Curriculum Statement

Curriculum:

Intent, Implementation and Impact 

Intent: 

At St. Mewan C.P School our curriculum aims to give children the knowledge, skills and understanding to achieve their full potential academically, socially and emotionally. We aim to give the children the necessary skills to prepare them for life in modern British society. As a truly inclusive primary school, our curriculum reflects both the context of the school and the experiences of the children. This enables the children to be aspirational, to fulfil their potential and reach the highest of expectations that we have of them.  

Through high quality teaching of the National Curriculum, our ambitious programmes of study for each subject provide appropriate subject knowledge, relevant skills and understanding that progresses throughout each subject and every year so that children can reach and exceed their potential. 

The curriculum at St Mewan is the vehicle through which children learn and develop. This is not just an academic development but also a development of the whole child as a learner and member of society. We place particular focus on developing the whole-child through the extra-curricular and experiential opportunities we provide which maximise and highlight our context. Our broad and balanced curriculum delivers the core strands of our intent. Subject leaders use these core strands to plan the intent, progression of skills and knowledge in their subject alongside the National Curriculum, supported by the Senior Leadership team. Intent for each subject is shared with staff through ongoing CPD and monitoring to ensure every child’s learning in every subject is maximised and in-line with our intent and vision for children’s achievements. From subject progression and intent documents, teachers plan a well-sequenced curriculum for their year group which is shared with parents on our website via the yearly overview documents. This implementation ensures that, by the time they leave St. Mewan, all pupils have experienced an equitable learning experience which prepares them for later life.  

Below we detail how we implement these strands in our core subjects.  

English

Our English curriculum follows the National Curriculum and is taught through daily writing lessons, daily reading lessons and daily Read, Write Inc. phonic lessons (in EYFS and KS1 but continuing into KS2 for those who require it) as well as weekly handwriting, spelling and SPAG lessons. This year we have introduced  Jane Considine's 'The Write Stuff' for the teaching of writing and are adapting this approach to meet the needs of our children. Phonics teaching is delivered through the RWI approach and reading teaching in KS2 follows a school-developed approach not a brought-in scheme. Planning follows the National Curriculum programmes of study fully.  

Phonics/Early Reading: Phonics teaching follows the Read, Write, Inc. scheme of work and is delivered daily by trained members of staff. This scheme ensures pupils are taught to decode corresponding phonemes and graphemes alongside the skills of segmenting and blending in order to be able to decode fully and move towards fluency. This scheme fully matches the termly expectations laid out in the National Curriculum. Fluency is further developed through regular reading individually with adults at home and at school and through whole class reading sessions as well as the St Mewan Fluency intervention programme where required. Reading books in KS1 and EYFS are matched to the phonic group and level that pupils are working at, in order to match their reading to the sounds they have learnt. Pupils are also encouraged to take ‘sharing’ texts home to read ‘with’ an adult rather than ‘to’ an adult. 

Reading:  Pupils in KS2 (and those in KS1, once they are fluent readers who can decode) use the Accelerated Reader approach. They complete star tests termly which identify their ZPD and reading age and then select texts matched to their ability. They have 15 minutes daily accelerated reader time to read and quiz. Those working on Fresh Start or RWinc in KS2 are encouraged to read their Fresh Start anthology and RWinc books at home so these are matched to the level they are working at. We encourage pupils to understand their preferences in reading and make choices based on these and their ability. Whole-class reading lessons focussed on teaching explicit reading skills and knowledge take place daily.  Phonological awareness assessments and interventions are carried out for those struggling to progress with Early Reading and fluency interventions are provided for those struggling to transition from decoding through fluency to comprehension. All reading progress is tracked constantly by the phonic and English leads and interventions and whole class teaching adapted to meet pupils needs. Reading for pleasure takes place daily using the St Mewan Book progression plan of carefully selected texts we want all our pupils to experience on their journey through the school. 

English Intervention: 

If we identify that a pupil requires addition support in their English learning, we use Fresh Start as a reading and writing intervention (in Years 4, 5 and 6) as well as phonological awareness interventions, Neli, RWI Fast Track Tutoring and Fluency groups as appropriate across the school as interventions for pupils who require targeted support at any stage for their reading. In EYFS, writing is promoted through continuous provision as well as targeted writing tasks with an adult, and through whole-class reading. We assess all EYFS pupils using Language screen on entry and identify if they need support in developing their language and phonological awareness skills, which are targeted through the NELI intervention if required. For pupils who struggle with their writing across the school, we provide fine motor skills and handwriting interventions or colourful semantics provision or fixed-term small group writing groups, as required. 

Mathematics 

Our school uses the Power Maths scheme for teaching maths from Reception to Year 6. This follows the mastery approach and is aligned with the National Curriculum and White Rose programme of study. Maths teaching is made inclusive through following the concrete-pictorial-abstract model as well as problem solving approached which develop growth mind-set. Our approach to maths provides opportunities which encourage children to be curious, inquisitive learners. We embed maths across the curriculum to provide experiential opportunities. EYFS and KS1 take part in daily Number Sense sessions. These include the daily systematic and structured teaching of key addition and subtraction facts. From Y2 upwards, times tables facts are embedded in every lesson and additional number work at home is encouraged through ‘Times Tables Rock Stars’. Pupils take part in daily fluency lessons focussing on times tables and on the Third Space 'Fluent in 5' maths resources which revisit and consolidate key number concepts from the children's previous learning, as well as using their counting stick. Maths fluency and power maths sessions are delivered daily in mixed ability classes with the focus being on ‘keep-up not catch-up.’ However, where specific difficulties are identified, Number Stacks and other number intervention strategies, such as IDL or targeted small group catch-up sessions, are used for intervention purposes. Every two weeks on a Friday, children take part in a Goal-Free Friday problem solving sessions. The maths lead identifies a focus and teachers plan and deliver open-ended maths problems which develop the children's mathematical thinking and reasoning skills. 

Foundation Subjects, Science and RE  

We strongly believe that children are taught individual subjects to ensure subject identity and integrity. Carefully selected curriculum content, knowledge and skills, as well as opportunities to reactivate prior learning, are planned in a well-structured, sequential way to allow children to know more and do more. 

Please refer to the individual subjects’ pages to view the intent, implementation and impact of each of the National Curriculum subject taught. 

Impact:

As demonstrated in school data outcomes, children typically achieve above or in-line with national and local standards in the core subjects. School leaders, the SENDco and core subject leaders carefully monitor internal data, planning and learning to ensure children’s needs within the core subjects are being met and that progression and attainment is in-line with or above the national picture for each subject. All subject leaders conduct regular monitoring which include pupil voice, talking to teachers, learning observations, work scrutinies and meeting with the senior leadership team. This ensures and demonstrates that pupils are able to know, remember and do more within each subject. Our monitoring confirms our intent is being delivered effectively and is resulting in effective learning for all pupils.  

Children talk with passion during pupil conferencing opportunities about their experiences and are able to demonstrate a resilience harboured from learning within a safe, challenging environment.  

Teachers demonstrate a secure knowledge of the school’s curriculum intent and the pedagogy required within each subject to ensure its effective delivery.  

Learning observations and work scrutinies demonstrate skills are being delivered progressively and sequentially across the school and in-line with school expectations.  

St. Mewan pupils are thoughtful, caring and active citizens within the school and wider society. These qualities stay with pupils long after they leave St. Mewan as evidenced through positive comments from members of the public/community and local secondary schools during educational visits and transition.  

To find out more about our school curriculum, contact the school office:

01726 74887