The National Curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.
The National Curriculum is just one element in the education of every child. There is time and space in the school day and in each week, term and year to range beyond the National Curriculum specifications. The National Curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.
In this part of the website, you will find the curriculum maps staff have created, and how they intend to cover the statutory requirements of the curriculum. Further information is also provided to show progression in Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, as well as Calculation.
Our Curriculum Intent
At Long Sutton County Primary School, we are aiming for an ambitious curriculum that has equal and high expectations of all who study it. It should be accessible for all and contain meaningful experiences that enhance learning and promote curiosity from the children. Our children are ultimately at the heart of this curriculum. The main question we should ask ourselves is ‘what must it be like to be a child at Long Sutton County Primary School?’ Our curriculum should reflect our observations of this and underpin all that in what we plan to teach them.
Our curriculum should be well planned, sequenced and maintain a logical flow throughout. The key foundations, especially around reading, will be introduced early and children will be given opportunities to ‘delve deeper’ to master these skills. We understand the importance of retention, so ‘non-negotiable knowledge’ will be key. Teachers will carefully select the curriculum content to ensure there is sufficient time to embed and explore it. By having a knowledge rich curriculum, we need to show full clarity about what we feel our children need to learn & overlearn, and then how we intend to build upon this progressively, so children retain it. Key questions to us include - Why am I teaching this? Where does it fit into the bigger picture of the curriculum plans? Why is it important to know or master this? What difference would it make to the learning if we did not do this?
We must prepare our children for the demands of living in a diverse 21st century world. Therefore, we must consider the cultural capital of Long Sutton and beyond, so that children leave LSPS as well rounded, knowledgeable and resilience citizens who are eager to achieve well in their future life.
For further information about the curriculum, please contact your child’s class teacher, Mr Singleton or Mr Lord.
At Long Sutton County Primary School we truly value reading and its teaching. It is our belief that it is our duty to ensure that our pupils are given every opportunity to develop a love of reading for pleasure.
We have spent more than £30,000 over the last seven years on our bookstock and are always seeking to improve this.
Please click on the buttons below to learn more about reading in Long Sutton County Primary School:
Early Reading
Our first work which takes place in the teaching of reading is the teaching of Phonics. Our approach to phonics is to teach Systematic Synthetic Phonics (as required by the Department of Education) through the Letters and Sounds scheme. We teach phonics with the expectation that our pupils will be fluent readers having secured word recognition skills by the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2).
This begins in Nursery with the teaching of Phase One phonics which centres around children being able to recognise sounds that they can hear which is a preparation for moving onto learning the relationship between letters and sounds.
In Reception the children will move onto Phase 2 during which children are taught different sounds each week. We then expect children to move in Key Stage 1 through the Phonic phases so that they will be able to move onto the Support for Spelling scheme at the end of Year 2 and throughout Key Stage 2.
Phonics Check
The children in Year 1 will be expected to undertake the phonics screening check which is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. We are confident in our teaching of phonics and will not put our children under pressure when they are preparing for the check. We will use the check to identify any children who will require further support to improve their reading skills.
It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.
Reading Schemes
In Foundation Stage and Key Stage One we have invested in a range of books from the Rigby Star , Floppy's Phonics and Oxford Reading Tree schemes. These books will be the main ones which will come home for you to read with your children and have notes to help you with this.
The Oxford Reading Tree continues into Lower Key Stage 2 children for those who still require that structure.
Library
We have a growing non fiction library which is overseen by a member of staff and Year 6 librarians. This is used to supplement books used for teaching curriculum subjects as well as firing up the children’s interest in reading.
Reading Patron
The school has a strong and ongoing relationship with Steve Skidmore, a wonderful author from Leicestershire, who has worked with us for two years. Steve works with the children both on reading and developing their writing. He performs to the children and has also started the Steve Skidmore Reading Awards which celebrate those children who have shown a love of reading across the school.
Volunteers
The school has developed a cadre of volunteers who come into school to hear readers from Reception up to Year 6. This is a vital group of people who help us so much and ensure that all of our children are being heard read on a regular basis. We could not achieve the standards in reading we have in the school without this help.
Guided Reading
The school uses a range of books and schemes for Guided Reading, which is our main method of teaching reading, including Connectors and Read, Respond and Engage. These are made up of a series of highly engaging and interesting books which we now fire up our children's imaginations and love of reading.
Reading at Home
Reading at home remains a central part of our approach to the teaching of reading. We have a wide reading stock and share this with the children so that they can take books home. We also encourage children to use the local library and to borrow books from there. This is promoted by a weekly visit from groups of children over the year and working with the manager of Long Sutton Library who comes into school to work with children.
