Intent: 

The curriculum at Chadwell St. Mary Primary School aims to prepare children in understanding the world around them and prepare them to be able to positively impact on society. We want our pupils to be both interesting and interested and to have a good understanding of basic English and mathematics skills so that they are secondary ready when they move to their secondary school phase of education.  By the time learners have left Chadwell St. Mary Primary School, they will have mastered a range of both skills and factual knowledge through regular requirements to recall and demonstrate them; opportunities to practise through careful planning for progression and depth. Our curriculum is customised to meet the vast range of needs of our learners.  

Implementation:  

Teachers are provided with detailed lesson plans from which they adapt their teaching to meet the needs of the learners in their classes. Successful implementation of our curriculum would include:

• The unit overview outlines knowledge (including vocabulary) all children must master; 
• A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth; 
• Challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning in a range of contexts;
• Trips and visiting experts who will enhance the learning experience;  
• A curriculum overview for parents and carers so learners can be supported at home.  

Impact: 

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods: 

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes; 
• A celebration of learning for each term which demonstrates progression across the school; 
• Tracking of progress in assessment task and tests; 
• Pupil discussions about their learning; 
• A sample of pupils’ learning across the school demonstrating mastery and greater depth of understanding; 
•  The annual tracking of standards across the curriculum. 

Phonics and early reading

We use Read Write Inc as a scheme through which to teach basic skills in reading and writing. Read Write Inc focuses on a very structured approach to teaching reading through phonics in EYFS and Year 1.

Mathematics

We use Abacus Maths as our core scheme. This has been chosen to focus on ensuring that maths knowledge and skills are taught sequentially and there are repeated opportunities for children to “over learn” and revisit in order that they are secure in reaching the expected standard in each year group.  Teachers are supported through detailed lesson plans and high-quality resources. The lesson plans are then adapted to suit the individual needs of each class.

Teachers have the flexibility and creative freedom to source a range of other resources to supplement their lesson; such as using Classroom Secrets to extend children’s mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills.

English

Our English curriculum can be divided into its component parts:

Reading Comprehension – Nelson Reading

Writing – lessons are creatively planned with the focus being on delivering the expectations of the national curriculum and ensuring there is an engaging and interesting stimuli to be the focus of the writing. There is a very clear structure of writing to ensure that the key skills are taught in the correct sequence

• Cold write (pre-assessment)
• Feature hunting and learning the features of the genre
• Applying new writing skills in context of the genre being taught
• Shared writing opportunities as a class with the teacher
• Hot write (assessed piece of writing at the end of the unit)

Foundation Subject Curriculum

We use Cornerstones which has been chosen because of its four-stage process to ensure high quality teaching and learning of the foundation subjects. This allows us to offer a broad and balanced curriculum with a mix of skills, knowledge and creativity, using a range of online tools and resources.

Engage

Hook learners in with a memorable experience.

Set the scene and provide the context for learning.

Ask questions to find out children's interests.

Spark children's curiosity using interesting starting points.

Develop

Teach facts and information for deeper understanding and knowledge.

Demonstrate new skills and allow time for consolidation.

Provide creative opportunities for making and doing.

Deliver reading, writing and talking across the curriculum.

Innovate

Provide imaginative scenarios that encourage creative thinking.

Enable children to apply previously learned skills.

Encourage enterprise and independent thinking.

Provide opportunities for collaborative working and problem solving.

Express

Provide environments for reflective talk.

Create opportunities for shared evaluation.

Celebrate and share children's success.

Identify next steps for learning.

The Cornerstone Units are mapped out overleaf.  These are shared across all of the SWECET primaries and this adds opportunities for professional collaboration and support.  They have been chosen for engagement, excitement and relevance to our local setting.

Other subjects where there is an agreed syllabus:

The Extended School

We offer a breakfast and afterschool club to support those families who work extended hours. The clubs are structured so that children develop their education and social, emotional selves.

Extra – Curricular Activities & Music Lessons

In addition to the main curriculum, there are activities organised as a valuable extension to the school day.

Thurrock Music Hub provided Wider Opportunities Music to year 4 & 5 pupils.

There is a wide range of clubs offered at lunchtime and afterschool.  Activities change from term to term depending upon what members of staff are able to offer. A typical range of activities would include netball, football, cookery, board games, rugby, choir, ICT and art.

Although our children have fornightly music lessons, they are also offered the chance to learn a musical instrument. These lessons are organised by the school but are paid for by parents. Children can learn the guitar, woodwind instruments, piano or drums.

Some extra-curricular activities are offered by outside organisations. For example, gymnastics.

Cornerstones Units – Whole School 2020-21

Religious Education teaching in our school

Our family of SWECET primary schools believe that RE teaching has a very important part to play in preparing children for life beyond our school gates. We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people are able to learn and develop all aspects of their lives fully. A significant factor in this is their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

We use the Thurrock Agreed syllabus for Religious Education and teach it explicitly in years 1 to 6.

This syllabus is a statutory requirement for all maintained schools which do not have designation relating to religious character and for voluntary controlled schools, for children and young people aged between 4 and

19.

In addition to this we ensure that RE is “brought to life” through visiting speakers as well as visiting places of worship local to us.  Each of our primary schools has strong links with the places of worship nearby.

https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/religious-education/syllabus-for-religious-education