The School Curriculum in England for Academy Schools
Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum including English, maths and science. They must also teach religious education.
At Crowle CE First School we offer a curriculum which is balanced, broadly based, and uses the National Curriculum in England as the framework. It also
- promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and
- prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
In addition we hold a daily act of collective worship and teach religious education to pupils at every key stage. Sex and relationship education is taught to pupils in an age appropriate way.
The Curriculum at Crowle CE First School
We recognise the importance of all areas of the curriculum. Therefore, we plan a broad and balanced curriculum that enables children to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding in every lesson they partake in. We work hard for connections to be developed across the curriculum, for children to recognise links across subjects and to develop their understanding of the greater world in which we live.
The rationale behind our curriculum is as follows:
- Allow children to make connections across their learning and the curriculum.
- Systematic approach to teaching vocabulary to all children.
- Planning succinctly for the knowledge, skills and understanding we want the children to learn in each specific topic.
- Offer children the ability to talk about their learning, through questions asked that allows them to demonstrate their understanding.
- Fewer topics so children can now learn more in depth in each individual topic.
- Plan for the knowledge, skills and understanding that the children will gain from each topic.
- Plan vocabulary that the children will be taught, based on three tiers, so that all children’s vocabulary is being extended.
- Teachers support as many connections to be made across the curriculum, so teaching is not seen as stand alone.
- Greater connections being made for children to see how the curriculum is interwoven.
- Greater vocabulary being planned for.
- Children able to talk about their learning, in a way that demonstrates their understanding.
The National Curriculum in England
The National Curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens.
The national curriculum is just one element in the education of every child. There is time and space in the school day and in each week, term and year to range beyond the national curriculum specifications. The national curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils' knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.
At Crowle CE First School we use Letters and Sounds to teach phonics, alongside Jolly Phonic actions to support kinaesthetic learners.
Letters and Sounds is a fun and child centred approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics. Jolly Phonics then adds actions for each of the 42 letter sounds. This multi-sensory method is very motivating for children and teachers, who can see their students achieve. The letter sounds are split into seven groups as shown below.
Letter Sound Order
The phonetic sounds are taught in a specific order (not alphabetically). This enables children to begin building words as early as possible.
How does Letters and Sounds work?
Using a synthetic phonics approach, Letters and Sounds teaches children the five key skills for reading and writing. The programme continues through school enabling the teaching of essential grammar, spelling and punctuation skills.
Phonics Letter Sounds App
Start your child’s journey in reading and writing with our interactive educational app, now available on the App Store for both iPad and iPhone. Ideal for children aged 3+, this exciting app enables children to discover the main 42 letter sounds of English through a series of captivating games. Android version now available through Google Play Store.
Spelling at Crowle CE First School
Spelling is an integral part of children’s reading and writing development. As children develop spelling competency, their confidence and independence in writing will increase.
Reception and Year 1 are taught spellings as part of their daily phonic lessons.
Year 2 to Year 4 are taught daily phonics, using the "No Nonsense Spelling" program.
Writing at Crowle CE First School
Our curriculum ensures that all children have plenty of opportunities to write for different purposes. We encourage writing through all curriculum areas and use quality reading texts to model examples of good writing. Writing is taught through a number of different strategies. We believe that children need lots of rich speaking and drama activities to give them the imagination and the experiences that will equip them to become good writers.
As a school we have adopted "The Write Stuff" by Jane Constantine to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing. "The Write Stuff" follows a method called "Sentence Stacking" which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together chronologically and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken in to three chunks:
- Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
- Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.
- Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.
"The Write Stuff" also reinforces grammar through the use of:
The FANTASTICs which are an acronym that summarise the ideas of writing
The Grammar Rainbow is a classroom tool that enables the teacher to drive key grammar messages.
The BOOMTASTIC which helps children capture 10 ways of adding drama and poetic devices to writing in a vivid visual
Mathematics at Crowle CE First School
We use the White Rose Maths Hub materials to support the teaching of mathematics at Crowle CE First School. We emphasis the problem solving and reasoning elements of mathematics, teaching children to talk about how/why they have completed problems in such a way. Our aim is to create critical thinkers who can articulate their own mathematics, and we do this through our mastery curriculum.
Calculation Policy Guidance
This is the development in maths your child will take throughout their time at our school.
This is taken from the White Rose Maths Hab Calculation Policy. This is the journey of maths your child will take throughout their time at our school.
In order to support parents with the above Calculations Policy, we created a maths glossary to support parents at home.
Key Instant Recall Facts
In order for your child to be fully prepared for the next stage in their education, these are the Instant Recall Facts that they need to know by the end of each academic year.
This booklet demonstrates the key vocabulary your child will need to be using in each academic year, to support their mathematical reasoning and explanations.
We take the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural well being of all pupils seriously. We have a calendar of events, to ensure children's whole self is being catered for at Crowle CE First School.
Evidence of SMSC across the curriculum