Penns Primary School
Penns Primary Curriculum Statement
Teaching Principles of the Curriculum
WRITING
Writing at Penns is taught through The Write Stuff approach by Jane Considine. This method allows pupils to improve their oracy and widen their vocabulary in every lesson, whilst deepening their understanding of writerly choices through the use of the shade’o’meter. Pupils love their writing lessons and can’t wait to show what they’ve learnt in their independent extended pieces at the end of each unit.
All our writing is taught through the ‘writing rainbow’ which provides a lens for the writer to focus through in order to ensure all writing is effective and engaging for the reader, whilst meeting the intended purpose.
The Write Stuff (Jane Considine) is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons. With modelling at the heart of them, the sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks and taught under the structural framework of The Writing Rainbow. Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing.
Key aspects of The Write Stuff system include:
The Write Stuff builds pupils’ confidence with sentence structure.
The approach widens the repertoire of writing options for pupils.
Pupils gain and understanding of the ‘whole’ piece that they are writing.
Organisation of their ideas and cohesion between them is strengthened.
Spelling
We follow a mastery approach to the teaching of spelling through the programme ‘Pathways to Spell’. It is a programme designed to deliver the statutory content of the Primary National Curriculum for spelling in key stages 1 and 2. Through weekly teaching of spelling objectives and development of a whole school approach to word transcription, vocabulary development and proof-reading, the programme aims to develop children as proficient spellers.
You will find the end of year expectations for spelling for each of our year groups in the attached documents. For further detail on the skills that your children are learning on a weekly basis, please contact your class teacher.
The Writing Rainbow The FANTASTIC Lenses: Feeling, Asking, Noticing, Touching, Action, Smelling, Tasting, Imagining, Checking
Power Maths is based on extensive research into maths teaching around the world, and is written by world-leading educational experts in embedding effective mastery approaches.
Science
At Penns Primary, science provides the foundation for understanding the world in which we live. Our science curriculum enables all pupils to use their curiosity and creativity to gain a solid base of scientific knowledge; to develop a motivated and positive attitude towards scientific enquiry; and to embed the skills necessary for scientific working. This means that science at Penns Primary is practical, fun and engaging and allows children to explore natural phenomena and scientific processes whilst linking their discoveries to other areas of learning.
We aim to prepare children for the next stage of their education and lay the foundations for successful lives after school. We recognise the importance of preparing children for the jobs of tomorrow and will endeavour to support children to understand and make connections between science and different careers.
HISTORY
GEOGRAPHY
MUSIC
Scheme Overview
The Charanga Musical School Scheme provides teachers with week-by-week lesson support for each year group in the school. It is ideal for specialist and non-specialist teachers and provides lesson plans, assessment, clear progression, and engaging and exciting whiteboard resources to support every lesson. The Scheme supports all the requirements of the national curriculum.
In line with the curriculum for music and guidance from Ofsted, this Scheme moves away from the previous levels and learning objective/outcome concepts to an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning.
Ofsted have stated that “We will not always know the learning outcomes” so segregated learning objectives at the start of each lesson are not appropriate. Instead the interrelated dimensions of music weave through the units to encourage the development of musical skills as the learning progresses through listening and appraising, differing musical activities (including creating and exploring) and performing.
We aim for every child at Penns to have listened and appraised the following musical genres during their school career