Curriculum

Vision Statement

At Earl Soham Community Primary School, pupil’s well-being and happiness is at the heart of our vision for success. Our curriculum is designed to nurture a thirst for learning and to encourage each child to reach towards their individual potential. Our ultimate aim is to foster caring, responsible and creative human beings, who are well equipped for the next stage of their learning journey. 

Our creative curriculum is carefully designed to allow our children to seek and make meaningful connections between subjects. We aim for them to be able to build on what they already know to make deeper connections and truly understand rather than just recall.

We provide first hand learning experiences that allow children to develop social skills and build resilience. We develop and teach Growth Mindset,  seeing mistakes as an opportunity to learn and not a reason to give up.

Our curriculum enables us to build strong relationships, celebrate diversity, encourage respect and build a sense of community. It provides and acknowledges success for all children, in all aspects of their development and it recognises, encourages and celebrates all types of talent.

Teamwork and responsibility are an essential part of our curriculum and we enable children to take on key roles, becoming involved in the community through membership of the school council, fundraising efforts to support local and international causes and caring for our environment.

Our school rules, PSHE lessons and assemblies promote positive attitudes, which reflect the values and skills needed for learning now, and for future success. These values are reinforced through our Dojo system where all aspects of a child’s successes are valued and rewarded. As part of our community celebrations it is important to staff and pupils that parents are included.

Children leave Earl Soham with the confidence and skills needed to be learners for life.

If you would like to find out more about our curriculum, please contact me for an appointment so that I can talk through our scheme and the resources used. 

Curriculum Content: Long Term Plan

Our long term plans give an overview of the content covered in each class over our two year rolling programme. We are currently in Year A

Transition

Progression between KS1 and KS2

In all subjects, progression documents are followed closely by teachers to ensure that the skills and the content of the curriculum are covered in increasing depth. These documents are available above and show a clear progression between year groups. We always take into account the individual needs of each child and some children will spend longer consolidating and revisiting skills than others, while some will be ready to move on more quickly than their peers. This approach is followed during all yearly transitions and not just between key stages.

Core subjects

Discussions are held at the end of the Summer term between the KS1 and KS2 teacher, with areas of concern or strength being highlighted to inform the KS2 teacher’s planning over the summer, and aid in the grouping of children in  reading , spelling and for interventions. The KS2 teacher makes use of KS1 objectives, if necessary, to ensure that planning starts at the attainment level of each child.

Assessments in spelling and numeracy take place in the first few weeks of the autumn term to provide a base line and a piece of base line writing is completed to inform grammar and punctuation teaching for the first half term.

English

The transition between KS1 and KS2 is a significant one for many children, as the expectations for composition and comprehension increase significantly. Children entering KS2 will start the year with a half term of revision and consolidation of year 2 skills extending into year 3 objectives to ensure that all children’s needs are met. The main focus in writing composition is sentence structure, spelling of common exception words and alternative phonemes. In reading we check fluency and comprehension and continue any support that has been happening in KS1 to ensure continuity and progression.  High frequency words are tested in the first few weeks to provide a baseline and show progression through Lower KS 2. If work is still needed on KS1 High Frequency Words this continues in Year 3. We also use Little Wandle Catch-up resources to ensure that phonics are at an expected level. 

Maths

The autumn term purposefully starts with a focus on ‘number’ to allow the KS2 staff to assess how secure the new Year 3 pupils are with place value, as this is a necessary foundation for number work and fluency. Methods of addition and subtraction are then tackled, and as outlined in the maths curriculum statement, manipulatives are encouraged at all stages of a pupil’s journey, but especially at the time of transition between KS1 and KS2.

As every new topic is covered a short period of assessment takes place through classwork and discussions to inform planning. If KS1, or a lower year target needs to be revisited initially, then this will be done.

Maths and English interventions are provided every afternoon, by an experienced TA, for children that require extra support and/or are in receipt of pupil premium funding.  These can include specific catch up programmes such as catch up numeracy, or interventions designed specifically for learning needs such as dyslexia or dyscalculia.  Where fitting interventions may be used to allow a pupil to attain at a higher level e.g. Greater Depth.

Science

In science discussion of attainment and gaps in understanding take place at the end of the summer term. These are used to inform teaching throughout Lower Key Stage 2.  At the start of each theme or science topic the targets from Key Stage 1 are revisited and reinforced if necessary before progressing to Lower Key Stage 2 targets. Similarly Targets from Lower Key Stage 2 are revisited at the start of themes in Upper Key Stage 2.

Please see the link below for our SEND provision. 

If you would like further information on the curriculum we teach, please contact the school directly.