Southery Curriculum – developing knowledge and vocabulary.

Intent

Our curriculum is designed to empower, engage and to encourage children to be in control of their own learning. Our ultimate aim is that learners will feel motivated to enjoy their learning  both inside and outside of the class room and will have developed the perseverance, resilience and love of learning required for the next phase of their education.

We place importance on our children learning to make links between all areas of the curriculum, enrich their learning through a range of additional resources and give them experiences in school enhancing their cultural capital. We intend to raise aspirations of the children through a knowledge based curriculum which is taught in an innovative and creative way to enable our children to continuously achieve and celebrate their success. Through our curriculum and learning behaviour development we can transform the future opportunities and progress of the children, as well as encouraging them to embrace and appreciate all that they can experience at Southery Academy.

In all aspects of school, we encourage our children to display our key learning behaviours; our curriculum supports these and rewards are given when they are demonstrated.

Our key learning behaviours are:

• Engagement
• Independence
• Love of learning
• Perseverance
• Pride
• Resilience
• Respect
• Teamwork

For all our subject areas, we have designed  clear Intent, Implementation and Impact statements that we feel are important for the children at Southery. This ensures they have a broad, balanced and interesting curriculum. 

Our Implementation

At Southery Academy we have developed a knowledge rich curriculum that is tailored to meet the needs of our school community, as well as ensuring that the curriculum meets the requirements of the National Curriculum.

The curriculum focusses on 3 key areas that we feel are important for all children at Southery Academy:

• Knowledge and Understanding.
• Key Vocabulary.
• Cultural capital.

Each teaching and learning unit encompasses these areas, with vocabulary being an important part of learning for all children. Partnerships with outside groups, as well as Educational visits, help to enhance the delivery of the curriculum. Educational visits are encouraged and we aim for 1 visit per term for each class, which is part of our ‘cultural capital’.

The children study a wide range of subjects within their lessons, which follow the National Curriculum; this includes Languages at Key stage 2 and opportunities for Technology and ICT in both Key stage 1 and 2.

Integral to this is ensuring that we provide a balance with the ‘essentials’ of Maths, Reading and Writing, alongside the subjects within the National curriculum. These life skills and opportunities will instil a love of learning and new knowledge that will equip the children for their lives beyond Southery Academy.

Core Subjects.

The Maths curriculum follows the National Curriculum with teachers using the White Rose curriculum, to support their planning. Mastery of maths is at the heart of teacher planning with the aim that pupils master key concepts and methodology in maths, as well as providing opportunities for ‘greater depth’ learning. We will ensure that there are additional opportunities for numeracy across other subject areas. The Academy has also adopted the EMAT Maths teaching policy to ensure an effective and consistent approach to raise the quality of teaching and learning, and therefore standards. See below for the whole school long term plan for mathematics. Please click on this link to take you to the policies page, which includes our maths policy 

The English curriculum and lessons focus on both writing and reading following Jane Considine's Write Stuff scheme of work, with reading being a whole school focus at the Academy. As with maths, the curriculum follows the National Curriculum and there are opportunities for English within all other subjects. Key vocabulary in all subjects is essential, with not just the spelling but the understanding and therefore use of language in writing.

The Science curriculum has been developed with key knowledge and understanding, vocabulary and essential skills needed for Science. Each class has a 2 year programme, with planning, observing and evaluating key skills the children are developing in Science. The overview for each class is below:

The documents below outline the curriculum intents for each subject at Southery Academy. Over the course of each child’s time at Southery it is the intent that they will be taught all of the objectives within these documents and will be able to apply these skills to other areas of their learning. Each class is taught the knowledge curriculum over a two year rolling programme due to mixed age classes.

We consider PSHE to have an important role as part of the curriculum for the children at Southery Academy. We have designed a programme for PSHE that is both relevant to the children, as well as meeting the criteria of the National curriculum. PSHE is not only embedded within the curriculum, but is also taught as a stand alone lesson once a week during the class assembly time. 

See the PSHE tab for overviews for PSHE for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

The RSE curriculum details are In the information section.

The school organises regular enhancement opportunities for the curriculum, alongside ‘cultural capital’ events and this year will include:

• World book week
• NSPCC Number Day
• Mental Health Awareness week

Our Impact

We measure the impact of our curriculum by doing the following:

• By making informal judgements as we observe Teaching & Learning during lessons.
• The class teacher comments and feedback on completed work as necessary.
• At the end of a unit a judgement is made about the knowledge and understanding of Science for each pupil, as well as their use and understanding of key vocabulary
• Regular reviews of the curriculum.
• The subject leader also speaks with the children about their learning to ensure the curriculum remains relevant and teaching and learning activities are continuing to provide the right level of challenge and interest for the children.

Ultimately, our aim is to work together in our learning. We want to create a happy, supportive and productive working environment, where we can support each other and achieve together.