Curriculum

Curriculum Drivers

Our school curriculum is underpinned by our core values

 - Courage

 - Compassion

 - Community

Aims

The aims of our school curriculum are:

 - To enable all children to learn and achieve

 - To promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepare all pupils for the opportunites , responsibilities of life.

Organisation and planning - Key Stage 1

We plan our curriculum as follows:-

   - We agree a long-term plan for Key Stage 1. This indicates what topics are to be taught over year 1 and year 2.

  - We plan in topic blocks incorporating as many areas of curriculum though due to the nature of some subject areas some      are taught independently.

  - We follow the National Curriculum for English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Art and Design, Design and                  Technology, Music and PE

  - We follow the county RE scheme of work.

  - We employ specialists to teach dance, gymnastics and games

  - We use the Wokingham Computing scheme of work. Every year the children cover the following elements:-

   Computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology.

  - Our short term plans are those that teachers write on a weekly or daily basis. These set out the learning objectives and        success criteria for each session, identify what resources are needed activites we are going to use in the lesson,                  questions that will be asked and assessment opportunities.

RE

Religious education enables children to investigate and reflect on some of the most fundamental questions asked by people. At St Paul's we begin to develop the children's knowledge and understanding of the major world faiths. We begin to enable children to develop a s knowledge not only of Christianity but also of other world religions.Children begin to reflect on what it means to have a faith and to develop their own spiritual knowledge and understanding. We help the children learn from religions as well as about religions.

The legal position of religious education

Our school curriculum for religious education meets the requirements of the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA). The ERA stipulates that religious education is compulsory for all children, including those in the reception class who are less than 5 years old. The ERA allows parents to withdraw their child from religious education classes if they so wish, although this should only be done once the parents have given written notice to the school governors. The ERA also allows teachers to refuse to teach religious education, but only after they have given due notice of their intention to the school governors. The religious education curriculum forms an important part of our schools spiritual, moral and social teaching. It also promotes education for citizenship. Our school RE curriculum is based on the Surrey's Agreed Syllabus and it meets all the requirements set out in the document. The ERA states that the RE syllabus should reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, and that it should, at the same time, take account of the teachings and practices of other major religions.

Drug and Alcohol Education

We regard drugs education as a whole-school issue, and we believe that opportunities to teach about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle occur throughout the curricuum. Each class teacher answers questions about drugs sensitively and appropriately, as they occur. In our routine day to day work which includes circle-time sessions, we encourage children to discuss issues that are important to them. In science lessons we teach children what a drug is, and how drugs are used in medicine.

The Foundation Stage

The curriculum that we teach in the reception class meets the requirements set out in the Early Years Foundation stage document. Our curriculum planning focuses on all seven (3 prime and 4 specific) areas of learning and incorporates these into mini topics throughout the year. Learning takes place both inside and outside and all areas of the curriculum are supporting in both of these settings.

We fully support the principle that young children learn through play, and by engaging in well planned structured activities. The children have the opportunity to participate in both adult led and child initiated activities to support their learning. Teaching builds on from the experiences of the children's preschool learning.

During the first half of term in the reception class, their teacher makes a baseline assessment of the children's foundation stage achievement. This assessment forms an important part of the future curriculum planning for each child.

We are well aware that all children need the support of parents and teachers to make good progress in school. We strive to build positive links with the parents of each child by keeping them informed about the way in which the children are being taught and how well they are progressing.

When planning we bear in mind transition to KS1.

The role of the subject leader

The role of the subject leader is to:

   - provide a strategic lead and direction for the subject;

   - support and offer advice to colleagues on issues related to the subject;

   - monitor pupil progress in that subject area;

   - provide efficient resource management for the subject.

It is the role of each subject leader to keep up to date with developments in their subject, at both national and local level. They lead the review the way the subject is taught in the school and plan for improvement. (This is on a 3 year rolling programme) Teaching staff review the curriculum plans each curriculum area and ensure that there is full coverage of the National Curriculum and that progression is planned into schemes of work. A portfolio of children's work is stored on our shared drive.