Our Curriculum
The School has a high quality curriculum. Pupils achieve well - Ofsted 2023
Our school has a rich and broad curriculum which teaches the full requirements of the National Curriculum building this around a coherent curriculum offer to ensure pupils build on knowledge so they can know more and remember more. Thoughtfully tailored to meet the needs of pupils in our school, we ensure that all pupils, including those with SEN, achieve highly in all subject areas. While learning is within topics, the disciplinary knowledge weaves through each year so that prior learning is secured and children are enabled to access new knowledge and skills with confidence and resilience.
In this way, learning is scaffolded both within the topic, over the year and indeed across the whole school journey. This has been thoughtfully timetabled to meet the needs of our mixed age classes over a two year rolling programme.
Below is the Long Term Curriculum Plan for year A and Year B. - this is a broad 'title' for the topic the children will be studying. Further detail can be found in the class pages.
Please do support your child at home by sharing the knowledge organiser they bring home for science and humanities (geography / history) and use them as a prompt to encourage your child to talk about their learning at school.
Maths
At Swithland we use the White Rose scheme of work to teach Maths. White Rose teaches children mathematical concepts through pictoral, practical and written methods in order to develop a deep understanding, confidence and competence in Maths and improve fluency. Fluency in Maths is about developing number sense and being able to choose and use the most appropriate method for the task at hand and be able to apply a skill to multiple contexts.
It uses the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstact) approach, which is a highly effective approach to teaching that develops a deep and sustainable understanding of maths in pupils. CPA was developed by American psychologist Jerome Bruner. It is an essential technique within the Singapore method of teaching maths for mastery.
White Rose Maths have teamed up with TV presenter, teacher and parent Michael Underwood to bring you a mini-series called Maths with Michael. We understand that many parents feel like maths has changed and can sometimes find it difficult to keep up to date with modern teaching methods in maths.
Follow the link below to watch a short video about White Rose Maths and common questions parents ask.
Reading: for pleasure and as a vehicle for all learning
The pupils in the foundation stage and Year one take part in a daily phonics lesson and in this school we use Essential Letters and Sounds scheme teach phonics. There are helpful videos in the 'class pages' section of our website that demonstrate how the sounds aformed so you can support at home - along with the rhymes that are used to support your child. If you require any further advice with how to support your child at home with their phonics then please do speak to the class teachers and also look out for workshops / information sessions. Our phonics results always significantly exceed national levels.
In years R and 1, your child will be given two reading books to share at home. One will match the phonic sound they are securing so this can be reinforced at home through the week, this will be labelled as 'ELS' and your child should be able to access this book independently. The other book is one to share with your child along with wider reading materials from home / the library; this is to encourage your child to enjoy reading /hearing books for pleasure.
This is built on into Key Stage 2 with a daily spelling or grammar lesson, the spelling scheme we use is Spelling Shed.
Our reading books for Y2 onwards are arranged in Book bands to ensure your child is able to access books comfortably to maintain interest and understanding - but also to continue to broaden and develop reading skills. The scheme actually runs from the point of entry at school right through to the time the children leave us at the end of Year 6; the books are a range of fiction and non-fiction.
In order to support wider reading across the curriculum, we have a well stocked school library which is located in our Cosy Cabin - again to embed the positive benefits of reading. We have also purchased a large range of books to support the topics taught in the wider curriculum. We actively encourage parents to take their children to visit libraries to supplement the reading scheme and library within school.
In addition, we have whole class reading books that are shared for pleasure and to expose the children to high quality texts that they are not yet able to access themselves. A number of these have been specifically chosen to prompt discussion and awareness of protected characteristics at an age-appropriate level.
We place a great emphasis on the importance of securing reading ability as quickly as possible - in order that our children enjoy reading for pleasure as soon as possible and in order to be able to unlock their ability to read and learn more widely.
Curriculum Organisation
During their first year in school children work on the areas of learning which form the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Then children in Years 1 and 2 cover Key Stage 1 of the National Curriculum and in Years 3 to 6 they study Key Stage 2. Our children are taught in vertical groups ie two academic years in one class; in order to ensure the whole curriculum is taught, we have adopted a 2-year rolling progamme - children being taught certain topics in cycle A followed by different topics in cycle B.
At both Key Stages, we teach reading, writing, mathematics and science as separate subjects, with opportunities for cross curricular overlap actively sought eg writing up a science experiment within Literacy and incorporating mathematical analysis of results. We use the Kapow curriculum to teach music, history, geography, computing, art and design/technology. Again, this has been thoughtfully timetabled taking into account the fact that our children are in mixed age classes.
For our PE curriculum, we have subscribed to a scheme which teaches the skills needed for a range of disciplines. Children take part in at least 2 hours of PE a week with the opportunity for a 'daily dash' around the perimeter of the field built into the timetable. We also participate in inter-school competitions and for this prepare our children by ensuring that lessons cover subjects needed to compete. The ethos of the competitions is one of participation and access for all.
As a Church of England school, our RE curriculum is the Leicestershire Diocese syllabus which incorporates learning about a wide range of religions. We also visit places of Worship through the school and have a daily act of worship.
We use the term 'wellbeing' to encompass all of our PSHE curriculum along with the work we have done around 'Routes to Resilience' in order to prepare our children for life in the multi racial/multi cultural society, which is Britain today. We actively promote the fundamental British values (see below) and we make our children aware of the Equalities Act 2010 and protected characteristics through our work within our Wellbeing curriculum and through the 'Everyone's Welcome' resource amongst others. We are proud of how we are preparing our children for life.
We are proud that our last SIAMS inspection, May 2019, acknowledged 'Swithland St Leonards is an inclusive school.'
Junior Duke of Edinburgh
A unique offer here at Swithland is the opportunity to partake in the Junior Duke of Edinburgh enrichment scheme. Each year, your child will be issued with a booklet of challenges to complete - these are aimed at broadening life skills and include activities to promote awareness of Environmental Issues, self care, self sufficiency etc. Each book is pitched perfectly to challenge your child to become the very best version of themselves. As parents support their child/ren to complete them, we believe you will also be amazed at just what your child can do independently. On completion of the activities, your child will be awarded that levels certificate and enamel badge. The aim is to complete all 7 levels during their time here and be a Platinum level Junior Duke of Edinburgh achiever.
This will leave them in the strongest position to tackle secondary school and the bronze Duke of Edinburgh level.
Promoting Fundamental British Values
In accordance with The Department of Education strategy, we aim to actively promote British Values in school to ensure our pupils leave school prepared for life in modern Britain. Pupils are encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races and cultures with respect and tolerance and understand that while different people may hold different views about what is 'right' and 'wrong'. all people living in England are subject to its Law.
The Key Values are: democracy, rule of law,individual liberty,mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
The EYFS sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old. There are 7 areas of development in the Early Years curriculum:
Prime Areas:
Specific Areas:
At Swithland St. Leonards our children benefit from a broad curriculum that supports development across all 7 areas through a range of engaging topics, a ‘language rich’ environment and continuous provision.
The continuous provision allows children the freedom to explore carefully planned resources, build on prior learning and helps to nurture the Characteristics of Effective Learning:
These characteristics underpin the EYFS curriculum and enable children to become confident, motivated and enthusiastic learners. We understand that children learn at different rates and in a variety of ways and we agree that:
“Effective practice is a mix of different approaches. Children learn through play, by adults modelling, by observing each other and through adult-guided learning.” (EYFS Framework 2024)
Please see attached for a long term view of the curriculum from reception through to year 6; this is an outline of what will be taught during the 6 week topic block. Please be aware this is subject to change and is not an exhaustive list as the class teacher will alter subjects in response to local and national events that may interest the children - and also adapt the learning in response to the children's own input.
If you feel you could contribute to supporting this learning in some way eg with resources or personal experience, then please do not hesitate to discuss this with the class teacher.