Curriculum

LEARN WITHOUT LIMITS (LWL)

Our LWL curriculum focuses on teaching children how to learn. We are proactive when developing the growth mindset needed to be a successful learner. Focussed feedback, daily learning talks and Learning Legend Assemblies are just a part of this process as children are taught to:

STICK WITH IT - Our growth mindset philosophy means children know that hard work and effort are key to successful learning. They are praised for being brave, sustaining effort and for managing distractions.

understand IT’S YOUR LEARNING - We teach children to take responsibility for their learning. We help them admit when they don’t know something, always asking ‘what’s next?’. They know they need to be ready to learn and willing to try.

DON’T SAY NO, HAVE A GO - We teach children to be proud of their own success and not to compare themselves to others. We encourage them to aim high and strive for quality,

FAIL WELL - We give children honest feedback so they know how to improve. They are encouraged to reach for their goal and achieve their own personal best, not comparing themselves to others.

HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE - Collaboration is key so children must respect themselves and others. It’s also crucial to challenge yourself and not stay stuck in the comfort zone.

ESSENTIALS FOR LEARNING (E4L)

The knowledge, skills and attitudes that pupils need in the twenty-first century are not the same as they were in the past and so school learning experiences need to reflect this. Andreas school follows The Department of Education, Sport and Culture’s Essentials for Learning (E4L) curriculum which aims to develop these personal skills alongside traditional academic skills. The E4L curriculum states that learning must be challenging and engaging, personalised, meaningful, connected, inclusive, active, enquiry based and take into account pupil voice. This freedom in approach allows us to cater for our children as individuals and to take into account their unique community, history and heritage. It ensures academic success alongside the development of personal, lifelong skills and attitudes.

At Andreas, we also use Cornerstones Maestro to support the delivery of exciting and engaging topics in science and non core subjects. This also ensures progression of skills both within and across year groups and enables us to cover all the necessary subject skills and knowledge.

PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN (P4C) AND THINKING MOVES A-Z

P4C is a way of developing children’s thinking skills. It also has a profound ability to make children more co-operative, creative, accepting and respectful of differing viewpoints. It helps children learn to challenge, question and alter their opinions and ideas as a result of clear and evidential thinking. In essence, P4C involves a teacher providing a stimulus, such as a book, poem, picture, artefact, piece of music etc, which is used to generate some questions and discussion. We have received the SAPARE Silver Award for our work in this area which is unique to the Island. Thinking skills are also taught systematically through the Thinking Moves A-Z. These actively teach children how to access and use high order thinking skills in order to support and extend their learning.

FOREST SCHOOL AND LOOSE PARTS PLAY

We have an outdoor workshop where children use natural materials and learn to work with tools such as saws, knives, nails and hammers. They learn to make fires, how to tie a variety of knots and build dens. All year groups access this and we have a curriculum for each year group which ensures skills are built on year by year. This links to our outdoor play where children climb trees and play with a variety of loose parts such as pallets, ropes, tarpaulins, plastic drums, barrels and sticks. We work with the children to ensure they develop an awareness of risk. This enables them to adapt their behaviour and choices to avoid harm and is a crucial part of learning how to keep themselves and others safe. Life cannot be risk free so learning how to manage potential risk from a young age is crucial. In forest school and during playtimes, children develop high order thinking skills such as prediction: reflection: creativity and evaluation. They learn to collaborate and solve their own problems so relationships become strong and positive. This contributes significantly to the mental and physical well being of our children.

Our rules are simple. Be ready. Be safe. Be respectful.

EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE (EYFS) CURRICULUM

The Foundation Stage curriculum allows children to learn through play by being active, encouraging them to explore, follow their own lines of enquiry, investigate and talk about their learning whilst developing key curriculum skills in reading, writing and maths. It consists of seven areas of learning:

Three prime areas:

• Personal, social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Physical Development

Four specific areas:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the world
• Expressive arts and design

In Reception, the children do not follow a formal timetable as such. A significant amount of their learning activities will also take place outdoors .

Children’s learning will be assessed continuously throughout every year of school.

KEY STAGE 1 & KEY STAGE 2 CURRICULUM

In each Key Stage the curriculum comprises:

The core subjects

• English
• Maths
• Science

The foundation subjects

• Information & Communication Technology
• Geography
• History
• Art
• Music
• Design and Technology
• Philosophy for Children
• Physical Education (PE)
• Personal Social and Health Education
• Religious Education

Additionally, during KS2 the children follow a course in Manx language.

In core subjects, teachers continually assess children to ensure the skills they are learning are right for them. This does not mean they are tested. The assessments will be based on, for example, discussions with the children, questioning, observations and looking at independent work. Children take an active part in this assessment process and are consulted regarding their skills set. Our approach is simple: what does a child know now and what do they need to learn next? This personalised approach ensures all children are catered for as we focus primarily on the importance of individual progress.

STEPS TO SUCCESS

Our bespoke Steps to Success (S2S) key skills curriculum has been designed to develop skills in maths, reading and writing. It's a hierarchy of skills in each subject which is used to ensure that learning is relevant and meaningful for each child. Teachers work with the children to determine what skills are embedded and then work out which are the most appropriately challenging next steps on the hierarchy. Consequently, children are always progressing as they consistently build on prior learning, there isn't a one size fits all approach. Children learn what ever they need to learn next irrespective of others.

ENGLISH

We aim to develop each pupil in the areas of:

1. Speaking and Listening - developing a pupil’s active listening skills and their ability to express themselves verbally.

2. Reading - enabling a pupil to develop decoding and comprehension skills, to read a range of materials enthusiastically and use their knowledge of words, sentences and texts to understand and respond to meaning. Phonics will be taught daily through the Letters and Sounds programme in the foundation stage and key stage 1.

• Independent reading - Each child will have a reading folder and a reading book to take home and read everyday. We aim for someone, not necessarily the teacher, to hear children read regularly, at least two times a week and daily for those who need most practise. We encourage parents and members of the community to come into school to listen to children read. Hearing your child read at home is crucial because children who practice regularly at home make better progress than those who don't.
• Guided reading – In addition to individual reading, children will share and discuss texts as a class and, once a week, have a guided reading session in a group with a teacher/SESO. These sessions allow children to improve and share decoding strategies, discuss text/language features and develop their understanding of each book.

3. Writing - to enable pupils to enjoy writing and see the value of it, communicating meaning in narrative and non-fiction texts while showing the ability to spell and punctuate correctly in legible handwriting. We also develop key writing skills systematically through our use of the writing Steps to Success which is a hierarchy of key writing skills we share with the children. Children also learn to rehearse writing through our Talk for Writing activities. This means they practice writing by verbalising it before putting pen to paper.

MATHEMATICS

We use White Rose Maths and follow the ManxTeaching Maths Through Understanding (TMU) programme. This ensures children develop conceptual understanding, problem solving, reasoning and fluency. This involves children having a much deeper understanding of mathematical processes because they are expected to, for example, explain the process of calculations, offer alternatives, justify their choices and prove their answers. Teaching maths through understanding involves concrete work, where children of all ages use materials to support the learning process: pictorial, where children show their understanding through jottings and abstract where children can work out calculations mentally. All these approaches are important. In fact, being able to use equipment to demonstrate your thinking is a crucial part of mastery.

We use Cornerstones Maestro to support and guide the delivery of science and non-core subjects. This Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning. It incorporates all the skills and knowledge in the 2014 primary national curriculum and ensures comprehensive coverage in all year groups. It is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) and Knowledge Rich Projects (KRPs), which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning. Cornerstones also provides a rigorous skills and knowledge framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects so we can be sure skills and knowledge progress both throughout the year and between year groups.

Follow this link to discover some of the exciting topics your child will enjoy:

https://cornerstoneseducation.co.uk/curriculum/cur...

SCIENCE

Science should stimulate and excite pupil’s curiosity about phenomena and events in the world around them whilst satisfying this curiosity with knowledge. In our school we aim to teach Science in a fun and exciting manner that allows children to explore and investigate in a practical way.

We work from the programmes of study from the National Curriculum which include:

1. Scientific enquiry

2. Life processes and living things

3. Materials and their properties

4. Physical processes.

For each of these areas we will be providing children with opportunities to:

• devise their own problems
• understand what they are trying to discover
• discuss ideas
• devise and use simple tests/experiments
• draw conclusions
• record their findings in different forms
• reflect on how tests could be improved in the future

This is promotes and develops critical and creative thinking. We hope that this will allow the children to practice their investigative skills, helping them to begin to understand some of the major scientific concepts that form and challenge our modern culture.

ICT

ICT is now very much a part of everyday life from storing numbers in a mobile phone to producing a web or wiki site and writing blogs. Although children are taught the core skills needed to enable them to operate computers, emphasis is also placed on teaching ‘e’ safety at appropriate stages to all children throughout the school. The children are taught ICT skills, including how different software packages work, and then are allowed to develop this knowledge by using the computers to help them with work in other areas. In order to help these skills develop, the school has a set of laptop computers which can be lent out to a class of children for an extended period of time in order to allow them to extend their skills (and yours if you wish) at their own pace. We also have many iPads which are used by pupils throughout the school.

GEOGRAPHY

Geography skills are taught throughout the school and aim to enable pupils to:

• Develop geographical knowledge and understanding
• Develop a sense of identity through learning about the Isle of Man, the rest of the British Isles and its relationship with other countries.

The geography of the Isle of Man is studied at all stages, much of it through visits and practical research. Children also develop the skills of map work, fieldwork and learn to use geographical terminology.

HISTORY

History skills are taught through topics and include using and creating timelines, using primary and secondary sources of evidence, looking at causes and consequences and the significance of key events. Children will have access to artefacts and photos to help them explore the past and whenever possible we enhance the provision through visits to historical places or visits from people who can share their experience and knowledge of the past. They will also learn to use historic terminology.

ART and DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY (DT)

Art at Andreas School develops pupils creativity and imagination by exploring the visual, tactile and sensory qualities of materials and processes. Pupils will have the opportunity to develop their visual perception and appreciation of art from a variety of cultures, styles and periods through time. They will acquire skills and develop artistic techniques in the following areas:

• Colour - explore colour, mixing and tone
• Drawing - experiment with line and observational drawings
• Texture/collage - using a variety of materials
• 3D modelling/sculpture - using materials to assemble and construct
• Pattern - operates across the 2-D range of processes

MUSIC

Music skills such as composing, singing and listening critically are taught as part of the curriculum. We also have several peripatetic music teachers who come to school each week to teach the violin and brass instruments and provide guitar lessons. These lessons are always popular and take place during the school day. They are available to children in Year 4 and upwards for violin and brass and Year 6 for guitar. Although the service is organised and provided by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture, it is necessary to charge for the lessons. Details of payment are available directly from the music service when interest is shown by each pupil/parents.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

P.E. provides the opportunity for physical development, teamwork and a healthy lifestyle. Pupils are provided with the chance to experience gymnastics, dance, athletics, games and swimming. We benefit from having a Sports coach come in to deliver one lesson each week to each class.

Swimming

It is our aim that all Key Stage 2 children become competent swimmers. Lessons take place during the Autumn and Spring terms. The children are taken to and from the Ramsey pool by coach, with lessons being taught by qualified swimming instructors and school staff.

PSHE

Personal, social and health education is taught from Reception through to Year 6. Activities are designed to help the children:

1. Develop confidence and responsibility, making the most of their abilities
2. Prepare to play an active role as citizens
3. Develop a healthy, safer lifestyle
4. Develop good relationships, work together and respect the differences between people.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Religious Education (RE) is taught throughout the school and follows the framework and syllabus devised by the Isle of Man Department of Education for this subject.

RE provides pupils with the opportunity to formulate and develop their own beliefs and values whilst appreciating and tolerating those of other people.

MANX

Manx is taught to children in Year 4 and upwards. The lessons involve learning not only about the language, but also the island’s culture and heritage. These lessons are taught by a Manx speaking teacher and occur once a week. Further opportunities to learn about their island home is encouraged through the class teaching.

If you'd like to know more about learning at Andreas, we're happy to talk. Just email andreasenquiries@sch.im and we can organise a meeting. Thank you.