Landkey Community Primary Academy
STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE
CARING FOR ALL
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum aims to challenge every child to achieve their best. We do this by creating an environment built on relationships to nurture and develop every member of our school community celebrating their background, individual needs and whole self. Children and staff need to enjoy the process of learning and our enquiry based curriculum promotes both play and curiosity. Raising the ambition of our community is a central aim of our curriculum.
Our vision:
Striving for excellence and caring for all, through an environment that enriches learning.
If you have specific questions regarding Curriculum, contact
Sophie Austen, Deputy Head Teacher: admin@landkey-primary.devon.sch.uk
In phonics we use Read Write Inc. to learn sounds, digraphs & tri graphs in a fun and effective approach. We practice oral blending then blending written sounds into words. As children become confident at blending sounds, they are taught the skill of blending sounds mentally and at speed by the use of the RWI system of ‘Fred in your head’. Children will be exposed to ‘alien’ words throughout Reception and Year 1.
This consistent and rigorous approach will provide our children with the foundations to become enthused readers with a passion for storytelling, literature and vocabulary.
Click here to find out more about Learning to Read Through Phonics
Children will constantly be exposed to a wide range of high quality texts both in English and across the curriculum to ensure we meet the needs of all learners. We will ensure we develop confidence in reading and comprehension.
We believe reading opens up a new world for children and gives them the opportunity to explore new ideas, visit new places, meet new characters and develop a better understanding of other cultures. We will provide opportunities for children to read both independently and aloud as well as allowing them the chance to discuss and recommend books they have read to their peers.
Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum. All children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. With regards to Writing, we intend for pupils to be able to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. To be able to do this effectively, pupils will focus on developing effective composition and the writer’s style. They will also develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We also intend for pupils to leave school being able to use fluent, legible and speedy handwriting.
It is our aim that every child has a high quality maths education built up of a rich and varied curriculum. With our nurturing and caring ethos, we want to provide a safe environment for children to take risks with their learning, be resilient and persevere with the challenge of mathematics. We will endeavour to give the children deep relational understanding, where they make rich connections and are able to apply their skills in other curriculum areas. The children will recognise the importance of maths to everyday life and with this in mind, we will ensure pupils develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards the subject. This includes the staff belief that all pupils are capable of understanding and doing mathematics, given sufficient time. When they leave Landkey they will have confidence, curiosity and a powerful set of skills, to equip them for secondary school and life.
Landkey Primary promotes and develops the oracy skills of our children. Across all subjects, children are exposed to high levels of vocabulary and encouraged to incorporate these into their work as well as social interactions. Strong oracy skills help build confidence in children, increasing their ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in all situations. Assemblies support the development of oracy.
Play helps young children to learn and develop their physical, social, emotional and intellectual skills through doing and talking, which research has shown to be the means by which young children learn to think. It is also how they learn to socialise, as children engage in learning experiences with other children and adults.
The Early Years Foundation Stage is a play based framework that childcare providers use as a tool to ensure that children from birth to five years are developing and learning to their full potential.
We plan and provide a range of play activities, which help children to make progress in each of the seven areas of learning and development.
Early Years
Foundation Stage (EYFS)
We understand that children are naturally curious and we encourage this inquisitive nature throughout their time with us and beyond. Science fosters a healthy curiosity in children about our universe and promotes respect for the living and non-living. We believe science encompasses the acquisition of knowledge, concepts, skills and positive attitudes. In our rapidly evolving world science is a vital part of our curriculum intention. Science stimulates and excites pupils’ curiosity about phenomena and events in the world around them. It also satisfies their curiosity with knowledge because science links direct practical experience with ideas, it can engage learners at many levels. Scientific method is about developing and evaluating explanations through experimental evidence and modelling. Pupils learn to question and discuss science-based issues that may affect their own lives, the direction of society and the future of the world.
Design and Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. It encourages children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems both as individuals and as members of a team. At Landkey Primary Academy, we encourage children to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. We aim to, wherever possible, link work to other disciplines such as mathematics, science, computing and art. The children are also given opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate past and present design technology, its uses and its effectiveness. We aim to develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. Cooking is an important aspect of this curriculum and we ensure the children understand nutrition and apply these principles when learning to cook.
Children are encouraged to become innovators and risk-takers who are able to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
At Landkey, we aim to provide a high quality Art, Craft and Design education that engages, inspires, communicates and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of Art, Craft and Design. As they progress, pupils will develop their critical thinking skills. They will be exposed to a wide range of Art and artists, including those from different periods and cultures which they will explore, investigate and evaluate. This content and approach reinforces our global curriculum, enabling our pupils to become world citizens with an understanding of how Art impacts and enhances societies, past, present and future, and contributes to the culture and creativity of our surroundings.
We recognise the vital role of Art, Craft and Design in allowing curiosity, creativity and self-expression to develop alongside resilience, confidence and critical thinking skills.
Our curriculum is designed to be accessible to all whilst maximising the development of every child’s ability. We follow Access Art to support with planning and assessment. We want our learners to reach and exceed their potential in Art at Landkey Academy and beyond. By the end of Year Six, pupils will have covered all the areas of the Art, Craft and Design curriculum within different contexts and felt a sense of ownership about their sketchbook. The sketchbook will be a place which questions are explored and answered, with responses used to show their understanding of different techniques, processes, ideas or outcomes including work made by artists, craftspeople, architects and designers.
We aim to develop a love of music both in respect to its appreciation and its creation.
Our intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what music is through listening, singing, playing, evaluating, analysing, and composing across a wide variety of historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. Our objective at is to develop a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music, and an unbiased respect for the role that music may wish to be expressed in any person’s life. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts
In supporting this, we also aim to ensure that all pupils develop some understanding when reading musical notation and using this whilst developing a competence with key instruments with KS2 focusing on learning instruments, such as, ukuleles, djembe drums, trumpets, recorders and glockenspiels as part of the wider opportunities in music scheme.
Year 4 have experience of learning an instrument from a specialist teacher.
We aim to engage pupils in systematic enquiry into significant human questions, which religion and worldviews address, so that they can develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop responses of their own.
Through Religious Education we aim to ensure that children know about and develop an understanding of a range of religions so that they can describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practises, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and amongst individuals.
Through this subject we also enable children to express ideas and gain insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews to enable them to express with increasing discernment their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and value including ethical issues.
In addition, teaching this subject at Landkey Primary will allow children to gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews, so that they can articulate beliefs, find out about and investigate key concepts and questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth by responding creatively.
As a school, we recognise the lack of diversity in our local community and see it as a key responsibility to develop respect and tolerance of other cultures, faiths and beliefs through our curriculum.
We are committed to excellence in PE, ensuring that every child values physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. We strive to provide outstanding provision for PE and sport across the school, and aim to give every child the opportunity to reach their full potential across a wide range of physical activities. We understand the vital importance that effective learning in PE has on the holistic development and wellbeing of every child. As such, we strive to promote healthy, active lifestyles and celebrate physical as well as academic achievement.
It is our intent for the Physical Education curriculum to inspire all pupils to enjoy, succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. We will provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way, which supports their health and fitness. We will provide our children with opportunities to compete in sport and other activities to build character and help to embed core values such as fairness and respect.
In Key Stage 1, the children will develop fundamental skills: cognitive, creative, health & fitness, personal, physical and social. These skills will enable children to become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others. Children will experience a range of competitive games in order to challenge their teamwork and thinking skills.
In Key Stage 2, the children will continue to apply and develop the fundamental skills, learning how to use them in different ways and link them to make actions and sequences in movement. We will provide the children with plenty of opportunities to allow them to enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing. Throughout the year, the children will have the opportunity to take part in a variety of games, gymnastics and dance. By the end of Key Stage 2, children will be taught to swim a distance of 25m competently, confidently and proficiently.
In addition, we believe it is fundamental for children to take the initiative and become excellent young leaders, organising and officiating, and evaluating what needs to be done to improve, and motivating and instilling excellent sporting attitudes in others.
We wish to instil and foster pupil’s curiosity, deepen their understanding of the world, and open up their experiences to other cultures.
The core language taught in Key Stage Two is French. It is the intention that all children in KS2 will access first quality teaching of French in order to adequately prepare and lay the foundations for secondary education.
We aim to help pupils understand the relevance of learning about history by developing a keen interest in the past and how it has shaped the present and future.
We will ensure that across both Key Stage 1 & 2, there is a clear progression in history skills and that a range of engaging topics are covered that include local, national and international history.
At Landkey, we will strive to improve certain skills such as interpreting and evaluating sources. We will also work on developing children’s retention of knowledge, such as key facts and dates, following consultation with KS3 staff.
We wish to bring history to life through lessons that provide opportunities to: ask and answer questions, role play, interact with a range of resources, explore fascinating artefacts and attend stimulating educational talks and visits.
History
We want to develop a curiosity in our children about the world around them.
We want pupils to gain a clear understanding of their own locality and gather insights into similar and contrasting locations, both in the UK and globally.
Following contact with local secondary schools, we aim to adapt our teaching of geography in order to better prepare our pupils for KS3/KS4 & beyond by improving teaching and learning in two key areas: locational knowledge and map skills.
Furthermore, at a time when climate change is very much in the forefront of our consciences and the daily news, we want pupils to understand the urgent need to care for our planet and learn about how they can take steps towards protecting it.
We shall strive to make geography more engaging and fun – enabling children to get out and about on more fieldwork trips and also by providing a more interactive experience whilst in school through dynamic and well-resourced lessons, inspiring displays and themed days.
We want pupils to be MASTERS of technology. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in students' lives. Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want our pupils to be creators not consumers and our broad curriculum encompassing computer science, information technology and digital literacy reflects this.
We want our pupils to understand that there is always a choice with using technology and as a school we utilise technology to model positive use. We recognise that the best prevention for a lot of issues we currently see with technology/social media is through education. Building our knowledge in this subject will allow pupils to effectively demonstrate their learning through creative use of technology. We recognise that technology can allow pupils to share their learning in creative ways.
We also understand the accessibility opportunities technology can provide for our pupils. Our knowledge rich curriculum has to be balanced with the opportunity for pupils to apply their knowledge creatively which will in turn help our pupils become skilful computer scientists. We encourage staff to try and embed computing across the whole curriculum to make learning creative and accessible. We want our pupils to be fluent with a range of tools to best express their understanding and hope by Upper Key Stage 2, children have the independence and confidence to choose the best tool to fulfil the task and challenge set by teachers.
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PHSE & RSE
