Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

Children in our early years follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, which consists of seven areas of learning. We teach children by providing challenging, playful opportunities across both the prime and specific areas of learning. We recognise that all children develop and learn at different rates and so our EYFS curriculum is designed flexibly to meet the needs of all individuals. We support individual learning through our skilful interactions and observations which lead to detailed next step planning. In addition, we use the Sounds Write programme, Talk 4 Writing and White Rose Maths in reception to ensure that our curriculum links to the KS1/2 curriculum.

Learning Environment

Each and every part of our learning environment has been carefully planned to meet and challenge the development needs of our children.

Learning opportunities are based on the interests of the children so they can lead, take ownership, and become immersed in their learning. We support the children to develop their skills progressively in exciting, fun, and creative ways to achieve the highest standards possible.

As well as our indoor provision, our outdoor provision provides varied and exciting experiences. which offers the children those experiences only available in the natural world.

Across the early years we provide exciting opportunities for children to develop their skills through a play-based curriculum. Here they are able to build the foundations for literacy and maths and deepen their subject knowledge.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

The characteristics of effective learning underpin our pupils learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage. The ways in which children engage with others and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support the children to remain effective and motivated learners.

Growth Mindset

At Lancasterian Primary School we use the Growth Mindset approach across the whole school. Children with a growth mindset believe that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, persistence, trying different strategies and learning from mistakes.

In the Early years we use our Growth Mindset Dinosaurs to promote the Growth Mindset approach.

Early Years Dinosaurs

Tapestry

We use Tapestry to record our children’s knowledge, skills and learning dispositions. It is a consistent and reliable way of demonstrating progress through the EYFS.

Through observations and interactions, we are able to build a rich and accurate understanding of each child across all aspects of learning and development.

Our assessments are meaningful and impact on our children’s learning and development as we use them to inform our children’s next steps.

We love to show you all the wonderful things your child has been doing throughout the day. At the end of Reception their learning story can be downloaded for you to keep and treasure.

KS1/2 Curriculum

Lancasterian Primary School’s vision states that ‘we will make a fairer society’ and that, in order to do this, ‘we will make the best school’. In our 2022 - 2025 Three Year Goals we state our intent to ensure we ‘enable all pupils to confidently showcase their learning, passions and achievements, with every single child reaching their individual attainment targets annually’ Our school curriculum is a key element of delivering our Vision and Three Year Goals.

We passionately believe that all aspects of learning are important – the study of academic subjects (reading, writing, maths and all the other areas) as well as personal and social learning (getting on with each other, communicating well, managing difficulties effectively, etc.). We also know from employers that these ‘soft’ skills are highly valued and important in our ever changing world. We rigorously follow The National Curriculum, but whilst this sets out clearly what we need to cover in our teaching of the academic subjects there is less clarity on what we should teach children in terms of their personal development. In response to this, we have developed our school values in a rigorous and thoughtful way in order to teach the children the personal qualities that we feel are important to be happy and successful in life. These values – Inclusion, Lifelong Learning, Growth Mindset, Integrity, High Aspirations and Respect – drive and shape every aspect of school life.

We have brought these to life though the creation of our Values Characters (see Vision and Values section of this website). We use these values to identify and celebrate when children make good choices and to support and encourage when they make mistakes, helping the children to reflect and think about how they might act differently in the future.

Information about how the school's approach to the curriculum complies with its duties in the Equality Act 2010 and the SEND Regulations 2014 and how we make it accessible for those with disabilities or special educational needs can be found on our SEN Information webpage. K

The Lancs Approach to Learning

 In order to best support the specific learning needs of our pupils and enable them to gain the knowledge and skills they need to thrive, we implement our curriculum through ‘The Lancs Approach to Learning’. This is a bespoke pedagogical framework and methodology – developed by us for the unique context of our learning community – which we use to plan, teach and assess the children at our school.  It is based on SOLO (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) Taxonomy.  The Lancs Approach to Learning enables us to teach the children resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness, responsibility and reasoning, giving them the tools and language they need to problem solve – a key 21^st century skill.

Included below are further details about how we implement our curriculum by subject.

English

Literacy is a fundamental life skill which develops a child’s ability to listen, speak, read and write (and so communicate). At Lancasterian Primary School, we are committed to developing strong literacy skills in all of our children, in the belief that it will support their learning and raise standards across the curriculum.

Early reading is taught through daily phonics, supported by a wide range of decodable and non-decodable reading books. Phonics is the teaching of sounds (rather than letter names) and how these sounds (or 'phonemes') can be blended together to create words. This is taught from an early age, when the children join the school in either nursery or reception class. We use the Sounds Write programme to teach phonics across the school.

In Nursery, an introduction to phonics is taught through games based on environmental sounds, alliteration and rhyme. This is the foundation to learning letter sounds. Sounds Write games are used to further develop phonics skills and introduce the children to the Sounds Write ‘style’ lesson.

In Reception, a very highly structured, multi-sensory, incremental and code-oriented, instructional approach to teaching children to read and spell is used. The teacher delivers lessons that are clearly structured and easy to follow within a systematic, synthetic phonics programme. It teaches all key elements of conceptual understanding, factual knowledge, and the three essential skills of blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation necessary for learning to read and spell; it does so on a daily basis until all children achieve the automaticity that underlies the fluency of every successful reader.

Once children are fluent readers, they move on to the Destination Reader programme which teaches explicit reading skills using a variety of high quality texts. Each week through daily lessons, children are given the opportunity to explore a whole class text as well as literature which challenges them at their specific level. In doing this they develop the skills needed to predict, summarise, clarify, question, make connections, infer and evaluate as well as using language stems to improve specific learning skills needed to share and discuss.

To develop writing and oracy knowledge and skills, each class studies one quality core text over a three-week cycle, combining speaking and listening, drama, reading, and writing activities. A variety of genres are covered each year. Teachers use the Pie Corbett model of the ‘3 I’s’ for writing quality texts.

The Pie Corbett ‘Talk for Writing’ approach follows the model below:

Maths

At Lancasterian we aim to create confident mathematicians who enjoy tackling challenging tasks. We do this through teaching the following themes taken from the National Curriculum:

• Fluency -This is enabling the children to become fluent in number in order to be able to use skills and knowledge efficiently and with a deep understanding of the fundamental concepts of mathematic
• Reasoning - This includes following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations and developing a mathematical argument  
• Problem solving - This includes giving the children opportunities to apply what they have learnt, where they need to break down problems into smaller steps and persevere in seeking solutions

​To enable all our children to receive a broad and challenging maths curriculum, we follow the White Rose Maths scheme, which takes elements from different places, e.g. the ‘National Curriculum’ and the ‘National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM)’. Within their lessons, children will experience:

• Daily Counting

Each child experiences counting in some form every day (this may also be outside of the maths lesson). This is essential in order to provide the children with a secure understanding of place value and number.

• Different representations: Concrete → Pictorial → Abstract

This means that children are exposed to new ideas at a concrete level using a range of equipment such as Dienes’ blocks, cubes, Numicon, etc. before moving on to pictorial representations. This may mean diagrams, sketches or the Singapore bar model. This allows the children to develop deep understanding before moving on to the abstract representation, which is the written calculation.

• Bar Model

This is part of the pictorial representation of a problem, or the ‘Real Story’. Children learn how to represent word problems using the bar to understand what is being asked, allowing them to then select the correct functions.

• The Mastery of Mathematics

Through carefully mapped out learning journeys, which have small enough steps so that all children can progress together, maths is mastered. This means that the children can solve problems related to their new learning and explain their methods.

• Context

As far as possible, we aim to give maths questions a context or put into ‘real life’ situations so children have lots of opportunities to apply their learning.

Science

In science, children learn specific scientific skills and content in a meaningful and – whenever possible – cross curricular way. They have opportunities to gain knowledge and understanding through first hand experiences, as well as using other resources such as books, charts, pictures and the internet to support their learning. They are encouraged to design and carry out their own investigations as well as communicate what they have found out to others in a variety of different ways.

Each lesson the children learn and develop different scientific skills shown below:

• Exploration
•  Observing over time
• Comparative/fair testing
• Classifying
• Pattern seeking
• Researching

To encourage scientific collaboration, children record their learning in ‘floor books’ consisting of photos of investigations and activities, individual work and group tasks. This allows them to work together as a team when investigating, researching, sharing and recording ideas.

To ensure all children have an awareness of the world in which they live, each year group learns one topic per year related to environmental awareness. This covers different environmental issues such as the plastic problem, climate change, global warming, food production, poaching and habitat loss. 

Foundation Subjects

At Lancasterian Primary, we believe that our foundation curriculum should enable our children to understand and achieve well in multiple disciplines. Our intention is to give our children the cultural capital they need to eradicate inequalities and be successful in life. We implement a foundation curriculum which was developed as part of a joint project with Haringey Education Partnership, national leading curriculum developer Christine Counsel and other Haringey schools.

Each foundation subject curriculum and its associated teaching approaches secure the highest possible quality of education for pupils through four closely related curricular attributes – scope, rigour, coherence and sequencing. These four attributes are the means and measure of strong curricula because they ensure that the subject properly reflects academic practices in the world beyond primary education. They ensure that the curriculum is organised in the best way to allow pupils to make progress and to thrive in each subject.

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) achievement and climate change run as threads throughout and across subjects as we feel that these are important topics which are relevant to Lancasterian Primary School children’s lives now and for their future. The Lancs Approach to Learning is embedded within this curriculum framework.

We teach most foundation subjects through a ‘blocked’ approach; this means that most subjects are taught in  1 - 3-week blocks across each term, ensuring that enough time is given to meet and exceed the demands of the National Curriculum.  This also helps the children to understand which subjects they are focusing on. The following subjects are taught through a blocked approach:

• Art and Design
• Design and Technology
• Geography
• History
• Science (this core subject is also taught through a blocked approach in the afternoons alongside foundation)

The remaining subjects are taught weekly, as the children best benefit from a regular diet of them:

• ICT & Computing
• Languages (Spanish)
• Music
• Religious Education
• Physical Education
• Personal, Social and Health Education

Further links to English are developed through extended writing in history and geography each half term. We also make sure explicit maths skills are reinforced wherever possible.

Art & Design

Children progressively learn key knowledge and skills in relation to seven key artistic disciplines:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Collage
• Sculpture
• Print
• Textiles
• Digital Media

At the end of each block of learning they apply acquired skills to create a cross-curricular art piece, using the work of local, national and international artists to inspire, comparing and contrasting different styles.

Design & Technology

Four key knowledge and skill areas are taught progressively across each key stage (KS1, Lower KS2, Upper KS2) as follows:

• Technical Knowledge
• Design
• Make
• Evaluate
• Cooking and Nutrition

Children apply their knowledge and skills to produce design pieces and food dishes of increasing complexity throughout their journey from years 1 to 6.

Geography

In key stage 1, learning is focused on personal, local and national geography, from the origins of our families to planning a trip to the four countries of the UK. Children begin to acquire the key geographical knowledge they will need to access the key stage 2 curriculum. From years 3 to 6, the children acquire broader and deeper knowledge through their study of a range of topics including rivers, climate & biomes and the polar regions, which bring together local, national and international perspectives. Fieldwork carried across both key stages enables children to learn and apply practical geographical skills.

Across both key stages, pupils develop key geographical skills which enable them to:

• collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes;
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and geographical information systems;
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

History

Like geography, key stage 1 learning is focused on personal and local history, again beginning with children’s own family trees and expanding to include topics such as The Great Fire of London. Children begin to acquire the key historical knowledge they will need to access the key stage 2 curriculum.

From years 3 to 6, the children acquire broader and deeper knowledge through their chronological study of a range of significant historical periods including The Stone Age, Ancient Rome and The Vikings, which bring together local, national and international perspectives. As they move into years 5 and 6, the children will begin to expand their historical knowledge to Africa, Asia and the Americas as we look at the thriving civilisations and societies that existed there. The children will also build their knowledge of colonial European history and to what extent these events had a significant impact on the modern world today.

Across both key stages, pupils develop key historical skills which enable them to:

• use the concepts of continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, in order to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses;

• practise the methods of historical enquiry, understand how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.

Religious Education (RE)

In Religious Education pupils learn about – and learn from – the different kinds of questions human beings can ask about religious origins, beliefs and practices, namely questions that derive from philosophy, theology, social sciences and history. Children study six key world religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism, focusing on symbols and artefacts, places of worship and festivals and celebrations in key stage 1 as a foundation to deeper enquiry which is carried out across key stage 2.

Computing

We use Computing to enhance all areas of the curriculum. We believe Computing should be embraced as a vital part of modern life and it is important that our children are taught how to use appropriate hardware and software and – more importantly – how to use them safely. It is essential for children, staff and the wider school community to have the confidence and ability to use these tools to prepare them for an ever-changing and rapidly developing world.

We aim to promote and build pupil’s skills and knowledge of Computing as a subject in its own right, with a specialist teacher delivering the Computing Curriculum. Class teachers develop pupils Digital Literacy Skills and promote online safety on a regular basis 

We use desktop computers in the Computing suite and pupils have the opportunity to use a variety of devices such as laptops, iPads, floor robots and other physical computing devices in a variety of cross curriculum links​ ; for example, Blue Bots are linked to maths and literacy and promote computational thinking and language development.

The Computing progression map ensures that pupils’ skills are built upon each year and we constantly adapt our curriculum delivery to reflect our school community, pupils’ learning journeys and changes in the world of technology, ensuring that it is always relevant and up-to-date.

Languages (Spanish)

At Lancasterian, children learn four key skills in relation to Spanish:

• listening
• speaking
• reading
• writing

Studying Spanish from year 3 to year 6, the children learn and apply these four key skills progressively in order to be increasingly able to express their ideas and thoughts and to understand and respond to Spanish, both in speech and in writing. They apply their learning across a wide range of subject areas including numbers, introductions, food and hobbies and find out about Hispanic society, literature, culture and traditions.

Music

Music provides vital life skills, which develop a child’s ability to: listen carefully; be patient; take turns; work in a team; take care of property; be resilient; be creative; be persistent and express their individuality. At Lancasterian Primary we aim to create confident musicians and performers, who are able to take to the stage with a smile and let go of their worries and inhibitions.

Music is unique in that it connects the right and left side of the brain, utilising both the logical, numerical, ordered side and the creative and emotional side. Through whole class music lessons and the many group and individual instrument lessons available here, children learn to play and sing as part of a small or larger group. They learn to sing and play a wide variety of songs and music from around the world, by learning to sight read, as well as improvise, compose and perform their own music.

Using the National Curriculum guidelines supported by the Charanga Music Scheme, pupils focus on a different musical genre every half term, listening to and discussing many songs from that style and using one main song on which to base their learning. Each topic culminates in a performance of some kind, whether to their own classmates, in an assembly or at a concert in front of parents. In addition, pupils have opportunities to experience performances by professional musicians.

Every child at Lancasterian, whatever their background or ability, also has opportunities to learn to play the following instruments with visiting teachers, or the many lunchtime and after school music clubs on offer: guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano, violin, viola, cello, ukulele, trumpet and recorder. Singing skills are enhanced and nurtured through weekly singing assemblies and the school choir. Through all of the above, children grow in confidence in all their abilities, musical or otherwise, and learn to be un-afraid to express themselves clearly.

Physical Education (PE)

At Lancasterian, we aim to:

• develop the appreciation of fair play, sporting and good relationships, co-operation and teamwork;
• develop self-esteem and appreciate the capabilities and boundaries of oneself and others;
• develop large and small motor skills, hand/eye co-ordination and spacial awareness;
•  increase flexibility, strength and endurance;
• develop creativity and understanding of the purpose, forms and conventions of a range of physical activities; and
• develop confidence and encourage participation in physical activities outside school.

Across key stage 1 , children progressively develop and apply knowledge and skills in these different areas of PE:

• Athletics
• Dance
• Gymnastics
• Attacking, Defending, Shooting
• Hitting and Catching
• Sending and Returning
• Running, Jumping Throwing

In key stage 2, children use the learnt knowledge and skills and apply it to specific sports:

• Rounders
• Football
• Badminton
• Basketball
• Tennis
• Cricket
• Hockey

while still continuing with the key disciplines of athletics, dance and gymnastics. Swimming also starts in key stage 2, as do outdoor and adventure activities. Each half term begins for all children with a theory-based PE lesson to give children the knowledge they need to access the new sport. The children also benefit from subsidised after-school sports clubs and lunchtime specialist sports coaches in both the KS1 and 2 playgrounds.

Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE) & Relationships, Sex & Health Education (RSHE)

At Lancasterian, PSHE lessons help to give pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to:

• lead confident, healthy, independent lives; and
• become informed, active and responsible citizens.

PSHE is also delivered through wider embedded work we do around our school values and the teaching of Fundamental British Values. We use the  PSHE Association, Go-Givers and Votes for Schools resources to support lesson planning and delivery. PSHE also links directly to the Christopher Winter Project for Relationship Education and Sex Education and Drugs and Alcohol Awareness. Children progressively learn knowledge and skills across 4 main areas:

• Living in the wider world
• Relationships
• Health and Well-Being
• Relationship & Sex Education

Please see below our current Relationships, Sex and Health Education Policy. 

Relationships, Sex and Health Education Policy| PDF

The policy outlines our approach to RSHE and the resources we use to teach it. At Lancasterian we follow the Christopher Winter Project (CWP) when teaching RSHE, resources from the CWP are shared with parents yearly as part of information sharing sessions about RHSE lessons. The policy also goes through our consultation process for teaching RSHE and what parents/carers must do if they wish to withdraw their child from certain lessons. Please read the policy for full details and do not hesitate to get in touch with the school with any further questions.

Educational Visits

Educational visits are usually linked to topics and happen least termly, taking full advantage of all that London and the surrounding area has to offer. In addition, children have the opportunity to take part in a week long residential school journey in Year 6.