Curriculum

Lionel Primary School Curriculum Statement

Our Vision

• To inspire children to become more inquisitive about the world they live in.

• To enable every child to be aspirational about their future and to give them a sense of their place in the world: locally, nationally and globally.

Curriculum Rationale

The curriculum at Lionel Primary School is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children and gives them the skills, knowledge and understanding to prepare them for their future lives.

It ensures that academic success, creativity and problem solving, reliability, responsibility and resilience, as well as physical development, well-being and mental health, are key elements that support the development of the whole child and promote a positive attitude to learning.

The curriculum celebrates the diversity and utilises the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the community while supporting the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Curriculum Statement 2023-2024

At Lionel Primary School we offer a curriculum which is broad and balanced and which builds on the knowledge, understanding and skills of all children, whatever their starting points, as they progress through each Key Stage. The curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014 and other experiences and opportunities which best meet the learning and developmental needs of the children in our school. The aim of our curriculum is for children to have the requisite skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners in readiness for their next stage of education.

National requirements and school requirements are mapped out by subject leaders and then individual year groups plan the sequence of lessons for their children accordingly. The curriculum is underpinned by the school’s Core Values (Be Ready, Be Respectful, Be Safe) and these are taught on their own and through other areas of the curriculum, including PHSE and through assemblies. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our children and their understanding of the core values of our society are woven through the curriculum. Good mental health and well-being are an intrinsic part of school life. Children learn many different strategies and techniques to support their own well-being and to help our wider school community.

Reading is an essential and integral part of our curriculum. We are committed readers and believe in the right of all children to enjoy books, to be exposed to high quality texts and to develop as readers for life. We want every child to take pleasure in reading across a range of genres and have a strong motivation to read for a variety of purposes. Across our broad and balanced curriculum, children will encounter high-quality books to support and extend their understanding of the different subjects.

Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing, and as such holds a pre-eminent place in our curriculum. From Early Years through to Year 6, children are exposed to high quality spoken language models on a daily basis, be that through storytelling, rhyme, poetry, discussion and explanation, or debate. Opportunities are provided daily for children themselves to perform; to improvise; to verbalise their own understanding; to orally prepare their ideas before scribing them; to discuss; and, to debate.

From the very beginning of a child’s journey through Lionel Primary School, children are guided through the seven areas of learning and development, as laid out in the Early Years Framework.  In our EYFS setting, the children partake in an ambitious and engaging curriculum, with a focus on co-operative and collaborative learning principles.  This curriculum has been designed in a sequential way to ensure progress towards the end-of-Reception Early Learning Goals in each area of learning and to prepare children for the next step in their learning journey and transition into Year 1 and the National Curriculum.

Early reading is a priority at Lionel Primary School and from their start in Nursery, children are taught to decode using the Read, Write, Inc. systematic synthetic phonics programme. By the end of Year 1, we aim to ensure that every child is able decode at an age-appropriate level, whatever their starting point.

Language comprehension goes hand in hand with decoding. In order to ensure the best outcomes in both for our children, our English curriculum is built around the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education’s flagship project, The Power of Reading. The high-quality texts used to deliver this curriculum lead to fantastic attainment and engagement in reading and writing for all children. Woven into this, is the teaching of grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting to support all pupils’ journeys to becoming proficient readers and writers.

At Lionel Primary School, we recognise the importance of deep mathematical understanding in being able to navigate the world around us and be successful. Our Mathematics curriculum, designed using the White Rose scheme, ensures that children become fluent mathematicians, able to reason and explain mathematically and to solve problems.

We believe that all children can be successful at Lionel Primary School and ensure that we catch any children at risk of falling behind at the earliest opportunity. In all year groups, there are small group interventions in order to support children in gaining the key skills to become successful readers, writers and mathematicians.

Alongside English and Maths, children are taught the full range of National Curriculum subjects. We are confident that our curriculum is of the highest standard in all areas. All subject leaders are given training and opportunities to continue to develop their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding so they can support curriculum development and their colleagues throughout the school. Themed days, whole school activities and opportunities within and outside school all enrich and develop the children’s learning. After school clubs and events extend these opportunities further. Additional whole school programmes and approaches support quality teaching and learning and the school is well resourced in terms of learning materials, books and technology. Specialist teachers and instructors support the teaching of Music and Physical Education.

The outdoor environment and the local community are considered an opportunity for active learning for all our pupils. The school grounds have been developed so they can enrich different curriculum areas, particularly Science and Games. In addition, we have formed strong links with our local park, where the children in Key Stage 2 have planned and created a woodland meadow.

At Lionel, we consider ourselves fortunate to have forged strong relations with our local community, which we see as one of our richest assets for supporting the learning of our pupils and helping them to develop their sense of self and their place in their immediate community, their country and the world. Projects with our local park, communications with a local residential care home through letter writing and carol singing, and careers days for our Year 6 children are all examples of these links.

Pupils have opportunities to share their learning with each other, their parents and carers and other learners through school-based events, performances and competitions. Developing their independence and motivation as learners and their sense of responsibility as future citizens is at the heart of all our teaching and learning.

Further information:

We hold a year group meeting at the start of every academic year to share with parents and carers important information, including an overview of our curriculum and how it will be delivered.

Throughout the year we hold workshops for parents and carers to learn more about specific curriculum areas and how they can support their children at home.

Should you require additional information, please contact the school directly.