Curriculum
We have developed skill and knowledge based ‘Curriculum’ lessons as we believe in involving our children in their learning and equipping them with the skills they will need to achieve economic well-being and life skills when they leave education. The curriculum is based on the development of our children's knowledge and builds on prior learning in earlier year groups. Our curriculum begins in Nursery and is developed on until Year 6.
Units of work for the Curriculum lessons are developed by staff within year groups working together to address identified areas from the National Curriculum and follow the breadth of study in the National Curriculum as well as our knowledge documents to cover specific skills identified within each year group, to map and plan lessons that give our children a holistic knowledge of the theme for learning. We enrich our curriculum with trips and visits, both locally and further afield, and visitors who support teaching and learning. Within Curriculum lessons, History units are planned across the year groups within school in chronological order and Geography units have been separated into year group specific skills. History and Geography units each cover two half terms across the year. During one of the other half terms, each year group has a design and technology focus whereby the national curriculum skills are planned for and taught whilst also using our progressive skills breakdown to develop on children’s prior knowledge and skills. Art and Design is being taught discretely and children will cover the 6 national curriculum areas across the year through sessions each half term. Cooking and Nutrition lessons are implemented throughout the year with 4 focus units to be taught and mapped out on the overview, allowing the children to build on previously developed skills to create a product.
English, Maths and Computing are all taught as explicit lessons and skills are mapped out from the national curriculum and schemes taught in these explicit lessons. Children are then given chance to practise these skills in their ‘Curriculum’ sessions which consolidates their learning. The children work towards a final goal or reward and are encouraged to share and display their work.
For Curriculum topics, metacognitive questions are developed by the children and identified by teachers to further investigate through the planning stages to support the children’s learning and assessment opportunities as well as develop their long term memories about topics. All children have the opportunity to explain what they know about a topic prior to new knowledge being shared based on threads identified by subject leaders. At the end of a unit, children have the opportunity to share and review the knowledge they have learnt through quizzes and metacognitive strategies. To support the children’s learning, knowledge mats are created which include: key vocabulary and explanations, key knowledge facts, exciting books, images and further relevant information.
To view our curriculum in greater detail please access each curriculum page individually through the drop down menu on the website.
Curriculum Displays
Take a look at our fantastic curriculum corridor displays!
Kagan
At Snapethorpe, Kagan, a collaborative learning tool, is planned into lessons in all subject areas. It was part of our school development plan several years ago, to improve the learning and behaviour in lessons and boost achievement. We succeeded using this teaching style and all staff and children were and still are energised by the approach to learning. Along side this, the education endowment foundation believes collaborative learning can add 8 months onto children's progress.
A collaborative (or cooperative) learning approach involves pupils working together on activities or learning tasks in a group small enough for everyone to participate on a collective task that has been clearly assigned. Pupils in the group may work on separate tasks contributing to a common overall outcome, or work together on a shared task. We use many different structures within lessons such as: timed pair share, round robin, quiz quiz trade, fan-N-pick, showdown, spend a quid and rally coach to encourage collaborative learning where at any one point at least 25% of the class are always working rather than just one who has raised their hand.
Our classrooms are all set up so that children seat in teams of 4 and mixed ability where possible. Each pupil has a number assigned to them as well as the letter A or B to help with management. Each half term, the children change seat so that they have a chance to work in 6 different mixed teams throughout the year. Children take part in many class and team building games throughout the year to keep their teams working well.
