At Purleigh Community Primary School, we have developed a curriculum that we believe will give our pupils the best possible chance of becoming well-rounded, happy individuals who are prepared for the next steps of their lives. Varied topics, making use of local history and geography, are designed to engage and inspire the children, providing them with necessary skills, knowledge and understanding whilst keeping literacy high on the agenda with opportunities for writing in a range of contexts.
Our curriculum is enriched through a diverse range of carefully chosen, exciting educational visits. Visitors are encouraged into school regularly to enhance further the curriculum opportunities and our children enjoy enrichment weeks with a variety of themes including STEM, multicultural and enterprise activities
Lessons are taught using a range of approaches and resources in order to make learning accessible to different learning styles and parental input is encouraged through lesson visits and a mixture of homework tasks.
If you would like to discuss our curriculum please contact Mr. Stotter or Mrs. Woods via the school office.
Our class topics are as follows:
Year R - Marvellous Me, Let's Celebrate!, How Can We Help?, Tell Me a Story., How Does Your Garden Grow? and Minibeasts
Year 1 - Awesome Autumn, A Toy's Story and Wonderful Water
Year 2 - Time Travellers, Saints and Dragons and Feathers, Flight and Flying Saucers
Year 3 - Invaders and Settlers, The Marvels and Mysteries of the Mediterranean and Rainforests
Year 4 - Amazing Aztecs & Marvellous Mayans, Somewhere to Settle and Smashing Saxons
Year 5 - Ancient Egyptians, Wonderful Wanderers and Britain at War
Year 6 - Shakespeare and The Tudors (whole term), The City of Chelmsford, The Americas, The British Empire - from inception in Tudor times to its demise with Partition in India (1947)
Art
Our Art Curriculum contributes to the development of the whole child, not just creatively but also by exploring aesthetics, emotions, spirituality and intellectual and social themes. It creates a sense of enjoyment and purpose both in and of itself and via cross-curricular links. Through the use of colour, texture, form, pattern, different materials and processes, it enables children to express themselves and to communicate what they see, feel and think. Art offers children the opportunity to learn about the visual world and how artists from Britain and the wider world have interpreted it, throughout history and within different cultures.
Computing
At Purleigh School, we ensure that the Computing Curriculum is accessible to all, maximising the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement in this subject, We have designed a computing curriculum that develops pupils’ learning right from the Early Years, resulting in the acquisition of knowledge of the world around them. This progresses to incorporating appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum so that children can reach and exceed their potential in the key strands of information technology, computer science and digital literacy.
It is vitally important to us that we prepare our children for the challenges posed by an increasingly digital British society; Internet
Safety plays a central role in our teaching, ensuring that our children are fully aware of potential risks and are up-skilled in accessing the information and resources that they need .
Design and Technology
Through the study of design and technology, children combine practical skills with an understanding of material, aesthetic, social and environmental issues which helps them to prepare for the developing world. It should assist children in developing a greater awareness and understanding of how everyday products are designed and made. Our Design and Technology Curriculum encourages children to become creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team. We want to support all children to become discriminating and informed consumers and potential innovators.
English
At Purleigh Community Primary School, we believe that our English Curriculum should instil and develop a love of literacy through reading, writing and discussion. We support pupils by encouraging the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, and developing an appreciation for our rich and varied literary heritage. Pupils are supported in the acquisition of a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and the knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language. We want pupils to flourish, to feel empowered and to be inspired to be confident readers, writers, speakers and listeners, able to adapt their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
Geography
At Purleigh Community Primary School, our Geography Curriculum is designed to provoke and answer questions about the natural and human world, encouraging children to develop a greater understanding of their world and their place in it. It supports children in developing a range of investigation and problem solving skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can be used to promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject that develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We aim to promote children’s interest and understanding about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with an understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes such as mountains, rivers and tourism.
History
At Purleigh Community Primary School, we have developed a curriculum to stimulate the pupils’ interest for learning about the past and help them gain a detailed knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We aim to develop our pupils’ understanding about the life of people who lived before us and how our own lives have changed over time. We teach children a sense of chronology so that they can better understand when historical events happened around the world and how these events have influenced life today. History complements other Humanities subjects such as Religious Education and Geography; these subjects assist pupils in understanding the cultures of other people, in how places have changed over time and in how they have had an impact on historical events. Through these subjects, children can appreciate and understand their place in modern, multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better able to make their own life choices today. We teach our pupils to investigate historical events and, by so doing, help them to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem solving.
Maths
Our Maths Curriculum at Purleigh is designed to ensure that children are taught to become competent mathematicians who can explain their reasoning and show their understanding using a variety of different representations whilst continually repeating key basic skills. In line with the 2014 National Curriculum for Maths, we work to ensure that all children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, are able to reason mathematically and can solve problems by applying their mathematics.
At Purleigh, we strive to embed the skills and processes necessary to enable children to use and apply their maths learning in a variety of contexts. We aim to develop children’s enjoyment of maths and provide opportunities for children to build a conceptual understanding of maths as well as apply their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges. Our approach to the teaching of mathematics develops children's ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Through mathematical talk and reasoning, children will develop the ability to articulate and discuss their thinking. Within our school, the skills are embedded within maths lessons and developed consistently over time. By teaching maths through a mastery approach, we aim for children to achieve the deep and deepest levels or learning.
We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts. By the end of Key Stage Two, children will leave our school prepared for the next step in their mathematical education.
Modern Foreign Languages
The curriculum at Purleigh Primary School for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all children:
- Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
- Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
- Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
- Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
A high quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. At Purleigh Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. It also helps children develop skills that will open further opportunities later in life.
The teaching of Spanish in KS2 provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at KS3. In due course, Purleigh School will introduce basic elements of Spanish to KS1 to start the process of recognising a different language. All pupils will be exposed to the richness of modern foreign languages through signage and everyday use around the school (for example: conducting the register in another language).
At Purleigh Primary we aim to:
• Have fun and experience success in speaking a foreign language;
• Have the opportunity to participate in MFL at their own level of development;
• Secure and build on a range of skills;
• Develop good linguistic and cultural attitudes;
• Understand basic rules of language
• Experience positive language contexts
• Have a foundation to build on for lifelong and active use of other languages and leaving primary school as an inquisitive individual
Music
At Purleigh Primary School it is our intent that we make music an enjoyable learning experience, promoting a love of music and singing across a broadened curriculum and building a musical curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and improved well-being. We believe in the power of music and recognise the important role that music can play in people's lives. We encourage children to show case their skills to a wider audience, participating in a variety of musical experiences, such as Nativity and end of year performances, assemblies and attendance at other events in the community, such as Barnardo's concerts. Music is taught on a weekly basis using the Charanga scheme. Children develop descriptive language skills in music lessons when learning about how music can represent different feelings, emotions and narratives. The scheme supports pupil progress in an enjoyable, engaging way so that students embed the musical skills of listening and appraising, composing and performing.
Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship
At Purleigh, we believe that P.S.H.E is part of a life-long learning process which enables the development of positive attitudes towards self and others. It helps to develop a range of knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, and prepared for life and work, managing life’s challenges and making the most of life’s opportunities. We aim to prepare for the children at Purleigh to lead confident, healthy and independent lives as informed, active and responsible citizens. As a whole-school approach, we encourage the children to embrace responsibilities and roles, such as reading buddies, and take part in a range of practical roles and activities within the school council.
Physical Education
Purleigh Primary School recognises the value of Physical Education. We fully adhere to the aims of the National Curriculum for Physical Education to ensure that all children develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities, understand how to lead healthy, active lives, engage in competitive sports and activities and are physically active for sustained periods of time.
Our aim is to improve and increase the quality and quantity of P.E. and physical activity for all children, to show how P.E. and physical activity can enhance children's attainment and achievement and to create pathways for them to continue to be active beyond school. We recognise the broad range of skills that contribute to all facets of physical activity and endeavour to provide opportunities for all children to experience a variety of games and activities that cater to these diverse skill-sets.
Religious Education
At Purleigh we are committed to providing our children with a learning environment in which they have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of religions while contributing to their spiritual, moral social and cultural development. In the E.Y.F.S., R.E. is taught using R.E.-related early learning goals, whilst in K.S.1 and K.S.2 our curriculum follows the Essex Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education.
We seek to ensure that all pupils in our school are educated to develop:
-spiritually
-academically
-emotionally
-morally
Through this, we aim to enable them to understand themselves and others better and to cope with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world.
We recognise that the teaching of religious beliefs usually begins in the home, and that carers and parents have a valuable role to play in assisting in their child’s learning.
Science
At Purleigh, we encourage children to be inquisitive throughout their time at the school and beyond. We endeavour to ensure that the Science Curriculum we provide, will give children the confidence and motivation to continue to develop their skills further into the next stage of education and adulthood.
The Science Curriculum fosters a healthy curiosity in children about our universe and promotes respect for the living and non-living. We believe science encompasses the acquisition of knowledge, concepts, skills and positive attitudes. Throughout the programmes of study, the children will acquire and develop the key knowledge that has been identified within each unit and across each year group, as well as the application of scientific skills. We ensure that the Working Scientifically skills are built-on and developed throughout children’s time at the school so that they can apply their knowledge of science when using equipment, conducting experiments, building arguments and explaining concepts confidently and continue to ask questions and be curious about their surroundings.