Curriculum Intent

The views of parents and carers have been taken into account with key themes such as celebrating the local area; sustainability and the environment; diversity and globalisation, creativity and outdoor learning getting strong support.

It is designed to ensure that children’s experiences during their time at Campsbourne foster and enhance their natural love of learning developing them academically, morally, physically, creatively, personally and socially.

Strong literacy and numeracy skills are the bedrock upon which so much is built. The ability to communicate both verbally and in written form and to listen and read what others are communicating to us is the bedrock of a cohesive society. Mathematical skills, whether they be number, spatial awareness or the ability to reason and think logically are vital if we are going to solve the problems which we face as a global community.

Our society needs scientists and engineers, nurses and doctors, designers and builders, actors and musicians, authors and artists and the list goes on. So we have created a curriculum that provides children with the experiences that we hope will inspire them to dream and the skills and knowledge they will require to pursue their own ambitions whatever they may be.

We have designed a curriculum that encourages and develops children’s creativity and creative thinking. We want our children to be able to use their knowledge to be critical thinkers, to develop their own thoughts and ideas and to think out of the box to solve problems.

We want our children to know how to look after themselves physically and emotionally. To be fit and active, to understand where food comes from and its impact on our health and the environment. To understand themselves and how they can manage the challenges which life presents, taking risks and demonstrating resilience whilst maintaining a healthy mental wellbeing.

Our curriculum is designed to prepare our children for life in a world which is increasingly fragile both environmentally and socially. We want our children to develop a connection and understanding of the natural world and how we can better live in harmony with it. We also want our children to develop open minds, to think critically and to challenge the status quo, and be able to debate and discuss social and moral issues whilst retaining respect and tolerance of different views.

We want our children to leave Campsbourne with a sense of belonging to a local and global community, which they contribute towards through the decisions they make and the time they offer to others.

Implementation

Locality

We have designed a curriculum unique to Campsbourne that provides children with real life experiences that are focused around our locality. Examples include:

• Our reading program is designed to provide children with texts that explore issues relevant to our community. For example during the summer term when Refugee Week is celebrated, children in years 2 to 6 are reading books which explore refugee stories.
• At the end of each academic year children in years 2 to 6 enjoy adventurous activities to broaden their sporting experiences. These consist of:
  • Year 2 Go Ape in Alexandra Palace
  • Year 3 Orienteering at Lea Valley
  • Year 4 BMX Riding at the Olympic Park in Stratford
  • Year 5 Indoor Climbing at Castle Rock Climbing Centre
  • Year 6 Canoeing and Caving at Hertfordshire Young Mariners Base
• In all year groups children benefit from Forest School sessions which take place in Alexandra Palace Park, supporting their mental health and developing a connection with the natural world.
• Our history units in years 2 and 6 have been written in partnership with the education department at Alexandra Palace to celebrate and learn about this historical landmark.
• Our art curriculum celebrates British art history whilst making the most of visits to London’s world class galleries to celebrate global artists.
• Our geography curriculum has been designed in partnership with a geography consultant to ensure that our curriculum is linked to the local area where possible.

Links Across the Curriculum and within Subjects

We have designed the curriculum so that topics and themes reoccur, providing children with the opportunity to recall previous learning and build on what they already know so that they have a deep understanding of key concepts. For example in geography the themes of sustainability, globalisation, interconnections and stereotypes are interwoven into the units. We have also mapped out the curriculum so that children revisit topics in different units as they move through the school. For example in Year 4 children learn about Roman Britain and in Year 6 they learn about Roman mosaics in Art.

Enquiry and Discovery

Where appropriate, units of works explore ‘Big Questions’ which children are encouraged to debate. For example in the Religious Education curriculum children discuss the following ‘Big Questions’.

• Reception – What makes people special?
• Year 1 – Does God want Christians to look after the world?
• Year 2 – What is the best way for a Jew to show commitment to God?
• Year 3 – What values/morals can you learn from the story of Easter/Good Friday?
• Year 4 – What is the best way for a Buddhist to lead a good life?
• Year 5 – Prayer and Worship- What is the best way for a Sikh to show commitment to God?
• Year 6 – Beliefs and Practices-What is the best way for a Muslim to show commitment to god?

Our science curriculum, Empiribox, prioritises investigations and experiments so that children experience learning rather than reading from a text book.

In Geography all units have opportunities for fieldwork built into them. These include mapping the schools grounds and immediate vicinity; a survey on / of the local high street and river studies.

Outdoor Learning

We make the most of the outdoor environment to provide children with a greater connection with the natural world e.g. Forest School and the school garden or to provide a variety of experiences e.g. sketching outdoors, finding shapes around the school, measuring the playground etc. This helps to support their mental wellbeing by ensuring children develop a connection with the natural world.

Creativity

Opportunities to develop their own ideas and thoughts are fundamental to writing and art. Writing WOW Weeks are integrated into the curriculum to provide children with opportunities to write creatively. Art units are designed to provide children with opportunities to develop their own pieces of art based on their thoughts and ideas. There are also opportunities for creative thinking such as finding their own solutions to mathematical problems, designing products to meet specific needs or investigating scientific concepts. Children are provided with real life and practical learning activities so that they can discover rather than be told.

Early Reading

Children begin reading as soon as they enter school. We follow the Letters and Sounds program which has been rigorously mapped out across Nursery to Year 1.

Children are assessed every half term from Reception onwards to ensure that any gaps are identified and appropriate support put in place. From January onwards children in reception who have begun blending sounds to make words read in small groups with an adult for 10mins every day so they can practise reading sentences and build up their sight vocabulary.

Phonics

Throughout the Early Years and Year 1, phonics is taught through the Letters and Sounds program. Children begin learning their individual phonemes as soon as they have completed Phase One which focuses on environmental sounds.

Once children begin learning the individual sounds or phonemes they also begin learning how to blend sounds for reading and how to spell words by segmenting words into individual sounds, as well as building up a sight vocabulary for words which are not decodable e.g. the.

Each half term children are assessed to identify who needs additional support / adapted provision to ensure they do not full behind. Children are teacher assessed for their ability to recall sounds, their ability to blend these sounds to read words and also to segment words into these sounds as well as their ability to spell their sight vocabulary words.

Spelling

The ‘No Nonsense Spelling’ programme is used from Years 2-6 which provides children with the deeper understanding of spelling rules / patterns. The programme is designed to specifically meet the needs of the National Curriculum with lessons focusing on spelling taking place 5 times a week in year 2 and 2 to 3 times a week in Key Stage 2. However, we also ensure that the teaching and learning of spellings become an integral and engaging part of every lesson. Throughout our Talk for Writing, Destination Reader and foundation subjects, the children are constantly exposed to new vocabulary and the spelling patterns of these words.

Daily Supported Reading (Year 1)

Daily Supported Reading (DSR) gives our school the tools to deliver effective reading support for younger children. Following the DSR programme instils good reading routines and practice from a young age and helps all children increase their enjoyment and maximise their progress in reading by ensuring children are reading for meaning.  This program is taught in year 1 and for some children in year 2 and involves children reading in small groups (max 6) with an adult every day for 30 minutes. During a session children will

• Be introduced to a text which they will discuss making links with their own experience or knowledge and make predictions about what they think will happen.
• Every child is listened to read so that the adult can support them with using their phonic knowledge to decode words and to develop other strategies such as reading for meaning and seeing words within words for words which are not phonetically decodable.
• Children discuss what they have read and respond to questions to check their understanding of the text.
• Finally the children put sentences together using word cards.
• We also include teaching 6 high frequency words or common misconception words weekly to enable the children to maximise their learning within the session.

Guided Reading (Year 2)

In Year 2 we teach reading through daily Guided Reading sessions. Guided reading sessions aim to build on the foundations established through Daily Supported Reader sessions in Year 1, whilst supporting children to transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Guided Reading sessions take place daily and last for 30 minutes. During guided reading, the children are grouped according to their reading needs and strengths. Throughout the course of the week, the teacher works with each group to teach them strategies that will enable them to become more independent, fluent and skilled readers. The children then apply these skills to books at their instructional reading level, through independent or paired activities. The children work on their comprehension skills both orally and in written form and in doing so develop their ability to discuss texts that they have read by asking and answering questions and making predictions. A variety of interesting and challenging texts are used to expose the children to new and ambitious vocabulary.​

Destination Reader (KS2)

Destination Reader involves daily lessons incorporating whole class modelling, prior to the children applying these skills through partner work and independent reading. Children deepen their understanding of the texts they read through the systematic use of a series of strategies and language stems. We use a variety of texts throughout KS2 from classics such as Charlotte’s Web in Year 5 and George’s Marvellous Medicine in Year 3, to more modern literature such as The Boy at the Back of the Class in Year 4 and Who Let the God’s Out? In Year 6. We aim to ensure the texts we use in class for these sessions make links elsewhere across the curriculum and represent our wonderfully diverse community. For example in the summer term children read stories about refugees as part of our work around Refugee Week.

Talk for Writing

Our literacy is taught through the Talk for Writing approach which enables children to imitate the key language they need for a particular genre orally before they try reading and analysing it. Through fun activities that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need, followed by shared writing to show them how to craft their writing, children are helped to write in the same style. It consists of three stages of teaching:

1. Imitation Stage – the children learn a text and the language they need
2. Innovation Stage – the children adapt the model text with ideas of their own
3. Invention Stage – the children create their own text using the language and skills that the model taught them.

Maths

Maths is taught through Mathematics Mastery in Key Stage One and Years 3 and 4 and White Rose Maths in Years 5 and 6. Our teaching approach is based on 7 key classroom principles:

• SUCCESS FOR ALL – Every child can enjoy and succeed in mathematics as long as they are given the appropriate learning opportunities.
• DEEPER UNDERSTANDING – Allowing time to fully explore and apply ideas enables pupils to truly grasp the concepts they are learning.
• PROBLEM-SOLVING – Encouraging pupils to identify, connect and apply relevant mathematical principles to solve new problems.
• MATHEMATICAL THINKING – Developing the skills to be systematic, generalise, come up with new ideas and seek out patterns.
• MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE – Strengthening conceptual understanding through discussion, armed with the language to explain and reason. Children are encouraged every day to take part in mathematical discussions where they can share their thinking, ideas and reason mathematically. Investigative activities are planned to ensure these skills are developed with the children work collaboratively and independently to solve problems and justify their answers.
• MULTIPLE REPRESENTATIONS – Using objects, pictures, numbers and symbols to represent mathematical ideas and make connections in different ways.
• FLUENCY – Children develop their fluency through practising key skills e.g. number bonds, times table and are given time to perfect their calculation strategies so that they are able to engage with more complex, multistep problems.

Science

Science is taught for one afternoon each week through a program called Empiribox which is a comprehensive science program that teaches children complex scientific concepts through weekly practical experiments. Each term the children focus on either biology, physics or chemistry knowledge. For example in Physics – An Introduction to Forces (KS1) and Forces and Magnetism (KS2) the children learn the following:

Each term the children also focus one of the skill sets of Planning a Scientific Investigation; Collecting and Analysing Data and Evaluation of a Scientific Investigation. As children progress through the years they embed what they have learnt in previous years whilst being introduced to new and more complex skills. See table below for Evaluation of a Scientific Investigation example.

Computing

Computing is taught for an hour each week through the Rising Stars Switched On Curriculum. This curriculum covers the following areas:

• Programming
• Computational thinking
• Creativity
• Computer networks
• Communication and collaboration
• Productivity
• Online safety

We have further enhanced the children’s experiences by investing in other technologies to bring the curriculum to life. For example programming is taught using a suite of Ohbots (Robots) and Laptops which are used to program the robots.

Where possible links are made with other curriculum areas so that children are encouraged to recall previous learning and embed their knowledge. For example in Year 5 the children create a website about the Romans which they will have learnt about in Year 4.

Design and Technology

Design and Technology is taught in termly blocks lasting around one week using the scheme of work from the Design and Technology Association. This scheme develops young children’s skills and knowledge in design, structures, textiles, mechanisms, electrical control and a range of materials, including food. Each unit incorporates the key skills of designing, making and evaluating combined with increased technical knowledge with expectations increasing as they move through the key stages. Design and Technology encourages children’s creativity and we encourage them to think about the important issues identified by the school community of sustainability and the environment incorporating these into units where possible.

Children are teacher assessed against key Design and Technology skills and the knowledge acquired in each unit.

History

History is taught for one term each year. We have identified key themes of Food, Leisure, Monarchy and Power, Local History and Knowledge and Understanding of British and Global History, which run through the units, where appropriate. This enables children to develop their understanding of chronology and how the key themes have changed over time. Key language and knowledge for each unit is identified to ensure that children are developing their knowledge of key words and concepts to aid their understanding.

We have also created our own unique units to ensure that we make the most of the historical significance of local land marks. For example, we have worked closely with the Education Department at Alexandra Palace to develop two units in years 2 and 6.

Children are teacher assessed against key historical enquiry skills and the knowledge acquired in each unit.

Geography

Geography is taught for one term each year. We have created our own units in partnership with a consultant and have identified the following key themes which run through the units (challenging stereotypes, interconnections, globalisation and sustainability) enabling children to develop their understanding over time. Key language and knowledge for each unit is identified to ensure that children are developing their knowledge of key words / concepts to aid their understanding.

We have also developed units which make the most of our local environment and enable opportunities for geographical fieldwork with children completing activities in each unit to observe, measure record and present their geographical findings.

Children are teacher assessed against key geographical enquiry skills and the knowledge acquired in each unit.

Religious Education

We teach the Locally Agreed Syllabus using the Discover RE program. Religious Education is taught for each half term for one hour. This program places a focus on an enquiry approach with children answering key questions The key question for the enquiry is such that it demands an answer that weighs up ‘evidence’ and reaches a conclusion based on this. This necessitates children using their subject knowledge and applying it to the enquiry question, rather than this knowledge being an end in itself. Below are some example questions:

• Reception – What makes people special?
• Year 1 – Does God want Christians to look after the world?
• Year 2 – What is the best way for a Jew to show commitment to God?
• Year 3 – What values/morals can you learn from the story of Easter/Good Friday?
• Year 4 – What is the best way for a Buddhist to lead a good life?
• Year 5 – Prayer and Worship- What is the best way for a Sikh to show commitment to God?
• Year 6 – Beliefs and Practices-What is the best way for a Muslim to show commitment to god?

The enquiry approach has 4 key steps: Engagement, Investigation, Evaluation and Expression. Discovery RE focuses on critical thinking skills, on personal reflection into the child’s own thoughts and feelings, on growing subject knowledge and nurturing spiritual development.

Children are teacher assessed against key statements which get progressively more challenging as they move through the years. The focus of these statements is ensuring that children are able to apply their knowledge to an enquiry question and not just recall ‘facts’.

Art

Children are teacher assessed against key skills and the knowledge acquired in each unit. For example in painting:

Our Art Curriculum has been designed to incorporate British Art History, the world class Galleries in London and to build on previous learning in other curriculum areas, most notably Humanities and RE. Our class names have been chosen to reflect British Art History. They have been carefully selected to ensure there is equal representation of male and female artists and of artists from different cultural backgrounds. Each class learns about the artists from both classes in their year group.

Our art curriculum also incorporates the wide range of different galleries and forms of art available across London with children basing their art work on a different gallery each year which they also visit.

Links are also made with RE, geography and history topics enabling children to build on learning from previous year groups and across different subjects.

Music

Our music curriculum is designed to harness our children’s creativity helping them to find their singing voices and enabling them to flourish as composers, performers and listeners throughout their time at our school, providing them with a new tool of communication that they can use and enjoy in the wider community.

The Music curriculum is divided into these four key areas

• Singing
• Performing
• Composing and Improvising
• Listening and Evaluating

The children develop their singing voices through singing lessons, singing starters through to performance lessons and singing assemblies.

The children acquire knowledge and develop skills for composing and performing on instruments and with voice in music lessons. These will be primarily practical sessions and there will be much overlap between the two disciplines.

There are opportunities for pupils to be exposed to live performances inside of school. Pupils also listen to and evaluate music during music lessons, often as a plenary activity to reinforce their practical learning.

We focus on quality music from different genres, eras and traditions which are linked to other curriculum areas and also the ethnic diversity of our community.

The children are teacher assessed against the four key skills and the knowledge acquired in each unit.

Physical Education

Our PE curriculum is designed to ensure children experience a wide range of sports and has the clear aim of ensuring that all children can swim and ride a bike before they leave Campsbourne. We are fortunate to have a small swimming pool which we use for swimming lessons starting with weekly lessons in Years 1 and 2 before going to three half termly blocks of weekly lessons in Years 3 to 6. Once children meet the National aims of 25m on front and back children stop swimming and get additional PE lessons allowing more focused provision for those who have not met the target.

Cycling provision begins in the Early Years with the use of balance bikes before children progress to Level 1 and 2 Cycling Proficiency.

We have also assigned a teaching assistant during the afternoons to enhance PE provision. The teaching assistant is responsible for supporting classes with normal PE lessons, teaching children to ride pedal bikes in small groups and increasing the number of children who are participate in Haringey Sports Competitions.

Children are teacher assessed against key skills and the knowledge acquired in each unit.

PSHE inc (Relationships and Sex Education)

PSHE is timetabled for one hour every week and is taught using the Cambridgeshire Primary Personal Development Programme as a foundation and then enhance with the links to external organisation e.g. Women Solace Aid who deliver Power of Women workshops and Gangs Against Violence in Year 5. The curriculum is mapped over two years to ensure all units are covered and is closely tied into the school’s program of assemblies so that topics being taught in class are being reinforced during whole school assemblies and weekly Keeping Safe Assemblies for individual phases also delivered to ensure that this topic is covered. Relationships and Sex Education is covered each year as is e-Safety which has been incorporated into the PSHE timetable.

Modern Foreign Language (Spanish)

Campsbourne is a multilingual school with more than 40 languages spoken by our students. This provides us with an invaluable opportunity to teaching Spanish as a great percentage of our students already possess language learning strategies in place that they have made use of when learning English.

We emphasise the principle of constantly “recycling” language as the key to becoming a proficient language learner and so we include this as part of our planned lessons.

In each lesson we ensure that the learning reaches each student by making use of as many language learning strategies as possible. At their initial stage, in year 2, we use a multi-sensory and kinaesthetic approach to teaching, so students can familiarise themselves with the sound of the target language. We introduce them to familiar Spanish songs and stories as they learn to use actions and rhymes to aid memorisation and the use of gestures to show understanding and/or recognise words that the teacher mouths silently. They are encouraged to use these strategies independently through the years, becoming masters at it.

This naturally stimulates the development of their reading and writing skills, helping them to gain an all-round understanding of the language. Additionally, they become very confident at making use of punctuation as well as making use of accurate pronunciation and intonation.

As part of our curriculum our students learn the importance of an international understanding, which gives us a golden opportunity to link Spanish across other subjects such geography and music. For example, in Year 5 children learn about flamenco rhythms using guitars.

To support us delivering our Spanish curriculum we follow the broad guidelines set out in the KS2 Framework for Languages to set objectives for each year group in all five strands of the language learning:

• Oracy
• Literacy
• Knowledge about the language
• Language learning strategies
• Intercultural understanding

We strongly believe that to enhance the natural love of our children to learn languages, it is paramount that they have lots of opportunities to practise in a fun, relaxing and creative environment where they feel safe to make mistakes and correct each other in a supportive and caring environment.

Forest School

Children benefit from Forest School sessions from Nursery through to Year 6. The vast majority of these sessions take place in Alexandra Park but we also have a school garden on site where den building and fire making also take place in a safe environment.

We introduced Forest School in to all our year groups because of the benefits learning outdoors and developing a greater connection with the natural environment can have on children’s mental health and their overall development. The holistic approach of Forest School helps to enhance children’s physical, intellectual, language, emotional, social and spiritual development.

We have developed our own curriculum which ensures that children progress year on year. From nursery to Year 6.