Glasshoughton Infant Academy
Glasshoughton Infant Academy
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At Glasshoughton Infant Academy experiences are at the heart of all learning where children have ‘hands on’ learning opportunities through real life objects, visitors or visits. Children are immersed in thematic learning based on an interleaving curriculum where new knowledge is taught, learned, remembered, revisited and applied by children ‘being’, for example being a Scientist or a Geographer.
At Glasshoughton Infant Academy we believe that language development is vital for all children. We have high aspirations and support them to ‘be’ in their learning. The experiential and interleaving approach ensures that language is used by all stakeholders, including parents. Children develop good comprehension of the words they are using and are able to use them in context and accurately as part of their real learning.
We are a ‘talk rich’ school: talk is central to our curriculum and to the way our pupils learn. Children learn through talk. We believe oracy (the ability to communicate effectively) is a central means of extending pupils’ linguistic, social, emotional and cognitive development; it is key to the progress and attainment of all pupils across all areas of the curriculum.
Retrieval practice is planned for daily through ‘speak like an expert’ where children are expected to retrieve knowledge that has been previously taught as a strategy to support them to move learning from the short term to the long-term memory. This build confidence within the subject and across the whole curriculum.
At Glasshoughton Infant Academy we strongly support the personal, social, emotional, spiritual, moral and cultural development of every child. We believe that all children deserve the best. All children deserve respect. We strive to create a safe and secure learning environment where children feel welcome and valued. RSHE underpins all successful learning and is fundamental to developing happy, confident, independent and resilient learners.
It is essential that the RSHE curriculum is organised in such a way that it provides learners with the opportunity to learn expected behaviours and be successful in their learning so that we can deliver our mission and aims. It is evident, through behaviours and attitudes for learning, how RSHE development is fundamental to success across the curriculum.
The breadth and depth of the curriculum is designed to:
Aspirational high achievement culture
We have developed two curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, bring about the aims and values of our school, and respond to the particular needs of our community:
Coherently planned academic curriculum
Underpinned by our two curriculum drivers our academic curriculum sets out:
Underpinned by our two curriculum drivers our academic curriculum sets out:
Cultural Capital
Cultural capital is the background knowledge of the world pupils need to infer meaning from what they read. It includes vocabulary which, in turn, helps pupils to express themselves in a sophisticated, mature way.
Individuals
The curriculum is designed for all children to maximise their potential through carefully planned and targeted teaching, where assessment for learning provides vital intelligence on what the next steps need to be for individuals to succeed in their learning. Pre-teaching and Same Day Intervention are two strategies that are consistently applied across school to support children to experience success. The developmental progressive curriculum is designed in such a way that individual needs, strengths and next steps are built upon to ensure no child, including those who are pupil premium or disadvantaged, fall behind.
Sustained Mastery
Nothing is learned unless it rests in pupils’ long-term memory. This does not happen, and cannot be assessed, in the short term. Assessment therefore answers two main questions: How well are pupils coping with the curriculum content? And how well are they retaining previously taught content? This is assessed throughout the lesson on a daily basis through assessment for learning where children’s understanding of key concepts is revisited, feedback is given and acted upon and has it been remembered is checked in future learning. The use of cold and hot assessment tasks support assessment of progression and further next step identification.
The impact of the curriculum is assessed at the end of each unit taught. This information will support teachers to highlight clear next steps for individuals and support leaders in school in their professional dialogue around progress, CPD, subject knowledge, outcomes and lines of enquiry to follow. Impact of the curriculum is triangulated through skills, knowledge and the ability to communicate the learning.
We have a very broad Primary Curriculum covering 12 subjects meeting all the national curriculum requirements. The current PSED curriculum in EYFS includes the following statements.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
| Building Relationships | Managing Self | Self- Regulation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birth-Three | • Engage with others through gestures, gaze and talk. • Use that engagement to achieve a goal. For example, gesture towards their cup to say they want a drink. • Look back as they crawl or walk away from their key person. Look for clues about how to respond to something interesting. • Notice and ask questions about differences, such as skin colour, types of hair, gender, special needs and disabilities, and so on. • Develop friendships with other children. | • Express preferences and decisions. They also try new things and start establishing their autonomy. • Find ways of managing transitions, for example from their parent to their key person. • Play with increasing confidence on their own and with other children, because they know their key person is nearby and available. • Thrive as they develop self assurance. • Feel confident when taken out around the local neighbourhood, and enjoy exploring new places with their key person. • Feel strong enough to express a range of emotions. • Grow in independence, rejecting help (“me do it”). Sometimes this leads to feelings of frustration and tantrums. | • Find ways to calm themselves, through being calmed and comforted by their key person. • Establish their sense of self. • Begin to show ‘effortful control’. For example, waiting for a turn and resisting the strong impulse to grab what they want or push their way to the front. • Be increasingly able to talk about and manage their emotions. • Safely explore emotions beyond their normal range through play and stories. • Are talking about their feelings in more elaborated ways: “I’m sad because…” or “I love it when …”. |
| Three &Four Years | • Help to find solutions to conflicts and rivalries. For example, accepting that not everyone can be Spider-Man in the game, and suggesting other ideas. • Develop appropriate ways of being assertive. • Talk with others to solve conflicts. • Play with one or more other children, extending and elaborating play ideas. | • Select and use activities and resources, with help when needed. This helps them to achieve a goal they have chosen, or one which is suggested to them. • Develop their sense of responsibility and membership of a community. • Become more outgoing with unfamiliar people, in the safe context of their setting. • Show more confidence in new social situations. • Talk about their feelings using words like ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’ or ‘worried’. | • Increasingly follow rules, understanding why they are important. • Do not always need an adult to remind them of a rule. • Begin to understand how others might be feeling. |
| Reception | • Build constructive and respectful relationships. • Think about the perspectives of others. | • See themselves as a valuable individual. • Show resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge. • Manage their own needs. | • Express their feelings and consider the feelings of others. • Identify and moderate their own feelings socially and emotionally. |
| ELGs | • Work and play cooperatively and take turns with others. • Form positive attachments to adults and friendships with peers. • Show sensitivity to their own and to others’ needs. | • Be confident to try new activities and show independence, resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge. • Explain the reasons for rules, know right from wrong and try to behave accordingly. • Manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing, going to the toilet and understanding the importance of healthy food choices | • Show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly. • Set and work towards simple goals, being able to wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses when appropriate. • Give focused attention to what the teacher says, responding appropriately even when engaged in activity, and show an ability to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions. |
Opportunities for learning and development are provided and supported in a multitude of ways. This is through planned adult led, provision but also embedded into everyday practice. The children learn and develop their social and emotional at every moment of every day. This is a prime area of learning which underpins the building blocks that creates independent, successful and resilient learners.
The current RSHE curriculum in KS1 includes the following topics and themes:
Our RSHE curriculum follows a thematic model where learning can be revisited and built upon across the key stage. RSHE is taught according to the new statutory government guidance. Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education. DFE 2019.
RSHE lessons are planned and taught weekly, they include regular circle times and opportunities to discuss the children’s thoughts and feelings. Incidental discussions and circle times are also encouraged to discuss situations as they arise.
RSHE is taught in a cross curricular manner- evident across school, with some topics taught in isolation. The curriculum is designed to provide memorable learning experiences for children as they learn through a variety of methods and learning styles.
Sequential schemes of learning with clear planned learning objectives for all lessons allows children to build on prior knowledge and skills. A progressive curriculum ensures that current learning opportunities are based upon children’s previous learning, knowledge they have retained from previous lessons or the previous year group and links to year group expectations. The children in Early Years are learning how to ‘speak like an expert’ and make clear links between prior learning and the learning they build on.
Across GIA ‘Sticky knowledge’ is carefully planned for each lesson across the curriculum, linked to the learning objective, and is progressive across a sequence of learning. This ensures that children are explicitly clear about what they are learning during each session and how previous learning will help them to develop new knowledge and skills. Children’s learning is communicated to them clearly to allow them to develop an understanding of why they are being taught what they are being taught at that particular time; how previous learning will help them and what the learning intentions are at the end of the sequence. ‘Sticky knowledge’ also provides children with the correct vocabulary and terminology needed in order to effectively communicate their learning.
A variety of strategies are taught at GIA in order to allow ALL pupils to become successful learners as we have an understanding that not all children learn in the same way. This ensures that no children, including pupil premium and disadvantaged are left behind and achieve their full learning potential. It is our aim that all children feel valued and know they can achieve.
Whole school assemblies are delivered weekly and each class has their own weekly assembly. Children recognise that they are part of an extended family beginning at home, to their class to the whole school. They develop an appreciation for the position of themselves in the wider world.
Classroom displays support learning consistently throughout school with and incorporate SMSC, British Values and Picture News alongside evidence of RE topics. These encourage children to reflect on their own ideas, beliefs and values and those of others regarding religious and world issues.
Additional support is provided for children who are not meeting their targets through bespoke small group intervention led by highly skilled professionals. This is monitored through pupil progress meetings and SMART targets to ensure the impact of the intervention is as anticipated in a timely manner.
Suspended learning – When the normal lesson timetable is suspended, take place during the year. These days allow children to learn in different ways such as off site, with external providers or using different curriculum approaches. These days’ cover subjects such as Staying Safe, British Values, hook days/trips/visitors etc
Our remote learning offer has been carefully planned to ensure that our online learning offer is accessible and available For ALL children so that everyone receives the fullest teaching and learning opportunities. The curriculum is further enriched and boosted through the wide variety of after curricular activities that are available for the infant children including music classes where they learn to play an instrument, sports coaching, MFL, craft and creative clubs, computing and coding club. All children are invited to attend the clubs through an open invitation and specific children, including our most identified vulnerable children are contacted individually to ensure they have been involved in at least one of our clubs.
The impact of the curriculum is that by the end of the year, the vast majority of children have sustained mastery of the content, that is, they remember it all and are fluent in it. Some children will have reached a greater depth of understanding where they can apply their learning.
Children are clear about their learning and able to confidently communicate this using accurate vocabulary and terminology from across the curriculum.
An impact of a curriculum whereby children are taught to communicate in a variety of different contexts and for a variety of purposes and audiences, allows children to confidently communicate their learning as a Scientist, Geographer, Artist, etc, both verbally and in the written form, using accurate vocabulary.
A developmentally progressive curriculum, whereby children build upon they prior learning and knowledge, ensures that no child, including pupil premium and disadvantaged, are left behind. All children have the tools to reach their full learning potential.
Children across school feel safe and comfortable and have developed positive relationships with both peers and adults. They are confident to share their thoughts and feelings and can communicate effectively and respectfully with everybody. They are responsible citizens who are ready and prepared for the next stage in their education and the wider world. Parents are partners in their children’s learning journey and support the social and emotional development of their child.
Links in the Curriculum Section
© Castleford Academy Trust 2020