The national curriculum for England is taught in all local-authority-maintained schools. The national curriculum sets out the programmes of study and attainment targets for all subjects at all key stages.
The majority of this national curriculum was introduced in September 2014, with English and maths coming into force for all year groups from September 2016.
We have adopted Curriculum Maestro, which has been developed by Cornerstones to ensure coverage and progression in an interesting and engaging way. If you would like to read more about the details of the curriculum, including the units covered each term, please click here.
We feel that offering an integrated curriculum in this ways teaches the links between subject areas and makes learning more effective.
Religious Education
Our R.E schemes of work are based on the Cornwall SACRE Agreed Syllabus. Religious Education taught in the school reflects the fact that Christianity is the main religious tradition of Britain but takes into account the teaching practices of other religions represented in our country. Our collective worship is an act of a broadly Christian character which is non-denominational. All pupils take part in Religious Education and Collective Worship, however parents have the right to withdraw their children if they so wish by putting this in writing to the head teacher.
Approaches to the teaching of reading, writing, phonics/spelling and maths
Reading:
Reading is taught through guided reading where pupils work as part of a group in similar abilities. We assess our pupils’ reading ability through the Primary Framework’s assessment foci. Class teachers identify children needing support, who will read with an adult every day. Where appropriate, there are opportunities for individual reading.
Identifying key features of those texts (eg. poetry, fiction such as adventure stories, or non-fiction texts such as instructions or autobiographies) allow children to use their understanding of these texts to write their own versions of these text types.
For those pupils needing support with their phonological awareness, we provide a tailored intervention programme. All our staff have had training from Essential Letters and Sounds on how to identify and provide support using a range of intervention programmes. We also use the Oxford Owl Readerful Rise scheme for KS2 children to support children who still require a decodable book but with a higher level of interest for our older readers.
We also use a ‘buddy’ system where older readers support targeted younger readers.
Reading schemes:
For our early reader who are part of the Essential Letters and Sounds programme all our reading books are aligned to the Letters and Sounds phases to ensure that children are reading books containing the sounds that have been learnt in their phonics lessons. All of these books are fully decodable and are structured to match the phonics content taught each week.
We also supplement this with a vast selection of online books from Oxford Owl which can be accessed from home. Our KS1 and Early Years classes follow the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme. This ensures consistency of delivery and resources.
Reading for Progress/Reading for Pleasure:
We have a rooted approach to ensure that every child is an enthusiastic reader. We help children enjoy books, grow their imagination and develop a lifelong love of reading. We encourage this through library time, daily class stories, a wide range of up to date and engaging books and regular events that promote a love of books. Our teaching ensures that children develop key reading skills, including phonics, vocabulary, fluency and understanding. Pupils are given the opportunity to participate in oracy and poetry recitals through a local Speech and Music Festival.
Writing:
As a stimulus for our writing we use the Literary Curriculum as a planning resource. We choose books from here that match our topics as much as possible to inspire and deepen the children’s enjoyment and knowledge. Please click on this link to go to their curriculum statement. The Literary Curriculum
Pupils who are struggling with their writing will be helped though individual, small group support. This may include an intervention programme, such as Rapid Writing, Dandelion Launchers and Phonological Awareness.
For story writing, we sometimes use a storytelling approach. Pupils learn a story; they imitate writing the story and then produce their own innovations of the story.
Built into all literacy topics are word, sentence and grammar/punctuation work. This will be supported from Curriculum Maestro, or from supplementary resources.
We use Letter-join to work on letter formation and handwriting. This is a whole school handwriting scheme offering a combination of traditional and digital resources. Please click on this icon to go to the website: 
Spelling/phonics/Grammar:
We use Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) to teach phonics and spelling to our reception and in KS1 children. We use the full range of ELS decodable books to support this teaching. We also use the Spelling Seeds from the Literary Curriculum and the Inspire Curriculum. For our Year 2 children who have completed the phases in Letters and Sounds we use a specific spelling programme from ELS that recaps on the tricky alternative sounds from Phase 5, as well as teaching the range of spelling rules and harder to read and spell words that are vital to ensure success at KS2. Our provision to teach spelling doesn’t end there. It is vital that spelling is taught rigorously and systematically throughout KS2. In order to achieve a consistent approach from KS1 to KS2 we use the ELS Spelling and Word Knowledge programme. This programme enables pupils to understand the patterns in the English Language using a combination of morphology, etymology and the application of phonological rules.
We supplement these with other ICT based tools such as iPad apps and Inspire resources.
In the Early Years and KS1 we have an expectation that children read as often as possible with parents/family. Teachers support this with a range of guided reading prompts and ideas to promote reading for enjoyment at home. Homework in KS1 focusses specially on a range of spellings from the ELS Programme which consolidate their learning from that week’s teaching of sounds and the harder to read and spell words.
Maths
We use White Rose resources to support the planning and teaching of maths. The teaching and learning of maths is also supplemented by a wide variety of other good quality resources to support pupil understanding and engagement. In addition to this, KS1 and KS2 classes include a weekly mathematical homework which can include times table practice and other mental maths activities.
Your child may receive additional ‘interventions’. Further information about such sessions is available below in the Special Educational Needs section.
Special Educational Needs
It is our policy to support every child in our school, from those experiencing learning difficulties to those who need a more challenging curriculum. We aim to identify special learning needs as early as possible and all staff contribute to this process. The school follows the agreed New Code of Practice for SEN (2014). Children are supported through Individual Education Plans and those with more complex needs may have an Education Health and Care Plan. Regular meetings are held to review progress and learning needs. We work closely with various external agencies, which provide advice, resources and expertise. Parents of children with special needs are kept fully informed of progress at all stages. Our School Information Report gives more details about the support that we provide, and is available by clicking here.
We also keep a record of higher achieving pupils, and track their progress. Some will be identified as being gifted or talented. We will try to provide activities that will encourage these children’s abilities.
The school is accessible to wheelchair users, with ramps to the majority of doorways. The school uses a range of teaching technique and resources to allow access to the curriculum. In 2015 we were re-accredited for the Inclusive, Dyslexia Friendly Schools Mark. More information about Dyslexia can be found on the British Dyslexia Association website: here