Curriculum Information
Curriculum Overview
At Farndon Fields our core values are Nurture, Inspire, Learn, Succeed. We strive to ensure that all children have high aspirations and achieve success, success through a creative and inspiring curriculum. We foster mutual respect for all and develop confident, independent and resilient learners who are effective citizens in an ever-changing global society.
Our curriculum has been written to develop children are:
- Lifelong learners
- Good human beings
- Confident Communicators
- Resilient
- Safe
- Healthy
This is the philosophy of how we want to work and learn. These aims underpin all of the learning that takes place in our school.
Click on the link to see our Curriculum Intent – The Big Picture to gain a great understanding of our curriculum Intentions.
Click on the link to see The Big Ideas Whole School Curriculum Long Term Planning
Characteristics of Learning
Starting with our core value (foundations stones), we build further with key character traits that we instil and celebrate in our pupils. The six global competencies of 21st Century Learning Design, a focus on citizenship through fundamental British Values and the UN Global Goals woven through our ethos and curriculum create a learning community where all can THRIVE.
Curriculum Implementation
Our learning takes place through children developing their knowledge, skills and understanding via carefully chosen and sequenced topics that will capture the children’s interests. These topics have the key drivers of ‘past, present and future’ to help the children gain a sense of what has gone before, what is happening now in the world and how they can be an agent for change in the future. This helps the children gain a clear understanding of the world they live in and how they can make a difference both now and in the future.
Remembering more
Retrieval practice is a fundamental part of our curriculum as it is proven to strengthen memory and make it easier to retrieve the information later (Rosenshine, 2012).
Opportunities for retrieval practise occur in two places in the curriculum:
- Daily review to activate prior learning forms the start of most lessons.
- Retrieval practice of non-negotiable taught knowledge on spaced occasions away from the point of teaching the topic. This should support children in securing long-term knowledge acquisition.
For the wider curriculum we block learning and re-visit practice over time through a spaced practice approach (Learning Scientists, 2016) as research suggests this will lead to better long-term retention of knowledge.
Subject leaders are responsible for ensuring that the taught curriculum in each phase mirrors the intended progression of knowledge and skills mapped out for each Phase in the progression document. Therefore, ensuring previous content supports subsequent learning and pupils are equipped with the knowledge necessary for the next stage in their education and that the full content of National Curriculum is taught before children leave Farndon Fields Primary School, ensuring they are prepared for transitions within the primary phase as well the next stage of their education in KS3.
Farndon Fields uses the Ruth Miskin Read, Write Inc phonics programme to support the teaching of early reading and phonics across EYFS and Key Stage One.
For children who are still learning phonics in KS2, we use the Read Write Inc Fresh Start to support their continued progress.
Reading
Love of reading
At Farndon Fields Primary School, we believe that nurturing confident and competent children who have a love of reading is absolutely key to a child’s development and future success. We see reading as the key to unlocking the curriculum and a love of learning. Therefore, we prioritise time for independent reading in school and at home and work hard to ensure that children have access to an engaging text that is well-matched to their age and stage of reading development.
Children are taught reading comprehension and fluency in whole class reading sessions, using consistent names for reading skills that are used consistently throughout the school.
While pupils are in the Phonics scheme, they will take home the book they have read in lessons and a reading book matched to their phonics stage. Throughout KS1, children also have access to a range of inspiring stories in the school library that they can share with adults.
As a school, we use Accelerated Reader which assesses the children and helps teachers guide them to books that are on their individual reading levels. Once children have completed the phonics scheme, they take a Star Reader test to determine their ZPD for Accelerated Reader. After each book they read, children are quizzed to check their understanding.
Class Texts
At Farndon Fields Primary School, we also understand the importance for
children to be exposed to range of genres and rich vocabulary. In every
year group, classes have a carefully chosen class text which is read to them daily by an adult. This exposes all children to a range of high-quality texts and genres which they
may not being able to access elsewhere as well as modelling of fluency and prosody.
Writing
At Farndon Fields, we encourage our children to be creative and independent writers. We encourage them to write clearly and with confidence across genres. The children are taught to use punctuation and grammar accurately and edit to make improvements as go they go. We value the development of correct letter formation and neatly presented handwriting through our use of PROUD. We give the children a wide range of opportunities in which to develop their writing skills and display the wonderful work they have produced. Through our English curriculum, we aim to nurture in the children a love of literature and language, and the confidence to continue reading and writing throughout their lives. Teachers work collaboratively to plan writing learning journeys using progression maps. These ensure content is coherently sequenced in small steps and designed to help learners to remember, in the long-term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. The progression maps clearly show which skills need to be taught in each term for each year group
Farndon Fields Primary School is committed to embedding a Maths Mastery curriculum with pedagogies and practices built around the true principles of this.
To support this, we are using a mastery scheme produced by the White Rose Maths Hub, as well as materials to enrich the curriculum from NCETM.
Click here to see the White Rose overview of learning
Our aim in Science is to inspire and motivate our children so they become curious and inquisitive learners. We introduce children to the skills needed to conduct experiments and investigations and ensure that these include a range of different enquiry types. We teach them to observe, record and draw conclusions about the living, material and physical world around them. We ensure that the knowledge that is imparted will be retained, through regular spaced and retrieval practice activities.
In Science, children discover how scientific inventions and thinkers of the past have influenced their lives, the place of Science plays in our lives today in terms of current innovations and jobs and then their personal aspirations for the future.
Teachers work collaboratively to plan Science using progression maps and knowledge mapping to ensure teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. Our Big Ideas curriculum allows children to focus on Science in blocks, ensuring learning is progressive and meaningful, with clear outcomes. The outdoor environment enriches the children’s experiences as well as school trips and visitors to school. Our curriculum includes drivers centred around the past, present and future.
A high-quality Geography curriculum should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.
Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
Aims of Geography knowledge-led curriculum:
To ensure that all pupils:
- Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
- Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.
Ensure that pupils are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- Collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes.
- Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
Teachers work collaboratively to plan Geography using progression maps and knowledge mapping to ensure teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. Our Big Ideas curriculum allows children to focus on Geography in blocks, ensuring learning is progressive and meaningful, with clear outcomes.
A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
Aims of History knowledge-led curriculum:
To ensure that all pupils:
- Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
- Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
- Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
- Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
- Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
- Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.
Teachers work collaboratively to plan history using progression maps and knowledge mapping to ensure teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. Our Big Ideas curriculum allows children to focus on History in blocks, ensuring learning is progressive and meaningful, with clear outcomes.
A high-quality Art and Design curriculum should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
Aims of the Art and Design Curriculum:
- Produce creative work, exploring ideas and recording experiences
- Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
- Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of art forms
Teachers use the Discovery Trust asynchronous resources and planning to support the delivery of Art and Design lessons. Learning Journeys are planned using clear progression to ensure teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.
A high-quality Design and Technology curriculum should be practical in nature, using creativity and imagination to inspire pupils to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within the context of their own lives and the world. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world will be developed. Alongside this, pupils will consider their own and others’ needs, wants and values in relation to product design and manufacturing. Learning how to take risks will allow them to become resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Pupils will continually acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and make links to other disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art.
Aims of the Art and Design Curriculum:
- Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform
everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly
technological world - Build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order
to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of
users - Critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products and the work of others
- Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook
Teachers work collaboratively to plan Design and Technology, using progression maps to ensure teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. Our Big Ideas curriculum allows children to focus on Design & Technology in blocks, ensuring learning is progressive and meaningful, with clear outcomes.
At Farndon Fields Primary School, a high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.
Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems. The core of computing is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.
Implementation
At Farndon Fields Primary School, teachers work collaboratively using subject progression of skills and knowledge mapping to coherently plan and sequence learning journeys designed to allow our pupils to gain cumulatively sufficient knowledge to ensure they are ready for the next stage of their education. This ensures teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.
For Computing, we block learning and re-visit practice over time through a spaced practise approach (Learning Scientists, 2016) as research suggests this will lead to better long-term retention of knowledge. Retrieval practice is a fundamental part of our Computing curriculum as it is proven to strengthen memory and make it easier to retrieve the information later (Rosenshine, 2012).
Aims of Computing knowledge-led curriculum:
The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:
- can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
- can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
- can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
- are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology
At Farndon Fields Primary School, a high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world.
Computing has deep links with mathematics, science, and design and technology, and provides insights into both natural and artificial systems. The core of computing is computer science, in which pupils are taught the principles of information and computation, how digital systems work, and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content. Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.
Implementation
At Farndon Fields Primary School, teachers work collaboratively using subject progression of skills and knowledge mapping to coherently plan and sequence learning journeys designed to allow our pupils to gain cumulatively sufficient knowledge to ensure they are ready for the next stage of their education. This ensures teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.
For Computing, we block learning and re-visit practice over time through a spaced practise approach (Learning Scientists, 2016) as research suggests this will lead to better long-term retention of knowledge. Retrieval practice is a fundamental part of our Computing curriculum as it is proven to strengthen memory and make it easier to retrieve the information later (Rosenshine, 2012).
Aims of Computing knowledge-led curriculum:
The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:
- can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
- can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
- can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
- are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology
A high-quality Music curriculum should engage, inspire, and motivate pupils to develop a love of music, and their talents as composers and musicians. It is a vehicle for personal expression, increasing self-confidence, creativity, and sense of achievement, and thus plays a significant role in the personal development of pupils. As pupils progress, they should develop the skills and knowledge needed to compose, perform, and appreciate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions. Thinking critically will allow them to review and evaluate their developing and growing musical knowledge and skill set.
Aims of the Music Knowledge-led Curriculum:
- Perform, listen to, review, and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles, and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
- Learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music ontheir own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and progress to the next level of musical excellence
- Understand and explore how music is created, produced, and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure, and appropriate musical notations.
Implementation and Leicestershire Music Hub
From 2024, teaching staff use the Leicestershire Music Hub (LMH) Primary Scheme of Work. Teaching staff use the online scheme of work, provided by LMH and its related resources to teach the subject. Staff have received training allowing effective teaching of all aspects of the scheme. Each year group will use previous learning to inform the future, looking back on pieces of music covered in the past. This spiral delivery of the curriculum allows children to see their progression throughout the years.
This scheme aims to block learning and re-visits practice over time through a spaced practise approach, as research suggests this will lead to better long-term retention of knowledge.
Music In Action
As well as specifically planned music lessons throughout the year, children may appreciate music during assemblies. These assemblies are planned to expose children to a diverse range of music, whilst also allowing them to sing and experience music they already enjoy. Music assemblies explore genres of music that children might not have heard before.
By taking part in music lessons and learning journeys within the classroom in addition to music assemblies, children are able to have multiple opportunities to listen to and appreciate music.
Physical Education is a key part of learning at Farndon Fields, with our trust links and local area links providing opportunities for our children to become physically confident in both competitive sport and other physical-demanding activities. The Physical Education curriculum at Farndon Fields makes use of resources within both the school grounds and our local area, such as our trim trail and local swimming pool, to enable children to develop a deep understanding of the importance of health and fitness and inspire children to be physically active. We are driven to ensure that our character values are embedded within all sport; including sportsmanship, fairness and respect.
Where possible, topic links are made when planning our Physical Education curriculum, but we are not limited by this. As it evolves, the Physical Education curriculum at Farndon Fields is being carefully planned and structured to ensure that all children are learning and developing their basic skills, such as throwing, catching, kicking, hitting and other gross motor skills. Once these skills are embedded, we will look at a wider range of sports that children can apply these skills to, and be successful. The school’s approaches are informed by current research and pedagogy about how pupils learn best, and our current learning is linked explicitly to previous learning.
In line with the national curriculum 2014, the Physical Education curriculum at Farndon Fields aims to ensure that all pupils: develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities; are physically active for sustained periods of time; engage in competitive sports and activities and lead healthy, active lives.
Intent
Our intent is for a high-quality Religious Education curriculum which is coherent, progressive, pedagogically and philosophically sound, and promotes the cognitive, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all learners.
Aims of Religious Education knowledge-led curriculum
The principal aim of religious education is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.
The curriculum for RE (in line with the Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus 2021-2026) aims to ensure that all pupils:
Make sense of a range of religious and non-religious beliefs, so that they can:
- Identify, describe, explain and analyse beliefs and concepts in the context of living religions, using appropriate vocabulary.
- Explain how and why these beliefs are understood in different ways, by individuals and within communities.
- Recognise how and why sources of authority (e.g., texts, teachings, traditions, leaders) are used, expressed and interpreted in different ways, developing skills of interpretation.
Understand the impact and significance of religious and non-religious beliefs, so they can:
- Examine and explain how and why people express their beliefs in diverse ways.
- Recognise and account for ways in which people put their beliefs into action in diverse ways, in their everyday lives, within their communities and in the wider world.
- Appreciate and appraise the significance of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning.
Make connections between religious and non-religious beliefs, concepts, practices and ideas studied, so that they can:
- Evaluate, reflect on and enquire into key concepts and questions studied, responding thoughtfully and creatively, giving good reasons for their responses.
- Challenge the ideas studied, and allow the ideas studied to challenge their own thinking, articulating beliefs, values and commitments clearly in response.
- Discern possible connections between the ideas studied and their own ways of understanding the world, expressing their critical responses and personal reflections with increasing clarity and understanding.
(Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus, 2021-2026)
Throughout pupils’ time at Farndon Fields Primary School, teachers should consider how their teaching contributes towards the principal aim of RE in the local area, and how they help pupils to achieve the further aims for a knowledge led RE curriculum.
At Farndon Fields Primary School, teachers work collaboratively using subject progression maps and knowledge mapping to coherently plan and sequence learning journeys designed to allow our pupils to gain cumulatively sufficient knowledge to ensure they are ready for the next stage of their education.
Children’s personal, social and emotional development is crucial for children to lead a healthy and happy life and is fundamental to their cognitive development. As a school we value diversity and foster mutual respect, modelling and inspiring attributes in children such as respect, courtesy and honesty. These underpin and inform the relationships we have, between children and between adults and children. This is evident across our whole school context through our focus on ethos, environment and relationships. It is also delivered through a discrete curriculum program and weaves throughout a range of other subject areas taught within the school curriculum.
PSED, PSHE, RSE and the environment and approaches used to deliver it, enable pupils to build their resilience to cope with change and prepare them for the future by providing a safe environment for debating controversial issues helping them to understand how they can influence and participate in decision making, not only in their own lives but on a local, national and global scale too. It also helps to develop an understanding and appreciation of the wide cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and those of others.
The statutory Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance is taught through our existing PSHE program. Current learning is linked explicitly to previous learning and the school’s approaches are informed by current research and pedagogy about how pupils learn best. Teaching clearly explains the knowledge and concepts needed and provides opportunities for children to practise and apply knowledge and concepts so they are embedded in long term memory and build towards a coherent understanding of the topic.
Our approach develops children’s ability to be reflective in their own beliefs that inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values. It allows children to recognise the difference between right and wrong and to apply this understanding in their own lives, recognise legal boundaries and in doing so respect the civil and criminal law of England. It builds a range of social skills in different contexts and gives children the opportunity to work and socialise with other children from a different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.