Curriculum Delivery

Curriculum Intent:

At Alfred Lord Tennyson School, our curriculum is designed with the intention to inspire and create excitement and curiosity for learning and a thirst for knowledge. We aim to ensure high achievement for all and to support pupil wellbeing and character development whilst also teaching how to become independent proficient learners. Our learners are encouraged to challenge themselves, take ownership over their learning and to value mistakes, seeing them as part of the learning process.

We achieve this by providing opportunities and encouraging pupils to develop a wider set of skills and qualities such as a model for learning, resilience, leadership, communication, a growth-mindset, empathy, and resilience, which are vital for each pupil's successful learning.

At Alfred Lord Tennyson, we place a balanced emphasis across the curriculum, valuing all subjects. We are a school that enjoys its music, sport, and arts along with its core subjects – achieving a music mark and silver sports mark. We also aim to inspire the children to identify with the subjects and develop their strengths and interests, preparing them for their future occupations and interests. Our curriculum will equip them with the knowledge and skills to become successful Scientists, Geographers, Historians, Mathematicians, Linguists, Artists, Musicians, Theologists, Athletes and Designers. We also have a rich and varied menu of enhancement opportunities to recognise and encourage talents.

Alfred Lord Tennyson School’s curriculum follows the National Curriculum 2014, and we use a range of schemes that have been selected because they match our pedagogy - valuing the importance of developing children’s oracy and vocabulary, encouraging critical thinking and progressively building knowledge and skills. Our curriculum is designed to teach substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills, develop vocabulary and key concepts/themes. For each of the subjects we have developed progressive milestones, and these are developed in a wide breadth of units.

Woven throughout the curriculum is also the development of knowledge and skills to keep safe in society, maintain positive wellbeing, enrich cultural capital and to develop knowledge of British Values. We aim to provide a curriculum that can be adapted to the needs of children, whatever their background or circumstance - encouraging our children to think critically and develop a mindset that thrives on celebrating all cultures and individual differences.

Teamwork and responsibility are also an essential part of our curriculum, and we enable children to take on key roles such as School Councillors and to become Student Ambassadors. The children are also encouraged to be involved in the local community through celebrating local traditions, by learning new skills and enabling them to take an active part in supporting community events throughout the year.

We know how vital working in partnership with parents really is for children to find school a positive and rewarding experience. Each term we share with parents the breadth of learning that will be taking place so that they can encourage and explore further at home. Furthermore, we hold curriculum and information evenings where we share information with parents and carers. There are also many opportunities for parents to come into school. Throughout the year we update parents on the progress that their children are making in our parents’ evenings and provide opportunities for children to share their work in our ‘Come and See’ events. We also invite parents to take part in some of our curriculum enrichment and diversity events. We showcase our children’s talents to our parents through our website and Facebook page and by performing to them in events such as sports day, dance day, Christmas productions and through our musical and dramatised productions.  

The relationship between school, the children and parents is fundamental to achieving the best possible educational achievements and to ensure the happiness of each individual child. We always place our focus on strengthening this link and encourage parents to engage at every possible opportunity.    

Curriculum Aims:

• To encourage all children to believe in and value the characteristics of R.E.S.P.E.C.T and to become confident and resilient.
• To ensure all children are ambitious, have a Growth Mindset and a determination to succeed.
• To enable the children to be good citizens, who make positive contributions to their communities.
• To develop cultural capital to give our children the vital background knowledge required to learn about and understand the world they live in, so they can flourish and reach their full potential.
• To ensure children are healthy, safe and have positive wellbeing.
• To foster, nurture and develop all talents.
• To ensure children are engaged, inquisitive and inspired to learn.
• To ensure our curriculum is broad, balanced, progressive and ambitious for all learners.
• To have a curriculum that is designed with an understanding of the working memory, making links to learning and building and deepening knowledge and skills through inclusive practices for all learners.
• To put reading at the heart of our curriculum.
• To develop oracy and expand vocabulary.
• To encourage parents to be involved in their children’s learning.

Implementation:

Within our curriculum, all subjects are taught discretely but links in learning are made where possible and if relevant, to bring the learning alive for the children and to make it meaningful and memorable.

Our Curriculum is designed to develop assessment proficiency –ensuring that all pupils know why they’re learning, how they’re doing and where they are heading. We believe that children learn better when they “learn how to learn” and can continually talk about and reflect on their own progress. We help children develop the ability to understand what they have done well and what they now know, how the current learning links to previous learning, and what their next steps are. A carefully worked-out sequence of learning then helps them refer back to what they have already learned and where they are heading from early years to year 6 and beyond.

In every subject, we make the learning rich in opportunities to communicate. To be confident, independent and assessment proficient learners, our children need to be able to reflect on what they have learned and share their views with peers and teachers.

Our lessons have consistent features and activities that support children to engage with their learning and make good progress. Our lessons aim to:

• Ensure the learning and context are introduced in an engaging way - and adjusted for the needs of the children.
• Introduce regular and meaningful opportunities for the children to engage in discussion about what they are learning and how it links to the learning that comes before.
• Share the learning intention and the success criteria so that children are able to see the achievement of the learning intention.
• Build in plenty of opportunities for children to engage with the content throughout the modelling process - I do, we do, you do.
• Use specific questions to enable the children to engage with the learning and to enable the teacher to evaluate their understanding.
• Ensure activities match what we want the children to be able to know and do and providing clear scaffolds for the lowest attainers as well as challenge for all.
• Ensure that there are regular opportunities for children to independently apply the skills, knowledge and understanding that they learn. This helps them to do more and remember more.

Impact:

We strive to ensure that our children make good progress and that by the end of each key stage, their attainment in core and foundation subjects is in line with or exceeding their age-related expectation. We measure this carefully using a range of assessment strategies to support teacher assessment. The majority of the assessment we carry out at ALTS is ‘formative assessment’. This is the ongoing assessment of how children are learning, undertaken by the teacher and supporting adults during the course of the learning process in each lesson and unit of work. This is an assessment for learning approach. We also carry out a ‘Cold Writing’ tasks in English and a ‘Check-in’ in Maths early on in the unit, to ascertain prior knowledge and where to pitch our teaching. At the end of a unit, children complete a ‘Hot Writing’ task in English and a ‘Check-out’ in Maths, to show their new learning and enable the teacher to identify any current gaps or misconceptions that may need addressing.

Children are also encouraged to evaluate their own progress. Teachers conduct ongoing formative assessment and work with children to monitor progress before reporting, evaluating and identifying gaps in attainment with parents and school leaders.

In addition, we carry out summative assessments, that take place less frequently and measure how effective the learning has been. This is an assessment of our learning approach. We currently use Pixl Assessments to assess knowledge in Reading, Maths and Spag. We also assess times tables knowledge, phonological awareness and reading ages throughout the course of the year. Teacher Assessment information for English and Maths is collated three times a year.

Our children will also leave Alfred Lord Tennyson as rounded individuals with a sense of belonging and will have developed the confidence, knowledge and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections, be resilient and become lifelong learners. We measure this not just by the work that our children produce, but in the behaviours we see each and every day within school and in their daily lives.

At Alfred Lord Tennyson School we are a Visible Learning school. Visible Teaching and Learning occurs when teachers see learning through the eyes of the pupils and help them to become their own teachers. We believe that it is vital that our pupils can confidently talk about themselves as assessment capable learners and are armed with a ‘toolbox’ of strategies to help them learn.

At Alfred Lord Tennyson, Visible Learners can:

• Articulate what they are learning and why
• Talk about how they are learning and strategies they are using
• Identify their next learning steps
• Understand assessments tools used and what the results mean
• Ask questions and clarify
• See errors as learning opportunities
• Actively seek feedback
• Set learning goals
• Have a growth mindset

My Learning Tool Box

These are the learning tools we use at Alfred Lord Tennyson school to help us become successful learners.

Learning Intentions (What am I learning?)

Learning intentions are clear statements that explain to the pupils what concept, skill, strategy or approach they will be learning. Learning intentions allow the pupils to know what to focus on. By concentrating on a specific goal they understand that this enables them to become successful learners.

Success Criteria

In order for the pupils to be successful learners, they also need to know what they have to achieve to be successful with the learning intention. The success criteria explains the pathway in simple terms for the pupils to gain new concepts, skills or attitudes. Understanding what it takes to be successful in a learning task enables pupils to develop their confidence as learners and set themselves higher expectations. This encourages confident, motivated pupils.

Knowledge Organisers and Working Walls

At school, we use our Knowledge Organisers and Working Walls to help us know what we are learning and what we will learn next.

Scaffolds and Prompts

Scaffolds and prompts are used to support our pupils to access and succeed in their learning. They are evident in questioning used by staff, resources on tables/walls or through how understanding is recorded in books.

Feedback

Feedback informs where we are going in learning, how we are doing and where to focus our attentions. We tailor our feedback to support children individually. Staff support children to respond to their achievements in learning. These verbal or written prompts demonstrate awareness of how to support our pupils to progress in their responses. We recognise these stages as ‘task level’; ‘process level’; 'self regulation level' and adapt our comments accordingly.

Learner Qualities

Learner qualities are ‘life skills’. These are the same qualities that are essential for success at school and in everyday life. By learning these behaviours now, students will be preparing for a successful future throughout the school and beyond. These are the critical skills/attributes our learners will need in the future to be able to utilise the technologies that don’t exist yet, be employable for jobs that are yet to be created and to help solve the problems of the world that arise. We want our learners to know how to take charge of their own learning and to ‘know what to do when they don’t know what to do’. To support this process we have identified eight dispositions that can be further developed to help our learners be the best they can be. These dispositions are explicitly taught at Alfred Lord Tennyson School and learners are supported to use and grow them. At ALTS we focus on the learner qualities of R.E.S.P.E.C.T - resilience, empathy, self-awareness, passion, excellence, good communication skills and teamwork all under the overarching quality of respect.

Growth Mindset

At Alfred Lord Tennyson we have developed a Growth Mindset Culture where we focus on changing our words to change our mindset. ‘I can’t do this’ becomes ‘I can’t do this yet’. With a growth mindset, pupils understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, persistence and learning from our mistakes. We believe that challenge, struggles and learning from our mistakes are necessary parts of the learning journey. Breakthrough moments and growth come after pupils tackle The Learning Pit!

Learning Conversations

We encourage the children to regularly hold conversations about their learning and prompts are visible in the classroom:

• I wondered about …
• When I don’t know how to I …
• Today I learnt …
• Something tricky for me was …
• A great strategy I used was …
• I thought about what I already know and …
• I find it helpful to …
• A question that helped my learning was …
• I was able to persist with …
• I tried a new strategy of …

.

EYFS Provision

Our EYFS provision aims is to provide a broad and balanced learning experience which embraces the seven areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. In Nursery and Reception we encourage inquisitive, curious and creative minds through the 'Curiosity Approach'.  We believe children need the opportunity to touch, handle and investigate, to explore how things work and use items that follow their own interests in their own individual learning style. We provide authentic artefacts, natural and recycled materials, loose parts to create awe and wonder for the children to use in both the indoor and outdoor environment.  We ensure that environments look attractive and inviting, offering subliminal messages to come and play.  

We encourage children to develop communication and oracy skills, and investigation and problem-solving skills, through interaction with adults and other children in our provision. 

We will develop imagination through play and by providing a range of themed experiences such as celebrating the seasons, exploring jobs, celebrating traditions from all around the world such as Chinese New Year, Diwali, Valentines Day and Easter. These first-hand experiences allow our children to respect different cultures, gain confidence and express themselves through art, music and dance. We also hope that we inspire our children and prepare them to become the next generation of pop stars, authors, doctors, dentists, plumbers, scientists and explorers.

In our EYFS provision our children will be able to grow and develop in a fun and stimulating learning environment. We have lots of indoor and outdoor space for the children to explore. 

Our outdoor provision enables them to explore, take risks and stay active. They can pedal bikes and ride on the ride ons on our purpose-built tracks, play and climb in our nature area, dig and cook in the mud kitchen, make music with the array of pots and pans, explore with the water equipment and grow plants in our grow beds.

At Alfred Lord Tennyson School we aim to:

• Give our youngest children the very best start to their education by providing an appropriate curriculum, as well as a nurturing and engaging learning environment tailored to their personal needs, the needs of the cohort and to prepare them for their future learning.
• Provide an enriched learning environment that ensures all children, regardless of their background, learn through purposeful play-based activities designed to promote inquisitiveness and foster a love of learning from the onset.
• Enable all our children to develop verbally, socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively so that they are ready to successfully transition into Year 1.
• Hold high expectations for all children in our settings - promoting independence, supporting self-regulation and their 'sense of self' so that they feel that they can achieve their learning goals.
• Provide a holistic and balanced curriculum, utilising free flow activities between our indoor and outdoor areas, that encourage structured play-based activities that are child initiated, where adults join in - to support, scaffold and move their learning on.
• Provide daily core teachings and learning of reading (through the Sounds Write phonics programme), writing and maths.

Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and uses the Development Matters 2022 and Birth to 5 documents as a basis.

We have used these to create our curriculum to ensure that we deliver an engaging, well planned and progressive learning environment and curriculum.

The children will learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate understanding through the seven areas of the EYFS curriculum.

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development
• Communication and Language
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive Art and Design

These 7 areas are used to plan children’s learning and activities. Planning for this curriculum is designed to be flexible so the children’s unique interests are supported. Our curriculum includes a blend of whole class, guided, adult directed activities and child-initiated learning activities to ensure children are taught the knowledge they need to learn progressively as well as following their own interests.

All Reception children complete weekly adult led Literacy and Maths tasks.  We provide effective and focused interventions for those children who are finding learning challenging and are not on track to meet National Expectations at the end of the year, to enable them to catch up quickly with their peers.

Children in EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active and thinking critically and creatively and this takes place both indoors and in our outdoor area. The Early Years Curriculum is also carefully devised to ensure that the children are introduced to key concepts and bodies of knowledge that they will re visit in Key stage 1.

The school follows the Sounds Write phonics scheme. Through this all children learn to read and write with accuracy and fluency. The scheme provides support for parents through a selection of videos online. All staff teaching the scheme are trained and monitored regularly to ensure a consistent and successful approach is made across the school.

A range of formative and summative assessments are used to identify what children know and understand and to target their next steps in learning. The EYFS team collect evidence of children’s significant learning moments through observations, photos and children’s work which are shared with parents throughout the year.

To support our wider curriculum, we provide regular opportunities for parents and carers to come into school and work with their child, share their work and celebrate successes. We keep parents informed, and we meet regularly with them to ensure children’s transition into school and that their EYFS Journey is a happy, positive experience allowing them to reach their full potential. This includes home visits, stay and play sessions, parent workshops, Learning Journey WOW moments communicated through Class Dojo, parent consultations, annual written report as well as more frequent, informal communication to suit individual families. EYFS staff have a good understanding how our curriculum feeds into the National Curriculum through our planning and CPD opportunities. Colleagues throughout the school are also aware of how our EYFS curriculum links to each foundation subject and the progression of the subject.

During the summer term, we offer sessions to transition pre-schoolers (from all settings) into Reception class, so that they can become more familiar with the setting and adults in the class before they begin in September. In the first week of September, we provide families with the opportunity to participate in a home visit to encourage familiarity with the adults in the class setting and to promote a supportive home/school network around each child’s learning and development. Teaching in Reception class builds on the children’s learning experiences from previous preschool/nursery settings. We strive to build positive relationships with parents/carers from the outset, believing strongly in the valued partnership between parental input and school learning. We use an online platform to showcase the children’s learning journey, ‘Class Dojo’, to inform parents of their child’s development in relation to the skills outlined in ‘Development Matters’ and to promote home-school communication, where parents/carers are encouraged to share examples of home experiences.

Early Years Curriculum Delivery

In Early Years we follow the Early Years Programme of study. There are on-going planned opportunities linked to the core and foundation Primary National Curriculum  subjects in the EYFS (nursery and reception) through children’s learning and the continuous provision. Future learning in KS1 and KS2 will build on the foundational knowledge in the EYFS. Our Early Years Lead and Curriculum Leads have carefully mapped out the sequential learning for all subjects from EYFS through to Year 6 and the disciplinary milestones for the end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2.

The definition of British Values was set out by the government in the 2011 Prevent Strategy and determined that “schools should promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”

At Alfred Lord Tennyson School, we believe it to be an essential part of our duty to prepare our children for life in modern Britain. Children are taught about British Values through PSHE and RE and these are examined and discussed through our delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum, allowing children to develop a secure understanding of these through application to their own lives and those of others. shows which values are covered in each year group, during each topic.

British Values are also promoted through assemblies, our whole school values system and structures such as our School Council. We recognise that promoting British Values also carries with it a responsibility to challenge pupils, staff or parents who express opinions or behaviours in school that are contrary to fundamental British values. We look to provide children with opportunities to gain experience beyond their local community, welcoming a range of visitors into school as well as class visits to promote children’s understanding of British Values outside of their own experience.

See our British Values Overview below which outlines how British Values are promoted at Alfred Lord Tennyson School.

As part of our push to instil British Values in our pupils, we also aim to increase tolerance and understanding of those with different faiths, beliefs and ways of thinking.

In order to do this, assemblies and diversity days will be held throughout the school year. This will give the children the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and understand their place in today’s culturally diverse society. As well as delivering the teaching ourselves, we will also invite visitors from different cultures and faiths to lead assemblies or to participate in class lessons. Children may also have the opportunity to visit or experience a range of religious centres of worship.

See our Personal Development Plan below which outlines some of the activites we use to promote diversity and equality at Alfred Lord Tennyson School.

In order to provide children with first hand experiences and engage them further in their learning we provide a range of memorable enrichment activities such as experience days, trips and visitors to the school, linked to their curriculum topics. In addition, to develop cultural capital, we aim to ensure that our children experience the arts and cultural traditions. Throughout their time at Alfred Lord Tennyson we intend for them to visit a museum, a range of religious buildings, a gallery, a zoo and a theatre.

Throughout the course of the year we also provide a range of affordable clubs that consist of sports, dance, choir, journalism, crafts, knitting, art and cooking, so that a range of interests are developed. We hold in-school sporting competitions at lunch times and take part in a wide range of sporting events within our local cluster and at a District level. Throughout the course of the year the children also have the opportunity to showcase their acting, singing and performing talents in our Harvest, Christmas, choir concerts and end of year productions.

Furthermore we often come off-timetable and hold special days/events to raise awareness of diversity through supporting charities and taking part in activities to raise awareness of different cultures - such as celebrating Diwali and Chinese New Year.

Safeguarding is at the heart of everything we do across. A great importance is placed on identifying wider opportunities for children to learn about safeguarding through our wide and broad and balanced curriculum. 

Our wider broad and balanced curriculum provides the opportunity for all pupils to experience life in all its diversity, to acquire knowledge, understanding, and skills that significantly impact personal development, behaviour, and welfare, and equips every child with the knowledge and skills required for personal safeguarding.

This is also underpinned by our PSHE curriculum which ensures all areas of safeguarding covers all areas of Safeguarding. At Alfred Lord Tennyson School, we are sensitive in our teaching and recognise that some more topics may need to be adapted to meet the needs of all individual pupils and taught at an age-appropriate level, through small groups or even on a 1:1 basis where appropriate.

We constantly challenge children to think deeply about safeguarding matters and their own personal physical and mental wellbeing. We value pupils’ questions and give them space for their own thoughts, ideas, and concerns at all times throughout their education with us. 

We give pupils’ opportunities across an aspirational and challenging curriculum to explore values, personal rights, responsibilities, and equal opportunities that develop moral concepts that impact positively on safeguarding, promote British values and prevent radicalisation and extremism. There are simply many opportunities throughout our learning in school to explore safeguarding issues.

Practical safeguarding opportunities are planned into the curriculum for all year groups. For example:

• Road safety (including cycle training through bike-ability) through external providers . 
• Water safety which is reinforced through swimming lessons and through the 'Water Safety" assembly
• Fire awareness training, including visits from the local fire service, 
• Visits to school from external professionals such as medical staff, police etc
• Visitors from charitable organisations such as NSPCC who visit our children and deliver assemblies and in-class sessions. 
• Work with local secondary schools to ensure and plan for a safe transition to Secondary school
• Safe use of technology including password security and privacy settings which is further reinforced through the school's dedicated and specific e-safety curriculum

We continue to develop an open and safe learning environment in which pupils express their views, seek help, and help others, which is underpinned by our individual school values. The promotion of equality of opportunity and diversity, for pupils and staff, helps prevent any form of direct or indirect discriminatory behaviour.

Through our zero tolerance approach to behaviour, our children learn to not tolerate any prejudiced behaviour with our behaviour policy promoting children to make good choices and exhibit good learning behaviours both inside and outside of the classroom. Class times are a time for sharing ideas, addressing concerns, and promoting important values.

Our assembly timetable and PSHE sessions are used to promote personal safeguarding matters and explore themes. For example, we embrace the British values, including how these values are promoted in our diverse and multi–faith society. Staff and children are quick to challenge stereotypes and the use of derogatory language in lessons and around the school.

Throughout the curriculum, there are planned opportunities to promote all forms of equality and foster a greater understanding of and respect for people of all faiths (and those with no faith), races, genders, ages, disabilities, and sexual orientations, through their words, actions and in their influence. 

Time is taken at the beginning of every new school year to reaffirm school values and expectations. 

See the document below for an overview of some of the safeguarding activities we take part in.