Our Curriculum

Overview

The school follows all the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum. We believe that the curriculum should not only provide the children with essential life skills, but should also be the vehicle through which children are able to discover themselves and develop their potential.

The National Curriculum:

• Sets out the most important knowledge and skills that every child has a right to learn.

• Is a framework given to teachers by government, so that all school children are taught in a way that is balanced and manageable, but hard enough to challenge them.

• Gives standards that measure how well children are doing in each subject, so that teachers can plan to help them do better.

Stages, Years, National Tests and Tasks:

Foundation Stage 3-4 Nursery 4-5 Reception

Key Stage 1 5-6 Year 1 6-7 Year 2 Assessments in English and Maths (SATs)

Key Stage 2 7-8 Year 3 8-9 Year 4 9-10 Year 5 10-11 Year 6 National tests and assessments in English and Maths (SATs)

THE CURRICULUM

The Ofsted Inspection team awarded the school’s curriculum a Grade 1 (Outstanding) stating “Pupils enjoy an excellent curriculum enriched by topics, visits and practical events." These include, for example, residential visits to centres at Carnyorth and Delaware Outdoor Education Centre, as well as 'WOW' days which introduce each new topic. Various links with European schools through the ‘Comenius Project’ also reflect the breadth of activities, which have earned the International Schools Award and contribute immensely to the pupils’ outstanding spiritual and cultural development. Many pupils take part in the excellent range of extra-curricula opportunities, which further enhances their expressive art and individual and team sporting skills. These activities, which include football, cross country and surf club, also support the pupils’ excellent social development.”

Here at Blisland Primary School we provide a creative curriculum based around the Cornerstones Curriculum, a nationally recognised approach for delivering outstanding learning opportunities for children.

What is the Cornerstones Curriculum?

The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. Our new curriculum will be delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) which will provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of our children’s learning. We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our new curriculum will provide lots of learning challenges throughout the academic year that will require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively across the curriculum. Cornerstones also provide a rigorous essential skills framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These essential skills are tied to activities and are age related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.

How it Works?

Children will progress through four stages of learning in each ILP – Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express. To find out more about these stages please click on the link through to Cornerstones website:

https://cornerstoneseducation.co.uk/why-cornerstones/

Science is taught where possible, integrated into the topic, although some concepts areas are taught discretely.

Rolling Program

KS2

	1	2	3	4	5	6
A	Childs War	Misty Mountain Sierra	Potions	Darwin’s Delights	Allotment	Mighty Metals
B	1066	Road Trip USA	Star Gazers	Tribal Tales	Warrior	Blue Abyss
C	ID	Traders and Raiders	Scrumdiddlyumptious	Predator	Gods and Mortals	Bloodheart
D	Peasants, Princes, Pestilence	Frozen Kingdom	Flow	Hola Mexico	Time Traveller	The Pharaohs

Reading

Learning to read is the key to education. We are committed to ensuring that each child leaves primary education not only able to read, but to love reading.
We use Read Write Inc in order to teach phonics and early reading: "Read Write Inc., developed by Ruth Miskin, provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy. It is used by more than a quarter of the UK's primary schools and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers." We have a library that is used regularly and classes have books that are regularly read to them in order to promote the love of reading that we feel is so important to each child's education.

PSHE (Personal Social Health Education) is a non-statutory element of the curriculum. As a school we believe that it is essential to support children's health and well being and thus have a program of study that promotes this. Along with the program of study, we also use assemblies to develop children's spiritual and moral development as well as incorporating this in to each child's every day school experience. A happy, confident and well nurtured child is a happy confident learner!

Maths

Since the beginning of 2017 we have used the White Rose Hub and AET planning for mathematics. This places greater emphasis on spending more time teaching ensuring that key mathematical themes are embedded e.g. place value in Key Stage 1. It also encourages learners to explore different areas of mathematics in greater depth and requires them to explain their reasoning and combine lots of different maths learning to solve problems.

Maths 99 Club

The 99 club is a Maths skills club that challenges the children to develop their skills and understanding of number. When a child has completed a club test they will receive a reward to indicate which club they are currently in.
Here you will find all the 99 Club tests relevant to your child’s maths stage and the club they are aspiring to become a member of. If you are unsure about any of these materials or you would like more information then please speak to your class teacher.

Learning at Lanlivery

Lanlivery is known for its welcome and friendly atmosphere where children's wellbeing and happiness is our key priority. We take great care to provide a happy, safe environment where children feel secure to play, have fun, explore, experiment, develop confidence and curiosity, and learn.

We are situated in a small village and many of our children attend from neighbouring towns and villages, including: Lostwithiel, Par, Bodmin, St Austell and Fowey. We have just under 80 children in school, ranging from 2-11 years. Our location lends itself wonderfully to outdoor learning, with our beautiful school behind the school grounds, and many of our topics and activities are linked to our proximity to farms, mines and moors.

We have strong links with the community and are always looking for ways to enhance learning and the experiences we offer the children in school.

• Teachers choose an enquiry-based question, based on their intimate knowledge of their class and the children take control of the enquiry through their further questions. This is guided by the curriculum objectives that have to be met by learners.

• The children’s work is presented in class floor books which reflect the journey of learning. The use of floor books encourages pupil’s pride and aspiration to do their very best piece of work. Pupils are encouraged to actively engage with the floor books, which enables them to reflect on their learning, commit this to long term memory and enable the transfer of both skills and knowledge.

• The progression ladders form the basis of our coverage of objectives, these allow teachers to monitor and ensure a broad, rich content. Teachers use the ladders to guide their planning once the children have generated their further questions which will shape the enquiry.
Pupils ongoing progress is recorded alongside these ladders and passed on to the next class teacher at the end of their time in the class. Pupil’s self-assessment through referring to the learning journey adds another dimension to the learning. They are asked the enquiry question before the topic begins and again at the end to show the depth of their understanding.

• Visitors and trips enhance the curriculum and are used to provide first hand experiences which help support real life outcomes.

• Children will feedback on their Learning Journeys to staff, guardians and Governors; ensuring that they are key drivers for improvement.

• Leaders review the curriculum regularly using pupil’s work, progression ladders and pupil conferencing to ensure it remains language rich, diverse and develops the whole child