Puddletown First School Curriculum
The school provides a broad curriculum that enables learners to be the best they can be. We place a strong emphasis on English and maths skills as we believe these are the keys that enable our children to unlock their learning. Our maths curriculum is a problem solving focussed approach using both Singapore and White Rose to enhance our existing curriculum.
Our phonics teaching follows the Little Wandle scheme with all early reading books for the children focussed on phonetic progression. All children will undertake a full programme of phonics teaching with catch up provision in place where needed. However we do recognise that for some children this is not an effective strategy, in that case we use support to help the children recognise the whole word. We use FFT reading recovery as an intervention.
We use No Nonsense Spelling as the basis of our teaching of spelling.
We prioritise maths and English in the morning across the school. We have arranged that teachers have PPA on Friday PMs ensuring that the SENDCO is also available on Fridays afternoons.
Our approach to learning in all subjects is based upon the Mindset work of Carol Dweck and Guy Claxton we aim that understanding is secure laying foundations that need to be in place before new learning is introduced. For example in Y1 we ensure that the EYFS is completed for a child before beginning the NC, this means we do not target set in YR at all or Y1 until January.
We have used the work of Chris Quigley to ensure that the skills taught in maths and English are applied in the wider curriculum. We have developed humanities learning ladders to focus on the skills needed developing a ‘think like a ….. (scientist/historian etc)’ approach. To facilitate this our curriculum is topic based enabling teachers to make strong cross curricular links, where links are not easily made then the content is taught in discrete subjects. We avoid blocking subjects such as D&T as we believe all subject areas should be part of the pupils regular entitlement. We have also undertaken an audit of the curriculum to ensure that the NC is well covered. We have developed a set of enquiry questions in our topic approach to provide a narrative to the children's learning.
When planning the foundation subjects we have worked in key stages not year groups to ensure that curriculum coverage is secure.
Priorities for School Development
We recognise that whilst English, Maths, EY and science have had strong subject leadership elements of other foundation subjects have had less focus and have been dependent on key stage development . Whilst we are confident that our curriculum is secure but are strengthening our focus on subject leadership within our SDP for 2022/23 to monitor the impact our curriculum has upon the children's learning. We are confident that this will have impact in elevating the status of all subjects ensuring we can be confident in progression of skills.
We are also looking to improve our children's mental maths skills as well as ensure that Little Wandle is both embedded in our teaching and effective in the delivery of phonics.