Whilst, of course, we place high importance on academic achievement we know that well rounded learners are developed through access to a range of much wider experiences such as social, sporting, artistic and cultural.

We feel strongly that understanding emotional development and promoting positive mental health is key part of our role. All children and families, at some point, face challenges and through our well-developed approach to pastoral care we are ready to listen and support whether through class teacher and teaching assistant support or via our in house family support team.

Curriculum Intent, Implement and impact statements for more details

Intent

We have designed our curriculum as we believe in mastery, meaning that we want all children to have a secure understanding of year group specific key threads, skills and knowledge. Our curriculum clearly identifies these and the sequence by which they should be introduced, revisited and developed.

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Our intent is for children to become lifelong learners. At Great Totham our Learner @ Statements identify the attributes we believe a lifelong learner needs.

At Great Totham we use the EYFS Curriculum, National Curriculum, ExploRE, (the Essex agreed RE syllabus) and British values as the basis for our coherently planned curriculum. In addition, we adapt our curriculum to meet the changing needs of our children, selecting appropriate themes and additional opportunities.

Implementation

Our approach to teaching is centred upon our understanding of brain development and awareness of working memory. In addition, we are a Trauma Perceptive Practice (TPP) aware school that believes in compassion, hope and connection – relationships are key for all.

Our curriculum is delivered through a combination of topics and discrete subjects. Developed from our subject specific overviews, our medium term plans identify the key prior knowledge that forms the foundation for new learning. These documents are constantly under review as year teams make adaptations for specific cohorts needs.

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We refer to our plans as spirals which build upon new knowledge while revisiting and applying prior learning (the ‘bubbling pot’ analogy). Some of the strategies we use in lessons include scaffolding, modelling, chunking, fluency development through consolidation, as we work with children on their journey from novice to expert learners.

Assessment is used to adapt plans and form an overall picture of children’s progress and attainment against our mastery statements (core) and key knowledge (foundation).  Assessment data is used to track individuals, groups and cohorts as part of our data cycle that informs future curriculum developments, planned interventions and resource deployment.

Impact - How do we know our curriculum meets our intent?

The intended impact of our curriculum is that children leave us as confident, rounded learners with the skills and attributes to continue to be successful on their learning journey.

Some of the ways in which we evidence this are:

• National tests show that attainment both as individual subjects and combined are above national standards

• Internal summative assessment shows the majority of children achieve age related expectations as they move through the school

• Children with SEND make good progress against their individual targets

• Our internal monitoring (books, pupil interviews etc.) shows children are making good progress across the whole curriculum

• Visitors to our school often compliment the behaviour and attitude of our children

• We receive many positive comments about our children during and following off site visits

• Our excellent sports provision has been recognised by achieving the Gold School Games Kite Mark for the last two years

• Our tracking shows the majority of children participate in our extra-curricular provision

• Our children enjoy their learning and sharing their achievements

• Feedback from the many secondary schools our children move on to is that they join them very well prepared and easily identified as ‘Totham’ learners

 

Reading

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At Great Totham, our reading curriculum is designed so that each child becomes an enthusiastic reader with the necessary skills to tackle any text. Children are taught strategies including phonic skills, word recognition and the use of pictures and contextual clues to develop comprehension skills and increase independence in reading for enjoyment.

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Strand 1: Skills and Fluency

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We develop children’s reading skills through a systematic approach to synthetic phonics. The scheme we use is Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.

In Reception and Year 1 children have three weekly reading practice sessions in school as part of the Little Wandle scheme. The books the children will read with a member of staff are pitched at 90% fluency which means children should only need to decode 1 word in 10.

The focus is on children applying their phonics knowledge and not guessing words or trying to deduce words from picture or grammar clues. Then through repetition the children build fluency and confidence.

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In Year 2 the majority of children will have successfully completed the Little Wandle scheme and will have a secure foundation of reading skills from which to build. Whole class reading lessons are taught alongside weekly individual reading with an adult. The children will bring home a practice book aimed at continuing to develop their reading skills. These banded books ensure children can apply their knowledge and gain further proficiency.

 

In KS2 Guided Reading is introduced. The texts studied are chosen to help the children develop their stamina, vocabulary and comprehension skills. Books are selected to ensure children are introduced to a diverse range of authors and genre, with supplementary texts used to enrich their understanding.

 

In addition, children continue to have an individual book, working through the colour bands until they become a free reader. This is normally by the end of Year 4. 

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Strand 2: Reading for Pleasure

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We want all children to love and enjoy books. Sharing books with an adult or older siblings helps to encourage children to become lifelong readers.

In Reception and Year 1, all the children will bring home books they have chosen to enjoy sharing at home with you, as they will not yet have developed the skills to read these books independently.  

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From Year 2 children choose reading for pleasure books which could be from the school or public library, book corner or books from home. These books could be for sharing, reading independently or by an adult, both at home and in school.

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Our curriculum includes dedicated browsing times and extended reading sessions to develop stamina. All children will be read to by adults in school, meaning many children get the opportunity to enjoy text at a higher level than they could access independently. We have developed a recommended list for each year group to support this. The list is intended to ensure our children continue to experience a diverse range of high-quality text.

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Curriculum Overviews

At Great Totham Primary School we have developed our own detailed curriculum for English and Maths. Based on the National Curriculum these documents provide staff with the detail required to build on the children’s existing knowledge and experiences when planning.​

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