Curriculum

 

JOTMANS HALL PRIMARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM INTENT

We believe that all children matter and that learning should be fun, purposeful and challenging.

Ethos

The values of Jotmans Hall School underpin all the work we do:

·         E.R.I.C.- Effort, Respect, Independence, Communication -

The children are at the heart of every decision we make to ensure that they are happy, confident and that the opportunities that are provided for them are relevant to their needs both now and in the future.

Aims

All children should:

1.          Learn from a curriculum that is broad and balanced, as well as stimulating, effective and challenging.

2.          Have their work and contribution to the school recognised and valued.

3.          Have the right to enjoy and learn from a curriculum that fosters equity.

4.          Be encouraged to develop a sense of citizenship through learning about their own religion and culture, and through learning about those of others.

5.          Be helped to have respect for themselves and their environment and to develop respect for, and responsibility towards others in school and in the wider community.

Jotmans Hall Primary School aims to be an energetic school where children are enthusiastic and motivated to achieve their full potential.

Everybody at Jotmans Hall Primary School works hard to reach the highest standards in everything we do and this is further embedded through our successful relationships with parents, the local community and the other schools in the local area.

Our Curriculum Intent expanded:

When developing our curriculum we took our Local Context into consideration and we are continually seeking opportunities to embed the following into all aspects of our school curriculum:

 Vocabulary Enrichment

·         Explicit vocabulary on all subject planning to be taught

·         Focus on Speaking and Language skills within lessons

Multi-Cultural and Diversity Enrichment

·         Opportunities to expand the children’s knowledge and experience are taken across the school and in all subjects where applicable.

·         Focus weeks (e.g. Black History week) are imbedded into the curriculum

·         Global links to be re-established with other schools

For all subjects, Jotmans Hall School follows the EYFS and National Curriculum.

 Our intent is that all children should enter KS2 able to fully access the KS2 curriculum and excel, and leave KS2 with the highest possible standards.  Children in EYFS and KS1 study the full curriculum that prepares them for KS2.  We have the highest expectations of all our children, regardless of their prior attainment.

Our curriculum is rich, broad, balanced, bespoke, diverse and relevant. We follow the EYFS and National Curriculum which defines the knowledge and skills in each stage, and the end points (end of EYFS, end of KS1 and end of KS2) in order to thrive in KS3.

In addition, our curriculum is tailored for the children of Jotmans Hall School in the following ways:

At school level we plan in opportunities to provide children with experiences they would not otherwise have and we make best use of our specific location, and contacts in the local community to bring learning alive (parks, churches, musicians). We are looking to bring back links to schools in other countries, links that broke down during the COVID pandemic.

We recognise that children at this school have limited access to different multicultural communities and we continually strive, through our curriculum offer and extra-curricular activities to broaden this experience (e.g. Diwali decoration workshops).

Across the curriculum we endeavour to raise the standards of communication, language and literacy. We do this by having explicit vocabulary identified in all subject planning, we have a whole school focus on phonics and reading and we plan as many experiences as possible to ensure children have first-hand experiences and the opportunity to discuss their learning with experts. A small example of such activities are:

·         To help children’s understanding of history, we invite local people into school to talk about their lives and experiences and we have Historical re-enactors visit to immerse the children and teach about various historical periods, e.g. life during WW2.

·         To help their understanding of Literacy we have a company of actors perform Shakespeare for our pupils, along with visits from authors and story tellers.

To instil self-confidence, resilience and team spirit, Yr4 and Yr6 go to residential outdoor and adventure activity centres.

To support their social skills, communication and music curriculum, we create performance opportunities and our choir performs in numerous situations, such as performing carols with the pupils of a special school. Professional musicians come in to run regular workshops with the children (e.g. Samba drumming).

We regularly take the children out of the school, on local visits and day trips, which supports their understanding of geography and their locality. We also visit numerous museums and historic sites such as The Royal Gunpowder Mills, Colchester Castle and The Museum of London.

To help the children’s understanding of Democracy and British Values, we visit The Houses of Parliament and the local council offices.

At an individual level we enable each child to access the curriculum and meet the learning objectives set through the support we give each child; our expectations of progress are uniformly high for all pupils.

We provide a rich range of extra-curricular activities, both before and after school to further develop their skills, knowledge, understanding and love of learning in a range of environments.

Online documents

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

If you require any further information about our curriculum, please contact admin@jotmanshall.essex.sch.uk

We use Twinkl Phonics, approved by the DfE                     

 

If you require a printed copy of any of these documents please contact admin@jotmanshall.essex.sch.uk. Please note there may be a small charge for this service.

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