Curriculum
Our Curriculum Intent
At Shalbourne School the curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences, allow children to develop interpersonal and academic skills, build resilience and become confident, creative and critical thinkers.
We encourage the development of a growth mindset to promote positive interactions with self and others in order to become reflective lifelong learners who have a positive sense of well-being.
We value the way in which all children are unique and celebrate their individual contributions to the school community, welcoming all individuals.
Opportunities are arranged for children to work in partnership with the church and wider community to develop respect and awareness.
We teach fundamental skills, knowledge, Christian values and concepts through an inspiring curriculum which challenges children to achieve their very best.
By fostering a sense of belonging in the school community we prepare our children for their future roles as responsible members of British society and as global citizens.
Curriculum Overview
At Shalbourne CE Primary School we plan our curriculum based on the new National Curriculum. Our Long Term Plan details what we will be learning over the next academic year and outlines briefly coverage over the following 4 years. Detailed information about the content and expected progression of the curriculum for each year group can be found on each subject link. Curriculum maps show how this is being taught through the topics during the term.
Learning is planned around topics and themes giving new learning a context. Our curriculum is enriched through visits, both day and residential, and through visitors, who are experts in their field, coming into school to work alongside staff and children. We also welcome the support of parents within the school. We encourage parents who are able to come into school and either share their skills and interests with the children or support us with activities such as reading.
Teaching is not something we do to the children: we encourage them to be active participants, solving problems, developing independent skills and learning about themselves as learners. In this way we equip our pupils with the skills that will not only enable them to be successful in academic terms, but also enable them to face new challenges or uncertainty with confidence. Our curriculum encourages all pupils to take an active role and become reliable members of our community, respecting British and Christian values.
Curriculum content and organisation
Children in the reception year will follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 will work towards Key Stage 1 of the National Curriculum and those in 3, 4, 5 and 6 will work through Key Stage 2.
Foundation Stage
The first year at school in the reception class is known as the Foundation Stage. This Stage is a continuation from the experiences your child will have had at nursery or pre-school. The curriculum is divided into Prime Areas and Specific Areas of learning and progress is measured in month bands. Specific detail on how we teach reading are included within the section on the National Curriculum below. The curriculum gives children the opportunity to explore experiment, plan and make decisions for themselves, thus enabling them to learn, develop and make good progress through well planned, structured play.
The outdoor learning environment both within the school grounds and locally is integral to delivery of the curriculum. The curriculum reacts to the needs of the children and their different starting points.
Prime Areas:
PSED (Personal, Social, Emotional Development). This includes 3 areas: making relationships, self-confidence and self-awareness and managing feelings and behaviour.
Communication and Language. This includes: listening and attention, Understanding and speaking
Physical Development. This is divided into two areas: moving and handling and health and self-care
Specific Areas:
Literacy: reading and writing
Mathematics: numbers and shape space and measures
Understanding the World: people and communities, the world and technology
Expressive Arts and Design: exploring and using media and materials and being imaginative.
Further details can be found by following the link below
Development Matters- Early Years Curriculum (New Sept 2021)
Learning experiences within and across these areas provide the children with an excellent skill base and an enthusiasm for learning which is then developed further as they begin the national curriculum in Year 1.
Curriculum for Key Stage 1 and 2 (children in Y1-Y6)
From Year 1 onwards the children follow the National Curriculum.
The National Curriculum National Curriculum provides the school with clear guidance and expectations for learning and attainment within each subject area. Wherever possible the National Curriculum content is taught through topics which give a meaningful context to children’s learning and support links between subject areas.
In addition to the national curriculum subjects, we also teach Religious Education and Personal, Social and Health Education.
The individual subject links below are an introduction to each curriculum area but your child’s class teacher or the Headteacher will be happy to provide you with more details should you require them.
Creative Curriculum Implementation
Whilst we have always provided a rich and broad curriculum to the children at Shalbourne School we chose to review our wider curriculum in Summer 2019 to ensure it was tailored to our children, the rural area they live in and incorporated the ’Shalbourne 11 by 11’, the eleven experiences to have completed by the time they are 11 years old.
'Shalbourne 11 by 11'
In our school we expect all children to have completed these 11 experiences by the time they are 11 years old, called ‘The Shalbourne 11 by 11’:
- To have visited historical sites of national/international importance (eg Stonehenge, Roman Baths)
- To have experienced the arts at key national venue (theatre, art gallery, live music)
- To have seen democracy in action at the Houses of Parliament
- To visit the great places of worship of 3 of the main 5 religions
- To have read at least 40 classic children’s books and been exposed to a wide range of quality texts
- To have sung in a choir, performed in a theatre production and learnt to play a musical instrument
- To have represented the school at a major school/PE event (sports festivals, dance festival)
- To have experienced a residential trip
- To have a reciprocal link with the local church, local community and the World and to have fund-raised for a charity
- To have held a position of responsibility within the school community (House, School Council or classroom)
- To have developed a respect and an enjoyment of the outdoors
The curriculum is a major component of a child’s education and together with social and emotional learning and support, helps children to develop a wide range of key knowledge and transferable skills. We aim to provide a challenging and stimulating curriculum, which encourages an enthusiasm and love for learning and develops intellectual curiosity, creativity and personal growth. We also highly value learning outside the classroom and are always looking for opportunities to take learning beyond the school through educational visits, workshops and trips.
At Shalbourne we plan learning in a thematic approach to the curriculum using quality texts to inspire discussion, support the development of reading and provide writing opportunities within each genre. Themes have been organised across each year group to ensure that there are a variety of curriculum drivers that cover the content of the national curriculum. For a more detailed overview (click here).This approach leads to a more flexible delivery of the curriculum meaning that some weeks’ children may not study Art, instead they will have a focus on Geography and during other weeks, the opposite may be true. Organising the learning in this way ensures teachers have the flexibility to deliver the curriculum in the way that they feel will have most impact for learners. R.E, PE, Music, RSHE and MFL are planned weekly and follow our whole school progression.
At times learning will be directed and other times more open-ended enquiry based approach through questions and enquiries posed by the teacher. A combination of both practical and written work will be embedded with the use of 'Knowledge Organisers'. We believe the local community is so valuable to our children’s learning that we thread these links into the curriculum throughout each year group.
Using the outdoors as a classroom is fundamental to our values and this may be school based or with enrichment visits to other locations. Trips/activities and experts are also vital to the enhancement of the learning opportunities we offer our children. Parents will receive Knowledge Organiser frameworks outlining the learning which will take place in each classroom. To support learning, we will endeavour to organise trips and visitors to enrich the subjects being studied. Over the year the PTFA fundraise to reduce the costs of these to parents.
Individual Subject Links- Below you will find individual subject overviews, vision statements and subject skills progressions:
ENGLISH
Reading is explicitly taught through quality texts that inspire and engage the children. We aim to create a reading culture where children become confident capable readers who develop a lifelong love of reading. We approach the teaching of reading through group and individual reading sessions across the week. We use Sounds Write as our phonics programme to teach discretely across the school. More reading is embedded within the main English session daily. Reading is a fundamental part of everything we do at Shalbourne School. Children are exposed to high quality texts across the curriculum and reading skills are taught explicitly in all year groups. Alongside the skills of decoding and comprehension, book talk encourages children to think as a reader and discuss their preferences, likes and dislikes. Reading for pleasure is a cornerstone of our approach, with well-stocked classroom libraries which children access both within the timetable and in their own time. The high profile of reading in school is further enhanced by our promotion of a love of reading through parent workshops, children being read to, fun and engagement: dressing up as book characters, author talks, entering competitions. We understand the importance of the link between reading and becoming a successful writer.
Parents are actively encouraged to take part in this vital process by regularly listening to their child read at home, reading stories to them and showing their child reading is fun through letting their children see them reading themselves. A reading record is sent between home and school so both teachers and parents can communicate and record progress
Phonics-We follow the Sounds Write programme as it is a proven, successful scheme to teach children to effectively to read and spell. It is a real phonic programme that teaches in simple steps how the sounds of the language are represented by the writing system. It places emphasis on giving practice that is grounded in physical, concrete experience of the ideas and conceptual understanding the pupils need to assimilate. It teaches the three essential skills of segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation necessary for reading and spelling throughout the programme on a daily basis until all pupils achieve the automaticity that underlies the fluency of every successful reader.
Writing-Our approach to writing that enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through talk and reading. Our approach moves from dependence towards independence with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully. We strive to equip children to develop a rich vocabulary which can help them bring their writing to life. Basic skills and non-negotiables, ‘Shalbourne Stripes’ and ‘Structure Strips’, underpin writing in all areas of the curriculum. Teachers model the writing process and demonstrate the ambitious high standards expected of all children. Every child is encouraged to let their imagination and personality shine through in their writing.
We underpin our English work by establishing a core reading spine of quality fiction, poetry and non-fiction that children experience and draw upon. Imaginative units of work are developed to create a whole-school plan that is well-resourced.
The children move from imitation to innovation to independent application in their writing, this approach can be adapted to suit the needs of learners of any stage. We take children through a writer’s journey in order to help them to improve as writers. They explore features of text genres and record their ideas through classroom dialogue, drafting, editing and proofreading, honing their skills through focused teacher feedback. Finally, children are challenged to compose their own independent piece of writing based on their studied genre- their ‘pink write’. Throughout the process, spelling, punctuation and grammar are woven into literacy work and Sounds-Write phonics and grammar sessions ensure that skills are recapped and reinforced to embed and instill deeper understanding. We promote handwriting through the use of ‘Sounds-Write’ and ‘Penpals and we have a clear set of criteria for identifying children who are not making progress in their handwriting, using interventions where necessary to make improvements.
Oracy- Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. In school, oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. This has a huge impact on the children's understanding and helps them to make great progress across the whole curriculum.
- English Vision Reading - a Shalbourne Guide Writing-a Shalbourne Guide English Progression
- English Whole School Progression Year A English Whole School Progression Year B Whole School Text Type Progression
- Oracy Progression Oracy Ladder
Helping your child with reading? Reading -How to help your child Sounds Write How to make the sounds for reading and writing
Common spelling of the consonants
Links to Mrs Pollitt's videos of Sounds Write lessons that you can practice at home (coming soon...)
MATHEMATICS
We are passionate about the developments children make in mathematics. Children in all year groups are introduced to new concepts by exploration, explanation, clarification, practice and application over time.
We have developed a mastery approach to mathematics using the ‘Five Big ideas’; coherence, representation and structure, mathematical thinking, fluency and variation. We encourage a growth mindset approach to mathematics and the development of a ‘can do’ attitude to the subject.
We ensure that all pupils:
- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
- reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language and the use of different mathematical representations to promote efficiency.
- can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non- routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
We aim for a balance between mathematical fluency (arithmetic), reasoning and problem solving in order to ensure that our children are able to apply the skills that they learn in the classroom to real life situations.
Children are also given opportunities to apply their learning in mathematics across the curriculum, periodically placed throughout the academic year. By creating a rich and exciting mathematical curriculum, we aim to create budding mathematicians, who have deep conceptual understanding of number and a desire to tackle a range of problems in order for them to become life-long mathematicians.
- Mathematics Vision Maths Progression Mathematics Curriculum Whole School Overview
- Calculation - Helping your child with calculation
- Helping your child with times tables-Parent workshop
SCIENCE
In Science we aim to develop children’s natural curiosity and excitement. Through our curriculum we give them first hand opportunities to explore the world around them and develop scientific skills: questioning, observing, predicting, hypothesising, evaluating and fair testing. Emphasis is put on practical work and making sense of what has been found out through answering questions.
HISTORY
Through topics children learn about how people lived in the past both in Britain and the wider world. As they progress through the school they develop their understanding of chronology and skills in research. They learn to research specific periods and question evidence, explain their point of view and reach conclusions. They learn how the past influences the present and develop their knowledge of significant people and past events. Role play helps children to explore what it was like to have lived during different periods in history, while visitors and trips to museums and places of interest give the children access to primary sources of evidence.
GEOGRAPHY
Through our geography curriculum children develop their knowledge of places and environments, an understanding of maps and develop a range of investigational and problem solving skills. Children study their local environment, looking at man-made development, environmental factors and natural features of the landscape and compare it to that of other counties and other countries. They learn about environmental issues and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the natural world.
ART and Design
In Art and Design the curriculum will challenge and inspire all children and equip them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, design and create their own works. They will learn to use a variety of tools and materials as they develop their skills in drawing, painting, print making, collage, textiles and sculpture. They will also learn about great artists and explore some of the techniques which feature in their work. As they progress, they will learn to reflect and evaluate their own work. They will also understand how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
DESIGN and TECHNOLOGY
DT is taught through DT units and themed DT days, so children can experience the whole process from design through to the making and evaluation of a finished product. Key skills, such as different ways to join materials, are taught discretely and then applied in context. Through the curriculum, children develop their knowledge and understanding of materials and components, mechanisms and control systems, existing quality products and health and safety.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
All children engage in at least two hours of PE every week. The curriculum covers dance, games, gymnastics and athletics. In addition to this each class goes swimming at the local pool in Marlborough for a 10 week block where they are taught to swim or develop their swimming technique by a qualified instructor. Throughout the year experienced coaches from Premier Education and Dunford Coaching train our children in Hockey, Football, Tag Rugby, Multi-skills, Gymnastics, Handball, Dodgeball and Cricket. We also take part in the local Marlborough Small Schools cluster sports festivals developing inter school competition and developing our sports leaders. We have been awarded the Bronze School Sports Award for the last 3 years. Shalbourne School has a variety of sporting after school clubs some of which are run by professional coaches.
COMPUTING
IT has become a key skill in our rapidly changing world. At Shalbourne School we teach both specific computer skills which are used to support learning in all areas of the curriculum as well as Computing. All classes have computers and access to iPads in their rooms. Children are taught safe use of the internet and children are protected through a security system which prevents access to inappropriate sites. Alongside computer work children are also taught to use programmable robots, digital and video recorders. These are then used appropriately to record and demonstrate learning across the curriculum. All classrooms and school hall are equipped with an interactive white board.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
The school follows the Discovery RE Scheme of Work and Understanding Christianity. These two resources are complementary but they are distinct. They are used together to deliver a holistic and balanced RE programme. We achieve this by replacing the Discovery RE Christianity enquiries with Understanding Christianity units, thus ensuring clear progression of learning in the core concepts. Through our Religious Education curriculum, we aim to give children knowledge and understanding of how these religions influence individuals, communities and societies in our world. Discussion is essential and respect for different cultures and beliefs are actively promoted.
MUSIC
Music is an integral part of daily life in Shalbourne. Children sing and listen to music during worship and times for reflection, learn songs to help in all subjects and in music lessons learn to compose and perform together.
Children learn about music through singing, playing, listening and performing. They learn the musical vocabulary to discuss and appraise their own work and that of great composers. Children learn to play instruments and use them to compose and improvise.
In Key Stage 2 all children learn to play the clarinet and have weekly class lessons. They start off playing by ear and soon can play melodies together. There are opportunities to learn the keyboard with a visiting teacher or learn another wind or brass instrument using an instrument from school.
Children can also take part in after-school clubs such as learning the recorder and ukulele, singing, composition, improvisation, ensemble playing, handbells and ‘Stomp’.
They enjoy performances by visiting musicians and working with professionals to produce compositions. At Christmas time the children entertain older people in the community and beyond with songs and instrumental performances. They also have opportunities to join with local schools to make music together.
Our music making is shared regularly in family worship or in church and in the summer term the children take part in a music concert to show how hard they have worked.
SPIRITUAL, MORAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
This is not a separate subject that is taught explicitly but an aspect of learning that should be present in all lessons and behaviour in school. Some lessons lend themselves more easily to direct SMSC development such as PSHE and RE. We also aim to develop SMSC through worship, behaviour expectations and our attitudes in school.
British Values As articulated in the Government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy of 2011 we have a focus on the core British values which are: Democracy, The Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of different faiths and belief.
Through our SMSC provision we:
- Enable students to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence.
- Enable students to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England.
- Encourage students to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality of the school and to society more widely.
- Enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England.
- Further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire an appreciation of and respect their own and other cultures.
- Encourage respect for other people.
- Encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect on the basis on which the law is made and applied in England.
- This underpins our ethos to developing SMSC in school. We ensure opportunities for developing the British Values through our SMSC. To see examples that relate to the British Values and SMSC specifically please see the document below (British Value Development Opportunities and SMSC Opportunities in Curriculum Subjects).
- Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Vision British Values Development Opportunities SMSC Opportunities for Development in Curriculum Subjects
FRENCH
Learning a foreign language provides an opening to other cultures. We aim to foster children's curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world through a high-quality programme of teaching and learning in French across the school. French teaching enables pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It also provides opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes and learn new ways of thinking. It provides the foundation for learning further languages, equipping children to study and work in other countries.
RSHE (Relationships, Sex and Health Education)
As part of our emphasis on the well-being and care of all pupils, our school seeks to ensure that the RSHE curriculum protects, informs and nurtures them. We aim to prepare pupils to cope with the physical and emotional challenges of growing up and in doing so, our RSHE curriculum clearly differentiates between factual teaching (biology, medicine, the law, marriage, different types of families and the composition of society) and moral teaching about relationships and values, recognising that the distinction can be easily blurred and that there needs to be discernment about the manner in which this is taught. We teach RSHE within a moral (but not moralistic) framework.
RSHE in Shalbourne CE Primary School is about what constitutes well-being and loving care for ourselves (Physical and Mental Health Education), how we show loving care for others (Relationships Education) and, when at an appropriate age and stage in life, how we show loving care to those we choose to be intimate with, including within marriage (Sex Education).
It is also about the spiritual and moral aspects of healthy, loving and nurturing relationships within a context of a Christian vision for the purpose of life.
Find out about knowledge organisers - a simple guide: Knowledge Organisers