Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Sithney Primary School Curriculum Statement 

Intent

At Sithney C.P School we aim for all pupils to be inspired to nurture a life-long love of learning. Passion and enthusiasm for teaching and learning and high aspirations is at the heart of every lesson. Pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning to promote independence, embrace challenge with resilience and recognise set-backs as an integral part of the learning journey. Pupils are respected as unique individuals with creative and enquiring minds and characteristics of learning are embedded at a young age. Knowledge is built on practical skills alongside exciting and meaningful experiences linked to real life and the natural world. Virtues are used to acknowledge, guide and correct pupils to ensure a safe, secure and calm learning environment.

 

Implementation

At Sithney C.P School we strive to support all pupils in making excellent progress, whatever their starting point. Pupils are expected to fully participate and challenge themselves, learning not only from the adults but through peer learning, where they have the opportunity to discuss the learning with each other and develop oracy skills. Interventions are implemented to support pupils to ensure they achieve and assessments are used to check and maintain pupil progress.

 

Themed learning

 

At Sithney School we follow the National Curriculum. We have developed a curriculum that ensures small steps of progression for the foundation subjects through the school from Early Years to Year 6; our curriculum also provides guidance on essential characteristics and both core and substantive concepts.

Each term the pupils’ learning is planned under the umbrella of a whole class theme where each class teacher carefully tracks coverage for each subject to ensure there are no gaps in the curriculum. Planning for themed units ensures knowledge and skills are pitched correctly and builds on prior learning. Lessons are also carefully sequenced to ensure progression within a unit.

 

Staff are committed to delivering high quality learning experiences throughout the curriculum and where possible or relevant, plan a ‘Topic Launch’ such as a school trip or a workshop, to introduce the theme and ignite curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. With teachers planning work around this theme, adapting it to the interests of their pupils, and giving them the opportunity to become experts, staff hope to completely immerse pupils in their learning so they have greater knowledge and more meaningful understanding of each subject and further opportunities to rehearse important information, vocabulary and skills. Whilst writing is at the heart of the curriculum, teachers also encourage a variety of other ways to record and harness the learning to embed subject knowledge and skills such as speaking and listening, art, music and technology.

 

Intervention

It is recognised that for some pupils the repetition of knowledge and skills to embed the learning is an appropriate and important intervention which may be needed in class alongside learning or out of class as part of a sequence of sessions. Intervention may also take the form of a pre-teach session to build confidence in learning before the lesson.

Similarly, the development of a virtue to embed behaviour for learning or support with emotional literacy to access learning may be a vital intervention either in the lesson alongside learning or out of class as a separate session or series of sessions.

 

Assessment

Teachers carefully assess each lesson and give relevant feedback to pupils to ensure the lesson has had impact. The marking policy is regularly reviewed to ensure feedback is targeted appropriately and meaningful. Key lessons are used as assessment points where acquisition of knowledge and skills are recorded. Subject progressions are used to assess knowledge and skills in Science and foundation subjects in every unit of work and the progress of each pupil is recorded to inform future units of work. End of unit tests may be used to inform assessment further.

 

Knowledge matrices are useful tools in Science and foundation subjects to inform pupils and parents/ carers about prior knowledge, key knowledge and vocabulary necessary for each unit.

 

Termly tests in reading and maths and regular moderation in writing is used to track progress.

 

Monitoring

Standards in all subjects are regularly monitored by subject leaders, senior management,Trust Leads and School Improvement Partners. Pupils’ work, pupil conferencing, learning in lessons and discussions with pupils and staff are all used to inform standards and pupil progress.

 

Subject Leaders

At Sithney, we have subject leaders who oversee, develop, monitor and evaluate provision and the effectiveness of their subject within school across all year groups. All staff are responsible for the coverage and progression of skills for each subject for their class and the pupils they teach.

 

Early Years

At Sithney C.P School we view the foundation years (3-5 year olds) as a basis for all future

  1. We seek to develop each child’s potential through a broad and balanced curriculum in a secure, caring and creative environment. In the Foundation unit, our Early Years Curriculum is based on the revised Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and is planned to lead smoothly into the National Curriculum at KS1 in a way in which is relevant and meaningful to all children.

All children learn through play with a combination of child-initiated and teacher-led learning opportunities both indoors and in our outdoor area. There are seven areas of learning:

3 Prime areas of learning:

  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development
  • Communication and Language
  • Physical Development 4 Specific areas of learning:
  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the World
  • Expressive Art and Design

For each area of learning there is a set of developmental stages and early learning outcomes which describe what each child is expected to be learning at each stage. Children are observed during play in order to assess their stage of development and in order to plan for the next steps in their learning.

 

We provide pupils with the opportunities to enjoy their learning and be challenged and stimulated using a wide range of resources and approaches. We encourage the pupils to be independent and confident. Parents/ carers are encouraged to be partners in their child's learning. (see EYFS policy for further detail)

 

English

Reading opportunities are provided through high quality texts during whole class guided reading sessions in Key Stage Two and Read, Write Inc in Reception and Key Stage One. Guided reading sessions help develop children’s decoding and fluency skills, the understanding of sentence construction and vocabulary, and higher-level comprehension skills such as inference and retrieval. Pupils take an active role in their learning- developing their understanding of vocabulary, comprehension skills (retrieving, inferring, considering author’s choice etc) along with summarising and note-taking and enjoyment in reading. This promotes excellence in reading. (See 7 aspects of reading document for more detail). In Key Stage One, pupils are grouped according to their ability, through regular half-termly assessment, to ensure that they are able to develop reading skills appropriately at a level where they are going to be successful when reading. PIRA reading tests are used termly so that teachers can assess progress and plan effectively for the following term.

Opportunities for reading are developed throughout the school in all curriculum areas making it an integral part of the curriculum. 

 

Phonics is taught daily following the Read, Write, Inc (RWI) system. Pupils are immersed in a directed teaching approach which embeds systematic phonics skills as the core skills for reading. Letter sounds are taught in a specific order, and regular, half termly assessment ensures pupils are correctly grouped according to ability. Phonic sessions follow a four-part model whereby pupils revise prior learning, are introduced to new sounds, have the opportunity to practice reading phonemes and forming graphemes before applying the new sounds they have learnt in reading and writing challenges.  Staff use a range of resources and visuals to promote phonics within school and this is consistently used across all phonic groups.   Information about how RWI is delivered is on the website and workshops are offered to parents throughout the year to support phonic knowledge and learning at home.  Once the children have completed the RWI program they are taught using the RWI comprehension programme before moving onto guided reading sessions with age appropriate and engaging texts. 

 

Spelling is taught in all classes from Years 1 -6 using the Spelling Shed Proagramme throughout the week and reinforced across the curriculum. In EYFS and KS1 where pupils are following the RWI programme, new words and initial spelling strategies form part of the phonics programme and discreet writing sessions.  New spelling patterns and spelling rules as well as statutory words are taught on a weekly basis with opportunities to practise, apply and develop spelling skills and knowledge throughout the week, across all areas of curriculum. Pupils are supported further with access to Nessy spelling and other interventions as necessary in Key Stage Two. 

 

Handwriting in our school begins with correct letter formation, before moving onto a cursive style in KS1 when it is appropriate to do so. This is then continued all the way through KS2. 

 

Writing is at the heart of school topics and opportunities to write are planned for in all curriculum areas. In English, writing is taught through a range of high quality texts linking to our History, Geogrpahy, Science and other topic areas to make English in our curriculum exciting and relevant to their overall topic learning.  This is done by using and exciting stimuli, including books, film clips, outdoor learning and personal experiences. All staff work towards enhancing vocabulary ensuring chidlren are familiar with tier 2 (exciting) vocabulary and tier 3 (technical) vocabulary. Grammar is discreteyl taught within units of work wth support of sentence types to help pupils develop and enrich their writing experiences. Pupils are taught to recognise the range of social functions that writing can perform (e.g. persuade, instruct, inform) and to develop a clear understanding of the structure and language features associated with different genres of text. 

 

Teachers use a range of strategies, such as modelled and shared writing to enhance pupils’ understanding of the writing process and all children are set personal targets to support this even further which are regularly reviewed and discussed with the children. There is a clear progression in the teaching of English which includes the familiarisation of the text type through reading, the identification of structure and language features, modelled writing, shared writing, guided writing and independent writing.  Progression of teaching writing includes exploring features, planning, drafting, assessing and editing. Pupils are taught to edit their writing, knowing this is an integral part of the writing process and to assess and reflect either independently, with their peers or their class teacher. 

Maths

Pupils across the school access daily maths lessons with a focus on varied fluency, reasoning and problem-solving activities, in line with the national curriculum. Each class follows the same approach to the work through the process of Show, Do, Think, Explain, Solve, which is adapted appropriately for the younger pupils while maintaining consistency across the school. An age appropriate, consistent language of maths is used throughout the school to support transition from year group to year group. Mental arithmetic is practiced daily and calculation strategies are taught explicitly with an emphasis on number facts and fluency (see Calculation policy for progression of skills). Pupils access the main objective of the lesson from whole class and group teaching and develop a deeper understanding of the objective through further independent and supported activities which progress through the lesson and continue through the unit of work. Where appropriate, concrete resources are used to support a deeper understanding of the maths being taught. These are used alongside images and pictures before introducing the abstract representation. Talking about maths is an integral part of the lesson and pupils are encouraged to answer in clear sentences and explain their learning using ‘Stem’ sentences to develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge, and assess pupils regularly to identify those requiring intervention. A short summative assessment of the main learning objectives also takes place at the end of each unit of work and at KS2, pupils also undertake an Autumn, Spring and Summer term summative assessment. Pupils are encouraged to support and learn from each other through ‘learning buddies’ and ‘talk time’ with the emphasis on explaining and solving problems together through mathematical discussion.

Science

Science units are linked to the class topic where appropriate to ensure the learning is meaningful and relevant whilst the rolling programme ensures full coverage across the curriculum. Science is taught to ensure scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding of all primary aspects of biology, chemistry and physics. This includes accurate understanding and use of subject specific vocabulary in both written work and discussion in class. This key vocabulary is reflected on learning walls and displays. Each unit of work aims to have at least one link with a key feature of scientific enquiry and may include observing, identifying, classifying, comparing, researching and fair testing. Fair testing is presented as 5 areas: question, prediction, method (including equipment), results and conclusion. Pupils progress from identifying variables (what to change, what to keep the same and what to measure) to designing their own tests. Specific maths skills are used to collect, present and analyse data from fair testing. Where relevant links are made with uses and implications of science today.

 

History

History is usually at the heart of a topic. In history, pupils are taught about the past in Britain and the wider world in a way which encourages curiosity, critical thinking and perceptive questioning. Evidence from the past and judgements of historians are considered. Pupils are taught to compare people’s lives, societies and challenges from the past with that of others now and in the past and of their own. Pupils are expected to know and understand significant aspects of history and historical concepts and are encouraged with support to use correct historical terminology in written work and discussion.

 

Geography

Geography can also be at the heart of a topic. In Geography, pupils are taught about the world and its people in way which encourages curiosity and fascination about the diversity of people, environments and Earth’s physical and human processes. Pupils are taught to use geographical skills such as collecting, analysing data and interpreting and communicating geographical information. Pupils are expected to know and understand significant places, characteristics, features and changes over time and are encouraged with support to use correct geographical terminology in written work and discussion.

 

Art

Pupils have the opportunity to express creativity through drawing, painting, printing, collage, and the use of textiles and clay. Skills and techniques are taught and pupils are given the opportunity to apply these to their own individual pieces of work. Pupils are taught to critically evaluation their own work and that of others, including local, national, world-wide and historically well-known artists.

 

Music

Pupils are given the opportunity to develop a love and appreciation of a range of music through listening, evaluating and in turn creating, composing and performing using instruments and voices. Knowledge and understanding of the structure and notation of music is taught in a way which allows this to be applied to their own individual and group creations.

 

Computing

Our computing curriculum is designed to equip pupils with the skills and understanding to live in a technological world, including being able to use a variety of computer software and coding programmes. There is an emphasis on the importance of Online Safety for all year groups.

 

DT

 

Our DT provision offers a range of practical learning opportunities which build and develop skills in design, construction, use of tools and food technology. Outdoor learning is used as a catalyst, where possible, to engage, grow and further develop these core DT skills. DT has strong links to the Science, PE, Art and Outdoor Learning aspects of the curriculum.

 

Modern Foreign Language (MFL)

The MFL taught at Sithney is French and is taught across KS2. Our curriculum for French, using the language scheme ‘Rigolo’, is designed to progressively develop pupils’ skills in languages, through regularly taught lessons. Pupils progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary organised around topics. All of these approaches help to equip our pupils with the skills to be confident citizens.

 

R.E

The Cornwall Syllabus for R.E. is followed and a rolling programme has been designed to ensure coverage across both key stages. They have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of Christianity alongside 5 other key religions: Buddism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. Pupils will have opportunities to consider, describe, explain, evaluate and appreciate issues in beliefs and practices, comparing them to their own and others. Pupils are encouraged to develop their own sense of identity and belonging and are taught to be respectful towards the views and beliefs of others, being made aware that there are different religions and cultures within our communities.

 

Physical Education

Sithney School delivers the Complete PE programme providing fun and simple to follow

progressive PE lessons which build the pupil’s physical literacy from EYFS to year 6. It is fully aligned to the new National Curriculum and focuses on the development of agility, balance and coordination, healthy competition and cooperative learning. As the children move through the programme they gain more experience of sport specific focuses. The result is the pupils are provided with a consistent approach to PE right through the school, they steadily build leadership skills and as they become independent take ownership of their learning by contributing towards setting personal targets and assessing progress. In addition to 2 hours of structured PE per week healthy and active lifestyles are promoted through active breaktimes, mile of the day and personal best challenges alongside a range of sports after school clubs offered to all year groups throughout the year.

Competitive Sport

At Sithney C.P School we believe in promoting fun and competitive sport and as such we are members of the Helston Sports Cluster which provide an excellent programme of sporting competitions. Competition helps to build the pupil’s resilience, determination and teamwork skills which transfer into every aspect of their learning.

Sithney School pupils complete a range of level 1, 2 and 3 sporting challenges throughout the year organised via the Helston Sports Cluster partnership and Cornwall School Games qualifier events.

 

Swimming and water sports

Water confidence is a life skill and with Cornwall being a coastal county, Sithney is committed to building every child's development in this crucial area.

All pupils will be supported in the pool with a qualified swim coach at Helston Leisure Centre and will have opportunity to progress through the STA School Swimming Programme to gain water confidence and the ability to swim at least 25m in a range of strokes.

Once pupils have mastered the skills needed in a closed water environment they then move to open water environments. Pupils ready for this stage will be offered surf lifesaving skills, typically a day or half a day each year until they leave. This will involve shore-based risk management and theory followed by open water-based skill application.

 

Pupils also have the opportunity to take part in sailing and alternative water sports activities which help to build water confidence at school camp and after school clubs.

 

Outdoor Learning Programme

Healthy and Active Lifestyles

Sithney School is fully committed to providing pupils with meaningful experiences of the outdoor environment. Developing a deep connection with nature, an understanding of the world around them and enhanced responsibility for the care of the environment is central to this extensive programme. The pupils are supported to develop skills, experiences and opportunities in a range of outdoor environments including woodland, moorland, coast, beach, rivers and historic sites.

Starting in Early Years the EYFS programme incorporates 18 sessions through the Reception Year. All sessions are designed to closely link to the Prime and Specific areas of learning and development of the EYFS curriculum. This forms the foundation element of our Outdoor Learning offer where pupils gain a clear understanding of the boundaries and behaviour expectations of the outdoor learning programme whilst developing their knowledge and use of a variety of tools and equipment. Pupils start this programme accessing half day sessions prior to building to full day long learning experiences.

In Years 1-6 pupils take part in a tailored series of Outdoor Learning which focus on the one of the following key areas: Traditional Forest School skills; Team Challenges; and National Curriculum Focus. Each year group will take part in three outdoor learning sessions per year. Each session will be a full day with one taking place in the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms. This ensures that pupils gain valuable experiences of the outdoors through the changing seasons. By the end of Year 6 each child would have received a further 18 days of Outdoor Learning experiences which culminate in a final challenge ‘The Final Frontier’ at Year 6 which enable the pupils to showcase all that they have learnt. This comprehensive programme teaches the pupils about utilising outdoor spaces to build structures, make tools and create products, in addition to developing navigation and leadership skills.

Through this holistic Outdoor Learning programme we aim for all pupils to leave school as responsible, resilient custodians of themselves and the environment with the skills to be able to thrive in the outdoors and the confidence to apply this learning to all areas of their existing and future studies and lives. Pupils in all year groups have the opportunity to document their outdoor learning journey both at school and home through completion of the Wild Tribe Award.

 

Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)

We follow a clear PSHE and RSE programme in line with the PSHE association……

Pupils are expected to use their manners during school time, being polite, considerate and respectful. We embrace the Virtues Project which looks at the personal characteristics that are within each and every one of us. Pupils learn what the virtues mean, how they can identify them in themselves and others, and what they need to do if they need to develop or ‘polish’ that virtue even further.

We acknowledge the champion within each and every one of us and to celebrate this we present ‘Star’ badges to the pupils as these are recognised (detective, maths, music, logic,

creative, community, environmental, active). Pupils are taught to have responsibility and KS2 pupils help out with the chairs and clearing tables at lunch time. Pupils are also awarded roles and responsibilities, such as Official Helper, Librarian, Technician, Buddy and School Councillor.

Each week we hold an assembly to celebrate success. Pupils are encouraged to share their successes out of school (sporting and musical achievements or activities they have done to support the local community of environment) so others can appreciate their efforts or be inspired themselves.

 

Impact Statement

 

At Sithney Community Primary School it is expected that every lesson has a positive impact on every pupil and that every pupil has made progress in at least one aspect of their learning. They may have gained knowledge, improved a skill, or learnt how to further apply a virtue to their learning.

 

Attainment and Progress

We set high targets for pupils based on their prior attainment to ensure good or better progress. We take individual needs into account without putting a ceiling on their learning. We strive to ensure our attainment and progress is at least in line with National and are vigilant about monitoring pupil progress to ensure high standards.

 

Knowledge and Skills

Pupils should develop good knowledge and skills across the curriculum, in line with the subject milestones, and should be confident to apply this learnt knowledge and key skills in a broad spectrum of school life, personal life and the wider world. They should have gained a good understanding of the essential characteristics of each subject to take to the next stage of their education and to motivate them in their future career and life. They should be able to demonstrate how to lead a healthy life.

 

Virtues and Values

We recognise that achievement is in many forms. A good understanding of virtues, British Values and Co-operative Values is an essential, character building, life skill along with the development of emotional literacy to break down barriers to learning, improve self-esteem and support good mental well-being. The impact should be that pupils are able to show confidence and resilience in their personal learning; are motivated to succeed in the next stage of learning and the future; are able to show respect, tolerance, and equality to others; can demonstrate right from wrong; and can demonstrate how to stay physically and mentally healthy.