Curriculum

Growing and Making a Difference Curriculum

Several years ago we created a curriculum for our school. It was a strong curriculum that we were proud of and children made good progress as a result. This year we have become a six-class school, therefore, we needed to redesign our curriculum. We have taken this opportunity to look carefully at the curriculum and make it even better. We based our design on research and reading and were inspired by people such as Mary Myatt. We thought carefully about the needs of our children at this school. We are delighted with the result and are exciting about implementing this updated curriculum this year. Below you will find class overviews and a list of key experiences we want all children to have. Then there is our curriculum intent statement that gives the rationale for our curriculum. At the bottom of the page you will find some year group leaflets for end of year expecations for parents. For more details about each subject, please visit the relevant area in the menu tab.

Class Long Term Plans:

Maple Class Overview

Rowan Class Overview

Sycamore Class Overview

Birch Class Overview Cycle A

Oak Class Overview Cycle A

Cherry Class Overview

Key-Experiences-for-the-Children-of-Portreath-School

Curriculum Intent Statement

At Portreath School we have five school values: kindness, empathy, inclusion, honesty and gratitude. These act as our roots to help us all, staff and children, grow as people and make a positive difference to the world. The values guide everyone’s actions; therefore, we use these as our principles for our behaviour expectations rather than a list of rules. Our focus is on building strong relationships, staff with children, staff with home, child with child. We want everyone to feel that they belong and see themselves as special. Our mantra is: I am good, I am valuable, I am able; people believe in me. Something we promote through ‘Culture of the Heart’.

We have created our own unique ‘Growing and Making a Difference Curriculum’. Our three main curriculum drivers are curiosity, creativity and courage. We want children and staff to be curious about the world, others and themselves. We want to give children opportunities to be creative in every subject. When we designed our wider curriculum, we have purposely planned it in a way that gives time and opportunity in each unit to give the time and opportunity to apply and be creative with what we have learnt as staff and children. We expect everyone to show courage when learning, to have a go, make mistakes, be ambitious and show resilience. As a result of everyone being curious, creative and courageous, we will grow and make a difference, to others, the community, the environment and the world.

Two of the key tools we utilise to achieve this are books and people. We have identified over 100 people the children will ‘meet’ during their learning in lessons and assemblies that will inspire them to make a difference. Story is the most powerful way for people to memorise information, so books form the building blocks of our curriculum. We recognise the importance of early language and reading as a vehicle to improve children’s communication. The teaching of systemic synthetic phonics is taught from the first day of reception using RWI, to ensure all children can decode confidently. Once the RWI programme is completed, a reading curriculum that helps them to read with fluency, prosody and confidence is provided. We invest in a rich literary environment. The high-quality texts read and signposted, enrich learning and help the children develop a love of language and reading. We aim for everyone to be bibliophiles and logophiles. Vocabulary is one of the biggest predictors of academic success. Texts are carefully chosen to extend vocabulary and to understand the world around us. The children read a range of class fiction and non-fiction books. Books are used to ‘hook’ children into learning and act as windows and mirrors to help them understand themselves and the world better. This is extended through our recommended reads and our extensive library. We see reading and writing as a way to help people grow and blossom. Our writing curriculum links to texts that we read and other subjects, to give writing purpose and opportunities for application. It is carefully mapped to ensure progression and coverage. From Year 1, children complete Grammarsaurus’s ‘Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar’ units so that they can understand and play with the structure of language. In writing lessons there is a focus on modelling, with the younger children utilising the ‘talking the text’ approach where appropriate. There are opportunities for children to be creative, inventing as well as innovating stories. They have their own jotters and opportunities for ‘free writes’. We believe to be creative children need to master transcription, be inspired by quality writing and have experiences to write about.

We recognise the importance of securing maths skills and knowledge, then applying these, and developing reasoning skills to help them within school but also as a key life skill. We want to help them make sense of the numbers, patterns and shapes they see in the world around them, offer them ways of handling data in an increasingly digital world and help secure financial security in the long term. We use Whiterose small steps to ensure a well sequenced curriculum, amended to suit our children’s needs, and use NCTEM resources, including the Mastering Number programmes to compliment and support this.

Portreath is a coastal town in a part of Cornwall that is considered to have areas of deprivation. The children are lucky to live in such a beautiful place, and our curriculum is partly about appreciating nature as well as preparing them for a tech-filled world. Outdoor learning is a core offer for all year groups. The school plays a role in ensuring our village is a wonderful place to live now and, in the future. We want the children to take what they learn in our village to make a difference to the wider world. We believe that it is very important to learn about environmental issues and sustainability. The curriculum is designed to help the children to have a real sense of Cornwall’s heritage, as well as prepare them for life as global citizens. We are guided by the quote, ‘A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.’ Marcus Garvey. The whole school environment is a place to learn, and we have things such as large maps, local artists work, and a ‘Curiosity Cabinet’ to spark talk and enrich the children’s daily experiences in school.

Our ‘Growing and Making a Difference Curriculum’ is a progression model; it is carefully and deliberately planned and sequenced in ‘small steps’ so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before. The architecture of the curriculum helps pupils to build knowledge and skills that can help the children grow as learners and people. We make the curriculum accessible to all with adaptions and scaffolds in place for those who need it. As we want the children to be curious, we have chosen to use a ‘Big Question’ as a unit title in science, history, geography and RE. Then each step starts with a question that we are curious about. We have ‘leaves to learning’ which are the essential knowledge we expect all to know. We then reference hinterland knowledge that will enrich the children’s understanding further. People and books act as ‘hooks to learning’. We have achieved that PSQM in science and use ‘Plymouth Science’ to ensure a clear progression and compliment this with complete investigations each half term.

Developing an appreciation of art and music and using them as a form of expression is at the root of what we do. In music we have used ‘Charanga’ to help us build a progressive curriculum. This is supplemented by composition and creativity lessons so that children can apply what they have learnt. We have purchased a class set of ukuleles to ensure children have the opportunity to learn a tuned instrument. Pattern, like story, is a natural human need and to us music is patterns in sounds. Music is part of everyday experience in school not just in music lessons. In art and DT we have units with an end point that we build up to. We want children to be creative, but to do this they need to develop the required skills and knowledge, as well as learn about artists who can inspire them. Each child has their own sketchbook because we believe everyone is an artist and to act as a record of their journey. We use ‘DT Association’ resources to support us with our planning. In DT and Art, we have a skills progression document that identify artists and vocabulary and show how areas within these subjects are developed and built upon over time.

We follow the Cornwall PSHE curriculum, which was designed with Brook, as our discrete curriculum. This is complimented by our ‘Culture of the Heart’ work as well as our TIS approach, our everyday interactions and wider curriculum. Personal development is seen as a strength of our school; PSHE lessons are just a small part of this. Personal development drives all our curriculum, enrichments and interactions. Children are given responsibilities, with each Year 6 acting as a buddy to a Reception child and we have a pupil leadership team, as well as a school council. We have 4 house teams that all staff and children belong to. We use Healthy Movers for PE in EYFS and received a ‘National Youth Trust Highly Commended Award’ for our work and the way we involved families. We then use ‘Complete PE’ which provides a progressive curriculum that promotes physical, cognitive, social and emotional success. Physical activity is part of every day, not just PE lessons, with active lunchtimes being key. We use equipment such as Moki watches to promote activity for all. We are involved in a range of competitive sporting events, offer sports clubs, and promote a broad range of sports such skipping and Kinball. In Key Stage 2 children all learn Spanish using ‘Primary Languages’ resource with a focus on oral work. In computing we use ‘Cornwall Digital Learning’ to ensure that the children all develop essential knowledge and skills in terms of technology. E-safety is a core component of this, using the Project Evolve, which is weaved through our lessons. Cornwall is at the cutting edge in technological advancements in this country and we want the children to see possible careers in this area.

For each subject the school has identified golden threads that are the key themes that weave throughout our curriculum. Within a subject, these threads link the learning across the school and help the children to make connections. The EYFS team ‘plant the seeds’ of these concepts and the rest of the school help them to grow. We provide regular opportunities for reactivation to help pupils transfer learning to their long-term memories. We also recognise the importance of responding to children’s interests and needs. We like to take advantage of experiences and opportunities that arise; these might link to local, national, or international events. We have talented and interesting people in the local area and these people contribute to our curriculum. We make cross-curricular links, to help children understand connections and apply their knowledge, but we ensure the integrity of individual subjects are preserved. We want our children to act and talk like, for example, scientists, historians, and artists. Knowledge is key but alone is not enough. Being creative and developing a good imagination are vital life skills. Our curriculum includes opportunities for children to experience the creative arts and theatre is a core component of our enrichment offer. We have worked with The Hall for Cornwall Theatre as a partner school for three years. We also offer a broad range of clubs to enrich our curriculum further.

In Portreath there is a strong community spirit, but living in a coastal village also brings its challenges. Aspirations for some may need to be more outward looking. Life in the village can be quite insular for some children; it is our role to build the children’s cultural capital. We have designed a curriculum to raise aspirations within our community, as well as foster a sense of belonging. It is designed to enrich the children’s lives, ignite their imagination, spark their interest and open their eyes to the fascinating wider world around them world around them. We explicitly encourage them to value diversity. We believe powerful knowledge opens doors and it is through knowledge that children can make sense of and improve the world we live in.

Information for Parents

To support parents we have created end of year expectations in reading, writing and maths (RWM) leafelts for each year group (see below). In addition to this we create class half termly curriculum leaflets and knowledge organisers. These are shared with parents via Class Dojo. We would really appreciate parents helping their child to learn the words and facts on the knowledge organisers at home too. Each child has a Learning Journey Book that contains all their knowledge organisers. This is so they can refer back to them. As a school we understand the importance of revisiting and retrieving knowledge in order for it to be transferred to our long term memories and these books support this work. The children will be learning more than the things covered on the knowledge organisers and in the leaflets but these contain the key things we plan to cover. We hope parents will find them useful. More information about maths and English can be found under the relevant tabs.