Greenfield & Pulloxhill Academy

OUR CURRICULUM DRIVERS

Our Curriculum Driver Community begins
with each family unit and the links they make
with our academy from the beginning.
Community is about understanding our
identity and the bonds that join us together.

Our Curriculum Driver Diversity means
we diminish stereotypes and embrace
cultural differences. We want children to
recognise differences and respect them,
whilst understanding that we are all unique.

Our Curriculum Driver Well-being ensures
that our children understand emotions and
learn to self-regulate and maintain a healthy
body and mind. This provides a happy, safe
place for children to thrive.

Curriculum Statement

Intent

Our curriculum is carefully designed with our children, our community and our cultural capital in mind. There are three ‘golden threads’ running through our curriculum that reflect this; diversity, community and well-being. The population of our school is predominantly white British, lacking in cultural diversity and therefore it is our aim to diminish stereotypes, embrace cultural differences, embrace ourselves as global citizens and provide our children with the opportunities to discover the uniqueness of themselves and others. We do this by celebrating our individual qualities, strengths, backgrounds and beliefs, and educating each other to celebrate and respect these differences. Our community is very important to us and we aim to work with them to provide a good education for our children. We embrace involving the community in our school, and draw on their experiences wherever possible to enhance our curriculum. We work closely with our local church and join together in events that involve the school and the wider community.

Well-being is important to us, and we recognise that recent events have put pressures on our lives that we have never experienced before. The mental health and well-being of our community is important to us, and we are mindful of this in everything that we do, and aim to provide strategies and a safe space to ensure good well-being.

Our pedagogical approach is a mixture of teacher led, whole class teaching, modelling and demonstration, where subjects are taught discretely, and also a more enquiry based approach taught through topics as appropriate. This approach is consistent across the school and helps children progress as they know and remember more of the curriculum and develop good learning habits.

Our curriculum is carefully mapped with progression through year groups. We follow the National Curriculum, however we aim to enrich learning through extra-curricular activities, educational visits and curriculum enriching experiences. We have thought carefully about what we are teaching and why. The curriculum has been carefully sequenced giving opportunities to revisit concepts and build on prior knowledge. We regularly review the impact of our curriculum on teaching and learning, and make adaptions or changes if needed to improve it further.

Our vision: nurture, inspire, flourish, is at the heart of everything we do. We believe that providing a happy, caring environment is the beginning of our education journey, this in turn will lead to our children being inspired and keen to learn, and ultimately, they will flourish in all that they do.

Implementation

Subject leaders take responsibility for their subjects, and ensure a structured, progressive curriculum across year groups. This is monitored by regular learning walks, book scrutiny and curriculum discussions with staff and pupil voice. Regular pupil progress meetings take place to ensure that children are making good progress and if not, timely interventions are put into place either on an individual or small group basis. Teachers develop their knowledge by undertaking professional development in their subject areas which enables them to support their colleagues. Teaching is monitored to ensure that teachers are delivering the planned curriculum, and that they teach well, being clear with explanations and giving feedback in a timely manner.

Reading is prioritised, with dedicated time each morning, to enable children to develop fluency, confidence and understanding of the texts they read. This in turn, helps the children to access the whole curriculum. We use 'Supersonic Phonic Friends' to teach phonics on a daily basis in EYFS and KS1. Reading books match the phonic knowledge of each child when they are learning to read.

We have introduced a new book based curriculum in English, so that our children have exposure to a wide range of texts with planning focussed on different aspects of the English curriculum to include, reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar. These key aspects of English are taught in context of the text being studied.

Assessment is used to help embed knowledge, to check understanding and identify any gaps. Assessments take place every day, in every subject, and plans are adapted to meet the needs of the children. More formal assessments take place each half term, where progress is tracked to ensure that children are not falling behind.

Pupils with SEN and disadvantaged pupils have access to the same curriculum as their peers. Sometimes the curriculum has to be adapted to meet the needs of these children, to develop their knowledge and skills, so that they can apply what they know, and can do so with fluency and independence. Children with specific needs are identified quickly and interventions, adaptions and strategies are put in place to ensure that these children have the same opportunities to succeed as their peers. If needed, outside agencies are contacted quickly and work with other professionals takes place to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all of our children.

Impact

The curriculum is monitored and evaluated to ensure that it is working, through a rigorous quality assurance process. Each pupil’s progress is discussed as part of the
teacher’s appraisal/performance management. Pupil progress meetings take place with the members of the SLT at least twice a year and include discussion around
assessments, targets, work scrutiny and observation/pupil voice.

Children are assessed during every lesson, which enables our teachers to plan the next steps for each child. Teachers assess against the learning objectives for each year group by providing live marking and feedback throughout the lesson. This enables pupils to make progress within individual lessons and over time.

Children are expected to make good or better progress in all subjects and this is reported to parents and carers at parents’ evenings and in end of year reports.

We use triangulated monitoring throughout the year to gauge the impact of curriculum design. Senior Leaders and Subject Leaders monitor individual subjects by: reviewing learning, evaluating pupil voice and providing feedback to improve teaching and learning in all subjects.

Curriculum Maps

At Greenfield & Pulloxhill Academy we aim to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum through carefully considered topics with key concepts that we aim to cover across the year groups. Our curriculum complies with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. Please find the links below to our curriculum maps from Reception to Year 4.

English

Wrens Overview - Year 1 Greenfield

Owls Overview - Year 2 Greenfield

Herons Overview - Year 3 Greenfield

Eagles Overview - Year 4 Greenfield

Phonics Intent Statement

Reading Intent Statement

Writing Intent Statement

Reading Progression

Writing Progression

Maths

Wrens Overview - Year 1 Greenfield