Our Curriculum

The National Curriculum (2014) is the minimum entitlement in all schools. Here at Brayton the staff work hard together to plan sessions which are exciting, engaging and that build on children's prior learning.  This helps the children develop confidence in their own knowledge, skills and understanding, and to make links between subjects and ideas.

Staff use a variety of teaching methods: whole class, group and individual teaching. We make realistic links between subjects to provide meaningful learning experiences for all children.  We have high expectations of everyone and we are always working to develop our practice so that it is relevant and challenging for all learners.  The class teachers are very well supported by experienced and skilled teaching assistants to ensure that all children can access the key learning.

Subject leaders oversee an area of the curriculum in small teams to monitor and review their area across the school; they also audit resources and equipment, and plan for developing their subject further.  For some areas, such as science and EYFS, there are well-established STAR MAT network groups for sharing ideas, best practice and the latest thinking in their area.  For English and maths, there are links into the area Hubs which are run on a larger scale.

There is lots of information below about how our curriculum is organised: for further infomation please contact your child's class teacher or the school directly, or see what has been happening in our weekly newsletters.

STAR MAT Curriculum Principles

The curriculum in each of our schools will be designed to help children become well rounded individuals who have had opportunities to develop:

1. Themselves
   To become:
   ● Physically and mentally healthy
   ● Informed risk takers, problem solvers and critical thinkers
   ● Articulate communicators
   ● Reflective, resilient and able to self-regulate
2. Their ability to interact with others and contribute positively to society
   To become:
   ● Tolerant and respectful of others: different people, places and cultures
   ● Responsible, aware and engaged citizens: locally, nationally and globally
   ● Able to develop appropriate and successful relationships
3. The knowledge and skills which will equip them for life
   An entitlement to:
   ● Develop mathematical fluency and essential literacy skills
   ● Be taught a broad, rich and age appropriate programme of study in every subject
   ● Stimulating and exciting learning experiences both within and beyond the ‘classroom’
   ● Opportunities to take part in sport, performance and other creative activities
   ● Careers education and guidance

Each school will ensure that its curriculum:
● Reflects local context and is responsive to need
● Is informed by the National Curriculum programme of study for each subject
● Delivers careers education as defined by the Gatsby benchmarks
● Is adapted when necessary to address the specific SEND needs of individual pupils/students

Curriculum Content

Our curriculum planning starts with the STAR MAT Progression Frameworks for each subject.  These were developed by subject leader teams across all the schools, drawing on the National Curriculum and setting out the content for each year group.

In school, these are then built up with more detail around what this learning will look like for different year groups: their themes, key knowledge, skills and vocabulary.  A long term planning summary for each area shows this at a glance; then half termly/termly learning overviews show how the content is being brought to life in class.

Phonics

We use Essential Letters and Sounds ELS) to support the systematic teaching of phonics. Children begin the programme in Early Years and then continue across Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2). Every child in Reception and KS1 has a teacher-led phonics session every morning. Interventions continue in KS2. They learn to read and write simple sentences through this approach, and are able to read books linked to their level of knowledge and understanding of phonics.

Mrs Amy Beadnell-Bevan is our lead for Phonics in school.

At the end of Y1, children take part in the national Phonics Screening Check. They read 40 unseen words which are a combination of ‘real’ and ‘nonsense’, or ‘alien’ words to check their phonic knowledge, and gain a score out of 40. When all schools have completed the check, the DFE sets a score that children need to have reached to be judged to be ‘working at the expected standard’. This mark has varied over the years, sometimes being 32, 33 or 34 out of 40. You will receive a printout of your child’s score with their end of year report.

Hear each letter sound. We are often asked how each letter (or pair of letters) is pronounced. The link below will take you to the BBC Phonics tool which will enable you to hear the pronunciation of each sound.

Click here to hear each sound.

The Oxford Owl website has some excellent information for parents. There are some useful videos as well as a really helpful player that allows you to hear each letter sound.

Click here on this link to visit the site.