At Coppull Primary School and Nursery we follow the statutory requirements set out by the government www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/primary  whilst aiming to inspire each pupil to achieve their very best. We provide our pupils with a rich, broad and balanced curriculum which meets the needs of all our children. Our teaching team have worked hard to ensure that our curriculum meets the unique needs of our school by organising stimulating trips and visitors to inspire and motivate pupils. Lessons are engaging so that we foster a life-long love of learning. The local area, including Yarrow Valley Country Park is used where possible to help the children to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the local area.

The curriculum is underpinned by the school’s core values (aim high, respect all, enjoy learning and achieve) and these are taught through all areas of the curriculum and assemblies. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils and their understanding of the British values are weaved through our curriculum in every lesson, ensuring that pupils have a clear understanding of the values that underpin our British constitution. Each half term, school focuses on a distinct value such as respect, happiness, friendship, honesty and courage. These are delivered through assemblies and discreet lessons. Value tokens are used as an incentive to promote these values which are exchanged for certificates. Through the curriculum, pupils learn skills necessary to succeed in each subject, whilst developing their personal and social skills. 

As well as delivering some subjects separately, we try to make learning more relevant by teaching them through our themes.  Our curriculum is also flexible, so that learning which really inspires our pupils can be pursued. Due to the increased popularity of our school and in order to maintain smaller class sizes, we teach a two year rolling programme in Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2. Teachers plan together to ensure consistency for children regardless of their class, while at the same time ensuring that lessons are pitched according to children’s individual ability.

Our Curriculum Vision
Through our Coppull Primary Curriculum, our pupils will experience memorable and relevant opportunities for progressive, high quality learning and wider personal development and well-being.  By fostering a curriculum which provides both skills and knowledge, our pupils will be inspired by what they learn, be creative in their application and be passionate about their learning community and the wider world, now and in the future. The way in which we deliver our curriculum is unique to our school and has been designed to meet their individual needs and to inspire our pupils.

Our curriculum gives pupils opportunities to learn, build on and develop new skills, concepts and knowledge. Pupils experience a wide range of subjects and activities that allow them to explore different topics in detail.

Our aim is to develop inquisitive minds, a spirit of curiosity and a passion for learning. Our children will be equipped with the skills to fully participate in an ever - changing world and to be respectful and productive members of the community. The children at Coppull Primary are encouraged to have high expectations and self- belief to enable them to fulfil their potential.

The National Curriculum is composed of:

Core subjects:
English, Maths, Science

Foundation Subjects:
Art & Design Technology, Computing, History, Geography, Music, Physical Education, PSHE (Values) and Modern Foreign Languages (Key Stage 2 only) and  Religious Education

More time is given to the teaching and learning of the core subjects of the National Curriculum than to the delivery of the foundation subjects, Religious Education or the additional subjects.

Please see individual class pages to view our curriculum content in more detail.

Phonics Bug is the resource we use to support the systematic teaching of phonics and early reading. Children begin the programme at the start of nursery and continue across Key Stage 1, these sessions are daily. The programme starts at phase 1 and finishes at phase 5. Your child's teacher will be able to tell you which phase your child is currently working on. Once your child has reached the end of phase 5 they will start daily spelling lessons.

-          In our nursery, children are taught to hear the initial sounds and begin to orally blend.

-          By the end of reception, children should be able to start to read and write different graphemes.

-          In Year 1 children will start to explore digraphs and trigraphs further.

-          In Year 2 will be learning spelling rules, such as adding suffixes to words
 

Phonics Glossary
We hope the following glossary is useful to you when listening to your child read at home. Please feel free to come in and talk to us if you require any further support.

 blending

Blending is the skill of joining sounds together to read words. Children are taught to say the separate sounds in a word and to then blend them together to decode the word.

 digraph

 A digraph is a sound that is represented by two letters e.g. the sound 'a' in rain is represented by the digraph 'ai'.

grapheme

A grapheme is a visual representation of a sound e.g. a letter or a group of letters. Some sounds are represented by a single letter whilst others are represented by more than one letter.

 phoneme

A phoneme is a unit of sound e.g. the word 'cat' contains three phonemes c - a - t.

 segmenting

 Segmenting is the opposite of blending. Children are taught to segment a word into its separate sounds in order to spell it.

 split digraph

 A split digraph is a digraph that is separated by other letters e.g. the sound 'a' in the word take is represented by the split digraph a-e.

At Coppull Primary School and Nursery, our pupils engage in quality English lessons, enabling them to develop their skills in reading, writing and speaking and listening so that they can express their ideas and emotions and communicate effectively.  

English is a core subject that is taught daily in each class.  Teachers use high quality texts to teach the English units through which we incorporate fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.  We try to incorporate a range of texts to broaden the children’s experience of different authors and genres and to engage them in their learning.  We use a phased approach to English lessons where we expose the children to example text types, build up their skills through short writing pieces, before finishing with extended writing opportunities incorporating the knowledge and skills of the required features we have learnt.  We also focus on the grammar, punctuation and spellings appropriate to the year group and where possible, teach and then apply these skills to our writing linked to our texts so that children can experience using the different concepts in context.  English skills are also woven into and embedded throughout the entire curriculum and opportunities for cross curricular learning are embraced.   

At Coppull Primary School and Nursery, we are passionate about reading and believe that every child should have access to books and reading materials.  We have a huge range of reading books for all ages and ability ranges and we also have an online reading library for children to access at home. We have invested in the Oxford Reading Tree scheme which provides books to help children practise their phonic skills at the appropriate phase; broadens their vocabulary and has a range of text types including fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, and specific books to share with an adult.  We want to inspire a love of reading in all children and with our vast array of reading books, our onsite school library and our free book stand, everyone can hopefully find a text, author or genre that sparks their interest and imagination.  Early reading is a key priority and children in our nursery enjoy sharing books and story time.  They take part in many speaking and listening activities including reciting and learning nursery rhymes and songs to help with their speech and language acquisition. As the children continue on their journey through early years, they begin their phonics lessons which aids both their reading and writing skills.   

We firmly believe that all children should leave primary school with the required skills in reading and writing and we strive to ensure each child has access to high quality English lessons and any necessary help and support required to reach their potential.  

Click here for a comprehensive list of suggested reads for children aged 3 to 11

‘A high quality maths education provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.’ – Primary National Curriculum 2014

Mathematics is integral to many aspects of life and with this is mind, at Coppull Primary School and Nursery, we endeavour to ensure that our pupils develop an enthusiastic and positive attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them.  The intent of our mathematics curriculum is to embrace this principal and to maximise the development of every child’s mathematical ability by providing our pupils with a variety of rich opportunities, underpinned by deep conceptual understanding.

Furthermore, we believe that the ability to reason mathematically and think critically enables pupils to solve problems, not solely in maths but across the wider curriculum, as well as supporting pupils to develop a positive growth mindset, resilience and perseverance.

Calculations

Calculation strategy development is vital to our teaching and learning strategy, being viewed as the tools for our pupils’ future successes in mathematics.  Our written calculations policy reflects this and outlines the methods, clearly showing how these progress through each individual stage of learning.

Times Tables

These are an essential part of mathematics and it is challenging to perform multiplication and division calculations without having rapid recall of times tables.  Knowing all of the times tables up to 12 x 12 is a national requirement by the end of year 4.  We aim to motivate our pupils’ learning through the use of computing programmes, such as Times Tables Rockstars, to embed knowledge and skills. 

How can you help at home?

There are lots of ways to help your child practise maths at home beyond assisting with homework.  Here are some suggestions:

·         Allow children to help with shopping at an age appropriate level i.e. handing over money, collecting change, deciding if the cost of an item is a good offer or not etc.

·         For younger children - lots of counting and songs i.e. five little ducks, ten green bottles. Don’t forget to count backwards!

·         Practise times tables together.  There are lots of ideas online such as sign along songs.

·         Involve children in cooking: weights and times are an essential part of everyday maths.

·         Involve children in simple DIY tasks where measuring is required.

·         Play estimation games i.e. how long do you think it will take us to get there? How much do you think this weighs?

·         Find shapes in the environment.

·         There are also many more ideas online. 

All of our KS1 and KS2 pupils also have individual access to the following websites which can be accessed at home:

• Active Learn Primary
• Times Tables Rockstars

At Coppull Primary School & Nursery we endeavour to provide our children with scientific learning opportunities that inspire their curiosity to explore, investigate, question and explain the world around them. Our aim is to encourage our pupils to understand their world through biology, chemistry and physics and develop an understanding of how science has changed our world and its importance in the world today. We tailor our science curriculum to meet the needs of our children. Using the objectives provided in the National Curriculum for Science we provide scientific learning opportunities that meet the needs and interests of our pupils, matching where possible, science topics to the current theme in each year group or the time of year, which enables the children to see science in action in the natural world. As well as developing their scientific knowledge we provide many opportunities for the children to develop their working scientifically skills such as asking questions, identifying and classifying, research, observations over time, predicting outcomes and fair testing. We take part in British Science Week each year in which we provide a variety of science activities for the children and raise awareness of careers involving science to inspire the next generation of young scientists.

At Coppull Primary School Science is taught in discrete lessons each week with relevant cross curricular links made where possible. Working Scientifically skills are embedded with scientific knowledge, with planning and investigating opportunities provided for each topic in each year group. This enables our children to question, investigate and explain science concepts. Our work in Eco Schools and Forest School provides extra scientific learning experiences and the opportunity for our children to observe natural phenomena.

At Coppull Primary School and Nursery we provide a high-quality computing curriculum that inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in an increasingly technological world. We provide opportunities for pupils to become confident in the use of technology. The children are given opportunities to use a variety of resources and solve problems in creative ways which develops their resilience and character, helping them to become lifelong learners.

Our pupils engage in both discreet high quality lessons, teaching them the skills of computing, as well as cross curricular lessons which help them embed and further develop their knowledge. The curriculum ensures a sound progression of skills enabling all children to make progress and be proud of their achievements.

At Coppull Primary School and Nursery we believe that Art and Design develops creativity and imagination. By developing skills and techniques, children will be equipped to express their feelings and ideas. Being creative gives children opportunities to try out new ideas, and new ways of thinking and problem-solving. Our hope is this will empower children by building self- esteem and resilience.

At Coppull Primary and Nursery School, our vision for Design and Technology is to prepare children to deal with tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. We aim to encourage children to become independent, creative problem solvers both as individuals and as part of a team. We hope to teach children the skills and techniques to creatively design and make products that solve real and relevant problems. We aim to do this in a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs. Children are taught about the safety aspects of cooking and develop independence skills. We believe teaching pupils to cook is an important part of promoting health and wellbeing.

At Coppull Primary School and Nursery we strive to provide our children with the opportunities to interest and wonder in exploring their own place in the world. We believe it is important to that geography links with children’s lives.

Each class has a theme for each half term which geography is linked with. These themes are planned to excite the children and link to the local area when possible.

Through our geography curriculum our children will develop a sense of their world at the local, national and global scales understanding connections between how people and the environment interact.

Fieldwork is an essential part of this. Pupils learn to think critically, use maps, visual images and new technologies to analyse and present information.

At Coppull Primary School and Nursery our aim is that history curriculum inspires our pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. History helps pupils to understand the process of change, the diversity of societies as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Each class has a theme for each half term which history is linked with. These themes are planned to excite the children and encourage a love of learning.

Our history curriculum will allow the children to ask questions, think critically, weigh evidence and develop perspective and judgment. Pupils will identify where people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.

Music is a unique way of communicating that can inspire and motivate children. It is a vehicle for personal expression, and it can play an important part in the personal development of children. Music reflects the culture and society we live in, and so the teaching and learning of music enables children to better understand the world they live in. Besides being a creative and enjoyable activity, music can also be a highly academic and demanding subject. It also plays an important part in helping children feel part of a community. At Coppull Primary, we aim to provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, to develop the skills, to appreciate a wide variety of musical forms, and begin to make judgements about the quality of music.

The objectives of teaching music in our school are to enable children to:

• know and understand how sounds are made and then organised into musical structures;

• know how music is made through a variety of instruments;

• know how music is composed and written down;

• know how music is influenced by the time, place and purpose for which it was written;

• develop the interrelated skills of performing, composing and appreciating music.

Teaching and learning style

At Coppull Primary School, we aim to make music an enjoyable learning experience. We seek to encourage all children to participate in a variety of musical experiences throughout their primary education which we aim to build up the confidence of all children. Singing lies at the heart of good music teaching. Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to sing in tune and with other people.

At Coppull Primary school we believe that PSHE supports our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of our school and the wider community. We aim to provide the children with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy, safe and  happy and prepare for a life and work in modern Britain. Evidence shows that well delivered PSHE programmes have a positive impact on both academic and non-academic outcomes for children.

Our PSHE curriculum provides opportunities to learn about:

• Relationships.
• Developing independence, resilience and responsibility.
• Health.
• Managing risk.
• Economic wellbeing.
• Employability skills

School Values.

At Coppull Primary School and Nursery, our values are founded from our school ethos of Aim High, Respect All, Enjoy Learning and Achieve. We expect all our children to display our values and are rewarded for doing so both in and out of the classroom. We have a two year rolling program of values and introduce each new value at the beginning of every half term with a special celebration assembly.

Our school values are: Respect, Happiness, Friendship, Honesty, Responsibility, Courage, Cooperation, Caring, Hope, Patience, Trust and Thoughtfulness.

British Values.

British Values play an important role in education and this is embedded throughout our PSHE curriculum. British Values are promoted in so much of what we do, not least during our school assemblies and Religious Education. The values are integral to our school ethos statement which complements British values.

Children are taught about:

• The rule of law
• Democracy
• Mutual respect and tolerance
• Individual liberty
• School Values

RSe

Towards the end of Key Stage 2 (Y5 and Y6) some classes will take part in lessons which will focus on the relationships and sex education (RSe) aspect of this programme.

RSe lessons in Key Stage 2 will include teaching about:

Healthy relationships, including friendships and intimate relationships; families; growing and changing, including puberty; personal hygiene; changing feelings; becoming more independent; keeping safe and consent; developing self-esteem and confidence. Pupils will also have opportunities to ask questions that help prepare them for relationships of all kinds in the modern world.

The purpose of Relationship and Sex Education (RSe) is to provide knowledge and understanding of how the human body changes during puberty and the processes of human reproduction, within the context of relationships based on love and respect. It should develop understanding and attitudes which will help pupils to form relationships in a responsible and healthy manner and to appreciate the value of stable family life, including the responsibilities of parenthood and long term relationships. 

If young people can start their transition into adulthood with good information and the confidence and knowledge to understand what is happening to them, they will hopefully grow into confident and healthy adults able to make positive choices. This can start with learning the basics about growing up and the sessions may reinforce what you are already doing at home.

The key aims of RSe are to:

• Provide accurate and relevant information about the physical and emotional changes that children and young people will experience through their formative years and into adulthood.
• Establish an awareness of the importance of stable family life and relationships, including the responsibilities of parenthood and long term relationships.
• Foster self-awareness and self-esteem.
• Develop a sense of responsibility and respect for themselves and others.

At Coppull Primary School, RE is a valued subject which welcomes the difficult questions about life, beliefs, God, right and wrong and what is means to be human. It develops the children’s knowledge and understanding of faiths represented in their local community of Coppull and the wider world. RE allows children to learn about and challenge their own and each other’s beliefs and values in an unbiased and safe environment.

Although RE is a distinct subject it makes important contributions to other parts of the curriculum, including PSHE and SEAL as well as developing higher order thinking skills, spiritual development and deep personal development. It is also closely linked to Coppull Primary School’s Values which form an important and valuable part of the school ethos.