Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement
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Intent
Sandlings Curriculum is carefully considered and designed and reflects our ambition to achieve educational excellence so that all our pupils can thrive, now and in the future; We want our children to have the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours to succeed and thrive in the next stage of their learning and beyond; To be confident, creative, enthusiastic and aspirational learners; To value themselves, others and the world around them.
We ensure that we make our curriculum accessible for those with disabilities or special educational need in line with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. For our school this means not simply treating everybody the same but understanding and tackling the different barriers which could lead to unequal outcomes for identified groups within the school community (“Positive Action”). Click here for further Equality information
We base our curriculum on the “National Curriculum” and use the Chris Quigley Essentials framework, that is clearly sequenced for progression, to support planning and teaching which is enhanced further for some subjects through the use of well-considered schemes of work.
Through our broad and balanced curriculum, we hope to encourage children to value and appreciate the world around them and provide inspiration by introducing them to the best that has been thought and said in human creativity and achievement.
Our curriculum is cross curricular in its approach, whilst keeping progression in subject specific skills and knowledge with a curriculum that is planned on a two-year cycle to support learning in mixed aged classes. We aim to provide purposeful, interesting and meaningful learning experiences and have found our approach of teaching some subjects in blocks is a good way to do this. Every term each class has a different project theme which helps connect learning across the different subjects.
In addition, there are daily Maths and English lessons to provide more time for teaching these important subjects which underpin learning across the whole curriculum. Maths is planned and taught using the mastery approach and we use the Power of Maths scheme as a basis for this work.
We enhance and enrich our curriculum through lessons and experiences that reflect our school vision and ethos, for example through visits in and around our local area, clubs and our half termly life skills sessions to give a sense of belonging, in line with our vision for learning at the school.
Each core subject is led by a named teacher who monitors the curriculum, keeps apprised of new initiatives in their subject and provides training and support for colleagues. We use a collaborative approach for the leadership of other subjects. Our school is dedicated to developing learning in all subjects in order for teaching and learning to be the very best it can be and we do this by providing CPD and working together to share ideas and with other schools.
Implementation
Sandlings' Curriculum Drivers, engaging learners through purposeful activities, understanding ourselves as learners and utilising creativity such as problem solving and thinking outside the "box" form the basis for teaching and learning in our school.
At the beginning of each new unit of work, teachers reflect with the children on their prior learning using a Sandlings' subject overview grid. This class document is used to capture children’s prior learning as well as build a picture of current learning including vocabulary.
Teachers provide an inspiring stimulus such as a visit or challenge to engage children in their learning. As the units of work progress teachers continue to provide interest and challenge by building in activities such as debate and discussion, drama and role-play and investigations as well as providing a range of interesting and useful resources to support learning.
We use the DUO approach (Do It, Use It, Own It) to set tasks that support all children in their learning and to provide additional challenge when they are ready.
Life skill sessions are provided each half term for each class. The class is split into small groups and taught in the kitchen, garden or arts room. Children also have a personal development lesson. There is also some form of wellbeing activity such as yoga, or mindfulness. As well as learning what they need to do to be successful learners, during these sessions children are encouraged to develop learning behaviours needed for success.
IN KS2 We teach reading through whole class reading sessions using a range of high quality texts. In KS1 and Reception children have three p guided reading sessions a week to develop children’s decoding and comprehension skills using Big Cat books aligned with our Little Wandle phonics scheme
We aim to promote a love of reading, that we hope children will carry with them throughout their lives, by having well stocked fiction and non-fiction lending libraries and mini libraries in each classroom. We also promote reading through book weeks, book sales, competitions and reading cafes with parents. Further information on our approach to reading spelling and phonics can be found here: Reading, Spelling and phonics.
Children are taught the skills they need to write effectively, drawing on the texts that they have read and are given opportunities to apply these skills in writing across the curriculum and in extended “Big Write” sessions every fortnight. Where possible we aim to give children a real purpose for their writing and opportunities to publish their work in different formats. Further information on our approach to writing can be found here.
The “Power of Maths” scheme provides daily teaching sequences using a mastery approach. Children are provided with a range of practical, pictorial and conceptual activities and have access to manipulatives to support their learning. In addition, a daily “maths meeting” session is used to give children opportunities to revisit and consolidate previous learning. Further information on our approach to maths can be found here.
In some other subjects we use well considered schemes to support teaching and learning:
- RE – Emmanuel, a scheme aligned with the Suffolk RE Agreed Syllabus
- Science -Plymouth Science
- PSHE/RSHE- Islington scheme “You Me and PSHE “
- Music - Charanga
- French -Riggolo
- Art- Access Art
- Design and Technology -Chris Quigley Curriculum Companion
- PE- Rising Stars Champions
- Computing – Teach Computing
Teachers check learners’ understanding throughout lessons so that they can quickly identify misconceptions and errors and provide clear, direct feedback, giving extra support where it is needed or moving learning on. Marking is in line with our Feedback and Marking policy. We also use a range of more formal assessments to track pupils progress, to identify gaps and next steps, which are used to inform future planning.
For homework, to complement the work in school, children are expected to read daily, learn their weekly spellings and complete a maths fluency task every week. In addition, every half term children are set a project on a particular theme and are given a menu” of ideas to choose from. They choose a task from the Starters, Mains and Desserts sections. Find out more in our homework policy.
Impact
As a result of a well-planned and taught curriculum, which engages pupils, overall work is of a high standard and results are good. Where a child is susceptible to under achieving, systems are in place to quickly pick this up so that support can be rapidly put in place.
Regular monitoring shows that children are learning well at the school from their different starting points. Additional funding for pupils with SEND and those eligible for free school meals and pupils from service families is used well. See Pupil Premium and SEND information.
We feel that our pupils are well equipped to continue their learning journey and to succeed well in the future.