Curriculum

Curriculum

As a larger than average Local Authority maintained junior school, we follow the National Curriculum for Key Stage 2. The school catchment is situated in the second most deprived index nationally, where over 85% of our children speak English as an additional language. We have identified barriers to learning and have designed our curriculum to provide, through inspiring and engaging experiences, the knowledge and skills for our children to become independent, life-long learners. We continually review and adapt our curriculum to provide a total communication approach.

Aims

At CJS, using the National Curriculum to underpin how subjects are sequenced, planned, and assessed, we have designed a progressive and well-sequenced curriculum. The programmes of study meet the expectations of the National Curriculum whilst also recognising the adaptations required to meet the needs of our children. This includes a clear focus on these four foundations:

• Oracy – we use the power of talk to engage interest, promote deep thinking and social skills and, empowering children for lifelong learning.
• Reading – we prioritise the importance of reading as the key to accessing the curriculum. We promote a love of reading and ensure that children develop their knowledge through high-quality texts and resources.
• Experiences – we build pupils’ cultural capital and develop their background knowledge of the world. We carefully plan experiences to immerse and ignite curiosity.

•        Memory and recall – we design lessons that support children with making changes to their long term memory and increasing their independence.

How is our foundation curriculum delivered?

Our foundation curriculum is designed to allow our children to work in depth for a consolidated period, thus reducing their cognitive load. They orally rehearse and present their learning to parents and other guests at the end each term through our exhibitions.

· Science is taught in a combination of one 7-week project with a driving question (in the Autumn Term) and individual 3 week units throughout the year.

· History and Geography are taught in 7-week discrete blocks with a driving question that leads the learning (in the Spring and Summer Terms respectively). Recall and

retention is promoted at other points in the year through explicit learning links in other subjects.

· Art and DT are taught in 3 week discrete blocks linked to a driving question (either a Science, History or Geography project).

· RE, Music, French, PSHE, Computing and PE are taught throughout the year.

More information about how our school complies with the Equality Act 2010, our Equality and Diversity Policy and our school Equality Objectives can be found in our Equality Objectives and Statement policy. We teach children about protected characteristics through Everyone’s Welcome and PSHE lessons.

Contact our Headteacher, Jo Badge, if you wish to know more about our curriculum. You can contact her calling the school office 0116 2625896 or emailing c.office@catherine-jun.leicester.sch.uk

Subject information

More detail about what we teach in each subject: