Bredhurst Church of England Primary School

Bredhurst C.E. Primary School Curriculum

Rationale

At Bredhurst we have implemented a rich, engaging, bespoke curriculum which meets the needs of all our learners.  It covers the aims and objectives from the National Curriculum in a creative and inspiring way. Our curriculum is encompassing, varied and is full of meaningful learning opportunities.  Our intention is for our children to learn and grow through the guidance and love of God, leaving Bredhurst 'knowing more'. We aspire for our children to be  knowledgeable with the ability to speak confidently across a range of topics  and be excited about the world we live in. 

We teach in a very cross curricular way, embedding our learning, our geography and history based topics  are  interlinked with our English texts and learning.  The children are highly engaged as their learning is intrinsically linked.  They are able to apply the skills taught effectively across the curriculum and to a range of subjects.  We do not teach in isolation but ensure our teaching has meaning and purpose.  The knowledge taught in history is transferred to the English, deepening and widening the understanding across both subjects.  This approach is highly successful at creating highly motivated learners.  

As we teach in mixed age classes, our foundation learning is not taught as separate year groups.  Our children are taught different topics according to the class they are in. We have a cyclical approach to our learning so we can build upon previous learning, therefore  children's knowledge  and skills build and develop overtime. Our whole curriculum is bound together by both the school's Christian values and the British values which are fundamental in making us such a positive, successful community of learners.

Above all, our curriculum is designed to help every single child to: enjoy childhood, strive to be the best they can, persevere in their learning and become future citizens who will impact positively on society. 

To find out more about our engaging, inspiring curriculum follow the links to our class pages where you will find our termly overviews.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Within EYFS we provide opportunities for children to be unique and encourage them to be resilient and to develop their confidences. The environment they learn in needs to accommodate their needs and enable them to learn in different ways.

As practitioners we provide stimulating resources relevant to all children to encourage rich learning opportunities through play and teaching. Provisions for children to take risks and explore their own ideas allow them to be active learners whilst encouraging them to be creative and to think critically.

The wider curriculum topics are generated from pupil interests and the planning of these topics are led very much by the pupils themselves. Each term has a different emphasis, although each curriculum area is available to pupils through our continuous provision.

Using the Early Adopter Handbook guidance the children will be learning under these profile headings:

Understanding the world – Past and Present, People, Culture and Communities, The Natural World.

Expressive Arts and Design – Creating with Materials, Being Imaginative and Expressive

Click here for the Early Adopter Handbook

Mathematics

At Bredhurst, we strive to make Mathematics fun and engaging for our pupils. Lessons are taught to mixed age classes and we encourage pupils to use a selection of manipulatives to explore different aspects in maths across the whole school. We promote a CPA approach to our teaching – Concrete – Practical- Abstract methods. The outcomes from the National Curriculum are adhered too and pupils are regularly assessed against these.

Every day pupils are encouraged to recall number facts across the four operations as well as exploring different ways this knowledge can be applied in a variety of real-life contexts. This helps to develop their fluency as well as encouraging them to make links across the areas within mathematics and in other curriculum subjects.

To support our planning in maths, we use variety of resources, but mainly White Rose materials. Children from Year 2 upwards also have access to ‘Times Table Rockstars’ website which also supports speed and fluency in recalling multiplication facts.

Click here to visit the Mathematics National Curriculum page

Phonics and Reading

Fluent, confident word recognition and good comprehension skills underpin learning at all ages. At Bredhurst School, we begin our children on their reading journey within their first weeks of schooling through high quality phonics teaching and shared reading experiences.

Our phonics teaching is aligned to Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. The long-term phonics plan with termly overviews shows the order the phonemes and graphemes are introduced to the children in Reception and on into year 1.

The children also experience a range of fun activities that encourage them to explore sound making and letter formation that, for the majority of children, soon leads to phoneme and grapheme recognition in books and writing around the classroom.

Using the Collins Big Cat reading scheme,  children are encouraged to recognise and read graphemes that they have been taught. This is supplemented by a range of phonically decodable books – Jelly and Bean, Bug Club, Engage literacy. We encourage our children to quickly see themselves as readers.

As the children become more confident readers, they can start to make independent choices about their reading from book banded books whilst still being supported by the reading scheme.

Within all classrooms, the children have access to a wide range of age-appropriate books and picture books. They hear stories and texts read by the adults in the class. Every term each class uses different texts to lead their writing which gives the children the opportunity for in depth study about how authors use language to create characters and settings or explore themes.

For children who do not make progress with their reading at an appropriate rate, Dandelion books are used to fine tune their reading experience to the particular phonemes and graphemes they need to practice so that by the time our children move to secondary school they all have the confidence to read a range of different texts and continue on their learning journey.

Writing

At Bredhurst School we highly value teaching in cross curricular way, it is fundamental to our whole curriculum and the approach we use to develop our children as life long learners.  We continue to use this approach in our English lessons, with our geography and history based topics  interlinking  with our high quality English texts and learning.  The children are highly engaged as their learning is intrinsically linked.  They are able to apply the skills taught effectively across the curriculum and to a range of subjects.  We do not teach in isolation but ensure our teaching has meaning and purpose.  The knowledge taught in history and geography is transferred to the English, deepening and widening the understanding across both subjects.  This approach is highly successful at creating highly motivated learners.    We teach the children how to write in an immersive way, using a variety of techniques such as drama, text analysis and questionning.  These skills go hand in hand with oral literacy, our EYFS and KS1 is very much about developing effective oral literacy and effective speech, without this fundamental skills our children do not become the proficient, effective writer they develop into. We use our whole class text as a springboard to develop and teach a wide variety of genres, including fiction and non fiction which they will be ale to use a and develop in their future lives, for example:  reports, explanations, adverts, letters and diaries.   We mainly teach spelling, punctuation and grammar contextually, developing these skills and embedding them into the children's learning.   

Through this cross curricular approach our writing remains creative, imaginative and purposeful, with our children developing a love for writing and learning. 

Science

Science develops vital skills such as questioning, enquiry and the use of evidence. At Bredhurst School, we use the Science Programmes of Study from the National Curriculum as our curriculum. Teachers then develop lessons which support the children’s learning to enable them to understand the knowledge and scientific concepts covered within the primary Science curriculum.  Teachers draw on resources from the Kent Scheme of Work and PLAN ARE documents to ensure that the children have a wide range of experiences that cover the appropriate knowledge and scientific enquiry skills at both Key Stage 1 and 2.

  Understanding Faith

Understanding Faith is structured in such a way as to develop critical thinkers who relate learning from Christianity to the world and themselves. They do this by firstly, making sense of the text (reading and understanding Bible stories and teachings). Next, they understanding the impact (what does this mean for Christians and non-Christians? How does it impact on their lives, beliefs and thoughts?) and finally, they make connections (linking their learning and making connections between the knowledge, impact and the wider world and contemporary issues).

The Kent Agreed Syllabus Incorporating Understanding Christianity

This can be downloaded by clicking here

Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

Learning a language really does have 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.  All children in Key Stage 2 are expected to be given opportunities to learn how to:

• communicate orally
• share their ideas and feelings using speech
• compare their use of English grammar and spelling to another language
• express some ideas in writing

The curriculum no longer sets out topics or units of work to cover; instead it outlines what children should be taught under more general headings. Some of these include:

• Listening to a language and joining in to learn everyday words and phrases
• Learning how to have conversations in another language to share ideas and opinions as well as being able to ask and answer questions
• Reading texts and stories in another language, carrying out basic comprehension tasks
• Learning songs, poems, rhymes and stories in another language to help with vocabulary but also with cultural understanding
• Writing some words and phrases from memory as well as describing people and places with basic sentences

At Bredhurst School we currently choose to teach French.  The main emphasis of our teaching is based on a range of everyday and routine topics such as numbers, colours, greetings, family, animals, school, travel, Our children first learn a foreign language in Year 3, in this year group they mainly use speech to learn the basics. As they move up from Year 3 children will see much more of the written language and build on their early skills, allowing them to speak, write and listen with much more skill.

For more information regarding our approach and lesson content, follow the link below to Lightbulb Languages.

Lightbulb Languages

 Computing

Our computing curriculum consists of teaching children the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world. 

We use the 100 Computing Lessons to develop and enhance our teaching of computer science. 

PE

At Bredhurst School we believe that PE should be highly engaging and enjoyable, allowing children to develop their dance, gymnastics and games skills. 

We expect children to develop skills and be able to apply them, at an age appropriate level.

In addition to this we are committed to ensuring all children are able to meet the national curriculum expectations for swimming by the time they leave us in Year 6. To achieve this, children from Year R to Year 6 are taught in the school pool every academic year by our fully trained in swimming coaching and life guarding.

Our children prove to be highly successful in a variety of inter school PE competitions. Over the past two years we have been placed in: netball, football, cross country, cricket and swimming.   This is due to our excellent PE curriculum, a full time sports coach, access a wide variety of after school clubs and our school SPIRIT, which encourages our children to be the best they can and persevere in all they participate in. 

Click here to see our PE Curriculum Map   Click the links below for our Progression of PE Skills - Cognitive Physical Social and Emotional

PSHE / RHE

PSHE is taught from our reception year up to year six and is referred to as "Life Skills".  It is taught both as a stand-alone subject and through links with other subjects.

PSHE skills and qualities can be seen through our school vision, values and Collective Worships. We aim for all children at Bredhurst Primary school to develop into happy, confident and kind young people: who show compassion and dignity both within the school community and the wider world.

PSHE is taught through stories, discussion, role play, research and quizzes. We have a wide range of visitors who contribute to the children’s learning within this subject.

Staff are sensitive and responsive to the needs of their class and individuals, adapting the curriculum to meet those needs.

The Reception children learn PSHE & RHE currently through the new Early adopter curriculum: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-adopter-schools-eyfs-framework

Children in years 1-6 follow National Curriculum guidance. As a church school we work closely with the teachings of the church and we have used the website Goodness and Mercy to support our curriculum planning. Please follow this link for further information: 

About – Goodness & Mercy This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. goodnessandmercy.co.uk

As a school we also belong to the highly respected PSHE association which provides additional support for our curriculum planning and the sharing of effective teaching ideas.

As a school community we have discussed and developed our new Relationship and Health Education Policy - this can be found on our policy page. 

We believe in pupil voice and ensure that our children are able to contribute their ideas about PSHE through our School Council.

Click here for the PSHE Overview

Topic

The approach we have taken in planning the outcomes of our curriculum and delivering it, is rooted in how we teach our Understanding Faith learning. We realised that taking a three- tiered approach worked for our children and develops them into becoming evaluative thinkers who take knowledge, consider its impact and then think about the connections; this led to us developing a bespoke curriculum in which our children are able to use this same tiered approach in all of their learning. This approach is embedded for our children.

Within our wider curriculum, we often use an overarching question for our topics. We choose questions which require children to take on new knowledge, understand the impact of that knowledge and then make connections with it. Within our learning sequences, learning builds; starting with the knowledge the children need in order to apply skills, to being able to understand the impact and make connections within and across topics.

In KS1, the learning is often structured so that the lessons build from knowledge, to understanding the impact and culminating in making connections across the course of the term. The worked example below demonstrates this.

Worked example 1: Forge – Term 1 – sequence of learning across the term

• Learning the Knowledge : Learning about superheroes and their qualities, what makes them different from ordinary people, why are they ‘super’?

Learning about Florence Nightingale - when did she live, what did she do, why did she do it, what changes came about because of her?

• Understanding the Impact: What people in our lives are like superheroes? How do we feel about them? What makes them super?

“ My mum is a super hero because she looks after me and makes me happy.”

“A vet is caring and helps animals who are poorly.”

Because of what Florence Nightingale did/introduced in hospitals, how did this make them better/improved?

• Making Connections: How was Florence Nightingale a superhero?

How are Florence Nightingale, a mum, a vet and Spiderman alike?

In KS2, where appropriate, a three- tiered approach will be taken across a sequence of lessons but also within lessons.

Worked example 2: Oakwood –  Term 1 -  a single history lesson

• Learning the Knowledge: Learning about education during the Victorian period and the introduction of Ragged Schools. What were Ragged Schools like, why were they established, who were they aimed at and what was their purpose in society?
• Understanding the Impact: What impact did the establishment of Ragged Schools have on the working class? What did Dickens say about their impact? Did they achieve what they intended to? Why/why not?
• Making Connections: What would society have been like if education wasn’t made compulsory in 1870? How can you connect the need for education for all, particularly the working class, and the characters and settings Dickens used in his novel Oliver Twist? Why did Dickens decide to present his findings and persuasions about education in the way he did?

We carefully consider what learning the children record to ensure it is meaningful and valuable to them, capturing their understanding of the learning. The knowledge is built together as a class and is often displayed on our topic learning walls for the children to refer back to throughout the topic. It is the impact and connections we focus on the children recording as this is what we know they very much enjoy and what challenges their thinking.

For more information please follow the link to the National Curriculum