Language
Language
The curriculum is ‘what’ will be taught in our school. The Government has slimmed these requirements down to enable schools to add areas they feel children need for their development. At St Hilda’s CE Primary School we deliver the International Early Years Curriculum and the International Primary Curriculum as part of our curriculum provision which is closely matched to the NC requirements.
We will mix a rich cross curricular approach through the IPC to make learning fun, with discrete teaching of specialist subjects such as MFL, computing, PSHE, RE, Music and Physical Education. Our curriculum is designed to make sure it is accessible for those with disabilities or special educational needs.
At St Hilda’s we strive for children to become articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well equipped with the basic skills to become lifelong learners. Rich texts are at the heart of our teaching of writing, and we know how integral a love of reading is to becoming an imaginative writer. We intend for our children to have developed a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word. As they become more confident and develop their stamina for writing, pupils will build on a range of skills. Our learners are challenged and encouraged to take risks and view mistakes as another part of the learning process, just like the editing process for real-life authors. Setting themselves high expectations, pupils will take pride in all aspects of learning and in everything they produce. This will involve high expectations in presentation, an explicit understanding of grammar and spelling rules as well as being able to manipulate language for effect.
Pathways to Write
From EYFS to Year 6, we follow the mastery approach of The Literacy Company’s “Pathways to Write” scheme. Units of work give children in all year groups varied opportunities for writing. Throughout the school, we ensure the children are immersed in high quality texts, exposed to a range of genres, and have a clear understanding of their purpose for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided. Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary across all subjects.
Important key themes run throughout the books chosen such as Black History, Refugees and Shakespeare, providing children with an understanding of historical issues and important topics affecting the world they live in today.
Writing Weeks
Every term, we also conduct a whole school writing week to immerse the school in a theme and creates opportunities to write purposefully. Here are just some of the examples below of our amazing themes!
Lights on Cotton Rock
David Litchfield’s sensationally illustrated book provided inspiration for one of our first Writing Weeks! The hall became a spaceship as we had to write about what pupils predicted what would happen next. We were even lucky enough to receive a personalised message from the author himself!
The Firswood Grinch
What happened to our school Christmas tree? It became a crime scene as younger children had to describe the criminal, who was a familiar, green Christmas character. Whilst our older children became journalists and had to analyse the evidence and interview our caretaker to find out who the culprit was, before reporting it to our local community.
How to Look After a Dragon
Each child was given a small dragon egg to look after and imagine what would be inside. EYFS children drew their dragon, KS1 children wrote a description of their dragon and KS2 wrote instructions of how to look after it!
Spelling
Children from Reception to Year 2 will be taught phonics daily using the ReadWriteInc phonics scheme. More information about this can be found on the Phonics and Reading pages of the website.
Children can use the phonics sounds learnt to spell phonetically. Children in Year 1 and Year 2 will also learn some common exception words which do not follow phonetic spelling patterns but are used regularly in everyday writing for example ‘saw’ and ‘what’.
Once the phonics programme is completed from Year 2 onwards, children have short, snappy daily sessions using ReadWriteInc Spelling. This covers the National Curriculum expectations for each year group and focuses on rules for spelling certain words in the English language. The programme has an exciting online ‘Spelling Planet’ with fun activities to embed outstanding spelling skills. This scheme also recognises the complex spelling within the English language and has “Special Focus” weeks, that focus on exceptions to the rules.
Alongside this programme, the spelling is supplemented with regular practice of the Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 Statutory Spelling lists. These are often spellings which do not match the usual spelling rules, but children are expected to know by the end of Year 4 and Year 6 respectively. Links to these can be found below:
Children in Y3 to Y6 have a low stakes spelling test at the end of the week. These spellings will be sent out half-termly to practice at home, and the spelling rule that is tested on the Friday has been taught in the week leading up to it. This means this is a quick check on whether children can apply to rule taught to existing words they know and new words.
Power Maths
At St. Hilda’s CE Primary School, we use Power Maths as the basis of our maths lesson. This is an exciting class mastery approach, which has been recommended by the DfE that works for every child. It is based upon the concrete, pictorial and abstract approach.
Every lesson is divided into sections that involve plenty of discovery, sharing, collaboration, practice and reflection. Children are encouraged to solve problems each day through the use of concrete resources, pictorial representations and abstract thinking.
At the heart of this programme is the idea that all children can achieve and be successful mathematicians with the right growth mindset. It promotes five child friendly characters, each with their own positive skillset, to inspire and motivate children. These characters are:
The latest Nursery and Reception long term plans from St Hilda’s are accessible on the links or to download at the bottom of the page.
The guidance on the standards that schools must meet for the learning, development and care for children under 5 is also attached.
In addition, the Letters and Sounds workshop, presented to parents, is available.
St. Hilda’s follows the national curriculum, which became statutory for all the classes within maintained schools in September 2015.
At St Hilda’s CE Primary School, we follow Purple Mash Computing curriculum. Our creative and challenging curriculum can be viewed through three core areas:
Our PSHE curriculum, Jigsaw, also focuses units of work on staying safe online and E-safety scenarios, to supplement what is taught within PurpleMash. In addition to this, St Hilda’s celebrates Safer Internet Day annually to ensure that our pupils are equipped with the knowledge, skills and understanding of how they can keep themselves and others safe online.
At St Hilda’s, we have music provided for us from Trafford Music Service. Children will be taught an instrument in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 by a music specialist. Pupils learn songs and perform a musical concert. Pupils visit Stoller Hall and The Lowry in Key Stage 1 to experience live theatre and orchestra performances. Pupils also participate in I Sing Pop bi-yearly, learning and performing a range of Christian pop songs. Children are given the opportunity to attend ‘Young Voices’ and perform as part of a national choir. St Hilda’s received a Music Mark recognition from Trafford Music Service as well as participating in ‘Halle – Adopt a Player’ programme where pupils attended the Bridgewater Hall and worked with professional musicians.
Our PE curriculum is designed to provide every child with the opportunity to reach their physical, social and emotional potential. It allows them to discover the capabilities of their bodies, develop an in-depth understanding of how their body can change, and build a repertoire of skills to aid them throughout their lives.
As a school we have invested in real PE, a scheme of work aligned with the National Curriculum that we felt matched our vision and the needs of our children perfectly. It focuses on 6 key areas that we feel are essential in the development of children as they grow and learn. The key areas are shown below, each with an overview of what we aim to provide each child with as a result of physical education at St Hilda’s.
Physical
Health & Fitness
Creative
Cognitive
Social
Personal
Real PE offers a unique, child-centred approach that transforms how PE is taught to engage and challenge EVERY child.
Real PE is, first and foremost, a philosophy and approach which aims to transform how we teach PE in order to include, challenge and support EVERY child.
