Writing Curriculum

At St Mary's, we use the RISE writing curriculum, a scheme that we have helped create, in collaboration with teachers across the trust. It hits all the key points of the National Curriculum, but also has additional content which we have deemed necessary to allow the children to become more confident writers. The scheme ensures progression, continuity for the children across the year groups, and promotes a mastery of writing over a range of different contexts. 

For spellings, each class from Year 2 upwards follow the Spelling Shed scheme of work (found at Spelling Shed - Spelling Shed - The Science of Spelling).

Reading

We have worked with a cluster of local RISE schools to devise a Reading curriculum, which focuses on the key elements of reading skills: fluency, vocabulary meaning, retrieval, inference, prediction and summarising. 

This is delivered through a variety of text types, using shorter texts and novels. Children are given their own copy of the class novel to read at home and to refer to in reading lessons.

Classes also have a reading for pleasure book, which the class teacher reads aloud daily.

Phonics

At St Mary's Church of England Primary school children learn phonics throughout the Early Years and Key Stage 1. We are following the Sounds Write programme which aims to develop children's speaking and listening skills. It also prepares them for learning to read and spell by developing their phonic knowledge and skills, such as segmenting and blending.  It is a systematic programme which is taught daily in short sessions so that children build up and practice the skills they need to use in reading and writing.

Mathematics

“Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.”  National Curriculum 2014 

At St. Mary's we work in close partnership with the RISE trust Maths Network to develop fluency and mastery. We follow the White Rose Maths schemes of work but adapt materials to best suit our pupils. The White Rose mastery approach involves knowing how and why the mathematics works. It means being able to use mathematics knowledge in new and unfamiliar situations. To support children in achieving this, we use White Rose resources and adapt them as required to suit the needs of our pupils. These are used to both support and challenge children’s understanding, in line with the higher expectations of the National Curriculum. We expect most children to move through this programme of study at broadly the same pace.

Teachers will make decisions about when to progress based on the security of children’s understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Children who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier concepts will consolidate their understanding through additional practice and support.

At St Mary’s, we want children to become fluent mathematicians who can problem solve and reason confidently. We aim:

• To provide interesting and well-planned lessons, where children continually build on the knowledge they have already mastered.
• To promote children’s enjoyment of mathematics and provide a foundation for enthusiastic lifelong learning.
• To develop children’s mathematical thinking and conceptual understanding e.g. using concrete manipulatives (objects) and pictorial representations (pictures), before moving to abstract symbols (numbers and signs); giving children opportunities to explain or justify their mathematical reasoning using correct mathematical vocabulary; and providing children with plenty of opportunities to solve a variety of problems with differing representations and make rich connections across mathematical ideas.
• To secure children’s knowledge and accuracy when recalling number facts.
• To deepen the understanding of all children by covering fewer topics in greater depth not 'climbing' the curriculum as quickly as possible.
• To help children acquire and apply the mathematical skills necessary for solving problems, not only in the maths lesson, but also in other subjects, in everyday life situations and in their future learning.
• To develop children’s confidence and resilience in Mathematics by improving their growth mindset so they can reach their full potential.

In EYFS, children’s mathematics learning is on-going and is assessed against the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. At St Mary’s, we give children a range of real and purposeful opportunities to develop their understanding of mathematics.  Children are encouraged to use, talk about and explore mathematics in a positive environment. We use practical resources as well as pictures and models to master key concepts.

Termly topic planners for each year group can be accessed through the class pages.

RE

Within Religious Education (RE) lessons at St Mary's, we aim to explore and understand the principles of major world religions, as well as the views of those who follow a humanist way of thinking. We do this through the lens of our deeply rooted Christian values of love, respect, thankfulness, kindness, honesty and perseverence. 

RE explores big questions about life, to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live. We encourage pupils to reflect on their own beliefs, ideas and ways of living. We explore challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. Our curriculum for RE is structured through the Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus alongside the Understanding Christianity scheme of work. We continue to build strong connections with St Mary's Church, as well as visiting other local religious communities so that our children can see how beliefs are lived out in everyday life. 

Children learn to explore worldviews in a safe space where they can develop their understanding, be curious and ask big questions. We teach them to express themselves and their beliefs, agreeing or disagreeing with others in a respectful manner.  

 Wider Curriculum Information

For Art, DT, Science, Geography and History we use curriculum planning and resources that have been designed within our Academy Trust. The curriculum was developed collaboratively, with subject leaders across all our schools coming together to logically sequence and develop materials for teacher to use in lessons. What we want to achieve within each subject is the ability for all children to not only be ready for the next stage in their education, but to have a strong academic foundation in both the substantive and disciplinary knowledge within each subject in order to excel in their continued studies.

Our curriculum is built on the premise of what foundational knowledge and skills would a person need to know in order to have the best chance at studying the subject at university. The academic rigour in the curriculum can be seen through the strong focus on rich knowledge and subject-specific vocabulary developed within and across subjects.

We also want our children to have the ability to engage in near and far transfer of knowledge within each subject, enabling them to make links and widen their understanding of each academic discipline. The design of the curriculum supports this though linear and non-linear links both within and across subjects.

The curriculum has been designed with a 'teach to the top' and scaffold down approach, in that we are ambitious for all our pupils and expect them all to access the learning, other than those with complex needs. Our curriculum is inherently challenging through its content choices, rather than an additional 'bolt on'.

Each subject is designed using the most up to date thinking and research, and is under continual development and review in order to ensure it enables pupils to learn more.

The curriculum is designed to be taught in blocks of learning, so pupils can immerse themselves in a discreet subject area for a period of time, and through the carefully mapped out long term plan of the year, revisit subjects at appropriately spaced intervals in order to retrieve prior learning and embed this in long term memory. (Research Link: Spacing - Bjork & Bjork; Forgetting Curve - Ebbinghaus)

Long term plans are in place for each subject with knowledge, skills and concepts having been mapped back from the end of KS2 down to the EYFS to ensure that progression takes place, highlighting the links between what has been previously taught, and what will be taught in future years.

The long term plan has then been broken down into units of lessons consisting of either 5, 10 or in some cases 15 lessons that are delivered sequentially. Each unit of lessons has been logically sequenced to enable children to build on knowledge in small steps both within and across lessons (Research Link: Small Steps - Rosenshine). Subject content has been specifically chosen to be meaningful for pupils, and also to provide them with a deep understanding of knowledge and concepts within each discipline.

Within the design of the curriculum, knowledge of vocabulary plays a huge part in ensuring children are able to comprehend the information given to them. Each unit of lessons highlights subject specific vocabulary that should ideally be pre-taught to pupils so they can immediately access content. This is taught alongside Tier 2 vocabulary that will also help them comprehend across the disciplines. (Research Link: Vocabulary Prioritised - Hart, Law et al; Tier 2 & 3 Vocab - Beck et al)

To assist in enabling children to remember more over time, interleaved low-stakes quizzes are used across the year to give children the opportunity to revisit key information again from content that has been taught from throughout their schooling, as we know this is one of the most effective methods of learning. The quizzes are subject specific and are made up of content that has already been taught, but not necessarily from within the current, or even previous years learning. (Research Link: Interleaving - Bjork; Quizzes - Dunlosky)

Subject knowledge is fundamental in delivery high quality teaching, and without it deep learning of content cannot occur. Each unit of lessons is underpinned by a teacher pack that outlines the minimum key knowledge that teachers must know to be able to deliver the lesson effectively. The teacher pack also outlines the sequence of lessons, key vocabulary, prior knowledge children should know (including where and when it was taught), and where the unit fits in the progression throughout the subject. (Research Link: Subject Knowledge - Great Teaching Toolkit - Coe)

Within each lesson pupils are given the opportunity to retrieve knowledge that can then be built on. The knowledge being retrieved has been carefully selected so that children can then build on that key information, and therefore not putting additional strain on cognitive load. (Research Link: Retrieval - Rosenshine; Cognitive Load Theory - Sweller)

An element of each lesson is the utilisation of overlearning through cumulative quizzing within the units. Pupils have the opportunity to overlearn key knowledge by revisiting the cumulative quiz each day and adding more questions, while continuing to answer the ones from previous days, even if they have answered they correctly before. This allows for the continued revisiting of core knowledge within the unit of lessons. (Research Link: Overlearning - Soderstrom & Bjork; Christodoulou)

PSHE

As a School we use Coram Scarf for our PSHE lessons. 

What is SCARF?

SCARF was created by the specialist children's health and wellbeing charity, Coram Life Education.

It's designed to help children be their best – physically, mentally, emotionally and academically – through the SCARF values of Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship.

Music

At St Mary's C of E Primary School, we encourage children to participate in a variety of musical experiences to develop confidence and enjoyment. Our curriculum allows for a progression of skills and knowledge. Through singing and listening to songs the children learn about the structure and organisation of music. We teach them to listen and to appreciate different forms of music. We encourage them to explore music from different cultures.

Direct teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to understand rhythm and follow a beat. We also teach the children technical vocabulary such as volume, pitch and rhythm and encourage children to use these terms when discussing music.

Implementation

Music lessons aim to develop a love of music and children’s talent as musicians. Through an engaging curriculum using the Getset4music scheme, children increase their creativity and their confidence. As children progress, the curriculum challenges them to evaluate music, to discuss and to justify their opinions. In key stage 2 children are encouraged to compose music.

Our long term plan ensures a broad exposure to different genres of music, and practical opportunities to develop as musicians and singers. Opportunities are taken to perform in class, in whole assemblies and also to parents and the wider community. For example the lower key stage 2 children take part in the Rise Voices event where schools from the Trust are taught by music specialists and then perform together.

Physical Education

The main purpose of Physical Education  within our curriculum is to develop the knowledge and understanding, skills, capabilities and attributes necessary for mental, emotional, social and physical well-being now and in the future. We encourage our children to:

• Make informed decisions in order to improve their mental, emotional, social and physical well-being.

• Experience challenge and enjoyment in a range of contexts - we encourage a 'have a go attitude' and provide wider curriculum opportunities for children to expand their thinking of what a physical activity is.

• Experience positive aspects of healthy living and activity for themselves.

• Apply their mental, emotional and social skills to pursue a healthy lifestyle.

• Take part in activities outside of school.

• Experience competition and have the resilience to compete.

Weekly PE lessons are taken by school staff trained to deliver key skills using the 'Getset4PE' Scheme. 

GetSet4 PE provides our staff with the ideas and confidence to delivery high quality physical education lessons.

As a school we have chosen GetSet4PE due to it's all round content that provides much more than a scheme of work. GetSet4PE ensures that our PE curriculum is well taught, well assessed and has a clear progression of skills as the children move through school.

Lessons from GetSet4PE are written by teachers, giving our staff the assurance that their teaching is building on knowledge and skills and giving your children a secure foundation for their next phase of learning.

Children also have other opportunities to be physically active in school including:

• Lunch-time challenges led by the Play Leaders
• After-school clubs
• Events provided by the Melton School Sports Partnership 
• The opportunity to play on the school field and be supported by adults
• Playground games
• Day and residential visits that include physical challenge

Modern Foreign Languages

We are very fortunate to have a French language specialist on the school staff. Children are taught rhymes and songs from EYFS and move to follow a more structured curriculum in Year 3. We follow the 'Lightbulb Languages' scheme of work. This scheme focuses on speaking and listening in everyday contexts. We are also fortunate to have a very strong link with a partner school in France (Ecole Saint Georges du Vievres).