Curriculum

At Lower Meadow Primary School, where we have an increasingly diverse community, we believe the teaching of Religious Education is important to support our children in their understanding and respect for all.

Our intention is to support the pupils’ acquisition of the knowledge and understanding of the principal religions represented within the UK. We feel it is important for them to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and our behaviour. Learning about other faiths and cultures encourages children to develop an enquiring mind and to think deeply, imaginatively and respectfully about their own ideas and those of other people. We want them to develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This builds on our Trust values of Empathy, Curiosity, Tenacity, Happiness and Scholarship.

Our curriculum is planned to ensure that our pupils know and can explain the impact that an individual’s religion might have on their daily life, for example observing Ramadan or following dietary rules. Pupils are encouraged to discuss and express their own religious and world views in a safe environment, leading to a deeper understanding and respect for the beliefs of others. This enables pupils to form their own opinions and be respectful of the opinions and beliefs of others. As with all our curriculum subjects, our lessons are driven by language development to support oracy across the school, focusing on key vocabulary in every lesson. Wherever possible, learning is supported by first-hand experiences such as visitors to school or trips to key religious buildings, or taking part in celebrations through dressing up and trying new foods.

The curriculum builds on the Early Years Foundation Stage People, Culture and Communities where children have explored similarities and differences between different religions and experienced some of the different celebrations.

Our RE Curriculum is adapted so that all children including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and our children in the Hearing Impaired Integrated Resource are to achieve the same outcomes as their peers through a variety of delivery methods. We continuously revise our RE Curriculum, alongside our RSHE curriculum to ensure that learning is sequenced systematically and coherently. We also adapt the curriculum during the year to address any local or National current events that impact on the key religions or on our local community.

Implementation 

R.E. long term overview

Music is all around us. It is the soundtrack to our lives. Music connects us through people and places in our ever-changing world. At Lower Meadow our music curriculum, driven by new vocabulary and language development, is ambitiously designed to be creative, collaborative, celebratory and challenging. In our school, music brings our whole school community together through whole-school singing, experimenting with the creative process and, through the love of listening to friends and fellow pupils, performing.

The curriculum builds on the Early Years Foundation Stage Expressive Arts and Design where children have explored a variety of media and materials including singing songs and making music to develop pupils’ imagination, creativity and ability.

We follow the Charanga Musical School Scheme which supports all the requirements of the national curriculum.

We believe this scheme is right for our children because it has core values of experience alongside a knowledge-rich music curriculum. This is essential at Lower Meadow to ensure our children understand the wider world and the opportunities that are available to them. We want all our children to have the opportunities to experience the wider world and develop their language and knowledge to support their ambitions for the future.

We want to see our pupils develop a life-long love of music, increase in their self-confidence, creativity, and imagination, through a rich and relevant music curriculum that provides opportunities for self-expression and a sense of personal achievement.

Implementation

Progression of Knowledge and Skills

Music Development Plan

At Lower Meadow, Physical Education is an integral part of our curriculum and we strive to create a culture which aims to inspire an active generation to enjoy PE, encourage each other and achieve. We provide a safe and supportive environment for children to flourish in a range of different physical activities which is essential in supporting their physical, emotional, spiritual, social and moral development. We aspire for children to adopt a positive Growth Mindset and believe that anything can be achieved with curiosity, empathy, scholarship and happiness.

At Lower Meadow, we offer a dynamic and varied program of activity to ensure that all children progress physically through a unique and fully inclusive PE curriculum, using the Imoves scheme of work. Our curriculum aims to improve the well-being and fitness of all children, not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines PE promotes. This builds on our Trust values of Empathy, Tenacity and Scholarship.

We support our children to learn about themselves, the importance of a healthy, active lifestyle, self-expression and concepts such as fair play and respect. Our curriculum will develop a range of important cognitive skills, such as decision making and analysis and social skills such as teamwork and communication. It also builds self-confidence as children progress through the clear sequencing and realise success.

The curriculum builds on the Early Years Foundation Stage Physical Development where children start to develop their gross motor skills through play and exploration. Our PE Curriculum is adapted so that all children including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and our children in the Hearing Impaired Integrated Resource are to achieve the same outcomes as their peers through a variety of delivery methods.

At Lower Meadow Primary, where there are many challenges for our children within the local community, PSHE is an integral part of our curriculum, supporting our children to develop both their physical and mental health in order to become successful at every stage of their lives.

The curriculum focuses on the key building blocks of healthy, respectful relationships, focusing on family and friendships, in all contexts, including online. This sits alongside the essential understanding of how to be healthy where connections are made with Science and PE. We support children to believe that they can achieve goals, both academic and personal; to stick to tasks that will help them achieve those goals, even when the reward may be distant or uncertain; and to recover from knocks and challenging periods in their lives. These work alongside our Trust values of Happiness, Empathy and Tenacity. This is complemented by development of personal attributes including kindness, integrity, generosity, and honesty.

Teaching about mental wellbeing is central to our PSHE curriculum. We aim to foster pupil wellbeing and develop resilience and character that we know are fundamental to pupils being happy, successful and productive members of society. We know that children and young people are increasingly experiencing challenges, and that young people are at particular risk of feeling lonely or overwhelmed. We strive to give them the knowledge and capability to take care of themselves and receive support if problems arise. Whole school approaches to self-regulation and validating all feelings are used to complement the PSHE curriculum.

We have developed our RSHE curriculum through consultation with parents and identification of key issues within our local area, to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our community.

The PSHE curriculum builds on the Early Years Foundation Stage Personal, Social and Emotional Development where children start to explore their own feelings, develop skills of playing along others and resilience to continue with challenging activities, alongside development of their self-care abilities. Our PSHE Curriculum is adapted so that all children including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and our children in the Hearing Impaired Integrated Resource are to achieve the same outcomes as their peers through a variety of delivery methods.

By teaching British Sign Language we aim to provide knowledge of, and proficiency in, a language which enables our children, and adults, to communicate with all their peers in school, as well as to provide a life skill. Through our teaching, differences are celebrated, and awareness of other cultures and inclusion are promoted, reinforcing our core values of empathy, curiosity and mutual respect.

BSL teaching takes place in short bursts throughout the week and is fun and engaging. The BSL curriculum has been designed in conjunction with a specialist Teacher of the Deaf to fit the needs of the school. For example, emotional vocabulary is developed alongside BSL signs to support the expression of emotions as this is a recognised area of difficulty for our children. The curriculum is progressive, beginning in the EYFS stage, where children learn to sign simple songs and everyday words, moving to BSL grammar knowledge being used in more complex conversations in Key stage 2. In this way, throughout school, links are made to the development of vocabulary, grammar, oracy and listening.

Our Computing Curriculum is regularly reviewed to ensure it evolves alongside technological advancement and the needs of our children.  It closely follows the Sheffield Primary Scheme of work, which has links to a variety of resources that provide the knowledge and skills required.

At present time many lessons follow the NCCE Teach computing curriculum as these provide the vocabulary and knowledge our children need. We take care to choose sequences of lessons that echo the PKC ethos: a ‘carefully sequenced, knowledge-rich curriculum which aims to inspire pupils, promote excellent outcomes for all and overcome inequality of opportunity.’

We have designed our computing curriculum into sections: Digital Literacy, Online Safety, ICT and Computational Thinking, which encompass all the National Curriculum Attainment Targets. These sections can be taught in an order to best fit with other areas of the curriculum, allowing children to make meaningful links between computing and other subjects while developing understanding of how our world is connected.

Our Computing Curriculum ensures that the development of vocabulary is an essential part of every lesson so; ensuring the ‘word gap’ for children who enter school with a limited vocabulary can be continually addressed.

Computing Implementation 

Progression of skills in Computing 2 year cycle

D.T. is delivered through curriculum subject days, using a progressive recognised scheme of work.

We have chosen this scheme because it is based on the universal principles of teaching and learning in DT, is imaginative and ambitious in content, links to other areas of our curriculum and has a focus on vocabulary. It will enable our children to have the opportunities to experience the wider world and develop their language and knowledge to support their ambitions for the future.

Our curriculum builds on the Early Years Foundation Stage Expressive Arts and Design where children develop their skills at constructing with a purpose in mind, selecting tools, resources and techniques to complete the task.

The DT curriculum allows our children to solve problems by designing and making an end product which they then evaluate, adapt and improve. This develops their creativity, practical dexterity and resilience, which are important life skills. Children use a variety of materials and techniques to produce their products. They are encouraged to talk about their products to others, so developing their oracy skills and technical vocabulary.

Children also learn the fundamentals of cooking, food and nutrition throughout school, taking advantage of the skills and experience of our school chef who works with our children to support them in this area of the DT curriculum.

Implementation 

DT progression framework