Our Curriculum Intent
At East Tilbury Primary School, the curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences, allow the children to develop interpersonal skills and build resilience and become creative in order to create critical thinkers. Every child is recognised as a unique individual entitled to the same opportunities. We celebrate and welcome differences within our inclusive school community, incorporating our alternative provision which caters for children that have been excluded from other mainstream schools. The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values. We constantly provide enhancement opportunities to engage learning and believe that, as a school, we should develop investigative and enquiry skills, enabling access to new experiences and knowledge.
We use the growth mind-set approach as educators to develop children’s positive attitudes to learning which reflect the values and skills needed to encourage responsibility for learning and future success. Community involvement is an essential part of our curriculum as we celebrate local traditions, learning new skills to enable the children to take an active role in events throughout the year. Children leave the school with a sense of belonging to a community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.
To support the implementation of our school curriculum we use the following:
- Early Years Outcomes
- National Curriculum Statutory Guidance
- Growth mind-set
- Outdoor Learning and the Forest School’s curriculum.
Implementation
The school has recognised the use of clear, focused learning intentions and success criteria as an effective tool in gaining intended learning outcomes. Through our membership with NACE, staff have received training in order to use effective questioning techniques to develop higher order thinking skills. In lessons, we provide opportunities for study but we strive to provide as many recall and application activities as possible to support the retention of knowledge and understanding. We aim to secure children’s engagement through stimulating, motivating learning opportunities and a curriculum designed to improve children’s knowledge, skills and understanding.
We use our cooperative values, SMSC, SEAL and incorporate British Values which is a rolling programme of focus values implicit and explicit across our curriculum. Children learn to take personal responsibility for their own thoughts and actions.
Within the curriculum we recognise that children’s learning is enhanced by different experiences. We offer children a wide range of educational visits which are used to motivate and engage learning in order improve retention. Regular visitors in school give the children another perspective on values, attitudes, learning and understanding and contribute to our Aspirations Week. These include charities and people from different professions and the community. Our membership with The Royal Opera House and Thurrock’s Trailblazer programme provides many opportunities of cultural capital and learning. These projects are embedded throughout our curriculum to enhance the development of pupil’s knowledge, skills and understanding - alongside annual trips, workshops and visits.
Impact
To ensure our curriculum is fit for purpose and highly effective, we continually pay attention to the outcomes. To do this effectively, we monitor, review and complete formal assessments, pupil voice, work scrutiny and climate walks. Leaders, including middle, senior and governors review pupils’ outcomes, data and teaching to judge the standards of teaching and outcomes in all subjects across the curriculum.
Reading
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them.
Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
At East Tilbury Primary School, reading is encouraged throughout every year group. There are reading areas set up around the school, displaying a range of text types, which pupils may enjoy at their leisure. Time is given to pupils to read within the school day both in reading skills sessions, where pupils are completing structured activities to extend their skills, and through independent reading time. Challenging materials from CGP and Nelson are used to develop the children’s comprehension and understanding of language during reading skills sessions. Each child is provided with a levelled reading book that they may read to staff and are expected to read at home in order to experience a broad range of text types. Children who read regularly are rewarded for their dedication. Reading is also promoted through competitions, such as the ‘Extreme Read’ and national reading events such as ‘World Book Day’.
Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
At East Tilbury Primary School, reading is encouraged throughout every year group. There are reading areas set up around the school, displaying a range of text types, which pupils may enjoy at their leisure. Time is given to pupils to read within the school day both in reading skills sessions, where pupils are completing structured activities to extend their skills, and through independent reading time. Challenging materials from CGP and Nelson are used to develop the children’s comprehension and understanding of language during reading skills sessions. Each child is provided with a levelled reading book that they may read to staff and are expected to read at home in order to experience a broad range of text types. Children who read regularly are rewarded for their dedication. Reading is also promoted through competitions, such as the ‘Extreme Read’ and national reading events such as ‘World Book Day’.
Phonics
All pupils within Reception and Key Stage one are taught a daily discrete phonics session. Each session involves the teaching of a new phoneme (sound) and pupils are encouraged to practise to read and spell through a range of games and activities. Lessons are highly interactive, involving the use of Bug Club games and support materials. Pupils are assessed and grouped according to their correct phase, in order to meet the pupils’ needs, and ensure they are equipped for the phonic screening check at the end of Year One. As a school we follow the letters and sounds scheme to encourage phonic knowledge and use Active Learn's Bug Club resources to support teaching. Identified intervention pupils are given extra support to accelerate development of their reading and writing skills. Pupils whose phonic knowledge is not secure as they move into Key Stage 2 receive phonics intervention and ‘Support for Spelling’ groups.
