Curriculum

There are three phases of learning and development referred to within the primary years. Foundation Stage refers to children aged 3 to 5 years (this includes children in our Reception year). Key Stage One refers to those children in years one and two. Key Stage Two refers to those children in years three to six.

The school curriculum comprises all learning and other experiences that the school plans for its pupils. We plan our curriculum using the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and the National Curriculum for all other year groups, to ensure that our pupils gain a broad and balanced education during the seven years that they are with us, which will prepare them for the next stage of their education and lives.

More details of our curriculum including termly overviews of subjects and content to be taught for each class each term can be found on the individual class pages of the website under the Learning with Us tab.

Our School Curriculum Statement outlines what we intend our curriculum to achieve, how we implement this and what the impact of our curriculum will be on the outcomes for our pupils. This can be found below along with Subject Intent Statements for each subject that we teach.

If you would like to find out more about our curriculum please contact our Head of School, Mrs A Underwood.

Subject Intent Statements

Maths

At Welford we believe that children learn best in maths when concepts are broken down in to small, manageable steps. We teach using a method that first uses concrete resources to demonstrate a concept, followed by pictorial representations and finally in a more abstract way (known as the CPA approach). The school use the White Rose Maths Hub Scheme of Work in order to achieve this. Teaching begins in our Reception Class with basic understand and recognition of numbers to 10 plus shape, space and measure concepts.

Our Calculation Policy sets out the concrete, pictorial and abstract methods we teach for each of the four calculations and can be found below. Also below you can view our Maths Intent Statement which details more about our approach to teaching Maths.

In order that pupils secure basic knowledge, which underpins all future learning, we teach Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFS) in each year group. Details of the progression in these facts can be found below.

We use TT Rockstars to help children to learn and practice their times tables, part of the KIRFS. Pupils receive a login to the website and can take part in battles against each other, another class or even other schools. See the website here:Times Tables Rock Stars – Times Tables Rock Stars (ttrockstars.com)

We celebrate Number Day each year and encourage all our pupils to become confident, knowledgeable mathematicians.

Our Maths subject leader is Miss Kathryn O'Connor

English

We place the highest importance on the successful development of literacy skills. Our curriculum caters for English, teaching the development of reading, writing and speaking and listening is through our topics.

We believe that every child can be a good reader and teach them the skills to be able to achieve this. We encourage the love of reading and regularly undertake Buddy Reading and Paired Reading across the school. We invite families in to school for Family Reading on the last Friday of every month. Our classes enjoy storytime every day. We use a wide range of high quality texts to teach reading and books are levelled using the Oxford Reading Tree system of coloured bands to indicate suitability for different ages. Free readers can choose any texts from class reading shelves or our library.

For our earliest readers, we teach Phonics using the Little Wandle scheme of work. Phonics is a synthetic system of teaching reading by enabling children to decode the representation of letters (graphemes) into a sound (phoneme) and how to blend sounds together to make words and meaning. Our teaching of Phonics is supported by the use of Big Cat decodable phonics books (published by Collins) in hard copy and e-book format. More information about Little Wandle can be found here: Primary | Primary English | Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised W – Collins

We enable our pupils to become fantastic writers by encouraging them to become fantastic storytellers. We believe in the importance of being able to verbally tell a story before being able to write it down. We use a widely recognised system of teaching writing called Talk for Writing which enables pupils to hear, learn and re-enact texts before innovating them with their own ideas to make original versions. More information about Talk for Writing can be found here: Talk for Writing

We have separate Subject Intent Statements for Reading (including Phonics) and Writing which can be found below along with a selection of resources to support the teaching of reading at home. Parents are invited to join us regularly for workshops to learn more about how we teach English skills, particularly Phonics.

Our Subject Leader for English is Mrs Kate Sandells.

Science

Our Science curriculum follows suggested units in the National Curriculum. It is designed to be progressive so that children are continually building on skills and knowledge learned in previous units or years. Where possible discrete links are made to other subjects and to real life applications. Children are taught how to be a Scientist by undertaking a range of investigations and experiments in which they are able to test hypotheses to answer a question.

Early science is taught through the Understanding the World strand of the Early Years Framework. Learning through play, children in Reception experiment with a whole range of Scientific concepts to explore the world around them and how things work. They enjoy a weekly 'Welly Walk' around the village to observe the local area including plants, trees and minibeasts and the seasons in action

Our Science subject leader is Mrs Elaine Thomas

Religious Education

At Welford, we believe that Religious Education plays a significant role in the promotion of spiritual, moral, cultural and mental development, preparing learners for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life and helping them to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.

We follow the Understanding Christianity scheme of work for our teaching of Christianity. This is supplemented by the Diocese of Peterborough Syllabus for Religious Education 2019 – 2024, which is mainly used for the teaching of other world faiths.

The syllabus aims for pupils to explore core Christian concepts by using important teachings from Bible texts, making sense of them and understanding the impact of these texts and concepts on Christians today.

Religious Education is taught weekly as a discrete subject. As a Church of England school, we prioritise the teaching of Christianity, which accounts for two thirds of our programme of study. Further units of study provide in-depth coverage of three other major religions including Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism as well as the opportunity to examine other religious beliefs and attitudes such as Humanism.

Through RE lessons, we help children to both learn about and to learn from religion and belief. The units of study are all question-based and lessons are planned which allow children to be active, thoughtful, reflective and expressive in their handling of questions about beliefs, religion, spirituality and values. We aim to include elements of enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection within our lessons.

We use a varied range of teaching and learning strategies in order to make Religious Education dynamic and challenging for all pupils. These include whole class lessons, pair and group discussions, drama, role-play, ICT, visits, outside speakers, audio-visual stimuli, artwork and the use of religious artefacts.

Religious Education must be provided for all registered pupils in full time education. Parents do, however, retain the right to withdraw their children from RE. If you have any concerns, in the first instance we would encourage you to talk to your child’s class teacher who can direct you to the RE Subject Leader if you need further information.

Our RE Policy and Subject Statement of Intent can be found below.

Our RE subject leader is Mrs Elaine Thomas.

Foundation Subjects

Geography, History, Art and Design and Design Technology are all taught using a Trust designed curriculum which follows National Curriculum programmes of study and enables progression of skills. We teach 'declarative knowledge' (the facts and information about that unit of work) and 'procedural knowledge' (the skills to master that subject e.g. the skills of being a historian or an artist).

We teach PSHE through the Jigsaw scheme of work, which covers all aspects of personal, social and health education as well as online safety and relationships education.

We teach PE using the PE Hub schemes of work. We partner with Pacesetter Sports to enable our children to partake in inter-school competitions throughout the year, as well as friendly matches against our local schools. All pupils in KS2 have the opportunity to learn to swim until they met the requirements of the National Curriculum.

We teach Spanish to pupils in Y3 - Y6 using the Language Angels scheme of work.

We teach a wide range of musical genres using the Charanga scheme of work. Pupils also have the opportunity to have small group musical tuition on a range of instruments via our partners, NMPAT. We also partner with Rocksteady Music School to give pupils the change to be in a rock band!

We teach computing using Purple Mash. Pupils have access to a wide range of programmes and applications on their platform which enable the progression of their computing skills including coding. Online safety is taught rigorously through both our Computing and PSHE schemes of work.

On our class pages you will find half termly overviews which describes what your child is studying each term in each subject area.

EYFS

The first year of school is a very important stage as it helps your child establish the building blocks of their education. Our youngest children follow the Early Early Foundation Curriculum which breaks down early development into 7 broad areas. Children should mostly develop the three prime areas first:

Communication and language;
Physical development; and
Personal, social and emotional development

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning. As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in four specific areas. These are:

Literacy;
Mathematics;
Understanding the world; and
Expressive arts and design.

Within these areas of learning, children are expected to reach their 17 Early Learning Goals (ELGs) by the end of the Reception year. Details of all the ELGs are in the document below.

Within the first term, we invite parents to a series of workshops at which we explain our approach to teaching Phonics and early Reading, early Maths and writing. Details will be sent to you via Teachers2Parents.

Our full Long Term Plan for the Reception Year can be accessed below along with our EYFS Intent Statement.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum Intent Statement

Music

music development plan welford primary september 2024.pdf

Welford Sibbertoft & Sulby School