Our aim is to make a positive difference to every child’s life. We will help them to understand the world around them and give them the knowledge and skills they need to fulfil their dreams and live as confident, successful and caring individuals. Our 3 core values are: Aspirational, Inquisitive and Mindful. These core values drive our ambitious curriculum and underpin all that we do.
Aspirational: Children at Thorpe Primary dare to dream big, knowing no boundaries to success. Through the experiences our curriculum offers, our children’s ambitions and aspirations are unlocked. These experiences allow them, as individuals, to develop their own passions and interests, and become invested in their learning that leads to a sense of drive and motivation. This allows them to reach their potential and achieve their goals and dreams.
Inquisitive: At Thorpe Primary, we consistently encourage the children to ask questions. Questioning is key to active and meaningful learning and is the cornerstone of enquiry. Children understand that questions help us to make sense of the world and help us to fill recognised knowledge gaps and solve problems. Such questions trigger the use of deep-thinking strategies. Memorable learning experiences allow our children to retain knowledge, apply skills and develop links in their understanding. In turn, children leave Thorpe as independent lifelong learners.
Mindful: Through our personalised and tailored curriculum, children at Thorpe are taught to be responsible, resilient citizens who embrace challenge and feel success. Children learn to believe in themselves and be proud of their local community. They are mindful of the importance of their actions and the part they play in the diverse wider world. Through a strong self-belief, leading to a positive physical and mental well-being, our children are equipped to take risks and overcome challenges they may face. Children will leave Thorpe as compassionate individuals with a belief that everyone should be valued and respected, therefore preparing them for life in modern Britain.
Our Vision Statement: AIM for Excellence!
We believe that providing our children with a curriculum that is hands on, inspiring and engaging is key as it creates memorable learning. All children should enjoy learning and be passionate about what they are doing. Through our curriculum, we generate a culture of ‘botheredness’. When learning, children are fully immersed in what they are doing, to feel bothered, to care and to empathise. By creating this sense of ‘botheredness’, our children learn, engage and are passionate about what they are doing, in return making good progress and achieving success. At Thorpe, we place great value on the wider curriculum and, through our way of working, ensure that each and every subject is wrapped up in our three core values: Aspirational, Inquisitive, Mindful.
Curriculum maps are produced for each year group ensuring clarity of coverage with a strong emphasis on progression of knowledge and skills. Carefully selected enrichment opportunities are key to providing all pupils rich experiences to enhance their learning. Developing an understanding of the fundamental British values infiltrates aspects of the curriculum and assembly themes.
Our curriculum design is based on evidence from principles of learning, on-going assessment and organisation and cognitive research. (EEF research, Cognitive Science, Psychological Science)
These main principles underpin this:
Curriculum organisation and timetabling enable learners opportunities for constant recapping of knowledge and skills with well-spaced reviews. We deliver a coherently planned curriculum with a progressive development and understanding of key knowledge, skills and concepts, which will be re-visited regularly. Some of our content is subject specific whilst other content is combined in a cross-curricular approach enabling us to put knowledge into context. The use of Knowledge Organisers provide transparency within the curriculum – an overview of pre-teach content and also a means of tracking knowledge, skills and understanding of concepts which are regularly re-visited in the form of a variety of retrieval exercises. This regular revisiting enables knowledge to be committed to long-term memory.
At Thorpe, the impact of our curriculum will be measured by the success of our learners. It will be the measure of how well our intent has been realised and how confident our children are at being able to demonstrate the knowledge they have retained over time. Children are developed into well-rounded children that are resilient and successful as they move through the world around them. Our well-rounded children are self-disciplined, responsible children who show positive leadership, teamwork, and communication skills.
The impact of our curriculum is also measured in terms of the extent to which pupils have developed new knowledge, understanding and skills and that they can use and recall this with fluency.
Apart from observing the whole child, other impact measures include:
Homework is set regularly for all children. For children in Reception and KS1, homework is centred around reading, spelling and basic maths skills. For all other children, homework is set regularly. Our homework policy sets out our expectations.
In Reception, the children are taught an Early Years Curriculum, based on the ‘Development Matters’ framework which provides a sound basis for learning.
Your child is learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities. The curriculum is designed to be really flexible so that staff can follow your child’s unique needs and interests.
Children in the EYFS learn through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside and by:
At Thorpe Primary School, we create a safe and happy learning environment and provide motivating and challenging learning experiences that enable the children to become confident and independent learners. We aim to foster a sense of enquiry and a real thirst for learning new skills and knowledge.
Intent
At Thorpe, we want all children to read for pleasure. We believe that Reading underpins all areas of the curriculum and provides children with the freedom and ownership of their learning. To embed this, we take a holistic approach, choosing texts from a broad range of genres and cultures. This allows children to develop their own reading preferences. We want to inspire and guide children to become fluent and confident readers, with a wealth of vocabulary, which can be transferred into writing. It is our intention that children will immerse themselves in books and texts, to clearly understand authorial techniques and the effect that this has on the reader. This will enable children to develop both as readers and writers. We want children to realise that reading is a key that will unlock opportunities for them both at school and in later life.
Implementation
EYFS and Key Stage 1
In EYFS and KS1, we follow the Read, Write inc. programme which is validated by the Department for Education. This scheme is a method of first learning letter sounds and then blending them together to read and write words. Daily phonics lessons take place, where children are streamed into groups according to ability and retention of phonetical sounds. Children are assessed half termly and moved groups at the earliest possible time to ensure they are not held back in their reading journeys. Alongside the daily speed sounds lesson, all pupils in EYFS and KS1 take part in a daily ‘storybook session’ through the RWI scheme. This teaches all the children the essential comprehension skills needed. The books all link to the relevant phonemes being taught within that week allowing for application of learning. Children are also sent home with reading books linking to the RWI scheme. Additional interventions occur for children that are identified as spotlight children on a 1:1 basis through the RWI fast track tutoring scheme. All teachers read aloud to their classes daily through storybook time. We read with our lowest 20% of readers on a 1:1 basis 2-3 times a week to try and encourage fluency.
Key Stage 2
In KS2, each year group has a class text, which they focus on each half term. The teacher reads the text to the children daily, modelling reading for pleasure and fluency. The children are also given the opportunity to read the text themselves. Text choices are carefully chosen to enable the children to make progress with reading. Alongside the class text, children are exposed to many other forms of text through the Ashley Booth reading curriculum. In Key Stage 2, two discrete reading lessons are taught weekly using the whole class text and three reading lessons are dedicated to practising reading skills through a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. All reading lessons focus on the VIPERS reading skills. Reading is taught with a mixture of whole class based and differentiated lessons.
ERIC (Everybody Reading In Class) is also timetabled daily, a chance for children to read books of their choice for pleasure.
Reading for Pleasure
Each classroom has a reading area which children are encouraged to use regularly. They are also given the opportunity to visit the school library and local library on a regular basis. Children are encouraged to take books home to read with their families. Children are provided with a reading record and asked to read a minimum of two times a week to an adult. This is monitored in school and those children who are falling behind with their reading are given extra time to read to an adult in school.
Impact
Children will be fluent readers, who will read through choice and be able to express their preferences and opinions around authors and books. Children will have a rich and varied curriculum knowledge because of the wealth of text they are exposed to and because they can read with understanding. Children will be confident with the different skills required to be an all-round reader and will be able to apply their knowledge to their writing.
Intent
At Thorpe, we want to equip all our pupils with a secure phonic knowledge that enables them to read and write successfully. Children will be able to apply their understanding of letters and sounds to decode a range of words which in turn will allow them to read books that are closely matched to their phonic knowledge. When writing, children will be able to make phonically plausible attempts at unfamiliar words, enabling them to write with an appropriate level of independence for their age. They will also be able to use their phonic knowledge to correctly apply a range of spelling rules to words.
Implementation
In EYFS and KS1, a systematic and rigorous approach to phonics will be applied through the delivery of the Read, Write Inc. programme. Robust, half-termly assessments will be used to ensure that children are making at least expected progress and are placed in a group that is matched to their ability. Where children are not making expected progress, 1:1 tutoring sessions will be put in place to address this. Staff delivering Read, Write Inc. lessons will have access to quality training materials and attend regular coaching sessions to ensure that teaching is consistent across all groups and always to a high standard. Children will take home familiar and unfamiliar books that are closely matched to their phonic knowledge.
In KS2, some children from Year 3 and 4 will continue to access RWI lessons. These children will continue to take home familiar and unfamiliar books that are closely matched to their phonic knowledge. Across school, all classrooms will display Speed Sound Charts that will be used as working walls and added to as necessary.
Impact
Children feel confident in using their phonic knowledge and the strategies that they have been taught to read words. This helps them to access a range of material and, in turn, fosters a love of reading. By taking home books that are closely matched to their phonic knowledge, children can celebrate reading success with their parents and carers which will give them the confidence and motivation to read regularly. This will have a positive impact on the progress that they make. Children will be able to make phonically plausibly attempts at spelling words and therefore communicate their ideas in writing across a range of subjects and for a range of purposes both in and out of school. Based on their phonic knowledge, children can make good spelling choices and spell many words correctly. In short, we aspire for our pupils to:
If you would like further information about our curriculum, please look under the curriculum tabs or contact the school office.
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