Curriculum Subjects
At Baden Powell Primary School, we aim to provide a broad curriculum that ensures a deep understanding of all curriculum subjects while ensuring the transfer of key skills and knowledge across these subject areas.
Through our curriculum provision we aim to:
- Provide exciting learning experiences that will engage, challenge and inspire children to ‘reach for the stars’.
- Ensure that children take a greater responsibility for their learning experiences through reflection and self-evaluation of their strength and areas for improvement.
- Provide regular opportunities for learning outside of the classroom including external educational visits and visitors.
- Pupils supporting each other in their learning through collaboration and the development of teamwork skills.
- Use ICT applications across all subjects within school and give learning opportunities at home through the use of virtual learning platforms.
- Enable children to see how their knowledge and skills development relates to life outside of school; their educational journey and their growth into adulthood.
- Ensure children develop confidence and a high self-esteem and how this relates to their commitment to learning and building a school community.
- Create learners develop a love of learning and commitment to excellence in that learning.
- Ensure learners can articulate their thoughts and thinking clearly with a well-developed range of vocabulary.
- Ensure children are always using reasoning skills across all subjects.
Our curriculum is designed to ensure all learners can achieve to the very best of their abilities. As a learning community, we seek to ensure excellent provision and outcomes for the children. We have designed our curriculum to ensure that all learners have appropriate learning experiences that show progression across key stages and academic years. The curriculum aims to provide knowledge and skills progression that will meet the needs of all children and contribute toward creating a community of life-long learners that will make a positive contribution to the society of which they are both citizens and members.
We seek to integrate the curriculum across a range of subjects but there will also be discretely taught subject areas. The integration across subjects will be supported by the opportunity to learn key skills and knowledge from those subjects taught discretely.
Mathematics
The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice with a range of increasingly complex problems across year groups and key stages.
At Baden Powell Primary, we focus on these aspects across all year groups with ongoing arithmetical practice and a clear focus on developing reasoning abilities to apply current knowledge to complex problems using a range of problem solving strategies. Through this we aim to ensure that children develop a strong foundation upon which children can deepen their conceptual understanding and apply their understanding fluently and appropriately across the mathematical curriculum.
Literacy
We follow the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum in our approach to the teaching and learning of literacy. We teach literacy through a whole book approach and as much as possible try to match these books to the cross curricular theme that the children are learning for that term.
Our literacy curriculum focuses on ensuring that children show clear progression from Foundation Stage to year six in their spoken language, reading and writing knowledge and skills and in expanding their vocabulary which can be used across all these areas.
In reception and year one the children have daily phonics lessons and daily supported reading. These combined discreet phonics learning for effective decoding and the transference of this into daily reading focusing on decoding and comprehension skills.
Phonics
The school now uses Letters and Sounds to teach phonics across Foundation Stage and Key Stage One.
Science
Science is taught in units of work across each half-term. The focus in on developing and deepening children’s conceptual understanding of science by increasing subject knowledge and deepening scientific thinking while embedding key investigative skills and vocabulary.
click here to see some Year 6 Science
ICT (information & communication technology)
We are passionate about ICT and believe in providing a variety of platforms for children to use. We have a combination of Windows laptops and Apple iPads in school, and the children use these regularly across the curriculum. We have incorporated programming into the curriculum and this is an important element of all discrete ICT lessons.
Religious Education
Teaching of religious education is based on Hackney’s agreed syllabus. The religious education curriculum is approached through the exploration of all the major world religions. We also use assemblies to celebrate different religious festivals and to develop children’s moral sense.
As part of the curriculum we aim to:
- promote an open and objective approach to religious education
- assist pupils in benefiting from religious education regardless of their personal faith
- help pupils appreciate diversity and develop respect for others
- encourage a reflective attitude to life and an openness to exploring questions for meaning, purpose and value.
Religious education is important to help pupils understand the diverse and cultural society we live in today. It is our role to prepare children for living in a multicultural society.
Through Religious Education children learn:
- To encourage respect and tolerance of the beliefs of others
- To extend their understanding of different religions
- To enhance their ability to respond to matters of ideology and ethical values
Art and Design & Technology
Art and DT are ties to our curriculum themes and teachers plan for progression across each key stage in line with the national curriculum expectations. There is a focus on developing key skills and knowledge of different aspect of each subject within the different topics covered.
History and Geography
Our curriculum themes are taught through humanities. We tech different topic each term and progression is planned for across the year and the key stage from year one to year six.
Music & Dance
Our music is taught through a combination of whole class lessons and through drumming and dance sessions. We encourage the use of musical instruments including recorders across all year groups. Our focus is on composing music and finding pleasure in playing and reading music. Our children also take part in the Hackney Music Festival annually.
Physical Education
PE is taught to all classes in the school. There are a range of activities that cover a wide curriculum from sports to gymnastics and dance. PE sessions incorporate both indoor and outdoor sessions. We aim to improve not only our children’s skills, knowledge and understanding of competitive sports but also to improve their fitness through regular exercise, Swimming is taught in year three and four in addition to the PE curriculum.
PSHCE and Citizenship
The school has adopted SEAL as its major component for delivering PSHCE. This is progressive across each year group and the learning is built on year on year. We use circle time as the primary implementation tool for ensuring high quality PSHE.
We continually audit our PSHE provision to ensure that its units meet the needs of our children’s emotional and social development and growth.
Spanish
We teach Spanish from year to year six and follow the Hackney learning Trust Spanish Curriculum. We have a lead teacher for Spanish who develops the curriculum and supports teachers in delivering it with regular professional development meetings.
EYFS Curriculum
Our Foundation Stage Curriculum follows the guidance in the Early Years Foundation Stage Documentation. It covers the seven areas of learning:
Prime areas:
- Personal, Social and Emotional development
- Communication and Language
- Physical development
Specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
