Randlay Primary School Curriculum Offer
Intent
Our Whole School Core Ethos and Values
At Randlay Primary School and Nursery it is our intention to ensure that all of our learners access a broad, balanced, rich and informative Curriculum offer. In order to do this successfully, we ensure that the Curriculum is underpinned by our whole school ethos, ‘Working Together as One’ which is central to our provision at Randlay School. At the heart of our whole school vision is our Randlay PSHE Jigsaw devised around the six values of, Respect, Excellence, Creativity, Courage, Aspiration and Collaboration, which are at the core of the learning experiences that we offer.
Respect
We treat each other with respect and kindness by accepting each others’ values and differences
Aspiration
We want our pupils to fulfil their potential and be successful in all that they do.
Courage
We help our pupils to be confident, to take risks, overcome their doubts and fears, and not be afraid of making mistakes.
Creativity
We create opportunities within our curriculum for our pupils to be imaginative, original, innovative and creative.
Collaboration
We support each other in our learning and celebrate and share in one another’s success.
Excellence
We want the very best for our pupils. High expectations are non-negotiable.
Central to our rich and engaging curriculum offer are the vital community links that ensure our learners respect and value the opportunity that begins on our Randlay doorstep. We invite our learners to pay close attention to the impact that they can make on the areas and environments that they inhabit. Once we have capitalised on our own school environment and the green spaces directly surrounding our central Telford school, we ensure that we take our learners out into the community. Here they experience the rich historical, geographical and scientific opportunities that are accessible within the local community of Randlay Centre. Once learners have experienced the areas of immediate interest, we ensure that they go further afield into Telford where there are many cultural opportunities offered by the Southwater development. We work hard to provide our learners with opportunities to visit local towns before venturing further afield and into the city to experience the wonders of exhibitions, museums and theatres. To support this work, we make it our explicit intention to invite as many interesting visitors into the school as possible. These range from authors, artists, singers, storytellers and musicians. In doing so, we endeavour to make many multicultural links as it is critical to our Curriculum offer that we provide positive representations of different cultures promoting tolerance and acceptance in uncertain times. It is central to our ethos that as ‘Work Together as One,’ we highly value one another and enrich our community links. We look for many opportunities to share the work that our learners produce and we work hard to promote the exciting and relevant pieces that our learners are able to contribute across the community.
Implementation
Creative Curriculum Two Year Rolling Programme Overviews
In order to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum objectives for each of the Foundation subjects, we plan an exciting and rigorous Creative Curriculum offer. We have put in place a clear two year rolling programme that has been devised to cater for pure and split age classes across each of the Key Stages. Our rolling programmes A and B provide an overview of the termly themes that we follow in order to provide a broad, balanced and diverse curriculum across the school. As a staff, we ensure that engaging themes enable our learners to experience many cross curricular links that make our offer so exciting and relevant. It is our intention that these planned overviews represent our whole school’s learning in any given term.
We have adopted a thematic approach to our curriculum and throughout the academic year, each phase designs learning around three key themes – sometimes driven by History, driven by Geography or driven by Science. The particular ‘theme’ chosen is always relevant to the children and is designed to be exciting and engaging for that particular cohort but also ensuring breadth and coverage over a two year cycle. Whilst these subjects are the main drivers, the themes are cross-curricular and other subjects are taught as part of the termly theme. To prevent the creation of tenuous links however, discrete subjects are taught where necessary.
To engage, immerse and ‘hook’ the children in their learning experiences, every term has an enquiry question eg Why does our world need Woodland? Or ‘ Where does water come from? The classroom learning environment reflects the enquiry question that the children are learning about. For example, if the question focusses upon Woodland then the classroom reflects woodland environment, to try and bring learning to life. This learning environment is not only used as a tool for engagement, but also to support and deepen the learning experiences taking place in the classroom.
Through the theme, all children engage in a memorable experience to enhance their learning, and further develop their knowledge and understanding. This could be for example, a visit to a place, a visitor into school or a practical activity or experience led by school staff. As our curriculum develops, we will also be looking at how ‘launch’ activities can add to children’s excitement and engagement in learning.
PSHE lies at the heart of our curriculum we deliver, to closely meet the needs of our children. As a school, we have created a ‘Randlay jigsaw’and focus on a key value each half term. We also use Jigsaw to teach chosen core PSHE concepts which weave through the theme to enhance the learning and add a different dimension to children’s thinking. For example, in Y6 the children learn about World War Two, and through this theme develop their understanding of the concepts of empathy and prejudice whilst considering the issues around propaganda.
Quality texts are integral to our curriculum approach, as we recognise that fluency in reading enables children to have access to the full curriculum entitlement. We believe it is our role to ensure children leave us being able to articulate themselves clearly and read and write confidently and effectively. A quality text is chosen each half term to drive learning in English and as the basis for the teaching of our bespoke ‘writing sequence’. We ensure as far as possible that the texts chosen as the driver for English link to the termly theme. During the term, children will experience narrative, poetry and non-fiction texts.
We endeavour to ensure that children see a relevance and a purpose to their learning, so plan for learning to build towards a purposeful outcome at the end of the term. This is an opportunity for children to showcase their learning to a wider audience, for example through an class assembly with parents/carers , sharing of their creative curriculum book or thorough sharing assemblies.
Strong learning behaviours are essential in order for children to be equipped to be successful in life. We have created a culture in school of children with our Randlay key values and our behaviour SMART code runs through this. Children regularly reflect on how these key values and the SMART code enable them to be successful learners.
Central to all of the above, and to our curriculum design, is an expectation of well thought out quality first teaching and learning, delivered by all. Teaching staff use our curriculum progression document and planning format to ensure that learning is sequenced so that children build knowledge and skills over time – both building skills and knowledge within the year group curriculum, but also building on, and making connections with, prior knowledge from other years in school. Staff identify the key aspects that they want the children to learn during the course of the theme and then ensure there are plenty of opportunities for the children to practice and apply this knowledge in a range of different contexts, so that they achieve deep, long term learning.
Medium Term Tree Planning and Grids
Our yearly overviews outline the starting points which enable our Key Stage Coordinators and their teams to map out the termly overview using our Tree Planning format. These plans are taken directly from the termly overview and provide teams the opportunity to plan and develop each of the areas in greater detail. Across KS1 and LKS2 the Tree Plans break the term into weeks which enables staff to block the learning more easily so that links can be made across learning. Staff can also take ownership of the plans by prioritising particular subjects to ensure that the learning truly immersive for our pupils. In LKS2 these may also be supported by blocked plans that add extra detail to the subject areas being covered. At the medium term Tree Planning stage, objectives are identified and key skills emphasised. In UKS2 the Tree Plan forms the overview for the termly planning, which is then supported by additional grids detailing how subjects will be blocked in order to achieve the best coverage. Once again objectives and key skills are identified and highlighted. From these Tree Plans staff are able to ensure that they provide the appropriate broad, balanced, rich and in-depth curriculum for all learners across each key stage, in line with National Curriculum requirements.
The Foundation Subject Skills Documents
To ensure that the pitch of the objectives is taught effectively we have devised a comprehensive skills document for each Foundation subject so that all staff can clearly identify the appropriate pitch across each year group and Key Stage. The skills have been split across three phases to show a clear progression of skills, Phase 1 for KS1, Phase 2 for LKS2 and Phase 3 for UKS2. The subject coordinator monitors the skills taught across their subject ensuring that there is clear progression using samples of work collated from each year group and across each Key Stage.
Impact
All of our learners are extremely enthusiastic with regard to our whole school Curriculum offer. They are able to talk in depth about their knowledge and understanding of the foundation subjects and are able to articulate this in their responses when questioned. Our creative and innovative approach across the school provides a strong foundation and opportunities for children to collaborate and develop social skills both indoors and out. The curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of first quality teaching , supported by targeted and proven interventions where needed. In this way it can be seen to impact in a very positive way.
Our learners are passionate about the range of subjects that they are taught and have a genuine depth of understanding from which they are able to make links across their learning, to know more and remember more. Our focus upon enjoyment of the planned curriculum therefore promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour. Children feel safe to try new experiences. High quality visits and visitors into the school enhance the curriculum and provide real experiences for writing for a purpose.
Children have opportunities to share their learning with each other, their parents and carers and other learners through sharing assemblies, performances, competitions, and other events. Developing their independence and motivation as learners and their sense of responsibility as future citizens is at the heart of all our teaching and learning.
Our ongoing teacher assessment of Foundation subjects is informed by the skills documents and National Curriculum objectives. We endeavour to ensure that our learners meet or exceed age related expectations, making the clear and sustained progress necessary to attain to the highest standard possible. It is our explicit intention that our learners are provided with equal and exciting opportunities to access the full range of curriculum subjects regardless of cultural or socio economic backgrounds. Our Curriculum offer is inclusive and empowering and as such ensures that our whole school community engages with a truly enlightening primary education that will equip them for a life beyond our school gates.