Whilst there is a shared ethos for curriculum development across the Academy at it's core there is a belief that each school needs to adapt it's curriculum to suit the needs of it's learners to enable it to provide ambitious outcomes for each pupil.
Here at Leiston Primary School we provide a wide and varied curriculum with clear adaptation for the issues and needs which effect our pupils, school and local area. From January 2017 the school employed 'Loops of Learning' from The Learning Exchange as a tool to develop learning and teaching. ‘Loops of Learning’ is a way of perceiving the learning journey. It recognises that learning is a continuum rather than a set of discrete episodes and as such helps the children and the teacher recognise the inter-connectivity of the curriculum.‘Loops’ support the learners by making the learning journey highly visible. Children know why they are doing something, ‘We are doing this because…’, where the learning is going, who the learning is for, and how they can contribute to their own learning and the learning of others.
Our Curriculum Intent can be found below.
Early Years Provision
Starting with our Nursery provision, our pupils have access to a high quality environment, which was recently updated in February 2017. Our aim is that our pupils build a solid platform for learning which centers around language development and acquisition of social skills. As our pupils move into Reception they build on these skills whilst having access to a free flow outdoor environment, development of early Maths and English skills and an understanding of the wider world. Reception also sees the implementation of our phonics program from Read, Write Inc phonics. Children throughout the Reception and Year 1 classes receive targeted support with their understanding and application of phonics.
Mathematics and English
We are very lucky to have three Mathematics Specialist Teachers at Leiston Primary School! We operate a practical ethos in Maths where pupils can investigate, link and apply the skills which they learn. This ethos begins in our Nursery provision with constant access to Maths resources and opportunities to become familiar with a range of concepts. 2016 saw the implementation of a Times Table recall programme from Year 3 and as a result our pupils are becoming more fluent in the recall and application of facts. Consequently we are seeing an increase in the number of pupils reaching the expected standard in Maths by the time they leave us.
As part of our school development, recently we saw the implementation of the Power of Reading Scheme which will involve a national research project in order to drive a love of reading and see this transpose into our pupil's writing. The Power of Reading helps to develop inference and deduction and comprehension skills. It also involves children regularly writing in different genres and creates a more cohesive learning experience. Literacy is at the heart of the curriculum and the texts facilitate a range of exciting cross curricular work. Further information on the project can be found here.
Alongside the Power of Reading we also use Talk for Writing from Pie Corbett which allows children to internalise writing structures which subsequently supports their writing and development of grammar and vocabulary.
Our Wider Curriculum
From Year 1 our pupils have access to a varied curriculum based on the statutory expectations of the National Curriculum 2014, see link below. The curriculum in all year groups is enriched through out of classroom experiences, visitors and 'wow' learning opportunities. During the Spring Term of 2017 a whole school curriculum review was carried out in which all groups were involved in it's design (Pupils, Staff and Parents). You will see that each of the units are organised under a theme with an end goal in mind. This allows pupils to understand the direction of learning and the 'why' behind learning. The units of work are crafted to suit the needs of our pupils and can take inspiration from the local area and beyond.
It is important to note that whilst this is the Long Term Plan for academic year 2019/2020 it may be subject to other learning opportunities which may arise during the year to come. If you ever have any questions please do not hesitate to speak to your child's class teacher. You will also find more detail on the individual subject pages.
Current Long Term Plans can also be found below.