National Curriculum

The National Curriculum

Beavers Community Primary School follows the National Curriculum from Year 1 to Year 6. The teaching of Religious Education is statutory in all schools. It is taught as a subject outside the National Curriculum but following the Hounslow agreed syllabus (Widening Horizons).

Our curriculum design is based firmly on the principles of good learning matched to the specific needs of the children in our school. National requirements and school requirements are mapped out as a whole school and then individual year groups plan the curriculum for their pupils accordingly.

The curriculum is underpinned by the school’s Values (Respect, Honesty, Determination, Cooperation, Equality and Kindness) and these are taught on their own and through other areas of the curriculum, including assemblies. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils and their understanding of the core values of our society are woven through the curriculum.

At Beavers Community Primary School we seek to create opportunities for children to experience and excel in a range of activities that enhance and extend the National Curriculum. Children have opportunities both inside and outside the classroom eg themed days, trips, workshops, sporting events, visiting speakers and much more.

We are very fortunate to have specialist teachers of art and computing, who share their expertise with all staff.

Our whole school curriculum map can be viewed here.

Maths

We aim to provide the pupils with a Mathematics curriculum and high quality teaching to produce individuals who are confident mathematicians. We achieve this by developing numerical fluency, reasoning skills and the ability to problem solve. We also aim to provide a stimulating environment and adequate resources so that pupils can develop their mathematical skills to the full by developing their conceptual understanding of Mathematics.

English

At Beavers Community Primary School we aim to provide children with the tools they need to develop their skills to the best of their ability throughout their lives. We believe that effective and efficient literacy skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) are paramount to ensuring their success continues throughout their education and into their adult, working lives. We therefore place a high emphasis on the teaching of these skills so that our children are able to ultimately carry out the range of tasks demanded of them as they pursue their ambitions.

The requirements of the National Curriculum are closely adhered to and planned for in each year group. They key content for each year group is detailed in the National Curriculum programmes of study, which can be found here. This also includes further detail on English grammar and spelling conventions taught in each year group.

At Beavers Primary School, we follow our own Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programme based on the DfE Letters and Sounds programme for teaching phonics in school. Children are taught to read letters or groups of letters by saying the sound(s) they represent. Children can then start to read words by blending (synthesising) the sound together to make a word. Children are taught to apply the skill of segmenting (breaking up) words into phonemes to spell and that blending and segmenting is a reversible process. We do this through a 20 minute teaching session per day in Reception and extended daily sessions in Years One and Two, which are streamed, alongside integrating phonics in cross curricular activities throughout the day.

We work through six phases from Reception to Year Two. The majority of children complete the phonics programme by the end of Key Stage 1. Phonics instruction continues in Year Three and beyond for children who have been identified as needing additional phonics teaching.

In Reception, Year 1 and 2, children follow the Oxford Reading Tree scheme of reading books, working through the stages appropriate to them. In Key Stage 2, children continue to follow the Oxford Reading Levels of fiction and non-fiction (with more advanced texts) until they become free readers.