Curriculum Intent

When designing our curriculum 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.

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.

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

Strong literacy and numeracy skills are the foundation 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.

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 stories about refugees.
• 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 Hampstead Heath
  • Year 4 BMX Riding at the Olympic Park in Stratford
  • Year 5 Indoor Climbing at Castle Rock Climbing Centre
  • Year 6 Kayaking at West Reservoir
• In Nursery and Reception children benefit from regular Forest School sessions whilst in Years 1 (Autumn),  Year 3 (Spring)  and Year 5 (Summer) they enjoy weekly sessions during their chosen term. These take place in Alexandra Palace Park and help to support the children’s mental health and developing a connection with the natural world.
• Our history unit in Year 2 has been written in partnership with the education department at Alexandra Palace to celebrate and learn about this historical landmark. In Year 5 children compare the Ancient Civilisations of The Mayans and Ancient Baghdad whilst in Year 6 we have written a unit which starts with World War 2 and then moves on to explore post war immigration and its impact on the local area.
• Our art curriculum celebrates British art history including artists from different cultural backgrounds which reflect our school community and make the most of educational visits to London’s world class galleries to celebrate and learn about 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 and key social issues of our times including sustainability, globalisation, inter-connections and challenging stereotypes.

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?

Educational Visits

We have developed a wide range of educational visits and workshops which are designed to bring the curriculum to life and enrich children’s experiences. These include annual visits to art galleries; trips to places of religious significance; museums, zoos and farms and our annual adventure sports trips. Educational Visits Overview 2024-2025

Sustainability

We have built sustainability and climate change into our curriculum. Our science program, White Rose Science, includes specific units on sustainability and in geography sustainability is a consistent theme which runs through all units. In Year 1 children understand that through recycling/litter picking, we can help to protect our environment whilst in Year 5 children learn about the impact of global energy use on the climate.

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 and Phonics

Our aim is for all children to be confident and fluent readers by the end of Year 2. Children begin reading as soon as they enter school with books playing a significant role from nursery onwards. We follow the Sounds Write phonics scheme which is a high-quality program endorsed by the DfE. High quality phonics teaching enables children to decode new words confidently and apply these skills when reading. As soon as children are  blending sounds to make words they read phonetically decodable books, which are part of the Sounds Write programme, in small groups with an adult for 10mins every day so they can practise they fundamental skills of blending sounds to read sentences and segmenting sounds for writing.

Children are assessed every half term from Reception onwards to ensure that any gaps are identified and appropriate support put in place.

Spelling

The Sounds Write  programme is taught throughout the school with the emphasis in Years 2-6 on spelling. This provides children with a deeper understanding of the different ways (graphemes) are used to make sounds (phonemes) to create words. This program avoids the often misleading concept of spelling rules / patterns which generally only work some of the time. The programme is taught 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 is an integral and engaging part of our Talk for Writing, Destination Reader and foundation subjects lessons, where children are constantly exposed to new vocabulary.

Reading (Year 1)

In Year 1 children continue reading the Sounds Write books which are phonetically sequenced and provide children with the opportunity to develop their blending skills using more complex phonemes / sounds. The teacher listens to every child each week so that they can support them with using their phonic knowledge to blend phonemes / sounds. In Year 1 we also introduce children to comprehension questions which children record in their reading books ensuring that children are reading for meaning.

Guided Reading (Year 2)

In Year 2 we teach reading through daily Guided Reading sessions which 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 White Rose Maths. 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 White Rose Science which teaches practical approaches to science in an engaging and logical way. The schemes of learning provide full coverage of the national curriculum for science and also cover scientific questions around sustainability and the planet, and help children develop an empathy for the local and wider environment; key themes of our wider curriculum.

The key to the success of White Rose Science is their small steps approach breaking down the essential aspects of key stage science into easily digestible chunks. Through experiment, practice and discussion, children gain core knowledge around:

• Scientific vocabulary
• ‘Working scientifically’ skills including systematic and careful observations and following practical scientific methods
• The gathering and interpretation of straightforward scientific evidence
• The use of everyday materials and scientific equipment to solve science problems
• Articulating scientific concepts and using five types of science enquiries

We believe that children should be taught science in a way that helps nurture an understanding of the value of scientific skills. We think science learning should be engaging and inspiring.

Computing

Computing is taught for one hour each week through the Teach Computing Curriculum which has been developed by the National Centre for Computing Education.

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.

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. 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.

This subject has been enhanced by the implementation of Taste Ed. The Taste Ed program follows the SAPERE method of sensory food education which was developed in the 1970s by Jacques Puisais (born in 1927) a French wine expert and chemist. Puisais had become concerned that a generation of modern French children were growing up with very limited palates and diets. In a food environment in which big manufacturers had started to push a range of processed foods that tended to be sweet and soft, Puisais observed that children tended to have narrow tastes. They no longer appreciated sour, hard or bitter foods.

Puisais wanted to create a system of education that could equip children with sensory knowledge of – and joy in – a wider range of foods. He founded the French Institute of Taste and in 1974 he started the first ‘taste education classes’ in French primary schools: les classes du goût. The method has now spread to numerous other countries including Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Japan.

You can find out more information about this exciting program at thir website www.tasteeducation.com

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 and provide opportunities to learn about the history of all members of our local community. For example, we have worked closely with the Education Department at Alexandra Palace to develop a unit in year 2 and in Year 6 children learn about the impact of post war immigration.

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:

Painting	To use paint to create pictures and to colour models.	Use thick and thin brushes. Mix primary colours to make secondary. Add white to colours to make tints and black to colours to make shades. Create colour wheels.	Use a number of brush techniques using thick and thin brushes to produce shapes, textures, patterns and lines. Mix colours effectively. Use watercolour paint to produce washes for backgrounds then add detail. Experiment with creating mood with colour.	Sketch (lightly) before painting to combine line and colour. Create a colour palette based upon colours observed in the natural or built world. Use the qualities of watercolour and acrylic paints to create visually interesting pieces. Combine colours, tones and tints to enhance the mood of a piece. Use brush techniques and the qualities of paint to create texture. Develop a personal style of painting, drawing upon ideas from other artists.
	To know the primary colours (Blue / Yellow and Red)	To know the secondary colours (Green / Orange and Violet) To know that a tint is a mixture of a colour with white to reduce darkness. To know that a shade is a mixture of a colour with black to increase darkness.	To know the tertiary colours (Yellow / Orange, Red / Orange, Red / Violet, Blue / Violet, Blue / Green and Yellow Green)	To know the difference between water colour and acrylic paints.

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.

Year Group	Artist	Period	Style
Reception	Gwen John	1876-1939	Portraits
Reception	Thomas Gainsborough	1727-1788	Portraits
Year 1	Chris Ofili	Born 1968	Black culture/history
Year 1	Bridget Riley	Born 1931	Abstract
Year 2	Barbara Hepworth	1903-1975	Sculpture
Year 2	Henry Moore	1898-1986	Sculpture
Year 3	David Hockney	Born 1937	Polaroid photography/Pop Art
Year 3	Julia Margaret Cameron	1815-1879	Portrait photography
Year 4	Rachel Whiteread	Born 1963	Negative space sculpture
Year 4	Anish Kapoor	Born 1954	Sculpture
Year 5	JMW Turner	1775-1851	Landscape, Romanticism
Year 5	Elizabeth Thompson	1846-1933	Oil paintings, history
Year 6	Lubaina Himid	Born 1954	Paintings & installations
Year 6	Yinka Shonibare	Born 1962	Mixed media

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.

Year 1	October Gallery
Year 2	National Portrait Gallery
Year 3	V&A Gallery
Year 4	William Morris Gallery
Year 5	Wallace Collection
Year 6	Saatchi Gallery

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

Year 1	An artist from the contrasting Non-European Country studies in Geography
Year 2	African Art (Geography)
Year 3	Islamic Art (Religious Education)
Year 4	Ancient Civilisations in the Americas (Geography)
Year 5	Landscapes (History – Alexandra Palace)
Year 6	Roman and Greek Art (History)

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 use Get Set 4 PE as our Scheme of Work for PE. We are also fortunate to have a small swimming pool which we use for swimming lessons starting with lessons in Years 1 and 2 where children are split into groups of 10 and receive weekly lessons for two half terms a year.  In Years 3 to 6 the classes are split into 2 groups of 15 and receive weekly lessons for three half terms a year. 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.

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

PSHE inc (Relationships and Sex Education)

Our PSHE lessons are timetabled for one hour every week and are taught using the Cambridgeshire Primary Personal Development Programme as a foundation. Relationships and Sex Education, which is now statutory, is taught in each year group; as is e-Safety (both of which are incorporated into the school’s yearly PSHE scheme of work).

Some aspects of our PSHE curriculum are taught through cross-curricular links with other subjects, for example ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ is taught through Design and Technology during week-long Taste Ed sessions and ‘Healthy and Safer Lifestyles: Managing Safety and Risk’ through Forest School.

PSHE topics are further enhanced by visits from and/or workshops with external organisations such as Solace Women’s Aid (who deliver Protect our Women and Mental Health and Wellbeing workshops), Narconon Drugs and alcohol awareness (Year 6) and Gangs Against Violence (Year 5).

Our PSHE curriculum is also closely linked to the school’s programme of assemblies thereby ensuring topics taught in class are reinforced through whole school assemblies. Furthermore, our weekly ‘Keeping Safe’ assemblies for each of the phases continue to underpin the aims of our lessons on personal safety.

​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. Spanish is taught in Key Stage 2 by class teachers using the Jolie Ronde Program.

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.

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.

Year Group	Forest School Provision
Nursery	Weekly sessions lasting approximately one hour.
Reception	Weekly sessions lasting approximately one hour.
Year 1	Weekly sessions lasting approximately 2 hours. These sessions take place during Autumn
Year 3	Weekly sessions lasting approximately 2 hours. These sessions take place during Spring
Year 5	Weekly sessions lasting approximately 2 hours. These sessions take place during Summer

We introduced Forest School through all key stages 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 the EYFS to end of Key Stage 2.