Curriculum
What our children want and need in our Curriculum:
Talk, Feel, Question, Reflect
The curriculum at Courthouse Green Primary School aims to prepare children in understanding the world around them and prepare them for the next stage of their education. We want all of our pupils to be both engaged by the curriculum but be able to question and think deeply about what they learn led by British Values. The design of our wider curriculum is based on developing children’s oracy, getting an emotional hook, developing enquiry and critically analysing and evaluating. The vocabulary we expect children to learn and use is ambitious and provides challenge to all children. By the time learners have left Courthouse Green Primary School, they will have mastered a range of both procedural knowledge (skills) and factual knowledge through repeated Assessment for Learning opportunities and deliberate practise with subject leaders ensuring careful planning for progression and depth. Our curriculum is customised to meet the contextual needs of our learners. We weave thrive into all areas of our school's curriculum.
Curriculum Trips and Events - 2022-2023
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Maths
Maths
Maths at Courthouse Green
What our children say:
“I find Maths easier now I know lots of different strategies.”
“You can use lots of equipment to help you if you are stuck!”
“I like working together and exploring!”
“I like showing off and solving problems in different ways!”
What our parents say:
'It was great to see how my child is taught and how the strategies they use are quite different from when I was at school. I think it's a great idea to allow the children to use what method they feel most comfortable to come to the answer rather than one set way. Not putting children in groups by ability I see as a positive. The teacher was very encouraging and positive which I think really helps bring the best out of the children'.
At Courthouse Green
We believe that all children can become confident and successful mathematicians. To achieve this, we teach maths with a problem-solving approach that children explore with the support of actual equipment: this enables them to fully understand in a concrete, real way, what they are being asked to do. We encourage them to collaborate with others, talking through their learning at all times to further develop their understanding. Once they begin to understand the mathematical concept, we encourage them to record their understanding through the use of jottings, pictures and diagrams. This visual approach helps the children to make links in their learning and deepen their understanding further - enabling them to eventually understand maths in a more abstract way. The concrete-pictorial-abstract approach is used throughout the school from early years up to Year 6. It is based on a learning theory that children learn best through handling real objects first, then through pictures and representations before moving on to abstract signs and symbols.
A good 'sense of number' is fundamental to succeeding in Maths. Our curriculum is number rich with a heavy emphasis on number, place value and calculations. Through the approach of moving from the Concrete to the Pictorial to the Abstract, children are continuously building on their previous learning and making links within mathematical concepts. We then give our children the opportunity to practice skills in a variety of ways so that they can apply the skills to different situations in order to fully master them.
In our maths lessons, children work in mixed ability pairs at broadly the same pace on the same content. Teachers structure the learning, giving children a chance to see different ways of solving problems and understanding different methods of doing so. Children and teachers value the process of solving a problem as much as the outcome - we believe children have a deep understanding when they can explain their thinking in a number of different ways.
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English
English
Writing
We pride ourselves on teaching children how to write for a variety of audiences and a range of different purposes. This allows children to understand the different sentence types and word choices needed for different purposes and audiences. Our non-fiction writing always links to our enquiry (wider curriculum) work. Children are able to apply what they have learned in enquiry. Teachers give guidance and instruction to children to improve writing skills. This includes grammatical accuracy and correct use of punctuation. Children are expected to edit their own work based on their teachers' guidance and recommendations. Each class has a set of non-negotiable to encourage children to self-edit their work for errors and improvements. Spelling patterns are taught weekly and the children practise and improve handwriting weekly.
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Reading
Reading
At Courthouse Green, we believe that reading is an essential life skill and we are committed to enabling our children to become lifelong readers. At the heart of our reading strategy is our drive to foster a love of reading, enriching children's learning through carefully designed teaching activities that utilise imaginative stories and thought provoking texts. Reading is a skill that enables children to develop their learning across the wider curriculum and lays the foundation for success for the future. We recognise the importance of taking a consistent whole school approach to the teaching of reading in order to close any gaps and to target the highest possible number of children attaining the expected standard or higher.
Reading is fundamental to education. Proficiency in reading, writing and spoken language is vital for pupil's success. Through these, they develop communication skills for education and for working with others: in school, in training and at work. Pupils who find it difficult to learn to read are likely to struggle across the curriculum, since English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching.
At Courthouse Green we believe that 'Reading opens a magical doorway, to a world of adventure and possibility'.
'Young children don't consciously know they need representation in books. But if every primary school classroom had a bookshelf full of diversity and every reading list was inclusive, every child in the class would experience the joy of seeing themselves represented in books they read'. Chitra Soundar, author.
These quotes are the basis of our literary spine, our school library provision, our daily class story times and our class reading area texts.
At Courthouse Green we use a synthetic phonics programme called RWInc. This programme is a method of learning letter sounds and blending them together to read and write words. It ensures children developing fluency and automaticity whilst translating this into writing and SPAG skills. Children begin the RWInc programme in nursery, where they learn pre-phonic skills though play, such as listening skills, rhyme, alliteration, saying sentences and oral blending. Nursery children begin to learn the first sounds in the summer term and continue this as they move into reception. The RWInc programme continues throughout Key Stage 1, increasing in complexity of sound, text, retrieval and inference until children leave the programme. This can however, continue into Key Stage 2, if needed.
As a school, we recognise that some children find leaving a synthetic phonics programme and returning to a whole school model of reading, a challenge, therefore we use the RWInc Comprehension programme as a bridging gap to build children's confidence to use a range of strategies beyond their phonics skills and improve their retrieval and inference skills.
During and beyond RWInc, high quality texts and passages are chosen within literacy and reading sessions, appropriate to the expectations of the year group or ability of the children, and teachers use this to model the application of the agreed reading skills. Children are taught to breakdown their reading: identifying words/phrases they don't understand and strategies to fix breakdown in meaning. Children are taught to relate the text to themselves, previous reading experiences and world around them.
Further to modelled sessions, children have the opportunity to read texts with greater independence and apply their skills when responding to the wide range of domain questions.
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Science
Science
Children have opportunities to develop a strong understanding of the world around them whilst acquiring specific skills and knowledge to help them to think scientifically, to gain an understanding of scientific processes and also an understanding of the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future. Scientific enquiry skills are embedded in each topic the children study and these topics are revisited and developed throughout their time at school. Topics, such as Plants, are taught in Key Stage One and studied again in further detail throughout Key Stage Two. This model allows children to build upon their prior knowledge and increases their enthusiasm for the topics whilst embedding this procedural knowledge into the long-term memory.
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Geography
Geography
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History
History
At Courthouse Green, we believe it is important our pupils have a clear understanding of the past and how history helps to shape the future. We believe that through offering a high-quality history curriculum, we will develop pupil's chronological understanding and encourage them to be critical, devising historically valid questions about change, cause and significance. We intend for our children to become passionate historians.
Although from the long-term plan it may appear that Geography and History are only taught once a year across a term, the connections between history and geography are built in and developed throughout the year. The key ‘sticky’ knowledge from both subjects is built up and revisited through other subject areas where children’s schema is developed and built progressively and continually.
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PSHE
PSHE
For children to learn:
- To be healthy and happy
- To make responsible choices
- To be able to keep themselves and others safe
- To positively contribute to their community and beyond Themes
Autumn Term
Spring Term
Summer Term
Health and Wellbeing
Healthy Relationships
Living in the wider world
How children will learn
Talk- Children will all contribute to discussion around the theme of the lesson provoked through questions, pictures, newsclips etc.
Feel- A practical activity that actively engages the children in the learning focus, providing a real emotional hook to the learning.
Question- A question will be asked to link the learning of the lesson to the British Values to discuss or debate how they will follow the values in their own lives.
Reflect- Children will have the opportunity to reflect on how they will link the learning to their own lives and use it in the future.
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Real P.E
Real P.E
RealPE gives EVERY child the physical literacy, emotional and thinking skills to achieve in PE, Sport and life.
A unique, child-centred approach transforming how we teach PE to include, challenge and support for EVERY child. The real PE programme included training, the very best innovative resources.
Real PE provides us with fun and simple to follow Schemes of Work and supports our teachers to give them the confidence and skills to deliver outstanding PE.
It is fully aligned to the National Curriculum and focuses on the development of agility, balance and coordination, healthy competition and cooperative learning through a unique and market leading approach to teaching and learning in PE.
We were also lucky this year to host our own swimming pool, to boost our Year 3 and Year 4's swimming ability. This was a massive success, and the children enjoyed all their extra time in the pool.
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R.E
R.E
Courthouse Green is part of a wonderfully diverse community. We recognise that religion and belief, for many people, forms a crucial part of their culture and identity. We ensure that children are taught key knowledge, in a creative way, to ensure that they are equipped to talk about RE in a sensitive and respectful way.
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The Arts
The Arts
Children see before they speak, make marks before they write, and build before they walk. Our curriculum is designed to develop their ability to appreciate and interpret what they observe, communicate what they think and feel, and make what they imagine and invent.
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Computing
Computing
At Courthouse Green we have invested largely in our Computing curriculum, and will continue to improve this throughout the school.
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Design & Technology
Design & Technology
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Reception & Early Years
Reception & Early Years
Please click here to visit our EYFS Curriculum page
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Modern Foreign Languages
Modern Foreign Languages
Learning another language is a compulsory part of the Key Stage 2 curriculum and the requirement is that every child Years 3 - 6 has an entitlement to good foreign language teaching. At Courthouse Green we teach Spanish and it is taught by a specialist Modern Languages teacher. Research shows that language needs to be revised and recalled regularly to move it into the long term memory.
Learning another language is the best way to improve your own language, and Spanish at Courthouse Green reinforces grammar terminology that is also taught in English lessons.
Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A working knowledge of at least one other language is essential for the future job market as young people coming into the workplace will need to compete on more global platforms for jobs. We owe it to our children to ensure they are fully literate for the 21st century.
Pupils progress learning by:
- Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
- Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling , sound and meaning of words.
- Engage in conversations: ask and answer questions: express opinions and respond to those of others: seek clarification and help
- Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
- Develop accurate pronunciation and information so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words or phrases.
- Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences.
- Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing.
- Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.
- Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
- Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
- Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.
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Music
Music
'Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity' (The National Curriculum).
At Courthouse Green, our music curriculum intends to inspire creativity, self-expression and encourages our children on their musical journeys. We hope to foster a lifelong love of music by exposing children to diverse musical experiences and igniting a passion for music. By listening and responding to different musical styles, finding their voices as singers, performers and as composers, all will enable them to become confident, reflective musicians. Music will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually as well as ethnicities from across the world.
