School Curriculum
Working together to achieve success
Our Curriculum Vision
At Berridge, our curriculum is underpinned by our vision, aims and values, whereby all learners feel valued, are given the opportunity to thrive and realise their full potential in a happy, safe and inclusive environment. Our overarching theme for the curriculum is people and places which reflects our diverse, multi-cultural school community. Governors, staff and pupils work together to ensure that our curriculum provides the skills, knowledge and attributes our children will need in order to flourish in the 21st century. This is accomplished by:
- Ensuring that learning, both skills and knowledge, is at the heart of every lesson.
- Making learning enjoyable
- Providing a meaningful context for learning which builds on previous knowledge and experiences
- Supporting children in their understanding of the world they live in and the people who inhabit it
How we ensure that ‘learning is at the heart of every lesson’:
- Each lesson starts with the teacher sharing a key question. The key question refers to new knowledge. E.g. Where is London? When were the Vikings alive?
- Each lesson has an ‘I am learning statement’. This refers to the skill being developed. E.g. I am learning to use maps to locate places. I am learning to retrieve information from secondary sources of information
- Each lesson will end with a short plenary where the class answer the key question and review their learning using
self- assessment
- Teachers’ questions will challenge and provoke children to think about what they are learning
How we ‘make learning enjoyable’:
- The learning motivates the children
- A range of learning experiences are used throughout the topic so children get the opportunity to learn using a range of creative tools e.g. Drama, use of IT, collaborative work, hands on learning
- The children are active in all their learning by using investigation skills
- At the end of each topic there will be a reflection activity where pupils can apply the knowledge and skills learnt, either individually or collaboratively, to celebrate and share their achievements.
Providing a ‘meaningful context for learning which builds on previous knowledge’:
- Staff have an awareness of previous knowledge and skills taught
- Staff have good subject knowledge which they use to support the learning
- When planning, staff consider the cultural diversity of the pupils in their class
How we support ‘children in their understanding of the world they live in and the people who inhabit it’:
- Wherever possible, our learning is linked to our over-arching theme of people and places- helping children to discover the wonder of the world and it’s people by making connections to global issues, their own experiences & previous learning
- Providing opportunities to discover and explore what we have in common with people from different times and/or places
- Through teaching PSHE, SMSC, British Values, Global Citizenship our children have the chance to develop an awareness of themselves and their place in the world
RE
Religious Education is taught at Berridge as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. School adopts an enquiry-based approach to teaching and learning where Christianity is taught in every year group. Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are also covered. The details of the RE curriculum can be found on the year group overviews. If you have any questions about the RE taught, do not hesitate to contact the school.
Parents have the right to request that their pupil be withdrawn from all or part of the RE provided. If you do not wish your child to take part in RE lessons then we would ask that you make a request in writing. School is happy to discuss any concerns you may have. You do not need to provide a reason for your decision.The right of withdrawal does not extend to other areas of the curriculum when, as may happen on occasion, spontaneous questions on religious matters are raised by pupils or there are issues related to religion that arise in other subjects such as history or citizenship.
Further Information
Learning at Berridge is based upon the new National Curriculum (September 2014). The children are taught in year groups throughout school. Literacy and numeracy lessons are normally taught in the mornings and the other curriculum areas in the afternoon. The year groups use ‘topics’ to teach the curriculum, finding opportunities to use their numeracy and literacy skills.
At KS1 (3-7) the children are taught phonics (sounds and letters) and these are taught in small groups with additional adults. The rest of the curriculum is taught by classteachers
At KS2 (7-11) children are taught in numeracy groups with different teachers. The children are normally taught English and topic work by their class teacher. Music, IT and some PE sessions are taught by specialist teachers .
Curriculum Topic plans are available on the year group pages
Spanish at Berridge
At Brushfield Site (KS2) children are taught Spanish. Weekly lessons are planned and taught by teachers and teaching assistants.
Book Studies
Every year group has planned a book study. The books are used to plan and inspire other areas of the curriculum . Every year group will plan books studies every year. The main aims of the book studies are to:-
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Promote a ‘love of reading’
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Broaden children’s knowledge of literature including ‘classic texts’
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Use books as inspiration for other curriculum studies
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Create excitement and curiosity about texts
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Strengthen children’s reading skills
Outdoor Learning
Children at Berridge have regular sessions in our wildlife garden and outdoor spaces. Every child has opportunities to achieve and develop confidence through hands on learning in the environment. Even in the middle of our busy built up city we want evey child to be able to experience the natural world. Here are some examples of the things we do outdoors:
- Pond dipping
- Firepit and cooking
- Growing fruits, vegetables and flowers
- Building dens and shelters
- Making bird feeders and small animal homes
Reading
Each child will read or review their book at least every fortnight.
Children choose their next book themselves, with guidance from
their teacher. There are a range of different books in school which are grouped into coloured bands. School staff will sign or stamp the reading diary when they have read with
your child.
What school expects from parents:
Read at least three times a week. The more often your child reads,
and especially with your support, the more quickly they will
progress.
As children start reading, a good guide to how long they should
read is 5 minutes. By the time a child is in year 6, they should be reading for 15-20
minutes or longer.
If your child is an independent reader, please ask them about their
book, and sign in their diary when they have read. Asking questions will help improve their reading comprehension
Reading Comprehension
Reading is not just about decoding the words. It is about understanding what has been read- for enjoyment and for information.
At school, children are encouraged to talk about the books they have read; to answer questions about different aspects of the book (eg. events, setting, characters, feelings) and to express their own ideas about a book.
Inside the reading diary, you will find Reading Challenge stickers that link to reading skills taught in school. The aim of these is for you to support your child to work on a particular reading skill. These challenges can also help you to ask your child effective questions.
Click below for some useful information which may help you further. If you want advice about how to support your child’s reading please see the class teacher.
Phonics
School is now using in a new phonics program called Story Time Phonics. StoryTime Phonics is an inclusive synthetic, whole-class phonics reading programme based on Letters and Sounds, for all children learning to read and write in Foundation and Year 1. The lessons are all contextualised through the use of a ‘real’ book. Each sound is taught through a real story book written by some of the best-loved authors. To accompany each of the storybooks there are “Talking Bookmarks” comprehension questions to assist teachers to deliver quality talk sessions to help develop a rich and deeper understanding of the stories.
Each sound has an action linked to the story, so children remember and relate the sound directly to the book. The children will get help from the Phonics Fairy and Tricky Troll as they learn new sounds.
The program develops children’s reading skills as well as promoting a love of books by provide opportunities to read and enjoy quality literature.
The children will not only learn phoneme-grapheme correspondences, blending, segmenting, some whole words, letter names, letter formation and, as the children progress, vocabulary, correct spelling and sentence structure.
Phonics is taught discretely every day at Key Stage 1 and children are grouped according to which phase they are at. The teaching of phonics happens within a language rich environment where children are given the opportunity to apply their newly acquired skills in other areas of the curriculum. We also plan other reading sessions throughout the day to extend reading skills further.