Our curriculum implementation

Examples

Teaching is supported through the use of subject progression plans and high-quality resources, including in our teaching of reading.  Our teaching environments are quiet and productive.

In history, geography and RE, we use progression plans and resources created by a third party, Opening Worlds.  We adapt these plans and resources to make them readily accessible and coherent for all children.

In reading, we have a coherent framework that evolves from synthetic phonics (using the Read, Write Inc scheme) in EYFS/KS1 to fluency and comprehension provision as children move through the school.

We provide 1:1 tutoring for children with ‘sound gap’ knowledge in EYFS and KS1, reflecting our ‘keep up, not catch up’ approach to phonological understatement.

We are clear about the key knowledge we want children to acquire in each subject.  We use formative and summative assessment effectively to check learners’ curriculum knowledge.  We adapt our provision to revisit curriculum content that the children have not yet securely acquired.

In maths, we use Challenge Grids at the end of each topic to check children’s understanding and revisit where necessary.

In writing, we assess all KS2 children’s spelling at the end of each half term in order to regularly reshape our provision.

We provide continuous professional development (CPD) for our teaching staff, including our Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), so that they can effectively implement our curriculum.  Our CPD programme is linked to our 100 day school development plans.

We provide regular and frequent CPD for all teaching staff (including LSAs).  Recent topics have including:

• Opening Worlds
• Mastering Number
• Read, Write, Inc
• P.E.
• Handwriting

We use peer review to support the development of teaching staff’s pedagogy.

We provide interventions in core subjects to support children’s acquisition of curriculum knowledge.

We run reading, writing and maths interventions sequentially for targeted children in each KS2 class.  In reading, we use a programme designed by Herts for Learning while in writing and maths, we use programmes we have designed ourselves.

We monitor the quality of teaching and learning through a clear cycle of lesson observations, book monitors and pupil conferencing.

We carry out lesson observations three times a year in which we review maths, English and a subject from elsewhere in the curriculum.

We review English and maths books four times a year while subjects such as geography are reviewed at least twice a year. 

We ensure that timetables provide effective curriculum coverage whilst also making provision for interventions and allowing children to re-encounter key concepts.

In KS2, our timetables include time each week for most national curriculum subjects and intervention time (reading, writing or maths).  Subjects that are not covered each week (such as computing) are taught in a block at the end of each term.  Overall, we ensure that all curriculum subjects are taught effectively.