The Barns Green Curriculum
Barns Green Primary School is committed to meeting the requirements of the primary National Curriculum.
Our schemes of work provide a curriculum where knowledge and skills are developed sequentially throughout the school from Reception to Year 6. We are committed to providing a curriculum that meets the needs of all of our children. One that excites and engages them whilst preparing them for their next steps. (Please see curriculum intent as shown above for greater detail).
The development of our curriculum is a key school priority. Teachers have received training in key areas of curriculum change and are ready to provide meaningful curriculum provision that meets all of the needs of our learners.
We have worked as a whole school community to establish the principles that underpin teaching and learning at our school.
At Barns Green our curriculum is:
Inclusive
Creative
Ambitious
Memorable
Assessment
The curriculum will be taught with the consideration of the needs of all learners. Our curriculum will be exciting and will inspire children to nurture a passion for learning. We will establish clear end points which we will assess against.
We will assess pupils as outlined in our assessment policy.
Development of the Whole Child
Our Religious Education education programme is prepared by West Sussex’ Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE).
For Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE) we follow the PSHE Association’s themed Programmes of Study. The statutory guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), and Health Education is comprehensively covered by the Programme of Study’s learning opportunities across all three core themes.
Our curriculum promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils.
Our curriculum prepares our students for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
Curriculum Outline
Progression of Knowledge and Skills
To support progression through the curriculum, we follow a skills progression document for each of the subjects. These grids were created immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic and their implementation was delayed as a result. We think we can improve on them and will be doing so on a rolling programme over the next 2 years.
This year, in addition to our work on developing English and Maths, we are focussing on Art, History and Science.
Summer Term 2023
Parent Survey
At the start of the Autumn term 2020, we asked parents to complete a questionnaire to help shape the content of our Health, Relationships & Sex Education curriculum. The results can be found via the link below. This has been used to inform changes to the Barns Green HRSE Curriculum.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-H7RKFZ6P7/
Setting suitable challenges
Teachers assess pupils’ work carefully to ensure they are setting stretching work for pupils whose attainment differs from the national average. Teachers’ assessments are moderated regularly within school, within our Locality of schools and within West Sussex. Pupil progress is tracked at regular progress meetings. At these meetings, teachers are held to account for the progress of their pupils and any additional support they require is discussed.
Our classes are vertically streamed. This means that there are 2 year groups in a class, a very common way of working in small schools. Our curriculum is organised on a 2 year cycle, to ensure that children do not repeat content in a class.
Maths and English
Confidence in numeracy and other mathematical skills and fluency in the English language are essential foundations for success in all subjects. At Barns Green Primary, we use the Read Write Inc. phonics scheme to introduce pupils to reading and writing. As they progress through school, the same scheme provides support for pupils’ spelling. Developing a love of reading and writing is a key priority for our school, and teachers are passionate about using exciting texts to motivate pupils to see themselves as readers and writers.
The phonics scheme used by Barns Green Primary School is Read Write Inc (RWI).
Click on the logo to find out more
We follow the White Rose scheme in Mathematics. This supports a child in developing from a conrete understanding of number through a visual undertanding to a sound understanding of number at an abstract level. We ensure that there are regular opportunities for pupils to use their number skills in problem-solving situations and expect pupils to use mathematical language when explaining their work.
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We supplement the White Rose materials with a number of strategies which we have found develop pupil understanding, including the use of Numicon.
Personal, Social & Health Education, including Sex & Relationship Education)
Barns Green Primary School is a member of the National PSHE Association. We follow the Programme of Study.
Religious Education (R.E.)
The law says that every school must provide religious education for children. The law also says that the local community should produce a detailed Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 RE programme that’s right for local children. Religious leaders of different faiths, together with teachers and advisors, work out what they think should be taught to the children in their area. This is known as the ‘locally agreed syllabus’.
Contact
If you have any queries about our Curriculum, and are a parent of a child at Barns Green Primary, please contact your child’s teacher in the first instance.
If you have any queries about our Curriculum and you are not a parent of a pupil, please contact Mrs Coxon – office@barnsgreen.org.uk – in the first instance. Your query will be forwarded to the relevant member of staff.