Curriculum Statement

At Launcelot Primary School we follow the National Curriculum, which sets out the key requirements to be taught to children during their primary years. From these core requirements we have developed topics of interest through which we can ensure these key requirements are taught.

Through our curriculum, we aim to provide for the full academic, personal and social development of each pupil, and to encourage children to work and think independently and to make decisions within a moral code. We aim to foster a love of learning and develop the key skills that will enable children to be independent thinkers and effective citizens of the future. To this end we make sure our curriculum is lively and stimulating, covering a broad range of topics to capture children’s interests. We enrich the curriculum where we can through visits, visitors and opportunities for outdoor learning. Our children learn in a variety of ways but we work hard to ensure that it is fun.

Each year group works on a new topic each term. Through these topics we cover all aspects of the curriculum as well as teaching basic skills of reading, writing and maths. The topics we teach are reviewed from time to time and our current Curriculum Map is available for viewing on the school website.

For more detailed information about our curriculum, please see the half termly curriculum newsletters sent out by each year group. These give more information about the topics being studied and suggestions of activities to support learning at home.

English

A child’s ability to communicate is vital to all aspects of their learning. Therefore English is at the core of the Launcelot curriculum. Speaking and listening, reading and writing skills are taught from Nursery through to Y6.

The aim is for all Launcelot children to be confident and enthusiastic speakers, readers and writers, and so we provide a broad range of daily activities for children to practice these skills. Included in this provision are opportunities for speaking and drama activities as well as reading and writing in different styles and for different purposes.

We place a high priority on speaking and listening. Children need language to understand the world and express themselves. To develop language they need exposure to language through first-hand experiences, quality conversations and lots and lots of reading.

Phonics is an integral part of our Literacy teaching and is taught every day in Early Years and Key Stage One. We use Phonics Shed to support our teaching. Children are taught in small groups throughout Reception and Key Stage One. In Key Stage 2 children continue to develop and apply their phonic knowledge and are given additional support where appropriate.

Teaching of reading is a priority. From the earliest stages we encourage a love of books and reading. As children progress into Key Stage One we follow the Daily Supported Reading approach where children focus on key skills and texts in small groups every day. In Key Stage Two we use Destination Reader to further embed key reading skills as well as continuing to foster that all-important love of reading.

Mathematics

Maths is a key strength in our school. Children love to work with numbers, applying their knowledge and understanding to solving problems and explaining how they have arrived at a solution.

Maths is taught mainly in discreet lessons, based upon the 2014 National curriculum. Children are taught to calculate mentally. Pencil and paper methods of calculation are taught for when it becomes too difficult to work mentally. Cross curricular links are developed whenever possible, especially in science and ICT and problem solving sessions are woven throughout each term’s lessons.

Right through the school we ensure that children understand concepts through practical experience first using concrete apparatus such as real-life objects or purpose-made maths resources. Following this children will represent concepts pictorially. The final stage is abstract understanding.

Our maths curriculum is devised to develop fluency, reasoning and problem-solving in all areas of mathematics. We always say that mathematical understanding is a lot more about language than it is about numbers!

We use the calculation policy developed by the White Rose Maths Hub, which supports our maths mastery approach to teaching and learning in maths. It explains the calculation strategies children are taught and shows examples of how these are introduced with equipment and diagrams to support children's understanding of the abstract, written form. You can download the policy here.

Science

In the teaching and learning of science we aim for all children to build up a body of scientific knowledge and understanding as a foundation for future enquiry and develop a greater understanding of themselves and their environment, in addition to all the learning skills.

Children are encouraged to observe, ask questions, test ideas, make deductions and predictions. As well as learning different scientific knowledge a large, amount of time is spent on investigative and experimental work.
In Early Years Foundation Stage, Science is taught across the curriculum; children are encouraged to explore the world around them and talk about what they notice.

An overview of the science topics taught in each year group can be downloaded here – science topic overview

Creative Curriculum

Our curriculum is action-packed and full of interactive and exciting learning opportunities throughout the key stages. It is stimulating, engaging and promotes independence. Children will be taught the foundation subjects (History, Geography, Music, Art, DT, PSHE, and PE) through motivating topics such as ‘Fire! Fire!’, ‘Rotten Romans’ and ‘Groovy Greeks’. Children will become explorers and detectives to find out more about the world around them and significant historical periods. We try to bring learning to life through having visitors into school, taking school trips, having theme days and weeks and so on. We want our children to enjoy every step of their learning journey.

The curriculum overview of the different topics that will be taught can be downloaded here – curriculum overview.

Curriculum Maps

Full details of our year group Newsletters and Curriculum Maps can be found on our Year Group Newsletter & Curriculum Map page.