Curriculum

For more information about Curriculum at Little Bloxwich contact  Mrs Emily Chantler 

echantler@lit-bloxwich.walsall.sch.uk

Our Curriculum Statement of Intent

Our aim is to ensure all children at Little Bloxwich, regardless of their ability, engage in a broad and balanced curriculum, which puts them at the centre, ensuring they receive quality first teaching to empower them with the skills they need. Alongside this, first hand experiences helping to shape, prepare and lay foundations for their future.

We want our children at Little Bloxwich to enjoy learning and have a thirst for knowledge and new experiences. Our curriculum is mapped out from Early Years to Year 6, where progression is ensured through the use of skills ladders. We believe reading is at the centre of this and we ensure our children are given the skills and vocabulary to be able to read fluently and accurately.

Children at Little Bloxwich are part of a close-knit family and we use our Christian Values - Courtesy, Courage, Caring and Conscientiousness - to promote learning and the success that each child achieves.

We want the local community to have a big involvement in our curriculum and encourage families and visitors to work with and alongside us and the children.

Discovery Quest is based on the International Primary Curriculum and is taught across the school. 

It has been developed to address the needs of our children. 

History, Geography, D.T and Art are taught through Discovery Quest and a two year overview ensures the national Curriculum and the schools skills ladders are covered thoroughly, enabling the children to build knowledge and develop subject specific and transferable skills. 

Each unit is planned around a question and starts with a “stunning start”. During the unit there is a clear focus on teaching new subject specific vocabulary,

Each unit includes an “Inspire session” which is an opportunity for parents and family members to come into school and work with their children.

 At Little Bloxwich we want our children to feel valued, special and important in a happy, caring and stimulating environment where our children are able to reach their full potential by thriving on a breadth of meaningful life experiences, being open to opportunities and possibilities, whilst letting the children be challenged and being their partner in their learning alongside parents on this journey through Early Years together.

The foundation stage works towards Early Learning Goals (ELG) and they cover the following areas using the ‘Development Matters’ curriculum. 

Prime Areas 

Communication and Language (C&L)

Physical Development (PD)

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

Specific Areas 

Literacy (L)

Mathematics (M) 

Understanding the World (UW)

Expressive Arts and Design (EAD) 

We also focus on the Characteristics of Effective Learning. These are split into 3 main areas:

*Playing and Exploring 

*Active Learning 

* Creating and thinking critically 

At Little Bloxwich we use these to help our children learn from their environment, their experiences and their activities. We encourage our children to have a go, keep on trying even if they encounter difficulties and begin to make links and develop their own ideas.

Art is taught within our Discovery Quest topics with each year group focussing on a different set of skills in order to enable our children to become artists:

*Studying the work of other artists. 

*Creating paintings, models and drawings. 

*Using a range of materials to represent their ideas.

Below are the Art skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within Discovery Quest topics.

We believe that computing should be apparent and spread throughout the curriculum and used as a tool for learning with it having deep links to mathematics, science and design and technology. All children will be digitally literate and able to use and express themselves, developing their ideas through information and communication technology. It is taught using Purple Mash which provides a safe environment to teach children to use Email, to make music digitally, to type quickly and efficiently, and to code. At Little Bloxwich, children have access to laptops and iPads to aid with their learning throughout the curriculum.

Computing can be divided into three strands:

• Computer science – Programming or coding, and problem solving.
• Information Technology – Using spreadsheets, creating presentations and manipulating graphics.
• Digital Literacy -  Encompassing E-safety and teaching pupils how to select the most appropriate digital content.

Design and technology is taught within our Discovery Quest topics. Each year group follows a progressive skills ladder to ensure that they build on previous learning whilst developing their creativity, problem-solving skills, collaborative skills and use of innovation. They gain knowledge and skills in design, structures, mechanisms, electrical control and a range of materials including food. The skills learned in D&T enable our children to develop and apply their learning across the curriculum with strong links being made to maths, science, computing and art and design. To prepare our pupils for the future they are also encouraged to consider sustainability and enterprise. There are three core activities our children engage in with D&T:

* activities which involve investigating and evaluating existing products

* focused tasks in which children develop particular aspects of knowledge and skills

* designing and making activities in which children design and make for ‘something’ for ‘somebody’ for ‘some purpose’

Below are the Design and Technology skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within Discovery Quest topics. 

At Little Bloxwich we strive to ensure that all children become successful, fluent readers, developing language and comprehension skills. It is expected that all children should be able to read fluently when they leave KS1, the only exception is those with a SEND need that effects their reading ability. This is achieved through the consistent daily high quality approach to the teaching of phonics across the Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage One and into Key Stage Two for those children who may require further support.    

We want to encourage and facilitate a life-long love of reading. We give our children lots of opportunities to read, whether it be through a quality text studied in class or reading for pleasure in our library and during story time. When reading books in class, we aim to expose our children to a wide range of text types such as myths, legends and classics, to broaden their vocabulary and expand their cultural capital.

Reading and writing are taught alongside each other to ensure a consistent link between the two  skills, with writing being produced from a high-quality stimuli.Children build skills needed to master a writing genre before demonstrating their understanding and creativity in an extended piece of writing every 2-3 weeks. Grammar and punctuation are also taught in context to the writing stimuli, providing meaning and purpose for the learning of the skills.

Geography is taught within our Discovery Quest topics with each year group focussing on a different set of skills in order to enable our children to become geographers. 

* Geography teaching at Little Bloxwich Primary School is about developing an understanding of our world, through experience. 

* Geography is concerned with the study of places, the human and physical processes which shape them and the people who live in them. 

* Children study their local area and contrasting places in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. 

* The study of the local area forms an important part of the geography taught at our school and activities are planned to build upon the children's knowledge and understanding of the local area.

Below are the Geography skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within Discovery Quest topics. 

History is taught as part of our Discovery Quest topics. Our skills ladders allow children in each year group to build on previous learning and gain knowledge of the past in Britain and around the world. Teaching encourages children to enquire and understand changes over time and enables them to become historians.  

* Investigating and interpreting the past.

* Understanding chronology.

* Building an overview of world history.

* Finding out why learning about the past is important.  

* What we can learn from historical artefacts.

Black History Month takes place every October. At Little Bloxwich all children from Reception to Year Six look at two influential people and the significance of their experiences. In addition to their contributions to culture, society and economy around the world and in the UK.

Reception - Ade Adeptian         Bob Marley

Year 1   -    Mary Seacole          Muhammed Ali

Year 2   -   Rosa Parks               Sir Lenny Henry

Year 3   -   Barack Obama         Maya Angelou

Year 4  -    Nelson Mandela       John Edmonstone

Year 5   -   James Somerset     Sir Learie Constantine

Year 6   -  Martin Luther King   Wilma Rudolph

Below are the History skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within Discovery Quest topics.

At Little Bloxwich, our aim is to make learning mathematics enjoyable and exciting where possible. We want our pupils to become confident mathematicians and we do this by giving our children good quality teaching with a strong emphasis on children having a solid understanding of mathematical basics. We believe that understanding place value, knowing number bonds and times tables are the key to unlocking mathematical ability. Our teaching begins with ‘practical-based’ learning linked to real-life situations; emphasising reasoning and applying mathematics to create life-long mathematicians. Once the children have been taught skills they then complete challenges to apply their learning in each lesson.

Each of the four areas of calculation has a step-by-step guide which is based on the development of the child’s understanding. This area is primarily about the children understanding why they do what they do to calculate an answer, and not just completing a written method with little understanding of the process.

In Key Stage Two, all children are taught French weekly as a Modern Foreign Language. We believe that the teaching of languages provides an opening to other cultures and deepens children’s understanding of the world. We have an emphasis on speaking and listening skills , with a clear progression of skills building throughout Key Stage Two. In Year 3 we begin to build vocabulary and phonic knowledge with this progressing to Year 6 where we include more detail, writing and speaking short paragraphs. We follow units of work enabling children to gain substantial progress in the French language and knowledge of the culture, giving them a solid foundation to be continued to achieve well in secondary school.

Below are the Modern Foreign Language skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within lessons. 

Music is taught by class teachers from Reception – Year 4 using Charanga. We follow the units of work enabling our children to become musicians: 

*Listening and appraising a range of musical genres.  

*Musical activities including singing, playing, improvising and composing.

*Performing and sharing. 

This is evidenced in class Music books. 

Year 2 children have the opportunity to learn the recorder and children from Year 1 -6 are able to join the school choir. All Year 5 and 6 children learn a musical instrument and receive specialist teaching from the support of the Forest Arts Team.

Below are the Music skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within lessons.

P.E is taught as a standalone subject. All children take part in gymnastics, dance, games and athletics. In KS2 children also have swimming lessons. All children have the opportunity to take part in sports activities/clubs at lunchtimes and after school. Each year group has a skills ladder that allows children to become more confident in their abilities and work towards playing sports fairly, cooperatively as well as competitively.   

* Acquiring and developing skills.

* Applying skills, tactics and compositional ideas.

* Evaluating and improving performance. 

* Understanding the importance of fitness, health and well-being. 

Below are the PE skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within lessons. 

At Little Bloxwich, PSHE gives pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives and to become informed, active, responsible citizens. Children are also taught about the importance of mental and physical health, including self-esteem and body image. We believe it is crucial to build effective citizens through teaching about positive relationships, keeping safe and setting aspirational goals. Pupils are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities and experiences across and beyond the curriculum, contributing fully to the life of their school and communities. In addition to discrete, weekly PSHE lessons, many other aspects of our school help our pupils to grow and develop into happy, well-adjusted and responsible young people. 

We offer sex education as part of our curriculum for pupils in upper Key Stage 2. Science lessons, in particular, teach children about human life cycles. This includes giving advice on staying healthy, puberty and changes that they will go through as they experience adolescence.

Strong links with the local church help nurture and develop the childrens’ spirituality.

We believe all things are possible with God.

Re is taught weekly as a stand alone subject. Topics for teaching and learning incorporate 4 of the main religions, Christianity and Islam in Key Stage 1 and adding in Sikhism and Hinduism in Key Stage 2. We follow the Discovery Re scheme linking it into the guidelines of the Walsall Agreed Syllabus. We have strong links with Holy Ascension Church and our worship is supported by Vicar Chris through worship and support in lessons. 

Below are the RE skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within lessons.

Science is taught as a subject in its own right. A carefully planned skills ladder ensures that children in each group build on previous learning in an engaging way. As they become scientists they begin to see the relevance of science to their own lives and learn about future science-related careers based upon it. Knowledge and investigative skills are taught by:

* investigating problems

* learning how science works

* discovering why science matters in the world

Below are the Science skills which are in place to enable and support the knowledge taught within lessons.