Intent
All children follow the 2014 National Curriculum with the four core subjects of English, Mathematics, Science and Computing and a further 8 foundation subjects – Languages (KS2), History, Geography, Design + Technology, Art, Music, Physical Education and Personal, Social Health Education. Religious Education is taught in line with the Derbyshire agreed syllabus.
Our vision is to provide an overall education which prepares each pupil with the tools and strategies needed to cope with the challenges faced in today’s world and in the future.
At Park House, we are fully committed to developing each child’s unique potential within a secure, happy and caring environment. We firmly believe that children learn most effectively when they are actively engaged in stimulating first hand experiences and to achieve this, we teach the foundation subjects through a creative curriculum underpinned by Cornerstones. We aim to inspire a thirst for learning, curiosity to find out more and a positive attitude towards learning. thus enabling children to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills. We support and encourage our children to become resilient learners with a determination to succeed, leading to becoming independent thinkers and questioners with high aspirations; skills they will need in later life. We also aim to ensure that our pupils know how to make a positive contribution to their community and wider society.
The children of Park House School are happy learners who work hard to reach the challenges set by their teachers. Careful cross curricular planning of a topic, ensures work taught is exciting and relevant. Children will need to draw on the knowledge learned and skills developed in other subjects, leading to a deeper learning needed in today’s world.
Our aim is that children will be able to apply knowledge and skills from a wide variety of areas and transfer these skills in different contexts through:
Subject leaders play an important part in the success of the curriculum. We have started to introduce a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review. We hope that this will ensure that the curriculum stays fresh for the children and teachers. It will also enable us to make sure that the coverage is solid and key skills are being revisited and built on.
We aim to prepare our children for a rapidly changing world through the use of technology. Our computing curriculum is designed to enable our children to use computational thinking and creativity to further understand our world. Ensuring that pupils become digitally literate – able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology – at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world.
We provide pupils with rich learning experiences : visitors into school to share knowledge and engage the children, educational visits, residential trips, extra-curricular activities and enrichment opportunities. All these help to bring the curriculum to life.
Alongside the teaching of knowledge and skills, we aim to promote positive mental health for every member of our school community. We pursue this aim using both universal and whole school approaches as well as specialised, targeted approaches aimed at vulnerable pupils. An emotional health, well-being and resilience programme is being embedded in our cross curricular topics. We have a dedicated member of staff who deals with the emotional well-being of all our school community. Pupils are encouraged to talk openly about their mental well-being and access support as and when required.
Implementation
At the start of a new topic, children will share what they already know about the subject and think about what they would like to find out. All topics begin with a memorable experience to excite and engage the children and give a purpose so that learning is meaningful and relevant for them. Where appropriate, learning will be supported and enriched by field study, visits, workshops, artefact boxes, role-play and practical resources. Children are encouraged to take ownership and responsibility for their learning, through questioning, discussion and self and peer assessment. At the end of a topic, children evaluate their learning and express what they have enjoyed and been successful at. They set themselves targets for their next topic. Their successes are celebrated through sharing work with their peers, including work as part of attractive classroom and hall displays and creating a memories book of key pieces of work to take home at the end of Y6.
The role of the subject leader is key to the successful implementation of our curriculum. We aim for all subject leaders to have the knowledge, expertise and practical skill to be able to lead their areas effectively. Each curriculum subject has a dedicated subject leader, responsible for assuring the subject is being implemented well and there is breadth and balance in the coverage.
Where possible all subjects are linked to the cross curricular topic. Where this is difficult, discrete lessons are taught to ensure the national curriculum is covered. Some areas of PE and French are taught discretely and in order to fulfil the requirements of the Derbyshire agreed syllabus, some RE subjects are taught discretely.
New technologies are an integral part of our cross curricular topics. Using the internet for research and different types of software to produce a variety of work. Park House takes internet safety extremely seriously. Our E- Safety Policy provides guidance for teachers and children about how to use the internet safely. All IT lessons include online safety and it is reinforced at every opportunity. Every year group participates in lessons on e-safety and children understand how to stay safe when using technology by articulating this in lessons, creating posters and taking part in e safety workshops.
Music is and always has been a big part of life at Park House. We have a specialist music teacher, one day a week, who teaches all children the music curriculum, linking with the class topic where appropriate. Working closely with class teachers to put on musical productions in both key stages and supporting the school to take music out into the community, singing in churches and homes for the elderly as well as taking part in choir competitions and joint singing projects with other schools.
In order for us to be able to deliver the best and most up to date curriculum we provide staff with high quality CPD in their subject specific areas of leadership or teaching role. Subject leaders regularly meet with leaders from other schools to share ideas, new initiatives, good practise and offer support to each other. Following CPD, staff feedback to each other about what they have learnt and we then discuss the impact of this on a class teacher, subject leader and whole school strategic level.
Impact
Park House Primary use an online tracking system – Itrack, to record assessments of learning in the foundation subjects at 4 points during the year. The assessment is based upon classwork, discussion, practical activities and written work in their topic books.
Each class teacher is responsible for evaluating the impact of their lessons and adapting future lessons. Curriculum subject leaders are responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of their own subject area. Additional management time is given to subject leaders to enable them to successfully carry out their roles and responsibilities. The information from the monitoring and evaluation is shared with staff and it then forms the basis of the impact assessment for that curriculum area, feeding into the school development plan.
Judgements on the impact of the curriculum on pupils is based upon a triangulation of different monitoring and evaluation activities within school. Work and book scrutiny, pupil voice discussions, outcomes of assessments and quality of teaching and learning are all used to help senior leaders assess the impact of the curriculum. School governors and the school ASIA are actively involved in assessment and monitoring the curriculum.
Children at Park House will take pride in all that they do, always striving to do their best. They will demonstrate emotional resilience and the ability to persevere when they encounter challenge. Children can approach a range of real life situations and apply their skills and attributes to help navigate themselves through modern life. They will develop a sense of self-awareness and become confident in their own abilities. Park House children will be kind, respectful and honest, demonstrate inclusive attitudes and have a sense of their role in our wider society. We want children to have enjoyed their time at school and talk about their primary school years as being full of great memories. Leaving us with sadness, yet full of excitement and all the possibilities that their future will bring.