Warren Farm Primary School

Curriculum Policy Statement

The curriculum we offer at our school has been well matched to the needs of our children and community which we serve.  Our curriculum places a great deal of importance on the skills and knowledge that children will need to acquire for life and a great deal of emphasis is placed upon the development of literacy and numeracy skills that are the key to the other areas of the curriculum.  We want all of our children to experience a rich and wide curriculum that opens their world and offers them life experiences, the hunger for acquiring further knowledge, to question and explore, to acquire positive attitudes, behaviour and personal beliefs and gain the experience and independence needed to become life-long learners. 

Literacy

Phonics

From Nursery we follow the “Letters and Sounds” curriculum and phonics is taught as a discrete subject for 20 minutes every day from Nursery to Year 2. 

In Year 3 to Year 6 children progress onto “Support for Spelling”.

Our Special Educational Needs children have focused intervention using “Rapid Phonics”

Our Phonics curriculum is very closely linked to our spelling programme.

Writing

From Nursery to Year 6 our children follow the “Talk for Writing” progressive writing programme, which pits heavy emphasis on Speaking and Listening.  We believe that children cannot “just write” and that children need to be taught to speak confidently and have an extensive vocabulary to become good writers.

Each year group visits and fiction and non-fiction genre every term, with two weeks being dedicated to poetry  (Please see our curriculum overviews for each year group, which outlines exactly which genres are being studied).

Reading

Our Reading is very closely linked to our writing, as though each genre of writing, children have to study and dissect text on a daily basis.  They also have to read and study texts which are cross-linked to their International Primary Curriculum (I.P.C.) study.

We have focused reading schemes that run through the school, however, we do not limit ourselves to these schemes as we believe that children should have a rich and wide reading experience.

We also use focused schemes that are matched to the needs of the individual child.

Nursery / Reception:      Jelly and Bean, Bug Club

Year 1:                                  Bug Club

Year 2:                                  Bug Club / P.M. Starters

Year 3 – 6:                           P.M. Starters + “Real Books”

All children have focused teaching of reading twice a week and focused comprehension linked to their book (group) or using Nelson Comprehension from Year 2.

All our children from Nursery to Year 6 have a book to take home to share with their parents.

Maths

Through our Early Years Curriculum a heavy emphasis is placed upon practical maths and the understanding of environmental number.  The children follow a structured programme of daily maths lessons which takes them on their journey through the Early Learning Mathematical Development.

Our main school curriculum is Abacus Mathematics which is linked to the new National Curriculum which we follow from Year 1 -6.  Mathematics is taught in units of work throughout the year and the children are assessed at the end of every unit.

Our children also use “Mathletics” which is an ICT based mental maths programme which they use in school and at home to support their maths.  We run our mathletics as a year group competition and display the results as a league table to create a competitive element to maths attainment and progress.  The children receive bronze, silver and gold awards for mathletics achievement.

Science

We follow the National Curriculum guidance for Science and this is cross-matched to our International Primary Curriculum.

In the EFYS and Key Stage 1, our curriculum encourages children to experience and observe the world around them.  We use practical experiences, explorations and observations to encourage the children to be curious and ask questions about what they notice.  Through our curriculum we want to help them develop scientific ideas and enquiry and to develop subject specific vocabulary.  We do this through hands-on practical experiences as much as we can or by using secondary sources such as books, photographs and videos.

Key Stage 1 - Programmes of Study  (Please see curriculum overviews)

Plants, Animals, Human Form, Materials, Seasons and Changes, Forces and Movements.

At Key Stage 2 we want to children to broaden their scientific view of the world around them.  They do this through exploring, talking about, testing and developing ideas about the world around them.  They are beginning to draw conclusions and use specific scientific vocabulary and to be able to record what they have found out.

Programmes of Study: - Building upon work from KS1

Plants, Animals and Humans, Rocks, Light, Forces and Magnets, Evolution and Inheritance, Matter, Sound, Electricity.

As much as possible, our science curriculum is integrated into our International Primary Curriculum, to make cross-curricular links and the application of scientific knowledge.

International Primary Curriculum (I.P.C.)

We do not follow the National Curriculum programmes of study for Geography, History or Art. Our curriculum is a thematic, skills based curriculum. These skills are taught and built upon through each year group.

We have tried as far as possible to cross-link our year group themes in I.P.C. with our Literacy, Maths and Science focus (see Curriculum Overviews for each year group).

Each year group has three I.P.C. themes each year.  The curriculum begins with an Entry Point, which is usually a visit or activity which introduces the areas to study e.g. Year 4 Space – visit to National Space Centre in Leicester or Jodrell Bank.  This visit or activity is crucial to help the children link into the learning experience.  Each unit of work in the class is then based upon this learning experience for a term.  Within the term the children will focus on one particular subject, either a blocked unit of work or spread out over the term.

Enrichment Curriculum

As part of the rich and wide curriculum we also extend the children’s learning through our enrichment afternoons (KS1 Tuesday and KS2 Wednesday).

On these afternoons the children are offered Art, French, R.E., Creative Writing and Gymnastics.

Each year group studies these subjects for a term and will then re-visit them the following year.

Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)

Warren Farm Primary School is an OFSTED “Outstanding” PSHE school.  Our curriculum, which is one of our key strengths, determines and underpins the whole ethos of our school.  There are many elements to our PSHE curriculum:-

• Health Education / Drug Education / Safety Education

• Sex Education

• Pastoral Care

• Religious Education and Collective Worship (see policies)

• Citizenship Programme

All these elements and curriculum content are woven together through our Emotional Literacy Curriculum.  We also have “focused” weeks over the year to highlight specific areas of life skills.

We have a whole school citizenship programme, which gives children citizenship responsibilities throughout the school:-

Year 2 – Litter Pickers

Year 3 – Playground Pals

Year 4 – Mediators

Year 5 – Eco Warriors

Year 6 – Family Group Leaders

Religious Education

R.E. is a key part of our PSHE Curriculum.  We follow the Birmingham Curriculum for R.E. and through our PSHE and Values programmes we cover all of the dispositions.

Our R.E. lessons, from our subject overviews, are taught as a discreet subject, but the values of Christian teaching and values from other world religions permeate everything we teach.  We pride ourselves that our school has a very spiritual ethos.

ICT

We are currently finalising our ICT curriculum and this section will be completed shortly.