Children come to school to learn and at Linslade Lower School we work hard to provide opportunities for all children to achieve the very best they can. We use a creative, engaging curriculum as a means to develop enquiring minds. There is a well-resourced and stimulating environment in which to learn. We aim to foster a love of learning and the skills to be a learner for life. Children at Linslade Lower School make good progress.
All aspects of our curriculum are accessible to all children, irrespective of their ethnic background, gender, disability, religious or linguistic background. We strive hard to meet the needs of those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those who are more able, those with special gifts and talents and the children who are learning English as an additional language.
All children have skills, talents and abilities and as a school we have a responsibility to develop these to the full.
We believe that:
Our Curriculum complies with the statutory requirement laid out in the SEND Code of Practice 0-25 and has been written with reference to the following guidance and documents.
We provide a rich, challenging curriculum, which stretches all of our children. Staff are aware of children who have exceptional talents and gifts and monitor or track their progress carefully to ensure their academic potential or talent is continually developed.
Our curriculum is underpinned by the Essentials Curriculum by Chris Quigley. The Essentials Curriculum sets out the essential coverage, learning objectives and standards which are required for all subjects. Furthermore, it provides progress measures for all subjects including personal development.
One of the primary reasons we chose this curriculum is because it emphasises the importance of developing the depth of children’s learning. In essence, this means providing children with increased cognitive challenge, allowing them to apply the skills which they have learnt independently in a range of contexts rather than moving them onto the next skill needlessly when they have not truly mastered it.
We feel this curriculum provides us with a coherent, progressive and appropriately sequenced curricular structure to enable our pupils to develop subject specific knowledge and skills to prepare them well for the next stages of their education. The curriculum, builds progressively on from the learning in the Foundation Stage. The curriculum is aligned to the National Curriculum and goes beyond National Curriculum requirements in each milestone to ensure repetition of skills and knowledge.
For further information about the curriculum please look at the pages for individual subjects, the class pages for the up to date curriculum coverage and weekly bulletin. For more information please speak to your child's class teacher. If your question is not answered in one of those sources please speak to the headteacher who can be contacted via the school office.
Intent What are we aiming for?
At Linslade Lower School the curriculum should:
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Implementation What do we do? We teach the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum. In addition we have personalised the curriculum for this school with four curriculum drivers: communication, environment, citizenship and wellbeing. Curriculum drivers underpin our subject planning. Mathematics and English are taught discretely. With other subjects we have a flexible approach in order to choose the most appropriate way to teach an objective. Subjects may be grouped into a theme so that children can make links and explore something in depth, they may be taught discretely or some objectives are revisited throughout the year e.g those related to seasons, plants and weather.
From time to time we have special theme days or weeks for example book day, STEM week, arts week, poetry day. They are great fun but also enable children to apply a broad range of skills learnt in other lessons.
We also take children on educational visits and invite specialists into school to enrich, motivate and inspire the children. |
Homework
Each week the class teachers write a curriculum bulletin. In it they inform parents what the focus for learning has been in English and maths. There are suggestions for activities that can be done at home to support the children's learning that we hope families will do. Homework helps to consolidate learning and helps to develop some responsibility for learning. When setting expectations for homework we are mindful that the children work hard in school each day and that families have busy lives at home.
Super Six Learning Powers
The super 6 learning powers are six attributes that we believe are essential for learning successfully. They are promoted throughout the school in every lesson and are celebrated in assembly when children who have demonstrated them receive a certificate.
Since introducing them several years ago we have noticed a great improvement in the children’s resilience and independence. They are lifelong skills which will enable the children to adapt and learn in any context.
Our super 6 learning power are:
commitment, determination, creativity, collaboration, resourcefulness and reflection