Our Curriculum

Our school has a rich and broad curriculum which teaches the full requirements of the National Curriculum building this around a coherent curriculum offer. Adapted from the Cornerstones curriculum to meet the needs of pupils in our school, we ensure that all pupils, including those with SEN, achieve highly in all subject areas. Topics start with an engaging activity to spark pupil interest and invite pupil contribution, this learning is then built on within the topic so that the skills and knowledge a child needs in order to apply that learning are embedded. 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 map - this is a broad 'title' for the topic the children will be studying. Further detail can be found on the 'knowledge organiser' page which shows the detail for each curriculum area that we are intending the children to learn and know. Please do support your child at home by sharing these and using them as a prompt to encourage your child to talk about their learning at school.

Reading: for pleasure and as a vehicle for all learning

The pupils in the foundation stage and Key stage 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 are formed 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 learning in school so this can be reinforced through the week. The other book is one to share with your child along with wider reading materials from home / the library. 

This is built on into Key Stage 2 with a daily spelling or grammar lesson, the scheme we use is called Read Write Spell.

Our reading scheme is Oxford Owl supported with the online Oxford Reading Buddy. This reading scheme matches the phonics ability of pupils to the books they are reading - ensuring that the 'pitch' of the books supports their developing phonologically awareness. The scheme 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 and have bought 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. 

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. Our curriculum combines other subjects: History, Geography, Art and design, Design technology and computing, drawing on the Cornerstones resources as a starting point / vehicle for the topic focus.  PSHE (personal, social and health education) Music and RE  are taught on separate rolling programmes. Children also participate in a variety of sporting activities twice a week during PE, and Key Stage 2 children are taught French.

At Swithland we are committed to preparing 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 through our work within PSHE 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 recent 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.

Foundation Stage

The Foundation Stage covers the time when a child is 3 to the end of the reception year in school. The Foundation Stage curriculum is organised into seven areas of learning that shape children's learning and these are:

• personal, social and emotional development
• physical development
• communication and language
• Literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design.

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 half term. 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.

Remote Learning Provision: Spring 2021.

Due to the partial closing of schools due to the Covid pandemic, we are operating a remote learning offer to continue the first class education of all our children. We had been preparing the children (and families) for this throughout the Autumn term 2020 by introducing homework through the Teams and Tapestry online platforms to familiarise everyone with the format for receiving and submitting work.

The document attached gives an overview of the curriculum offer. In short, the curriculum is continuing as had been planned assuming we were in school but with adjustments where needed to make this practicable at home. 

In order to keep the offer equitable for children in and out of school, all children will be expected to complete the same work and we have ensured that all children have access to a device eg ipad from school if they do not have sufficient at home.

Mental Health and Well-being

Maintaining and promoting the mental health and well-being of our whole school community underpins all we have in place during this time to ensure that everyone remains positive, healthy and reassured that they remain very much a part of our school family even if they cannot physically attend.

Alongside the academic offer, we have built in, and indeed unashamedly prioritised, times for the children to interact socially and provided a mechanism for them (and their parents) to request additional support should they feel they need it. Activities range from Forest school opportunities through class 'catch ups' to encouraging all children to participate in a whole school weekly challenge - just for fun.

When we return to full time on-site education, our children will return energised, positive and ready to pick up where we were - in the best place emotionally to continue with academic excellence. We look forward to it.