Our curriculum is underpinned by our school logo  ‘Greyfriars is ACE – Achieving, Caring, Enjoying’

Intent

The Greyfriars curriculum is designed to ensure each and every child belongs to a caring community where they can enjoy their education and achieve their full potential!

We want every child to feel safe, respected and ready to learn… and to contribute to others being safe, respected and ready to learn!

We have considered our local context and the backgrounds of our pupils in planning our curriculum. It is bespoken to the needs of the pupils at Greyfriars Academy to support their personal development as well as enabling our children to become confident and successful learners who are ready for the next stage in their education.

 Our curriculum focuses on:

• inclusion – developing a fully inclusive environment with equality of opportunity and where diversity is respected, supported, and celebrated by all members of the school community
• well-being and personal development – enabling children to be mentally and physically well; to believe in themselves and develop their capacity both as learners and citizens of the future
• vocabulary and language – improving children’s ability to articulate and express themselves confidently, and supporting their conceptual development; ‘learning to talk and talking to learn’
• good achievement in Reading, Writing and Mathematics – so that children are ready for the next stage in their learning. We want our children to develop fluency, accuracy, and comprehension in reading, to foster a love of books, and to be able to communicate in writing effectively. We want them to become confident mathematicians, able to reason and problem solve.
• good acquisition of subject knowledge – to provide a precision planned spiral curriculum with clear expectations of acquisition of knowledge and progressive development of concepts and skills in readiness for the next stage in their learning.
• cultural capital opportunities – our children will have equality of access to opportunities and experiences to enable them to raise aspirations and be happy and successful in their learning and future lives.

 We plan our curriculum to motivate and engage our children and will encourage and expect them to:

• Try new things – appreciating the range of life opportunities.
• Work hard – understanding the importance of effort.
• Concentrate – understanding how to become focused.
• Push oneself – understanding how to overcome doubts and insecurities.
• Imagine – understanding how to apply knowledge inventively
• Improve – appreciation that small improvements make big differences.
• Understand others -an appreciation of others.
• Not give up – understanding the importance of persistence

Implementation

Behaviour and Personal Development

• The school fosters positive and caring relationships between pupils and adults across all aspects of the curriculum.
• Our Behaviour Policy is underpinned by these positive relationships and we provide a calm and consistent response, focused on being safe, respectful and ready to learn.
• Staff support children to develop resilience, perseverance, and self- belief, and to raise aspirations through a growth mindset.
• Our PSHE scheme JIGSAW provides a progressive structure for the development of personal, social, health and emotional development, as well as SRE. Additional 1:1 and small group SEMH and sensory circuit sessions are provided for pupils where additional support, or a personalised programme is needed.
• Our school Pledges provide opportunities, experiences and personal challenges for our children, linked to Achieving, Caring and Enjoying.
• Our children improve their fitness and stamina through participation in the ‘Golden Mile’ and weekly swimming sessions for KS2

 Literacy and Mathematics

• We focus on developing vocabulary (generic and subject specific) and encourage dialogue and effective questioning to assess and move on pupils learning, enabling them to reflect, articulate and reason, and to make links with prior knowledge.
• Teachers promote enjoyment of reading through attractive reading corners, with adults modelling reading and reading to children for pleasure. Books in EYFS & KS1 are matched to read write inc stages and age- appropriate levels to develop fluency and enjoyment. (Similarly, for SEND pupils as needed). Children have access to a range of genre through quality literature. (We make use of the Pie Corbett book spine and Talk 4 Writing)
• Phonics is taught in EYFS and KS1 linked to children’s books to promote enjoyment of reading. We are currently using read write inc for our phonics, reading and spelling scheme for the whole class teaching of Phonics and this is supported by small intervention groups where needed. A systematic reading scheme. As children enter KS2, small group precision teaching of phonics and key words is provided where needed, as well as Lexia sessions in support of developing phonics and reading.
• Reading is taught across the school through a structured approach incorporating whole class echo and performance reading and the use of question stems in comprehension. We use read write inc in KS1 and KS2. Accuracy, fluency and comprehension in reading is assessed and taught.
• The school employs a structured and consistent approach to the teaching of writing: Talk 4 Writing is embedded in all year groups, enabling children to create their own texts through a progressive familiarisation of genre specific features and acquisition of tools for writing
• We have implemented Maths Mastery across the school to provide the similar structure, consistency and continuity of teaching that has proved effective in our teaching of writing. This is supported by the Power Maths scheme,

 Foundation Subjects

• Our ‘new curriculum’ is precision planned to enable progression through a spiral development of concepts and knowledge, with children working towards expected milestones at the end of key stage 1, lower key stage 2 and upper key stage 2
• Humanities subjects are delivered through a thematic topic approach and children are engaged and motivated through topic launch ‘Wow’ days.

 Provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

• Pupils’ needs are identified by teachers and further assessment and appropriate advice provided by SENDCo and appropriate external agencies. Provision mapping meets pupil needs and Phase Teams organise best use of Teaching Assistants in supporting pupils and leading intervention. Pupils with SEND have a personal learning journey which details needs, targets, provision and ongoing assessment and provides a working document for staff, pupils and parents.

 Cultural Capital opportunities

• Teachers plan for the opportunities and experiences that will enhance and support our children’s learning and understanding, this includes a focus on vocabulary as well as visits and ‘wow’ days.
• We plan for a range of curriculum enrichment opportunities, which will enhance our children’s learning within the curriculum as well as provide social, moral, and cultural experiences. For example, all year 3 and 4 children learn to play a musical instrument and to perform publicly to a large audience.

Impact

Children will leave Greyfriars as well-rounded individuals whose positive personal development and progression in learning ensures that they achieve their best, are caring members of the community, enjoy learning and school life, and make the most of future experiences and opportunities. They will know how to keep themselves, and others, safe, feel valued and respected and show understanding and respect towards others and the diverse community in which they live. They will be ready for the next stage in their learning and education.
Some of the measures we will use to monitor impact:
• Evidence of pupils’ engagement in learning and individual progress made.
• Evidence of inclusion enabling vulnerable groups to make good progress.
• Outcomes in statutory assessments: EYFS attainment of ‘Good Level of Development’, Phonics test at Year 1, KS1 SATs, KS2 SATs.
• Outcomes of progress for SEND pupils evidenced in their Learning Journeys

If you would like more information on our curriculum please contact the head teacher Mr Aidan McGovern head@grf.unity-ed.uk