Curriculum Overview

Learners at Kirby Muxloe Primary School deserve the very best educational start in life and this must be at the heart of all that the school does. Throughout their time at KMPS, children should grow personally, culturally and academically. By the time they leave, they should have a range of embedded knowledge and skills and have encountered a broad set of experiences that will prepare them fully for the next stage of their education and their life beyond. The aims outlined below have been developed by senior leaders and trustees.

Curriculum Intent:

Curriculum Implementation:

General

The KMPS curriculum is set out into year group based learning content. Specific skills and knowledge objectives from all subject areas are included from year 1 through to year 6 together with clear outcomes and additional guidance where necessary. All areas of coverage expectation are included and it is clear which elements of which subjects are statutory/non-statutory recommendations.

The curriculum is delivered to each year group via a series of Learning Journeys. These are between 4 weeks to 6 weeks in duration and they incorporate a number of different subject elements with writing always at the heart of them. The linking of learning opportunities is key to providing a more targeted system with the inclusion of specific whole school learning journey weeks which focus on differing key elements and events in each academic year.

Maths, PE, Computing and some aspects of religious studies are taught discretely, with everything else forming part of the overall learning journey.

PHSE, Growth Mindset approaches and ‘The Route 2 Resilience’ feed into all learning journeys but are also be part of year group class assemblies and individually planned sessions where necessary.

Year group teams decide each year on the structure of the learning journeys and how/when these annual objectives are delivered by packaging them into specific learning journeys across the academic year. These learning journeys evolve from partially pre-populated frames that contain the key objectives needed within certain learning journeys.

The learning journeys also incorporate trips, special experiences and the development of the overall reasons behind the original curriculum intent. All learning journeys provide new experiences for the children involved and are sufficiently challenging in terms of the levels of content, approach, independence, knowledge and resilience needed to complete them successfully and inclusively.

All children aim to produce and well-presented/organised evidence base in their exercise books as agreed by school resourcing. These books are always subject to the agreed guidance measures updated at the start of each year and should be a true and accurate record of the childrens levels of achievement and progress.

Learning at home is about promoting and building a passion that links both settings. It should enable children to consolidate, understand and reinforce skills covered in class time.

• The completion of home learning tasks should be strongly encouraged and rewarded but there should be no punishment for children who do not complete home learning tasks.
• Home learning should build on learning undertaken in class but not be reliant upon it.
• Home learning should encourage independent creative thinking. Children should be motivated to want to complete tasks.
• Children should have the freedom of choice to present tasks in different formats that are age and ability relevant.
• Children (and parents of children) need to know that their efforts at home are purposeful and of value.

Tasks are planned over a fixed time and reflect differing learning styles and patterns that enable parents to share learning with their children. Time is planned in school to share, celebrate and reward children’s efforts and to discuss ongoing home learning tasks in case of difficulties.

Home learning tasks are marked and fed back to the children promptly to maintain purpose and impact.

Reading, Spelling and Mathematics based tasks are set separately in accordance with agreed year group protocols and the endorsement of phase leaders.

Reading & Phonics

At KMPS, we want children to leave the school as confident communicators, fluent and motivated readers and coherent writers, possessing a rich and broad range of vocabulary which can be articulated in a range of contexts to enrich their adult life.

In support of this we have adopted the Read, Write, Inc. phonics scheme and children use this to build their phonics and reading knowledge from Reception to year 2 and often beyond. This is taught through daily streamed groupings across Reception and Key Stage 1.

To support reading beyond phonics, we have adopted the Oxford Reading Scheme that enables children to access high quality texts across a wide range of genre. We believe that this will help children to become fluent readers who understand and enjoy the books they read.  This is further supported by a well stocked library and class reading areas.

Curriculum Impact:

Curriculum Assessment

KMPS has developed a way of assessing children that is in line with the systems for Year 2 and Year 6. Below is an overview of how children are now assessed at different stages of their time in school:

Statutory Assessment

Reception Year:

Children are assessed using the EYFS Profile. At the end of the Reception year, teachers will make judgements across 17 aspects of learning (7 in the Prime Areas and 10 in the Specific Areas). Children will be judged as either ‘Emerging’ or ‘Expected’ in each of these areas.

Year 1:

Children undertake a ‘Phonics Check’ during June, where they are tested on 40 words in a statutory test.

Year 2:

Children are assessed using a Statutory Teacher Assessment Framework for Reading, Writing, Maths and Science. Teachers use government provided tests but these are not reported to anyone externally and only inform overall teacher judgements.

Year 6:

Children sit government regulated ‘SAT’ tests in Reading, Maths and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. They are also assessed using a Statutory Teacher Assessment Framework for Reading, Writing, Maths and Science.

Non - Statutory Assessment - Internal Assessment

Years 1, 3, 4 and 5:

Children in these year groups are now assessed using a ‘Kirby Teacher Assessment Framework’ that has been devised using external materials and seeks to provide appropriate checkpoints for learning between Reception and Year 2 and Year 2 and Year 6. As with the Year 2 and Year 6 frameworks, these consist of a series of statements that define what children need to be able to demonstrate to be working ‘At’ or ‘Towards’ an ‘Expected’ level and also a level where children are said to be working at a ‘Greater Depth’ than ‘Expected’ but still within their year group. We no longer assess children using the year group above’s expectations but in some cases may assess using a year group below their own.

In line with the statutory assessment in Years 2 and 6, children need to more or less have demonstrated that they are fully secure in all of the aspects of learning for the subject in order to be said to be working at an ‘expected’ level (or even greater depth).

KMPS has adopted the PiXL assessment approach which sees us testing children’s progress in Year 3,4 and 5 on a termly basis and Year 1 at the end of the year. We are constantly adapting and  developing how this best supports teacher assessment and day to day teaching.