The Curriculum. Marnel Junior School

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1 Marnel Junior School Teaching and Learning Policy Aim To set the guidelines of agreed principles and approaches that underpin the teaching and learning in our school. School Mission Statement Marnel Junior School believes in our school motto, Success through care and opportunity. We provide a secure and stimulating learning environment for our children to enable them to succeed. Our expectations are high. We offer an enriched curriculum which engages and excites children allowing ownership of their learning with increasing independence. Our Vision At Marnel we want our children to be: confident and independent learners, who are resilient and hard working, with a love of learning; healthy, with a strong sense of self respect; respectful and tolerant citizens, who show understanding and empathy towards the diverse cultures and faiths within our wider community; able to recognise the difference between right and wrong so that they can make positive contributions in our democratic society; We believe these skills, and the promotion of British values, will help children to become successful adults and develop a deeper understanding of the world and their place within it. The Curriculum At Marnel Junior School we offer a tailored curriculum which inspires and excites our children whist meeting the requirements of the National Curriculum (2014). A cross-curricular approach through project teaching ensures enriching, engaging and exciting opportunities, with purposeful provision of the key skills, knowledge and understanding within the National Curriculum. Success Through Care and Opportunity 1

2 We believe that children engage and achieve most when the curriculum is relevant, creative and contextual. Our curriculum is designed, and projects are reviewed and amended, with the pupils social and academic needs taken into account. Opportunities for first-hand experiences, such as visits, visitors, focus weeks and theme days are an integral part to learning at Marnel. We believe that children learn best when they can see and make links. Therefore, our projects are cross curricular and cover all subject areas. English is taught within projects, where a project experience leads onto writing for a real purpose. Relevant stages of the writing process are taught within the learning journey. Each project begins with a hook to excite and engage the children. They often finish with an outcome. These are sometimes just for the children at school and at times parents are invited to celebrate and share their children s work. This could, for example, take the form of watching documentaries the children have created or visiting a museum exhibition the children have put together about a particular time period. The children enjoy and are engaged in their learning; they look forward to finding out what their new project will be. Our six learning qualities of respect, tolerance, reflection, open mindedness, cooperation and resilience underpin all that we do in school. Throughout our curriculum, and through our learning qualities, we aim to encourage independence and an enquiring mind. We aim to instil a thirst for learning leading to future success, whatever the children s strengths. Our six learning qualities: Respect children respect each other and be thoughtful, caring and considerate. They will understand the impact of their actions on others and realize that respect leads to self confidence and high self esteem. They will show respect to their belongings and environment. Tolerance children show tolerance towards others, understanding that everyone has differing views and beliefs. They will learn to accept others, regardless of people s beliefs. Reflection children be able to reflect on their actions and learning and think about how they may do things differently next time. Open-mindedness children are able to ask questions, investigate and explore new things. They have a growing mind set and thrive on learning and taking part in new experiences. Cooperation children be able to collaborate and communicate effectively with others and take joint responsibility for their actions. Resilience when children come across a difficulty they show the ability to bounce back. They will be able to cope when things do not go as they planned or had hoped for. When things are challenging, they are able to persevere in order to look for a solution. Success Through Care and Opportunity 2

3 Assessment There are a range of assessment procedures in place in school which fall broadly into two areas; Assessment for Learning (AFL) and assessment that tracks progress of individuals and groups. Assessment for Learning Assessment for learning is on-going and our teachers continually assess pupil s understanding within lessons through a range of strategies including; questioning, self and peer assessment, learning conversations and target setting. Feedback, both oral and written, is given to learners during lessons and through the marking of books. It provides clear next steps for children s learning. Self and peer assessment are valued strategies, which enable pupil s involvement and ownership of their own learning and progress. Next steps marking, self and peer assessment is an expectation and is embedded throughout the school. Assessment to Track Progress A clear assessment cycle is established in the school to support the robust tracking of progress of both individual children and groups of children. Challenging targets are set at the beginning of the academic year and agreed in partnership between the class teachers and the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher. These form part of teachers performance management. Pupil progress meeting are held every term where children s progress and attainment are discussed. Less formal progress meeting are held more frequently. Specific provision is planned for identified pupils. School reports are issued in July. However, Mid-year progress reports are being trialled, given out in January and April They aim to keep parents informed of their child s progress throughout the year. Planning Effective and robust planning and the delivery of a creative, engaging curriculum, aims to ensure the inclusion and achievement of all children in the school. Planning at Marnel is structured in 4 phases: Long Term Planning - The skills and knowledge children will be taught by the end of year/ks2 within projects Medium Term Planning These are the project overviews outlining the skills and knowledge children will be taught as outlined in the National Curriculum (2014) Short Term Planning The planning cycles that start from a project experience Daily Planning Individual teacher plans The Senior Leadership team and the Heads of Year regularly monitor planning. Long Term Planning Each year group plans projects which are usually half a term in length. These projects include all the foundation subjects and English. All projects start with a key question and are geography, history or science led. Where there is a natural link, maths is also taught within the project. The long term plans link to the objectives outlined in the National Curriculum (2014). End of year/key Stage expectations are outlined on the school website. Mathematics follows the guidance as recommended by Hampshire County Council. Subject Leaders and Heads of Years have the responsibility to ensure that skills and experiences are built on in order to ensure progression. Success Through Care and Opportunity 3

4 Medium Term Planning Each project s medium term plan outlines the objectives to be covered and sequence of teaching for all subject areas. Project plans are cross-curricular and incorporate the teaching of English which start from key project experience or hook. English cycles incorporate reading and writing and are enhanced by high quality texts which support the overall project theme. An English curriculum map is completed for each project which includes the purpose, audience and form of the writing as well as the grammar focus and reading to support writing. SMSC links are identified on plans as is any new vocabulary. Symbols are used to highlight SMSC in books and the school environment. Within the medium term plan a hook and an outcome are identified. The hook, such as a visit from a chocolatier or the discovery of an abandoned space craft, is devised to engage and excite the children at the start of the project. The outcome, such as a documentary produced by the children or an Anglo-Saxon feast, is designed to share the children s learning and experiences with parents and their peers. Opportunities to enrich learning are explored within projects to deepen understanding. This could include an educational off site visit, a visitor or the use of our local community. Project overviews are available to view on the school website. At times, during the school year, focus weeks are incorporated into the children s learning and these are usually whole school events such as launching our links with partner schools, seasonal projects or SMSC. Heads of Years with support of the maths leader, plan the medium term plans for maths, following guidance from the Hampshire County Council maths team. Short Term Planning Year groups plan, as a team, for a project cycle. Learning objectives and success criteria are identified and demonstrate the learning taking place. A brief summary of the lesson, and SMSC links, if appropriate, are included. Maths planning is completed in year groups following the medium term plans. All children work towards the same learning objectives but have differentiated pathways to achieve it. For 2015/16, we have been developing our use of Singaporean maths strategies to ensure children have greater understating of mathematical concepts. These strategies focus on the use of physical resources and representing the maths visually using drawings and diagrams. Children are becoming more confident to manipulate and play around with numbers to solve mathematical problems. Daily Planning Individual teachers take the short term planning and personalise it to the needs of their class. This includes the deployment of LSAs. Teachers annotate their plans in order to identify which children will be working as a guided group, who may require personalised support and which children will breakaway and work independently. Planning highlights the next steps for learners and teachers amend the next day s planning as necessary. The Learning Environment We provide pupils with a stimulating environment in which to learn. The learning environment must be safe, clean, well organised and resourced. Displays are an integral part of the learning environment and they are expected to support and celebrate children s work. They are language-rich and feature key vocabulary. Each classroom has a working wall for maths and project which shows steps in learning and strategies to support. Children s tables have prompts to remind them what to do if they are stuck. Learning behaviours and targets are displayed in classrooms as are school expectations. Success Through Care and Opportunity 4

5 Learning Outside of the Classroom It is an expectation that teachers, as part of their classroom programme, explore and apply learning opportunities contextually outside of the classroom environment. We believe it is important to ensure pupils know how to manage themselves safely in their local community. Monitoring and Evaluation of the policy The implementation of the policy will be monitored through: Learning walks Lessons observations Planning scrutiny Book scrutiny Pupil progress reviews Pupil interviews Parent surveys and feedback following project outcomes Monitoring is completed by the SLT, Heads of Year and curriculum leaders. A monitoring timetable is displayed in the staff study. The policy is reviewed biannually by the SLT and the Curriculum Committee Policy Adopted: (Date) Review date: (Date) Success Through Care and Opportunity 5