Curriculum Statement

Our aims:

  • To be exciting and inspire a lifelong love of learning and creative thinking.
  • To foster high expectations and aspirations.
  • To have an eye on the future and ensure that, as best we can, the children are equipped to face the world in which they will live.
  • To be inclusive. To instil a moral conscience, a caring attitude and Christian values.

 

Key drivers that underpin our Curriculum

Vocabulary

Research shows that vocabulary size relates to academic success. It is vital that children acquire a broad vocabulary to enable them to succeed, not only in reading, writing, speaking and listening, but also in science, history and the arts.

 

HOW do we do this at St Lawrence?

  • Use of high quality texts (fiction and non-fiction) across all subjects
  • 'Shakespeare and More' spelling scheme and 'The Spelling Shed'
  • Reading support conversations
  • One to One conversations across all subjects
  • Clicker word banks
  • Focused teaching of Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
  • Word walls
  • Lunchtime conversations with staff
  • AND Quality first teaching

Reading

A child's reading skills are important to their success in school, enabling them to access the breadth of the curriculum and improve their communication and language skills. Reading is fun and open doors to all kinds of new worlds.

 

HOW do we do this at St Lawrence?

  • Use of the Power of Reading Scheme.
  • High expectation of the sounds, words and texts that children can read by the end of each term in EY, Y1 and Y2.
  • An expectation that 100% of our children will pass the phonics test (unless they have identified cognitive delay).
  • Robust delivery of 'Little Wandle' Phonics Scheme, with comprehensive staff training programme resulting in high quality phonics teaching with regular monitoring and assessment in place.
  • Close links between the teaching of reading/phonics in school with reading at home.
  • Attractive book corners with high quality reading texts.
  • Teachers have very good knowledge of children’s literature for their specialist year group(s).
  • Ensuring the lowest 20% of readers have suitable reading books with limited ‘exception words’.
  • Children in KS1 who are falling behind are identified quickly and given extra support.
  • Tracking teaching of reading across whole school
  • Tracking of Phonics across the whole school
  • Selected children invited into school early to have individual reading input on a daily basis
  • Guided reading groups in Beech Class
  • Individual reading support
  • Toe by Toe scheme to support phonics in KS2

Careful Structure, Planning and Preparation

Planning should clearing indicate the aim to achieve a composite goal which is shared with children. The composite goal should be broken in to component lessons, each of which should contain intellectual substance, and be planned with children’s prior knowledge in mind.

 

HOW do we do this at St Lawrence?

  • Planning which has composite goals in mind
  • Constant reflection and review (assessment)

Learning should be durable

The knowledge and skills a child acquires need to be retained over time and successfully transferred to different contexts. Children should acquire a deep body of knowledge that lasts. Assessment needs to look at what children can do later and elsewhere.

 

HOW do we do this at St Lawrence?

  • Systematic revisiting learning through spiral curriculum
  • An understanding of the fact that knowledge is connected across subjects and disciplines.
  • An understanding that prior knowledge allows learning of new content more easily.
  • Floor Book/Learning Journals
  • House quizzes and low stakes/fun tests
  • Planning for assessment 

Concrete Experience

This is vital and should be evident in every subject.

HOW do we do this at St Lawrence?

 

  • Regular Curriculum Celebrations
  • An approach in maths which focuses ‘Concrete - pictorial – Abstract’ progression.
  • Trips, visitors and outdoor learning are a common feature of our curriculum and include local places of interest, London and residential trips to Norfolk and Wales.
  • We have our own Forest School run by a qualified instructor.
  • Maths frequently taught through outside activity.
  • Activity based science scheme

 

ART 

COMPUTING

DT  

 

ENGLISH

GEOGRAPHY

HISTORY

MATHS

MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

MUSIC 

PE

 

PSHE

 RE

We use the Kent Agreed Syllabus 2022-2027 for the teaching of RE. A copy of this can found here.

 

To view the RE Overview 2024-2026, please click here

 

SCIENCE

Our curriculum is topic based and works in a two year cycle.

All subjects are planned discretely and where appropriate link with the term’s topic to enable children to make learning connections. Within each subject there is a carefully planned set of skills and knowledge progression which are linked to Ten Big Ideas.  This helps children foster learning networks and reinforces the acquisition of a deep body of knowledge and transferable skills.

 

Beech Class

Year A

Beech Class

Year B

 

Oak Class

Year A

Oak Class

Year B

Ash Class

Year A

 

Ash Class

Year B

 

Chestnut

Class