Middleton CE Primary Academy

How the wider curriculum works

Through our Christian Faith, we acknowledge our responsibility to all to enrich lives and show love and respect within our school family. We believe in lifelong learning aiming to equip our children to live life today and for tomorrow rooted in Christian love.

Ready, Respectful, Safe.

Together being the best that we can be in mind, body and spirit!

 “In everything, treat others the same way you want them to treat you”

Matthew 7:12

At Middleton Church of England Primary Academy, we work together in a Christian community to be ready to learn, respectful of everyone and safe to flourish. We challenge and support each other to be the best that we can be in mind, body and spirit to achieve more than we ever thought possible.

Curriculum Design

We have designed schemes of work for each subject to ensure coverage of the National Curriculum. Each subject is taught discretely through the course of year. Sometimes subjects are blocked into a half term to help the children become involved in their learning. This usually happens through rotations of Art and Design Technology and History and Geography.

Points that have influenced our curriculum design:

• Coverage of the National Curriculum
• Maintain a balance of strands within subject across each school year
• Develop knowledge, skills and understanding over time

Within units of work we aim to:

• Engage all children in their learning
• Develop children’s vocabulary and language
• Broaden the children’s experiences and horizons
• Promote the children’s personal development through good behaviour for learning

Because we are a small school, we have a rolling programme to accommodate our mixed age classes. This means that, over time, the children cover the whole curriculum and avoid repetition. This does present some challenges, such as not teaching history chronologically and having to consider the complexities of some science concepts.

We place a high emphasis on the development of early reading skills and generating a love of reading. Our English curriculum is text based to generate an interest in books and to promote language and vocabulary.

Coverage of each subject is mapped out through units of work. These reflect statutory requirements or specific strands. Across the course of a school year the children will be taught the full range of strands within each subject. For example, in Geography location, human and physical and field work skills are covered within each year and in Art children will have experience of a range of media such as drawing, painting modelling, printing and collage and in DT food, textiles and structures.

Strands within subjects are repeated within and across years to embed and build upon knowledge, skills and understanding.

Activities within units are chosen to support the needs of our children within our small rural school. We want to engage our children’s interests, develop their vocabulary and language and broaden their horizons.  

Assessment

After each unit of work and at the end of each term teachers will review the progression of knowledge and skills and make judgements about whether the children have met the expectations of their year group, are working towards these expectations or have exceeded the expectations. This will be recorded on a tracker sheet which also captures how teaching needs to be shaped in the next unit of work. This allows us to respond to any gaps in learning or coverage and compensate for these later in the year.

Teachers work together to moderate their judgements to ensure an accurate view of learning is captured.

Reading and Phonics:

We teach phonics based on the Little Wandles scheme of work. The books children are given to read are closely matched to their phonetic knowledge so that they can confidently read the words in the book. They will have several opportunities to explore this book in school before taking home to read independently ensuring all children can be successful. For each book, children will learn to decode (read) the words, learn new vocabulary, learn how to read with expression and discuss what has happened in the book to develop comprehension.

When children have finished the phonics programme, we have a range of books to enable them to continue to build their vocabulary and fluency. This will ensure that children are then able to access any book they wish to read, allowing them to acquire a love of reading, and to read at a speed which supports their understanding of the text.