Curriculum
Our Curriculum
Intent
To teach children a combination of knowledge and skills to best equip our children with the tools required to be successful in the next stage of their education.
To teach a combination of subject specific and themed lessons to enable our children to build on their prior knowledge and understanding.
To provide a broad curriculum ensuring full coverage of the foundation subjects delivered within a 2-year cycle taught within mixed age-group classes within each of the following phases; EYFS, KS1, LKS2 and UKS2.
To provide opportunities for our children to make connections between subjects where they can build on prior learning and apply their knowledge, skills and understanding in different contexts.
To provide precise subject-specific lessons within core curriculum subjects to enable our children to master key learning in reading, writing and maths.
To have precise learning intentions and assessment criteria in every lesson.
To deliver high quality phonics instruction in ability groupings.
To deliver whole class reading lessons in order to develop our children’s confidence, fluency, accuracy and comprehension.
To teach mathematics for mastery in year group specific groups.
Through high quality teaching and effective feedback, develop our children’s confidence and love of learning.
To develop resilient, motivated and effective learners throughout our school; including our staff, our children and their parents.
Implementation
Through rich collaboration, our teaching team design and teach purposeful lessons within creative topics and themes.
Our teaching team provide timely and effective feedback to ensure that our children are informed about their learning and know what to do in order to improve their performance.
Our teaching team follow-up with individual or groups of children in order to overcome any misconceptions and to ensure that progress is made.
Through monitoring and assessment, our teaching team know their children thoroughly as learners.
Sequences of lessons enable children to build on prior learning.
Key concepts and themes are revisited within our curriculum cycle in order to ensure that children have the key tools and prior understanding in order to access new learning.
Regular assessment ensures that children are accessing precise phonics instruction at the appropriate level using Read, Write, Inc. resources.
Regular reading assessment (using PM benchmarking) ensures that our children are reading books that are decodable and at an instructional level (for those who already have a thorough phonological awareness).
Introduced Bug Club in order to provide children with access to a wide range of good quality reading resources.
Ensuring that staff have access to high quality resources and further training in order to further strengthen teaching consistently throughout the school.
We teach mathematics for mastery using predominantly White Rose resources in age group-specific groupings.
We have strengthened subject leadership throughout the school to successful raise the profile and standards in each subject.
We have agreed key learning objectives for each foundation subject as assessment criteria that we have shared in the Knowledge Organisers that have been develop for each topic within each phase throughout the school.
We have provided resources and hosted a range of parent workshops in order to empower parents to support their child’s learning when they are not in school.
We make learning a focus, reflecting on what we have learnt every day. In turn, every Friday each class with review the learning that they have achieved that week (‘flashback Friday’) which will be shared with parents via Class Dojo.
In Early Years, we have introduced Tapestry in order to provide parents with regular feedback and to enable them to play an active role in supporting their children’s learning journeys.
Impact
Children are making good progress throughout the school from their starting points.
Teachers enjoy working together to plan creative and authentic lessons.
Pupil engagement has improved with many children feeling more confidence in their ability to learn.
Our children can talk about their learning with more confidence.
Subject leaders can talk about their subject with confidence.
Parents, who attended workshops, have indicated that they found them to be worthwhile and informative.
Rationale
Effective Phonics teaching and learning is essential for high attainment in reading and writing. Additionally, confidence with phonics is integral across the curriculum and used in all subjects. Achievement in this area benefits every area of pupils’ development and the school as a whole. In order to move Southminster’s phonics teaching forwards, it has been necessary to implement a clear and consistent inclusive teaching scheme.
Read Write Inc is a literacy programme that helps children learn synthetic phonics. The scheme includes both a phonics and reading focus. The sessions happen every day as the continuity and pace of the programme is essential to increasing the speed of children’s reading development.
Teaching & Learning Style
Read Write Inc is based on 5 Ps.
Praise – Children learn quickly in a positive climate.
Pace – Good pace is essential to the lesson.
Purpose – Every part of the lesson has a specific purpose.
Passion – this is a very prescriptive programme. It is the energy, enthusiasm and passion that teachers put into the lesson that brings the teaching and learning to life.
Participation – A strong feature of Read Write Inc lessons is partner work and the partners ‘teaching’ each other.
Provision
Key Stage 1
Phonics sessions take place from 9:00 – 10:00. Children are streamed into attainment groups to make sure teaching and learning is at the correct level for their current achievement. Some groups will contain a mix of year groups. In the afternoon, Phonics is taught in class and not streamed – this session is to fill any gaps and consolidate learning for rapid improvement. Where necessary KS2 children will join a group to meet their needs. KS1 children are assessed at least once per half term. Teachers use Read Write Inc reading books during Phonics sessions.
Key Stage 2
Children identified as being below national averages for phonics and reading receive additional support through targeted Read Write Inc sessions or by joining KS1 phonics sessions where necessary. For those pupils in KS2 who are meeting ARE, reading is taught in daily reading lessons.
Special Educational Needs
SEN pupils are fully involved in Read Write Inc lessons as children work in groups with others who are at their level.
Teaching is geared to the speed of progress of each group. Additional 1:1 tuition may take place, but this will be identified by teachers in conjunction with the Phonics Lead.
Additional Support
The Phonics Lead identifies children who are below expected attainment for their age. These children will receive additional one-to-one or small group phonics teaching from support staff in class, timings at teacher discretion. Children significantly below expected attainment are regularly assessed to support progression.
