Key Stages 1 and 2 Curriculum

All children in Key Stages 1 and 2 (Years 1 – 6) follow the National Curriculum 2014. This covers the following subject areas:

Religious Education is a compulsory subject, but is not part of the National Curriculum. 

Art

Art and Design offers a structure through a sequence of workshops (which have been created and carried out in schools by a wide variety of artist-educators from the AccessArt organisation, which is a registered charity) to help teachers ensure they have covered the skills required to meet the aims of the national curriculum. The intent is to ensure all pupils produce creative, imaginative work and become proficient artists. Children have the opportunity to explore their ideas and record their experiences, as well as exploring the work of others and evaluate different creative ideas. Children will become confident and proficient in a variety of techniques including drawing, painting, sculpting, as well as other selected craft skills, e.g. collage and printing. Children will also develop their knowledge of famous artists, designers and craft makers. Children will also develop their interest and curiosity about art and design through a series of workshops offering skills progression, knowledge progression and offering children the opportunity to ask questions and demonstrate their skills in a variety of ways. The workshops will offer the chance for children to develop their emotional expression through art to further enhance their personal, social and emotional development. 

 This long-term plan can support the teachers to ensure progression of skills and knowledge are achieved and provide opportunities to balance a number of important elements in art education:

• Help nurture an exploratory attitude towards creativity which children can take with them as they grow.
• Encourage children to understand how ideas are developed through processes.
• Allow children to build up resilience to getting things wrong and trying again. 
• Promote enjoyment of Art and Design.
• Enable basic skills to be introduced and then build upon, including drawing, printmaking, sketchbooks, painting and making. Skills are revisited and the use of ongoing sketchbook work underpins this process. 
• Allow the role of the teacher is to introduce key skills, materials and ideas to the pupils in such a way that each pupil can then explore his or her own creativity. 
• Opportunities for new experiences, balanced with, time for repeated practice.
• Structured learning, balanced with, space for personal exploration.
• The accumulation of technical skills and contextual knowledge, balanced with, growing self-awareness of what it is to be a creative being.

 Through all of the above, our aim is to enable individual pupils to make appropriate choices regarding materials and processes and to be empowered towards making a personal, creative response. The artists and designers have been chosen for their particular art forms which link closely with the specific workshops. They will give the children an insight into how media is used and combined in different ways by the said artists and how they two can create and produce artwork in their own style using similar techniques and media. We want the children to identify the diversity of artists from different backgrounds, eras and to know that they too can create and express through art in their own way.

 Computing

Birkenshaw Primary school has developed a long term plan for Computing that aims to:

• Instil confidence in children to use, and learn about, technology.
• Provide differentiated teaching of the core skills to let children use technology as a tool for their wider learning.
• Ensure that children are aware of the potential dangers online, how to avoid them, and how to report them.
• Provide opportunities that enthuse, and appeal to, all genders, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds
• Give children opportunities to explore a wide range of technologies, old and new.
• Provide opportunities for a wide application of hardware and software in ‘real world’ contexts.
• Embed technology learning across the primary curriculum. 
• Allow children to make mistakes and learn from them.
• Excite children with the potential of emergent technologies.
• Encourage children to further develop their skills outside of school.
• Build on prior learning in the subject throughout the primary age range.
• Encapsulates the ‘we care’ ethos of the school.
• Be rich, creative, immersive, challenging, contextual and fun! 

 Design technology

At Birkenshaw Primary School we intend to build a Design Technology curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills which prepares our pupils for life beyond primary education. We believe that high-quality DT lessons will inspire children to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding. Children will know more, remember more and understand more. Our DT curriculum provides children with opportunities to research, represent their ideas, explore and investigate, develop their ideas, make a product and evaluate their work. We encourage children to use their creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. Design and Technology can be found in many of the objects that children use every single day and is part of each and every one of their immediate experiences. Children will be exposed to a wide range of media including textiles, food and woodwork; through this, children will develop their skills, vocabulary and resilience. Allowing children to follow a whole design process can improve analysis, problem solving, practical capability and evaluation skills.

 English

Phonics

At Birkenshaw Primary School we understand the importance of providing children with the skills they need to become life-long readers. The systematic teaching of synthetic phonics will allow children to develop a love of reading, we aim to do this in the following way:

• Provide rich and varied opportunities for pupils to be immersed in phase 1 phonics
• To ensure the systematic teaching of synthetic phonics, through the Pearson Bug Club SSP, has a high priority through EYFS and KS1.
• Teach exercises needed to build muscle structure in the hands and to develop correct posture for writing
• Teach the phonemes, graphemes, tricky words and spelling patterns needed to progress through school at an age related standard – both within reading and writing
• To build a curriculum which develops a love of reading to help pupils know more, remember more and understand more.

 Reading

To design a curriculum which has reading at its core across all curriculum areas. Through choosing quality texts, we intend to develop a love of reading and allow children to recognise the pleasure they can get from their reading, as well as an understanding that reading allows them to discover new knowledge, revisit prior knowledge and understand more about what they learn, fuelling their imagination for ideas to use in their own work.

 Writing

Birkenshaw Primary School has developed a long term writing plan that aims to: 

• Teach letter and number formation - progressing from clear and legible letter formation, to a pre-cursive script (once children are ready) through to an individual’s own personal style that enables them to maintain legibility when writing at speed
• Teach the punctuation and grammar appropriate to the year group and text type being completed
• Transfer the skills of grammar and punctuation into pupil’s own independent writing
• Provide rich, varied and purposeful opportunities for writing
• Provide quick and constructive feedback to support, enhance and extend learning in lessons
• Teach a range of reasons for writing though a spiral curriculum of genres, including fiction
• To build an English curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills so that all pupils know more, remember more and understand more.
• To develop a love of writing where children, regardless of ability, can communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings through the use of the written word

 Geography

The intention of the Geography Curriculum at Birkenshaw CE (C) Primary School is to inspire children’s curiosity and interest to explore the world that we live in and its people, which aims to create a passion for their learning. We intend to equip children with geographical skills to develop their knowledge through fieldwork experiences investigating places and patterns and how to communicate geographically.  This seeks to deepen the understanding of the Earth’s human and physical forms and processes. Geography, by nature, is an investigative subject. Through our teaching, we intend to provoke thought, questions and to encourage children to discover answers to their own questions through exploration and research to enable them to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it.

 Health Relationships and wellbeing

At Birkenshaw C of E Primay School our Christian ethos is at the heart of all we do, and our school value is that at Birkenshaw Primary School we care. Jigsaw as a Health, Relationships & Well-being scheme helps both staff and pupils to become more aware of what it means to care. It helps teach children how to care for themselves, their families, their local community and the wider world. 

• Children to have the skills to be able to care for themselves
• Children to have the skills to be able to care for their families
• Children to have the skills to be able to care for their local communities and the wider world
• For children to understand and value how they fit into and contribute to the world
• To allow children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus
• To have a school wide strong emphasis on emotional literacy
• To have a school wide strong emphasis on building resilience

• To have a school wide strong emphasis on nurturing mental and physical health

 History

At Birkenshaw Primary School we believe that high-quality history lessons inspire children to want to know more about the past and to think and act as historians. 

By linking their learning to a range of topics, children have opportunities to investigate and interpret the past, understand chronology, build an overview of Britain’s past as well as that of the wider world, and to be able to communicate historically.

We develop children by giving them the following historical skills and characteristics to help them become successful historians:

• A good range of knowledge and understanding of people, events and context from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past
• The ability to compare and contrast aspects from periods of history in Britain and the wider world
• The ability to think critically about history, asking questions to further their understanding and points of view
• The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others views, using historical sources as evidence to support these
• The ability to think reflect, discuss, debate and evaluate the past formulating questions and lines of enquiry 
• To show respect for historical evidence and use it critically to support their learning
• To develop a curiosity about the past and why it is relevant to their lives

 Maths

Within Maths we at Birkenshaw Primary School, aim to develop the following:

• A mastery approach throughout school.
• Progressive key skills which match the National Curriculum.
• Mathematical thinking, reasoning and problem solving.
• Mathematical fluency.
• A love of maths where children use their skills in class, in school and in the wider community.

 French

Birkenshaw Primary School has developed a long term MFL plan that aims to:

• Enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language (French)
• Understand and respond to its speakers in speech and writing
• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity
• Improve the accuracy of punctuation and intonation
• In Lower KS2, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills. These will be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy
• we intend to inspire pupils to develop a love of languages and to expand their horizons to other countries, cultures and people. We aim to help children grow into curious, confident and reflective language learners and to provide them with a foundation that will equip them for further language studies

 Music

 At Birkenshaw Primary, the intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what music is through performing and singing, improvising and composing, listening, responding and reviewing music. They will also be able to apply their knowledge and understanding. We will share with children a wide variety of music including that from historical periods, styles, traditions, and musical genres. Our objective at Birkenshaw is to develop a curiosity for the subject, as well as an understanding and acceptance of the validity and importance of all types of music, and an unbiased respect for the role that music may wish to be expressed in any person’s life. We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of music in the wider community, and are able to use their musical skills, knowledge, and experiences to involve themselves in music, in a variety of different contexts.

PE

Birkenshaw Primary School has developed a long term physical education plan that aims to:

• Promote long term healthy lifestyles
• Help learners understand their bodies
• Develop social, thinking and emotional skills and teaches them how to apply these and transfer them to everyday life
• Promote enjoyment of physical activity
• Develop pupil’s early body management and control through gymnastics and dance / movement and music.
• Develop pupil’s early essential skills such as hand eye coordination and gross and fine motor skills through throwing, catching and ball control (both at feet and in hand) activities
• Develop pupils team work through cooperation and collaboration games and activities
• Use the early development of these skills and apply them to generic attacking and defending situations or simple routines.
• Use attacking and defending skills and routines and apply them to game / performance specific situations
• Develop a sense of competitive sport and give opportunities for pupils to be involved in intra and inter school competition.
• Allow pupils access to a range of different sports and activities and allows a transfer of skills between different sports
• Make links with other curriculum areas, such as science or HRF in Y6 and provide a vessel for whole school improvement
• Gives all pupils a chance to succeed at their level and offers links into community sport

 RE

At Birkenshaw Primary School we believe that high-quality Religious Education lessons inspire children to want to know more about the world and the different religions and people within each religion. 

By linking their learning to world religions, children have opportunities to learn about all world religions with a predominant focus on Christianity.

We develop children by giving them the following skills and characteristics to help them become:

• A good range of knowledge and understanding of the major world religions, festivals, celebrations and practices.
• The ability to compare and contrast aspects from religions.
• The ability to think critically about RE, asking questions to further their understanding and points of view
• The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others views, using religious sources as evidence to support these
• The ability to think reflect, discuss, debate and evaluate points of view, formulating questions and lines of enquiry
• To show respect for world religions and their practices and use it critically to support their learning
• To develop a curiosity about world religions and why they are relevant to their lives

 Science

At Birkenshaw CE (C) Primary School, we believe that the Bible shows us that the world we see was created specially (Psalm 8:3, 19:1) and also ourselves, as part of it (Psalm 139:14).

Therefore, the intent of our Science curriculum at Birkenshaw is to allow all our naturally curious and inquisitive children to develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding, which stimulates them to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

• We intend to encourage respect for living organisms and the physical environment and provide opportunities for critical evaluation of evidence. Through building up a body of key foundational knowledge, vocabulary and concepts, pupils should be encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena.
• We will encourage them to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.
• We intend to ensure that all children are exposed to high quality teaching and learning experiences, which allow children to explore their outdoor environment and locality, thus developing their scientific enquiry and investigative skills. Our science curriculum builds upon ‘hands on’ practical lessons children are encouraged to think about their own understanding of the world, to ask questions and to explore ways in which these questions can be answered through investigation.
• Children are taught how to make predictions, plan investigations, keep tests fair, use equipment safely, measure and record their results, draw conclusions and present their results using a range of methods to communicate their scientific information, including I.C.T., diagrams, graphs and charts.
• The National Curriculum provides a structure and skill development for the science curriculum being taught throughout the school, which is very often taught through themed topics or discrete units. We intend to provide all children regardless of ethnic origin, gender, class, aptitude or disability, with a broad and balanced science curriculum.