What is the National Curriculum?
The Government released a New National Curriculum which all schools began to follow in September 2014. At Walberton and Binsted CE Primary School, we teach all subjects enclosed within the new National Curriculum including:
English, Mathematics, Science, Computing (the old ‘ICT’), Religious Education (R.E.), Art, Design and Technology (D&T), Geography, History, Music, Modern Foreign Languages (which will be French) and PE.
We have also produced guides below which set out the main objectives for each Year Group in the core subjects of: Reading, Writing, Spoken Language, Mathematics and Science.
We continue to teach Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship in Education (PSHCE). Even though this is now not a requirement of primary schools, we believe that by helping our pupils to understand how they are treated and expected to behave, they can grow into positive, confident, responsible citizens, working and co-operating well with others.
How do we implement it?
We believe in making learning experiences exciting, fun and unforgettable! By the time our children leave us, they will have blossomed into independent, creative and intelligent learners who achieve well.
Our approach to the curriculum allows us to tailor learning to suit the needs of each child in our school through inspiring and challenging first-hand experiences. We believe that children learn best when they are excited about what they are going to do and we cover much more than just the New National Curriculum.
Broadly speaking, we divide our curriculum areas into half-termly topics.
How are our Half-Termly topics planned?
Within each of our half-termly topics, we have a key ‘Subject Driver’ which, as it says, drives the topic forwards. We try to introduce the topic through an exciting ‘hook’ or ‘take-off’ which sets the tone of the topic so children know what they are setting out to achieve in the form of the ‘Big Picture’. During each topic we cover all other curriculum subjects, some of which will link closely to topics, and others which may be taught more discretely e.g. maths, phonics, spelling and grammar. We have a variety of reading schemes to ensure that children’s preferences are met. The core scheme is Oxford Reading Tree. The core Phonics scheme is Read, Write Inc., supplemented by other phonics materials.
What does our curriculum look like?
As the year progresses, please do take the time to explore the curriculum details below, which set out the learning experiences each of our year groups has to offer and our overall curriculum overview: