Lakefield Church of England Primary and Nursery

Our Curriculum

At Lakefield Church of England Primary School we passionately believe that the children’s needs and interests are rightly at the heart of our curriculum

The approach we use to deliver the curriculum helps the children make ‘links’ within their learning, so aiding their understanding. Each class undertakes a unit of work each term, learning in our school is developed through a curriculum that is both rich and vibrant, containing many first hand experiences which help to put the children’s learning into context; artists, scientists, musicians, actors, clergy, charity representatives, as well as sportsmen and women are all regular visitors to the school.

Rationale behind the Lakefield Curriculum

The aim of our Lakefield curriculum is to prepare our pupils, ensuring they are equipped with the full range of skills that allows them to be lifelong learners ready for the next steps in their education and as well as preparing them for the wider world. We want them to be passionately creative, determined, curious and to ambitious. We are proud that our curriculum gives our children the skills, confidence and self-belief to lead a happy and fulfilled life by encouraging them to aim high and work towards their goals and dreams in life.

Intent

 Our Lakefield Curriculum

• is inclusive and aims for all pupils to be challenged, focusing on development and experiences to allow them to reach their full potential.
• fulfils the requirements of the National Curriculum through ambitious and challenging learning, with clear progression for every subject.
• has depth, allowing children to return to and build upon previous learning, applying skills and knowledge to new challenges.
• takes into account the local context of the school, experiences and backgrounds of our children and provides them with relevant and memorable learning experiences to develop their cultural capital.
• allows learners to embed key concepts in their long-term memory by revisiting learning and through purposeful practice.
• creates a culture of curiosity and challenge that aims to encourage children to apply their skills with confidence to new situations.
• is designed, organised and planned to deepen children’s disciplinary and substantive knowledge and to increase their understanding.
• provides experiences that allow the child's creativity to flourish and develop ways to creatively approach all areas of learning.
• allows children to recognise and celebrate the diversity in our world, both on a local and global scale and understand it is their duty to challenge prejudice in all its forms.
• helps our children, to value their community and understand their responsibilities towards sustaining their local and global environment.

 Implementation

Depth, balance and breath

At Lakefield Church of England Primary school, we provide a safe, secure, inspirational and aspirational learning environment and the opportunity to participate in a range of stimulating experiences from EYFS to year 6.

 Through the curriculum we aim for our children:

• to be curious,
• to be engaged.
• to be immersed in language.
• to be resilient and challenged.
• to be proud of their local area and think about global issues such as climate and human impact.
• to help to work as part of a team or individually – supporting and nurturing each other.
• to be unique and stand up for the rights of others because it is the right thing to do. 

Our curriculum is designed, organised and planned for depth of learning to focus on both disciplinary and substantive knowledge and move children’s thinking to a more in-depth level of understanding.

All curriculum leaders show understanding of key concepts related to curriculum design, ensuring there are clear skills, knowledge progression and sequencing, allowing all members of the school community to fully understand the rationale behind our curriculum.  Where commercial schemes of work are used, they have been researched, adapted and implemented to afford the children the best opportunity to retain and deepen their knowledge and understanding.

At Lakefield Church of England Primary School, we define progress as the widening and deepening of essential knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours. 

Every child is valued and experiences a wide range of curriculum areas. We have designed, organised and planned our curriculum to ensure every child receives an appropriate mix of academic and personal development, which means that in practice our curriculum places equal importance on core (mathematics, English, science, Religious Education etc.) and the foundation subjects. 

The physical and mental wellbeing of children are as valued and important as academic development. We have a well-planned and thoughtful Spiritual Moral Social Cultural curriculum (SMSC) which helps to ensure that every child is well cared for and supported.  Alongside our SENDCO, pastoral support, Teaching Assistants and other members of the team we provide every child with access to appropriate support when they need it.

Our curriculum design supports our culture and ensures that our children benefit from a full range of academic and SMSC activities alongside British Values.  These activities enrich their lives and those of our whole school community and the diverse society to which they belong and play an active part in.  Children in year 6 also have the opportunity to apply for monitor responsibilities from sports leads to prefects as well as have the opportunity to be a head or deputy head prefect.

Our rich curriculum, with its range of experiences, aims to ensure that every child at Lakefield Church of England Primary School makes sustained progress both academically and personally this ensures that every child is given the opportunity to shine, be the light in the community and flourish.

The curriculum also reflects the school’s location as well as the interests and passions of the staff and children.

Organisation

The Lakefield Church of England Primary School Curriculum is organised into units of work which build on previous knowledge and understanding so enhancing and developing the children.

Enrichment and enhancement

 As well as having designed a stimulating and engaging curriculum, we are committed to providing enrichment opportunities that enhance learning and contribute to the experience the children receive:

• Forest school and outdoor learning, local trips, educational visits, a weeklong residential trip in Y6, enrichment activities such as ‘when I grow up days’, sporting fixtures, drama and performances, visitors, school sleep overs, theatre groups, speakers and many other activities.

The outdoor learning environment is used, where appropriate, throughout the school, with forest school being at an early stage of embedding in key stage 2,  and we encourage children to learn outdoors wherever possible using the outdoor classrooms, reflection areas, the spiritual garden, reading pods, school playing field, playground, and forest school areas.

Our curriculum is enhanced through local community visits and projects such as bloodhound engineering, school trips, visiting speakers and residential trips.  We firmly believe that real life experiences like these create lasting memories and strengthen the learning happening in school.  We also have an excellent range of after school clubs including a large range of sporting clubs supported by our teachers and also Atlas Camps who run our holiday provision meaning that the school and nursery are only closed for two weeks of the year.  Breakfast and afterschool clubs, run and managed by Lakefield, are incredibly popular and again enhance the feeling of community, belonging and support.

 Impact

 Our curriculum has an ambition for high achievement of all pupils we do not place a limit on learning from any starting point.

This achievement is represented in two key areas:

• The standards children reach in statutory curriculum areas at the end of each key stage, in relation to their progress and attainment

• How effectively our curriculum helps our pupils to develop into well-rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes, which will make them lifelong learners, and valuable future citizens.

We use a number of different approaches to ensure we enable our children to develop all the skills they need to be confident and successful learners.   We involve our children as we value their ideas and contributions. We firmly believe that children learn best when they are at the heart of the process.  We want our children to be to develop an insatiable appetite for learning through hands on, creative, problem solving activities and challenges allowing them to be inquisitive and curious; through this preparing them to be ready to face the future demands of learning in Secondary School, so that they are ready to take their place as citizens in Modern Britain.

Phonics and Reading

In reception, year 1 and year 2 the children learn from the Little Wandle Collins Big Cat scheme, as it provides a structured approach to teaching and is SSP approved.  It provides a structured approach to teaching literacy and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers which meets the expectations of the National Curriculum.

Christian Values

Our whole school Christian Values underpin how we work and play and we believe these to be central to the value of the school. We focus on our pupils developing an understanding of their role within their own community and how they can contribute beyond to British society and the world.

Life Questions

As a Church of England School we also believe in asking our pupils to think about the big questions in life. We do this through our Worship and RE lessons but we also create sessions for Philosophy for Children. It is important to us that we develop a respect for ideas and provide opportunities for our children to grow spiritually and ethically within a supportive and respectful community.

Languages

Children in Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6) study French as part of the curriculum using the Language Angels programme.