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The Curriculum at Puddletown First School

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 uses 'White Rose' to ensure cohesive progression of skills and  fluency  while also ensuring opportunities for problem solving and mental maths skills.

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 little wandle in key stage one and in key stage two a blend of little wandle and No Nonsense Spelling as the basis of our teaching of spelling.

We prioritise maths and English in the morning across the school and have TA support in every class.

We ensure  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.

In our foundation subjects we have a school wide progression of skills and content knowledge. This means   we are clear about what children are learning and we emphasise  key  content that every pupil needs to know and understand to enable them to progress in their subject learning. Our curriculum is topic based enabling teachers to make strong cross curricular links but singular subjects are referenced so pupils know that they are learning Geography or science etc.  We enrich our learning by working within the 'harmony' principles. We start each unit with an enquiry question which promotes deeper thinking and engages the children in their learning. Where links are not easily made through the topic then the content is taught in discrete subject. We have also undertaken an audit of the curriculum to ensure that the NC is well covered.

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, we are strengthening our subject leadership within our SDP for 2023/24 to ensure each subject has clear intent, implementation and impact  which is clearly articulated. Subject leaders will monitor the impact our curriculum has upon the children's learning. We are continuing to develop the curriculum to provide the best possible outcomes for our pupils. 

Good reading skills are paramount to all learning and we strive to ensure all pupils leave as successful readers. We are  looking to continue to embed  Little Wandle across the school with work around supporting pupils who have not yet managed to achieve age related expectations and how we can enable them to do so. We want to extend our able readers with rich and challenging texts and to increase the quantity and quality of vocabulary pupils can understand and use. We are working to create a school with a reading culture where all pupils enjoy and can access good quality books.