and make up our school Reading Spine to share and explore throughout the year, thus helping to develop pupils’ understanding of the purpose of books and their contents but also a real love of reading by sharing a wide range of stories, poems (including learning poems by heart) and information texts.

Maths is both taught through continuous provision, for example, recording daily temperatures and using our chosen scheme, White Rose Maths.

Religious Education is taught weekly and we use the Worcestershire Syllabus in conjunction with Understanding Christianity to provide sessions that develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of major faiths in our world and also those who follow no faith.

To ensure our other curriculum areas are well planned and resourced, we have chosen Kapow to support teachers in delivering high quality lessons that are updated regularly by experts in their disciplinary field. Teacher training is also provided by Kapow to keep our staff up to date with their subject knowledge.

Our pupils have free, unlimited access to the outdoor classroom as well as Forest School sessions (led by a fully trained Forest School Leader) each and every week they are in school.

ICT is available in the classroom with laptops as well as a class I-pad plus a set of I-pads that can be used for the development of IT skills and to supplement the early years curriculum.

Key Stage 1

The themed approach to learning is replaced with discrete subjects when pupils begin Year 1 and then throughout their time in Feckenham. Learning progresses through the content of the National Curriculum.

Discrete lessons in all curriculum areas are taught whilst also making meaningful links across subjects in order to build strong schemas.

We have chosen to use White Rose for our Maths scheme as this is written by experts, is updated regularly and also provides training for teachers and teaching assistants to ensure subject knowledge is strong when teachers move year groups.

Our Phonics scheme, Little Wandle, is carried on from the Reception class into Year 1 and ensures a smooth transition in learning to read and spell. This will allow them to move forward into key stage 2 with confidence and develop their language skills further, learning more complex grammar rules.

At the end of Year 1 pupils take a phonics test provided to schools by the Department for Education. Parents will be informed of the outcome of this test. Any child who has not met the threshold will retake the test at the end of year 2 and in addition will be provided with targeted support in year 2 or beyond where necessary.

Writing, like reading, is an essential skill to be used across all subjects. Writing about the content you are learning also helps secure knowledge into long term memory. Staff use the Hochman Method to progress children’s writing skills. We use Chris Quigley’s Writing to Learn programme to ensure pupils grow a solid understanding of sentence construction leading to essay style writing by the end of Key Stage 2 by explicitly teaching sentence structure, grammar rules, and vocabulary. Alongside this we have ‘No Nonsense Grammar’ to ensure progression across year groups, so pupils are building on their knowledge year on year.

Religious Education is taught weekly, and we use the Worcestershire Syllabus in conjunction with Understanding Christianity to provide sessions that develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of major faiths in our world and those who follow no faith.

Years 1 and 2 also attend Forest School each week as they have in Reception class. These sessions will include learning from different curriculum areas to supplement the classroom lessons.

KEY STAGE 2

Key Stage 2 continue discrete lessons in Grammar, Spelling, Reading, Literacy, Maths and Science, along with History, Geography Design Technology, PE, RE, Art, Music, ICT, PSHE and French.

Again, teachers will ensure that the statutory elements from the National Curriculum are covered in all areas using our chosen scheme Kapow but also plan for enrichment opportunities within curriculum areas that go beyond the expectations of the National Curriculum, that is, the Feckenham Curriculum.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammar is taught as mentioned earlier in discrete sessions based on No Nonsense Grammar and the Writing to Learn programme.

Pupils are taught the spellings from the lower and upper key stage 2 word list provided from the National Curriculum as well as very subject specific spellings.

Reading

Reading is taught through whole class texts that have been carefully chosen to provide a good range and breadth of reading material. These include fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Reading tasks are adapted so all pupils can access the text at their specific level.

We want all our pupils to read well for their age and to really enjoy reading. All pupils have access to a free choice of books to take home and share with parents/carers for pleasure and also a book to guide them through the various stages of development. Adults are encouraged to read with their child especially in the early stages of reading.

Some children have more 1:1 attention if they require it through extra reading time before or after school with the class teacher. This time is used to develop confidence and provide bespoke reading instruction where gaps have been identified.

Writing

Following on from Key Stage 1, we view writing as a real work in progress with plenty of drafting until the piece is what you want it to be. By the time children are in lower key stage two they are used to being peer/teacher assessed and to making improvements to their work.

Children are given direct instruction in writing in different genres but there is always an emphasis and expectation that the secretarial skills of handwriting, spelling, punctuation and grammar are age appropriately accurate and therefore high expectations from teachers and presentation is a priority.

Maths

Maths, like Reading and Writing is taught through whole class teaching. Sometimes 1:1 interventions may be necessary to address misconceptions or gaps in a pupils learning.

We want all our pupils to develop excellent mental maths skills as we believe this instils confidence as well as efficiency in working out maths problems and calculations.

Children are taught that learning is ‘messy’ therefore mistakes are not rubbed out but identified, addressed and left there as a reminder to children that they are learning.

In Maths, the school use the White Rose Maths scheme to ensure a well-planned and progressive curriculum that is regularly updated by mathematical experts. White Rose also provides teacher training for staff who move year groups within the school.

Number skills and knowledge is taught solely in maths lessons for at least the first term, with other areas of maths such as Shape, Space, Measure and Time taught through continuous provision, where there is an appropriate link.

More detailed information about our discrete curriculum provision can be found in our subject policies.

Please find a link to the details of the Essentials Curriculum for Parents and Carers.