Curriculum Overview

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CURRICULUM STATEMENT

Aylesford school seeks to provide a broad, ambitious curriculum that is sequenced and designed to provide all of our learners with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

Above all, a curriculum that places our students at the very heart of the learning process, putting their interests first and foremost at all times.

In summary, a curriculum that:

• provides an ambitious, challenging and inclusive education for all our learners from Reception to Year 13
• identifies the knowledge and skills that our learners need to achieve their goals
• is progressive, building on the knowledge, concepts and vocabulary secured previously by our learners
• supports the effective recall of concepts and knowledge through the regular use of assessment strategies
• contains activities that always actively support the desired learning objectives
• establishes clear links between knowledge in one subject and other areas of study
• is coherent, sequential and integrated so that our learners can build on their prior knowledge and connect key concepts
• is tailored to the needs of our learners
• is accessible to all our learners regardless of their prior attainment, gender, beliefs, ethnicity or social circumstances
• is not solely determined by the needs of external examinations or qualifications
• is concept and knowledge based with a specific focus on providing our students with the vocabulary that they need to apply their understanding of the world
• is simple enough to be shared and understood by all our stakeholders
• stimulates creativity, curiosity and critical reflection
• encourages trust, cooperation and collaboration
• empowers our learners to recognise the importance of tolerance, kindness and respect for social diversity
• is led and owned by all school staff

Primary Phase Curriculum Intent

EYFS

The intent of our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is to provide rich and stimulating learning experiences where practitioners, children, parents and carers work in partnership to allow children’s natural wonder and creativity to shine through.

Children in our setting work with adults and peers in a climate of mutual respect. This allows them to develop as happy and aspirational learners. 

Through the teaching of high-quality texts and structured synthetic phonics teaching, we aim to develop lifelong love of reading. 

We aim to provide children, with a well-structured, safe, language rich, active learning environment both indoors and outdoors. This will enable them to: make good progress; develop the skills, attitudes and understanding that will form the basis of lifelong learning; and encourage them to become useful, active members of a diverse and constantly changing society.

Through regular, ongoing assessment, planning is tailored to meet the needs of individual pupils, taking into account end of year expectations and ensuring that pupils make good progress across all areas of learning. This encompasses both the Prime Areas: 

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

and the Specific Areas:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design.

All pupils will work towards the Early Learning Goals (the knowledge, skills and understanding children should have at the end of the academic year in which they turn five).

KS1/KS2 Curriculum

Building upon the secure foundations established in the EYFS, pupils follow a broad and balanced curriculum, promoting the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and preparing pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. 

Taking a thematic approach, the children are taught to the National Curriculum, encompassing both ‘core’: English, Mathematics and Science, and ‘other foundation’ subjects: Art and Design, Computing, Design and Technology, Geography, History, Music, Physical Education, PSHE and RE.

Each curriculum area is carefully planned and sequenced to ensure progression of knowledge of skills across all year groups. Every relevant subject is used to apply and develop pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding, in-line with end of year expectations.

English

The overarching aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:  read easily, fluently and with good understanding; develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information;  acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language; appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage;  write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences;  use discussion in order to learn.

End of year expectations are clearly laid out in the National Curriculum and are available at:

Reading and Phonics

Following the Read, Write, Inc. (RWI) programme, children are taught to identify, blend and segment individual letter sounds for reading and writing.

Children begin this programme, on entry, in their Reception year, and complete it once they are able to blend and segment all letter sound combinations and apply this by reading age-appropriate texts fluently (100 words/minute).

At the end of Year 1, children undertake statutory Phonics Screening Tests, designed to confirm whether individual children have learnt sufficient phonic decoding and blending skills. It is a quick and easy check of children’s phonic knowledge, helping the school decide if they have made the expected progress. 

Once the RWI programme has been completed, children move on to daily Guided Reading lessons where they work in groups, or as a class, analysing texts whilst developing pace and fluency and comprehension and inference skills.

Mathematics

Pupils will make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They are taught to apply their knowledge and skills to Science and other subjects.

The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material will consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

If you were unable to attend our Year 11 Information Evening, you can access the information from the presentation here: 

Year-11-September-Information-Evening.pdf 

Art Competition for students - April 2020Poetry Competition for students - April 2020