Curriculum Intent:
At St. Pius X we teach the full national curriculum, which provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be an educated citizen. The St. Pius X curriculum is thematic in design, enabling children to make sense of what is taught, through carefully planned sequences of learning, which are relevant to the children and provide a wide range of rich, first-hand learning experiences, which exploits the educational opportunities in Middlesbrough and beyond. The curriculum introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement. The thematic links allow children to children to transfer their knowledge into new situations and apply it to new contexts.
If you would like more information on our curriculum or request a paper copy please see Reception.
| Autumn | Spring | Summer | |
| Foundation Stage |
Year A Once upon a time Year B Into the woods |
Year A Growing Year B People and communities |
Year A Pirates Year B Life on land and sea |
| Year 1 | Me and My World | Animals | The Great Explorers |
|
Year 2
|
Fire |
Food
|
The seaside |
|
Year 3
|
WW2
|
The Egyptians | The Romans |
|
Year 4
|
Stone Age |
Ancient Greece | The Tudors |
|
Year 5
|
The Mayans
|
Anglo Saxons/Vikings | Britain since 1948 |
|
Year 6
|
Victorians
|
Disappearing World | United in Diversity |
“The stimulating and rich experiences adults make available to pupils are manifest in the high-quality displays throughout the school!” (Philip Riozzi, Her Majesty’s Inspector)
Mathematics
Aims and Objectives:
The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including varied and frequent practice 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.
Organisation
In order to achieve the above aims, teachers follow the planning/teaching structures contained within the Abacus Scheme of work. These are supplemented by various other resources at the class teacher’s discretion.
When teaching mathematics we provide opportunities for:
- Group work
- Paired work
- Whole class teaching
- Individual work
Pupils are involved in:
- The development of mental strategies
- Written methods
- Practical work
- Investigational work
- Problem solving
- Mathematical discussion
- Consolidation of basic skills and number facts
- ICT opportunities
Mathematics contributes to many subjects and it is important the children are given opportunities to apply and use Mathematics in real contexts across the curriculum.
Inclusion
At our school we teach maths to all children, whatever their ability. Mathematics forms part of the school curriculum policy to provide a broad and balanced curriculum to all children. Through our mathematics teaching we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this by ensuring the activities are differentiated but challenging for each child’s needs. Marking and assessments help us to consider each child’s attainment and progress and to plan future lessons appropriately.
EYFS
We teach mathematics in our Reception and Nursery Classes. The children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage, in which there is the area of learning entitled ‘Mathematics’. At this age, children are provided with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures. They are given opportunities to explore numbers, measures, patterns, shapes and space through a variety of practical activities, using both the indoor and outdoor classrooms. They are encouraged to talk about and enjoy all aspects of mathematics.
Cross- Curricular
As well as teaching specific maths skills, the children need to understand how these relate to real life situations to make them meaningful. We offer opportunities for the children to use their numeracy skills in different contexts across the primary curriculum. We also aim to teach children about the importance of economic well-being, through a variety of different tasks and activities.
ICT
Children will use ICT programmes and websites such as MyMaths and Sumdog to reinforce and develop their mathematical understanding. Programmes will allow opportunities for the children to work together to talk through specific mathematics problems and find solutions. They will also use their mathematical skills when working with databases, spreadsheets and within the new computing curriculum. When teachers see fit, homework activities may be set online.
Classrooms and Resources
The classrooms are organised appropriately to ensure the environment is stimulating and promotes mathematics. Displays should be used to support mathematical concepts and reinforce teaching points. These should be changed regularly. Each classroom has a designated unit for maths resources. Larger mathematics resources for whole school use are kept in a storage unit in the spare Y6 classroom.
Mathematics Termly Strand Year 1
Mathematics Termly Strand Year 2
Mathematics Termly Strand Year 3
Mathematics Termly Strand Year 4
English
- Stories with familiar settings
- Traditional stories
- Extended stories
- Recounts
- Information texts
- Explanations
- Non-chronological reports
- Persuasion
- Auto/biographical writing
- Instructions
- Poetry
EYFS
What is the EYFS curriculum?
The Development Matters document explains exactly what the children have to achieve and how we can all work together to help children to do so Click here to view full document.
The EYFS curriculum is separated into seven areas of learning. The children learn through play to develop their skills in all seven areas.
Practitioners working with the youngest children in Nursery will focus strongly on the three prime areas, which are the basis for successful learning in the other four specific areas. The three prime areas reflect the key skills and capacities all children need to develop and learn effectively, and become ready for school. The balance will shift towards a more equal focus on all areas of learning as the children move through the Early Years and grow in confidence and ability within the three prime areas.
The Prime areas are:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
The specific areas are:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
St Pius X EYFS Curriculum
We believe that children have a large role to play in their learning. They have a role in planning what they learn about and what the continuous provision will include. The children have opportunities in their key worker groups to discuss what they have learnt and experienced in the setting and how they can develop their learning further.
Thematic work ensures that play is purposeful. The children’s learning is based around topics linked to their interests and to the seasons and opportunities around us. We ensure that the classroom environments are stimulating and interesting. The resources are labelled and organised well and changed to ensure that the continuous provision is engaging. We place a high value on open ended questioning, ensuring that every child is challenged and moved forward in their learning.
We offer opportunities to develop an understanding of the world around them through thematic work, outdoor play and visits to other places. We want the children to have new and different experiences from home.
We value our parent partnerships at St Pius X. The parents regularly attend Stay and Play sessions, trips, parent’s evenings, new starters meetings and Reception starters meetings. These sessions ensure that parents and staff can share key information about the children’s learning.
"The relatively new early years leader has improved provision substantially... and adults intervene in children's learning to make it more challenging." (Philip Riozzi, Her Majesty's Inspector)
The RE Curriculum
Reading
Reading is obviously recognised as an essential element of all learning. We aim to teach the skills of reading and to foster a lifelong love of language. There is balance of non-fiction and fiction books and children are expected to read a range of genres. Children bring books home from their earliest days in school. We view the education of children as a partnership with parents and ask them to read with their children as often as possible. Early reading books are levelled carefully and children work systematically through each level at their own pace. All of the children have access to the school library and a collection of home loan books where they can borrow books to bring home and share. Older children are encouraged to bring in their books from home.
Reading Schemes in School:
- Bug Club
- Oxford Reading Tree
- Ginn
- Rigby Rockets
We also include a large selection of non scheme books within the levels and within each class children have access to high quality texts linked to their current topic.
What is phonics?
Phonics is the system of ‘blending’ sounds together to read, and ‘segmenting’ sounds to spell. They are both complimentary and interlinking skills that are taught together. You may hear your children use some vocabulary that you are not familiar with that they have learnt in their phonics lessons.
A phoneme Is the smallest unit of sound that we use in the English language. A phoneme can be made up of one letter as in the alphabet sounds – s, a, t, p, i, n etc, or two letters (a digraph) as in sh, ch, th, ay, ar, or three letters (trigraphs) as in air, ear, ure. Phonemes can not be broken down into separate sounds.
A grapheme Is the way we spell a phoneme. A phoneme may have only one grapheme for example ‘b’. Or may have several different spellings –for example or can be spelt ‘or’ in torn, ‘aw’ in claw, ‘au’ in naughty or ore in more. The children will initially be introduced to one common grapheme for each phoneme, but as they progress through the school they will taught the less common spelling alternatives and encouraged to try and choose the correct grapheme for a particular word they are trying to spell.
Consonant blends Are made up of two or three phonemes blended together quite quickly as we learn to read. Examples are sc, sm, bl, pr, str
Short Vowel Sounds Are the vowels saying their sound as ‘a’ in c a t.
Long Vowel Sounds Are the vowels saying their name as ‘ay’ in day, ‘oa’ in boat or ‘igh’ in night.
How do we teach Phonics at our school?
To teach phonics we primarily follow the Letters and Sounds Scheme. Phonics lessons are taught daily in KS1 and Foundation Stage. We use a mixture of different resources and teaching styles to engage and motivate the children, including magnetic boards and letters, whiteboards and pens, games, flashcards based on the ‘Jolly Phonics’ phonics scheme
We have phonic based guided reading books for teachers to use with groups when teaching reading and there are some phonic based home readers in all book boxes.
How can you help your child?
In Foundation Stage the follow up sheets will be sent home to consolidate learning in class. It will be useful to revise the phonemes your child has learnt that week at school and also later to go over some from previous weeks to reinforce their learning. It is also very beneficial to point out some phonemes when reading at home with your child, particularly those recently learnt. Key words will be sent home as cards in Foundation Stage and linked to the stages in the reading scheme. Please help your child practise recognition of these as this is another important skill to master.
Click here to go to the Jolly Phonics website where there is a parents’ guide to phonics showing the articulation of phonemes (vowels and consonants).
Foundation Subjects
Click on the link below to view our foundation subjects curriculum.
Foundation Subjects Curriculum
Year 1 FS OVERVIEW Year 1 curriculum
Year 2 FS OVERVIEW Year 2 curriculum
Year 3 FS OVERVIEW Year 3 curriculum
Year 4 FS OVERVIEW Year 4 curriculum
