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Curriculum
Our Curriculum – Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2)
At St. Andrew’s CE Infant School we aim to provide our children with a curriculum which is engaging, relevant and promotes oracy (both spoken and written) and also enables children to acquire important factual knowledge alongside important skills for life-long learning.
The development of children’s language skills is key to their success as a learner. For this reason our curriculum is carefully structured to allow them to expand their vocabulary and their understanding of its meaning by reapplying learning from one subject area to another over a half term period (layered learning). We call this our 'layered learning'. The example below illustrates how this might look:
Week 1: Geography focus – investigating where we live
Weeks 2 & 3 : Science focus – investigating everyday materials and their properties
Week 4: RE focus – investigating sacred buildings
Week 5: History focus – looking at homes in the past
Week 6: DT focus– exploring different types of homes and designing a house for the 3 Little Pigs
Throughout the 6 week cycle the children will study a number of texts in English lessons linked to the theme of homes. During the final week of the term they will combine the knowledge they have gained in English lessons and layered learning lessons to create an independent piece of writing (hot write) which showcases everything they have learned.
By layering their learning in this way the children not only develop deep understanding and a rich vocabulary but also recognise how learning in one curriculum area is intrinsically linked to another.
Our termly Layered Learning Maps
The teaching of history, geography, DT and art
These subject areas are taught using units of work from the ‘PlanBee’ schemes. Each unit consists of between 5-8 40 minute lessons. The units allow the children to explore key subject content through engaging activities which can be easily adapted by teachers in order to ensure the correct level of challenge for all children within the class.
The teaching of science
This subject area is taught using units of work from the 'PlanBee’ schemes. Each unit consists of between 6-12 40 minute lessons. The units cover all aspects of the Key Stage 1 science curriculum and enable the children to develop their scientific knowledge and understanding through practical investigations. Two units of work are taught each term.
The teaching of music
This subject area is taught using the ‘Charanga’ scheme of work. Each unit consists of six 30 minute lessons. Two units are taught each term. They encourage the children to develop the skills of listening and appraisal, exploring rhythm, pulse, pitch and tempo and performance. The lessons are taught weekly by the class teacher.
The teaching of Religious Education
Religious Education follows the content of the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Agreed Syllabus for RE. This syllabus encourages children to explore the beliefs and practises of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and Christians. In order to ensure appropriate coverage of this agreed syllabus we follow the lesson plans contained within the ‘Understanding Christianity’ scheme of work when teaching about Christianity and the lesson plans contained within the ‘Units of work for Coventry and Warwickshire Agreed Syllabus’ (RE today) for the teaching of all other aspects of RE. Each RE unit of work is taught as a block of 6-8 lessons over the course of one week. Two units are taught each term.
The teaching of PE
Our Key Stage 1 children have 70 minutes of taught PE per week, delivered by the class teacher and our PE and School sport coach. The lessons are delivered using the ‘Champions’ scheme of work produced by Rising Stars. Four units of work are taught each term. The units encourage the child to develop their physical skills alongside their knowledge of how their bodies work and how to stay fit and healthy.
Children in Reception have planned physical activity throughout the day during 'get Learning' time. These activities enable the children to develop gross motor skills and basic skill such as catching and throwing.
Additional physical activities are provided for the children during breaks and lunchtimes by our PE and school sports coach. All children in Key Stage 1 participate in the daily mile each afternoon.
The teaching of PSHE
Personal, Social & Health Education is delivered using the 'Jigsaw' scheme of work. The lessons are arranged under 6 key themes:
- Being Me In My World
- Celebrating Difference
- Dream & Goals
- Healthy Me
- Relationships
- Changing Me
A different key theme is explored each half term across the school.
The teaching of mathematics
Collins ‘Shanghai Maths’ scheme of work is used to support teachers in their delivery of a daily mathematics lesson. The lessons last for one hour. Each unit of learning is taught over a period of between 2 and 3 lessons, depending on the complexity of the content being taught. Children work in mixed ability table groups and are provided with appropriate levels of intervention or extension depending on their confidence levels during each particular lesson. The lessons consist of adult modelling of concepts using concrete objects, pictorial representations and abstract (written calculation methods). Regular opportunities are also provided outside of these lessons for children to also participate in investigative maths activities. Daily ‘Big Maths-Beat That!’ sessions are also used to support children in their quick recall of mathematics facts. These sessions last for ten minutes. (Please refer to our mathematics policy for further details about the teaching of mathematics).
Calculation pathway and key vocabulary
The teaching of English
We deliver the English curriculum in the following ways:
- Reading and phonics are taught using 'Little Wandle (Revised). Children in Reception and Year 1 have daily phonics lessons taught by their class teacher. All children have reading practice sessions three times per week when trained staff help them to develop their reading accuracy, fluency and prosody.
- English skills lessons (grammar, punctuation and spelling) – through daily 50 minute sessions
- Handwriting – through 20 minute sessions delivered at least 3 times per week following the ‘Letter-Join’ handwriting scheme of work.
- Talk4Writing – this encourages the children to use story maps and physical actions to help them to learn key structures and vocabulary from texts written by popular children's authors. They then combine this knowledge with knowledge gained through layered learning lessons in order to produce their own independent writing in a similar style to that of the author they have been studying. (Hot write)
Little Wandle Phonics
Resources and useful video clips for Little Wandle can be found by clicking on the following link: