Our Vision is evident in all that we do. Throughout our curriculum our intent is to aspire for excellence with each of our learning opportunities having an aspire target which the children aim to achieve. Our implementation then is where the children enjoy learning with a hands on approach through engaging and exciting lessons which teach key skills in an age appropriate way. Following this, impact is evident as our children achieve success and celebrate this and then we develop our children’s mastery skills as we encourage them to challenge themselves further. Our children are consistently encouraged to grow and learn together to be the best they can be.

Our curriculum is organised through a mixture of topic based learning and stand alone subjects. Children focus on five topics across the year integrating their History, Geography, D.T. and Art skills within this. These are varied in order to stimulate interest and enable children to grow as rounded, well developed, young people. Alongside this, we teach English, Mathematics, Science and Computing as stand-alone subject areas plus Music, P.E., MFL, P.S.H.E. and R.E. We also do our utmost to ensure key skills and cross-curricular links are taught and actively encouraged throughout.

Opportunities for developing early phonics and reading are prioritised acknowledging that “children who are good at reading do more of it: they learn more, about all sorts of things, and their expanded vocabulary, gained from their reading, increases their ease of access to more reading” (The Reading Framework- January2022).

We believe in every child. We regularly monitor each child’s individual progress and our skilled staff, including dedicated Inclusion Leaders, ensure that interventions and additional support are put in place should a child portray a particular need.

Curriculum Overviews

During EYFS, children of Valley Primary School base their learning around seven key areas: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. The introduction of our systematic, synthetic phonics scheme commences as soon as children start their Reception year. We design our curriculum to suit the needs of each of our cohorts and take account of the interests and talents of individual children and groups of children. We aim to be flexible and ensure that our curriculum is shaped by the needs, interests and abilities of our learners.

During Key Stage One and Key Stage Two, children of Valley Primary School will usually be taught English, Mathematics and Phonics (primarily KS1) in the mornings and then in the afternoons will be taught Science, Computing, History, Geography, Art, D.T., P.E., R.E., P.S.H.E., MFL and Music. Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and covers all key skills from this. We assess our children regularly and make judgements about their progress against age related expectations.

Home Learning

Each half term, every year group sends a newsletter home to parents outlining the key learning which will take place during the half term which enables parents to discuss learning and support at home.

Our Around the World Topic Learning Activities are sent home half termly to enable children to access a variety of cross curricular activities linked to their current topic. This gives parental choice as to the amount of home learning completed with children rewarded for completing tasks with a sticker on their passport and a special raffle draw incentive when they complete one trip around the world. 

Weekly challenges are set to encourage children to further develop their skills at home and a homework club offered for children who lack equipment or space at home to complete this. 

Daily Reading, Spelling Practice and KIRF and Target practice is encouraged.

We encourage our children to develop their skills for future citizenship by promoting Life Skills. We have a half termly life skills focus which we encourage our children to actively evidence and consider. 
 

Our Feel Good Friday involves a Brain Booster mental health activity and a Curious Challenge thinking skills or outdoor learning activity. These challenges are set for a Friday afternoon as we finish a little earlier on a Friday. We believe looking after your mental health and developing thinking skills are key life skills. 

Various online websites and additional learning platforms are encouraged via our Learning Zone in the Childrens Section and use of sites such as Times Tables Rock Stars is strongly encouraged.  We also provide a variety of additional optional activities to complete at home via both our school website and through our rolling enrichment program of activities linked to special events throughout the school year, details of which are sent directly via parent pay or detailed in our school newsletter. 

Further Information

If you wish to discuss any aspects of our curriculum or find out more please pop into the school office or email us and we will be happy to tell you more. All documents are available in paper format, free of charge if you contact the school.