Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Curriculum Implementation

The curriculum has been designed in a way to engage children from the start. Part of our vision at Holy Trinity School is that we seek to foster an enthusiasm for learning and life, ensuring each child’s confidence and potential is developed as they grow and flourish and bear much fruit.

In line with the curriculum, we have chosen topics that will allow children to develop the skills required in the subjects. Some ½ terms the driver will be History however there will still be Geography/D&T/Art links within that. On occasions Science will take the lead and therefore Science has been mapped alongside the topics. During these topics, children will still have the opportunity to learn History and Geography skills e.g. In Year 2’s topic ‘The Scented Garden’ they will learn about what is grown in their local area and go on a nature walk which links to Geography skills. In Year 6, there are historic links and geographical links in ‘Darwin’s Delights’.

It is designed with the intention of creating engagement from day one in the project – with the introduction of WOW experiences e.g. Air raid in Year 6, Dinosaur visit in Year 1.
By feeding the topic into different areas we hope to enrich our children’s experiences and ultimately engage them in their learning and build their cultural capital.

Through careful planning, using the ‘I can’ statements as a starting point – it is the skills that are the focus for each lesson and experience.

Literacy 

Our vision at Holy Trinity is for children to become highly literate, creative writers and articulate speakers. Our curriculum has been designed to ensure that children learn and implement these competences through: presenting, debating and a range of writing opportunities they get across all subjects.

Reading is a foundation for all education and as such we have a strong emphasis on early reading. In the EYFS and KS1 we use Little Wandle as our phonics scheme. Please click on the link for more information.

As children move to KS2, we continue to keep reading a high priority with daily reading lessons. Children proceed to bring reading books home (selected at their level) for enjoyment. To nurture a love for reading, teachers continue to read for pleasure with their classes.

At Holy Trinity, there is a high value attached to the acquisition of language; teachers introduce children to rich and meaningful vocabulary from EYFS to Year 6, with an expectation that children will be taught how to apply this to their own writing. Writing, taught via an approach called The Write Stuff (TWS), is a crucial part of our curriculum and focuses on the development of vocabulary, grammar and punctuation. Genres and topics are systematically planned across the academic year to ensure that children are shown how to write for a range of purposes and audiences and can become competent writers.

Handwriting and presentation are important – children are expected to write fluently, legibly and speedily. We celebrate our children’s successes by sharing each child’s independent work on prominently displayed writing walls, on a half termly basis. Over the course of the year, each child’s progress and improvement in writing can be seen and is celebrated.
At the end of the year, this work is collated into individual writing folders, which document each child’s writing journey during their time at Holy Trinity.

Maths

In EYFS, KS 1 and 2 we follow the White Rose Maths scheme of work to fulfil the requirements of the Maths National Curriculum. This consists of a maths session every day, including oral and mental maths, varied fluency skills, using and applying knowledge and problem solving. The Foundation Stage curriculum also follows the White Rose scheme to provide children with all the basic skills for this later learning.

Year 1, 2 and 3 follow the Number Sense scheme in order to secure knowledge and recall of addition and subtraction facts within 20. From Year 2 multiplication facts are learnt in preparation for the Multiplication Tables Check in Year 4 and constant use throughout the rest of KS2 - automaticity is vital.

Religious Education

Religious Education (RE) is a core subject at Holy Trinity C of E Primary School and is at the heart of our curriculum. We follow Understanding Christinaity Units alongside the The Diocese of London Board for Schools (LDBS) scheme of work.

The aims of our RE curriculum are for children:

• To know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs using an approach that critically engages with biblical text and builds on key theological concepts.
• To gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and worldviews appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews studied.
• To engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
• To explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of living, believing and thinking.

We ask our children their thoughts on their learning through our RE Ambassador half termly meetings. They said:

'I like learning about stories from the Bible and Jesus and how we should try to be like him in our day to day living.'

'I enjoy learning about other World Faiths and having in depth discussions with my friends of other faiths, both in and outside of school.’

Science 

Our science programme follows the National Curriculum and Hamilton’s Science Scheme is used to support this. We assess against I can statements from the National Curriculum and use TAPS (Teachers Assessing Primary Science) in order to teach and assess Science enquiry.

There is a strong focus on learning scientific knowledge and language through the practical application of scientific skills.

Where possible enriching activities are used to make learning memorable and relevant, for example trips to museums and workshops.

Through our curriculum, our children are rooted, able to grow and flourish. This fruit can be seen in how our children live and learn.