Curriculum Overview
What does your child learn at school each day? Find more information about our curriculum subjects here…
In January 2012 Ackton Pastures federated with Half Acres Primary School and this gave the capacity for teachers working in the same phase to share their expertise. In this way, we were able to utilise the strengths of a larger staff team and enhance the quality of learning and teaching across the two schools. Staff across both schools planned together and have unified their themes. Now we are part of the Inspire Partnership Multi Academy Trust we are working with a larger team but the teachers from Half Acres and Ackton Pastures continue to work together closely.
Early Years At Ackton Pastures, most pupils enter into our Lower Foundation Stage at the age of three. The curriculum in Nursery and Reception meets the statutory framework for the Early Years. The curriculum opportunities offered are closely matched to children's needs and interests to ensure that pupils have the best possible start to their education. Within the Early Years curriculum there are seven inter-connected areas of learning. There are three prime areas which are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. There is a strong focus on the three prime areas as they reflect the key skills and capacities all children need to develop and learn effectively, and become ready for school. The four specific areas, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design, are where the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. It is expected that the balance will shift towards a more equal focus on all areas of learning as children grow in confidence and ability within the three prime areas. This curriculum is taught to all children until the end of their time in Early Years – this is at the end of the school year in which they are 5 years old. This is when they move into Key Stage 1.
There is a two year rolling programme in place across Early Years:
2 Year Cycle - Year 1 Autumn - Down on the farm / Celebrations Spring - Journeys Summer - Animals
2 Year Cycle - Year 2 Autumn - Ourselves / People who help us / Let's party Spring - Traditional tales / Vets & pets Summer - Commotion in the ocean
Key Stages One and Two
Once children move into Key Stage 1 and on into Key Stage 2 the National Curriculum lies at the heart of the curriculum. Alongside this statutory provision our curriculum is enhanced and enriched through a much wider range of opportunities. This provides a broad, balanced and stimulating curriculum. The full curriculum offered at our school is designed to ensure our learners develop a wide range of skills and experiences enabling them to become confident, numerate and literate as well as socially, culturally, morally and technologically aware and able to achieve their full potential. The curriculum offered at Ackton Pastures has been carefully constructed to reflect the local needs of the community and the legal requirements of the National Curriculum. It is a skills-based curriculum that acknowledges the need for some discrete knowledge based learning in order to progress with skill development. We have organised our curriculum within a themed approach. These termly themes are planned by teachers in consultation with our team of teaching assistants. The themes are taught on a two year rolling programme designed for skills progression as children move from Key Stage 1 to the end of Key Stage 2. SEAL (Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning) is a central part of the curriculum and is taught discretely at least once a week. SEAL is an important vehicle for developing the pupils spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. However, it permeates throughout all curricular and extra-curricular activities. Staff give a priority to speaking and listening skills. This is a feature in taught classroom sessions but all staff have been involved in promoting these skills. We ask all staff to ensure that they are good role models through their speech structures. We also ask staff to offer opportunity for full responses through the use of open questions and with the expectation that pupils will communicate in sentences and not be allowed to give monosyllabic answers or answer without words – nod/shake of the head. During their time at Ackton Pastures, the pupils have planned opportunities to participate in two residential visits in Key Stage 2. These vary in length and give a wide breadth of experience from rural to city environments, developing the children socially and culturally. An annual visit to the theatre is planned for pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2.
