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Curriculum

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Our Curriculum

At Staynor Hall Community Primary Academy, our curriculum will give each and every child the opportunity to build a life-long love for learning. We offer an exciting thematic curriculum that utilises the local area whilst developing an understanding and appreciation of the wider world. Our aim is to provide the knowledge and skills that pupils need in order to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences later in life to prepare them to become citizens in an ever-changing society.

Our Curriculum Intent

We pride ourselves in being a restorative school and we aim to provide a curriculum which:

  1. Inspires and engages young minds so that they aspire to be the best that they can be.
  2. Provides opportunities that develop perseverance and resilience, enabling all children to live their lives in all its fullness.
  3. Promotes critical thinking which allows children to summarise and deepen their understanding and those of others, preparing them for the future as reflective learners.
  4. Fosters good learning habits and behaviours so that children can become self-motivating and independent in their learning.
  5. Encourages individuals to develop their own views and identity while appreciating the importance of being part of a team.

Our Curriculum Implementation

Staynor Hall Community Primary Academy follows the National Curriculum to ensure that we offer a curriculum that is both broad and balanced and provides all children the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge, and understanding in a full range of subject areas.

Our approach to learning is thematic and fosters children’s natural curiosity for discovering and learning about the world we live in.

Our curriculum is planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and towards clearly defined endpoints. Each theme starts with a hook to purposely raise curiosity and motivate children to want to know more.

There are several occasions throughout the year when the whole school undertakes learning on a joint theme; these are called ‘Learn Through Weeks’ . An example of this is our week focusing on ‘Celebrating Other Cultures’ which broadens the children’s understanding of our local and wider community. 

Childhood experiences are important to us. These are woven into our curriculum to enhance the children’s learning journey. Our commitment to our children is that we will ensure they leave our school knowing what it feels like to roll down a grassy bank with their friends or make and fly a kite.

Visit our class pages to see our curriculum plans and knowledge organisers.

The Impact of our Curriculum

Although you can judge the success of our curriculum through data and that is available for you to see, we would like you to:

  • talk with our children and listen to what they have loved about their day. 
  • listen to them engaging and challenging each others thinking in class
  • look in their curriculum books and see the pride they have in their work
  • look on our Twitter feed to see what life is like every day in our school

At the end of their learning journey with us, we want every child to feel that 

During their time at Staynor Hall, they have believed in themselves, collaborated with others, showed determination, and have been honest and true to themselves.

 

Phonics and Reading at Staynor Hall

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised – Systematic, Synthetic Phonics Programme

Our children are taught phonics and reading through the application of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. This is a systematic, synthetic phonics programme that was validated by the Department for Education in July 2021. All teachers and teaching assistants have completed training modules provided by Little Wandle to ensure a whole school understanding of the approach. As a result, the programme is followed with consistency across the school with our Reading Lead Mrs. Hunter, supporting staff across the school with the implementation of the programme. 

Daily Phonics Lessons

Phonics is the learning of individual sounds and then applying this to blending sounds to read words. Through daily lessons and repeated practice, a child’s phonic knowledge and skills become more automatic, leading them to become, over time, fluency and competent readers. 

Fully Decodable Books

Collins Big Cat for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised have devised fully decodable books matched to the Little Wandle programme progression. 

In conjunction with daily lessons, children must-read books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge. These books are carefully and precisely matched to the child’s secure phonic level to ensure a reading fluency level of 90%. This automaticity allows the child to then focus on what they are reading, reading to increase memory and understanding of what they have read. These books are read in school on a regular basis and are also shared at home with parents and carers. 

Support at Home

Each child is able to practise a decodable book at home. Suggestions are shared with parents and carers on how they can best and most effectively support their child’s reading at home. Alongside this, we encourage parents and carers to read to their child, even as they grow older, to encourage a love of books as well as developing vocabulary and discussion. 

Parents and carers are also encouraged to complete the Home Reading Diary with positive comments about their child’s reading at home. 

Additional Support

We know that some children may need extra support with their reading. These children are prioritised for sessions with reading volunteers or teaching assistants on a regular basis. 

Resources for Parents 

On the Little Wandle website, there are some excellent resources for parents and carers in the “For Parents” section. 

By following this link, you will be able to see the full progression grid from Reception to the end of Year 1. You will see which sounds and words your child will be learning at which point of their phonics and reading journey. 

Progression grid for phonics

In this link, you will find videos of how to correctly pronounce the sounds that each letter makes, the correct formation of each letter, and how to write capital letters. 

Little Wandle for parents

 

Curriculum Design & Staynor Expedition

 

Our Curriculum complies with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.  For full details on how we are complying, please visit the SEN Information Report page on our website.

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