Stocks Green Primary School

Curriculum Intent Statement

Our school motto ’Learning to Live, Living to Learn’ is very much at the core of our curriculum. We aim to provide a curriculum that equips pupils with life skills for the future at all levels.

Our curriculum is designed to:

• recognise children’s prior learning
• provide first hand learning experiences
• promote creativity
• make connections between subjects and real life
• Promote safe, equal, caring and enjoyable relationships and discussing real-life situations appropriate to the age and stage of pupils.
• encourage the children to develop interpersonal skills
• build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.
• understand their own strengths and areas for development and know how to face challenges
• promote responsibility for learning and future success.

The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values.  This involves developing learning attitudes and resilience – acquiring an understanding that we learn from occasional mistakes made. Teaching the skills of interacting with others, questioning, reasoning and explaining help to create a positive attitude to learning.

Implementation

Our curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum  and other experiences and opportunities, which best meet the learning and developmental needs of the children in our school. We aim for the curriculum to provide children with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills.  

Core subjects

Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils are able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programmes of study are organised into distinct domains, but pupils should make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress are always based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material consolidate their understanding through additional practice, before moving on.

Our English curriculum is derived around the use of high quality age-appropriate texts. We believe that our fundamental task is to teach our children to speak clearly and articulately and to read and write effectively. Reading across all curriculum areas is a priority to extend and deepen pupils understanding and use of vocabulary. We want pupils to develop a love of reading during their time at Stocks Green and be exposed to a range of classic and contemporary literature. The use of the school library and class shared texts are pivotal to this. We use each text to create opportunities to develop reading, fluency and comprehension with a focus on key reading strategies and skills – linked directly to phonics teaching. We develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding - using and applying these skills across the wider curriculum.

We explore the writing structure and features of different genres, identifying the purpose and intended audience. Pupils plan and write a piece of writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting.

As part of a regular series of events, we host Able Writers and Able Maths sessions. Other schools join us for the day where authors /Mathematicians come and lead specialist lessons.  

Science is taught in planned and arranged topic blocks by the class teacher, to have a project-based approach. This is a strategy to enable the achievement of a greater depth of knowledge.

Through our planning, we involve problem solving opportunities that allow children to find out for themselves. Children are encouraged to ask their own questions and be given opportunities to use their scientific skills and research to discover the answers. This curiosity is celebrated within the classroom. Planning involves teachers creating engaging lessons, often involving high-quality resources to aid understanding of conceptual knowledge. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual knowledge and skills, and assess children regularly to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all children keep up.

We build upon the learning and skill development of the previous years. As the children’s scientific knowledge and understanding increases, and they become more proficient in selecting, using scientific equipment, collating and interpreting results, they become increasingly confident in their growing ability to come to conclusions based on real evidence.

Relationships and Sex Education is taught across the whole school (as part of our Science/PSHE curriculum) with a positive, respectful view of relationships, gender and human anatomy. It is taught with medically accurate language and information, so that pupils can learn about people and relationships, their bodies, reproduction and health in ways that are appropriate to their age and maturity.

At Stocks Green, we recognise the contribution of Sport /PE to the health and well-being of the children. We believe that an innovative, varied PE curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities have a positive influence on the concentration, attitude and academic achievement of all our children.

 We run a variety of clubs throughout the year, covering a wide range of sports to cater for all children in our school. In the summer the whole school takes part in a Sports Day, which gives the opportunity for children to experience a wide range of fun skill based activities.

At the end of each short term, we run an Intra- School sports event, for all the children to showcase their learning and compete in their house teams at their different levels. 

We also take part in numerous local festivals and Inter- School competitions such as: netball, football, cheerleading, dance and athletics. As well as these, we are constantly searching for new sporting activities to engage and stimulate the children. 

Our Primary School Sport’s Funding will enable us to continue and extend our provision through employing additional sports professionals, continue to enter into  competitive sports competitions and training our staff to deliver in-house quality PE sessions.

Computing skills are embedded in fun and interesting ways. Children apply I.T skills in creative ways to inform learning across the whole curriculum; this engagement in creative aspects of their curriculum helps all children to make progress. Ensuring that all children at Stocks Green become Digitally Literate and safe is a key focus of the curriculum. Children understand how Technology has an impact on the real world and how to stay safe online. Regular Online Safety lessons alongside an Online Safety Policy helps pupils and parents understand both possible online dangers and a range of appropriate and necessary safety measures to action.

Foundation Subjects

History : Our history curriculum is designed to develop a sense of the past in order to understand their identity and the world around them. We aim for our history curriculum to inspire curiosity and develop an appreciation of world culture.

Geography : Through studying geography we aim for our pupils to gain an understanding of the physical aspects of the planet and the different environments and habitats of the world. We relate this to the past, present and future.

MFL: At Stocks Green School, we believe that learning a language has a positive impact on a child's learning. It increases their cultural awareness and understanding, improves their speaking and listening skills and reinforces grammatical terminology. French is taught across the school.

A blocked approach is implemented for practical subjects such as art and DT, where it is better to focus for whole days with the practical tools and materials readily available in a ‘studio’ type classroom environment. This approach fosters each child’s curiosity and interest throughout each topic and also enabling the achievement of depth in knowledge and skills. Teachers explore the links and skills from other subjects that are relevant with the pupils, thus developing meaningful links and life skills.   Opportunities for child voice are planned at the beginning of each new topic and this is used to inform the learning for each topic to ensure relevance.

Our feedback policy promotes the opportunity for children to reflect on their learning and think deeply about their work and its successes and improvement areas.

The school takes pride in providing a highly inclusive environment, where learners demonstrate high levels of enjoyment in their education and most make very good progress in most subjects and areas of learning. 

Children at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through being offered tasks which provide opportunities for greater depth. Less able pupils are actively encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills and develop at their own pace, or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.

Music and performance is valued in the school and the school deploys specialist independent music teachers for pupils to have individual lessons if parents wish them to do so. We also work closely with Kent Music School to provide music lessons.   In Year 3, all pupils are taught to play recorders and read music linked to this. The ukulele is taught to all pupils in Year 5. By providing these lessons, pupils are given the experience in playing different instruments thus enabling them to choose to play an instrument of their choice in life.

The school has an active choir, taking part in performances and competitions in the area. We hold an annual music evening for parents and friends of the school to attend and hear the choir and pupils play their instruments individually or on groups.

 A varied timetable for extra-curricular activities is offered by the school, with clubs that support the curriculum, as well as those which develop specialist skills in different sports, whilst also extending the range of children’s experiences. A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning.

Subject leaders play an important part in the success of the curriculum by leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review and the celebration of good practice contributes to the ongoing commitment to evolve and improve further. All subject leaders are given training and the opportunity to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding, so they can support curriculum development and their colleagues throughout the school.

Impact

The innovative practice 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 high quality first wave teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate. In this way it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on children’s outcomes.

We deliver lessons where pupils feel safe and participation is encouraged by using a variety of teaching approaches – this develops critical thinking and relationship skills. Through giving pupils opportunities to reflect on values and influences (such as from peers, media, faith and culture) we shape their attitudes to relationships and nurture respect for different points of view.

Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour. Children feel safe to try new things. High quality visits and visitors to the school enhance the curriculum and provide opportunities for writing for a purpose.

Children have opportunities to share their learning with each other, their parents and carers and other learners through school-based and external exhibitions, performances, competitions and events involving other schools. Developing their confidence, independence and motivation as learners and their sense of responsibility as future citizens is embedded at the heart of all our teaching and learning.

What does your child learn at school each day? Find information about our curriculum subjects here.