Horton Curriculum Provision

Our aim is to provide a well-structured, engaging curriculum that enhances children’s awareness of the world and their place within it, providing them with the skills & knowledge to thrive in learning and life.

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Our Horton Curriculum has been developed with the whole school community.  After discussions with staff, pupils, governors and parents we agreed a focus upon two key themes:

• Global Citizenship
• Cultural Awareness.

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Our children’s priority is to focus upon climate change and to learn what we can do to halt it.  Our parents are keen that we continue to focus upon providing our children with the skills and knowledge to thrive in adulthood and responsible citizenship.  As a school, we are committed to all children having equality of opportunity both at school and in later life.  This means that we need to focus upon core knowledge and ensuring all pupils can access the curriculum.  We will do this by a rigorous focus upon language acquisition.  Working alongside St. John’s Mead and using the National Curriculum as our basis, we have developed a progression in vocabulary and selected topics that both match appropriate language and provide opportunities for a focus upon our core intent, building on prior learning.  History units have been planned to build on children’s knowledge of chronology and children are encouraged to see the patterns in subjects such as geography to promote both their long-term knowledge and cultural understanding.

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Please visit www.gov.uk/national-curriculum for more information.

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Follow the links below to download the current curriculum overview and to see areas of study:

Use the links below to download the class curriculum letters for this term:

English

The aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate

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At Horton, we ensure this is achieved by:

• Development of early reading skills through a clear progression in phonics teaching and developing children’s comprehension skills using synthetic phonics through the Read Write Inc programme
• Initially using books from the Read Write Inc Scheme focusing on decodable text, alongside a rich range of other books which promote a love of a reading and develop vocabulary fluency
• Developing children’s love of reading and promotion of a wide reading diet through access to our school library, the promotion of reading through certificates and awards, book weeks and sending books home regularly for children to share with their parents/carers
• Daily English lessons focusing on the development of the understanding of grammar, spelling, reading and writing
• Focusing on children’s ability to communicate in a wide variety of styles using well-chosen vocabulary
• Regular guided reading lessons and individual reading where appropriate
• Giving children opportunities to participate in discussion, drama, role-play, performance, presentation and by organising regular theatre visits
• Providing timely interventions for those children who need extra support
• Where appropriate, incorporating English teaching into our Creative Curriculum to give real purpose to the development of English skills

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Mathematics

Our Calculation Policy:

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practise with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions

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Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programmes of study are, by necessity, organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects.

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The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practise, before moving on.

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At Horton we ensure that this is achieved through:

• Daily mathematics lessons which include whole class teaching, guided group teaching, opportunities to practise skills and apply these in the context of a variety of problems
• A clear progression in calculation methods to allow children to develop a secure and consistent understanding of methods to use when calculating with all four operations
• Giving children the opportunity to explain their methods and mathematical reasoning
• Ensuring that children regularly practise their times tables so that they can recall them quickly and accurately
• Ensuring that children are able to use appropriate mathematical vocabulary accurately
• Putting in place timely, closely monitored interventions for those children who need extra support
• Daily mental mathematics through the use of Maths Blasts

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Useful Maths Websites

Use the links below to find fun ways to help with Maths.

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We use the squeebles app and Times Table Rockstars at school to help with multiplication and division. All children are given a Times Table Rockstar Login so that they can access this from home.

Religious Education

We follow the Gloucester scheme of work and use Understanding Christianity.

Our 2 year rolling programme for all classes can be viewed here:

Computing

The national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:

• can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
• can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
• can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
• are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology

At Horton, we ensure that this is achieved by:

• Following the South Gloucestershire Scheme of Work for computing
• Teaching the full range of computing skills regularly, using a range of different devices
• Ensuring that children have access to computers day to day (classes all have access to iPads and laptops)
• Ensuring that the use of computers is integrated into our curriculum so that children are able to use their computing skills for a range of purposes and in a range of different contexts
• Develop a secure understanding of the safe use of technology through our curriculum