Our Curriculum

Our school curriculum aims to help each child to realise his/her maximum potential in a safe and happy environment.

Both our vision statement and the teaching of Christian values inform planning and delivery of all subjects. We have high expectations for every child.  We expect our children to be involved in setting their own targets and to work hard to discover their best ways of learning.

We follow the statutory National Curriculum and build the objectives from this curriculum into units of work for each year group. We use a range of resources when planning our curriculum and tailor these resources to meet the needs of our children. Early Years children (Reception class) follow the EYFS Statutory Framework. Everything we do is underpinned by our school motto which is to 'Grow and Shine in God's Glory'.

With faith at the heart of our curriculum at Grindleton, we will appreciate and understand the school's unique village culture and utilise the history and geography of our wonderful environment.

We will prepare our children through memorable experiences for their role, in an ever changing society.

As we continue to develop the curriculum, ‘Pupil Voice’ will be fundamental to our developments as we review with children and staff, the topics they have enjoyed learning through and what/how they would like to learn in the future.

Our Curriculum Intent Statement

Our school Christian vision statement, Motto and Christian values are at the heart of our curriculum intent statement and everything we do at Grindleton Church of England Primary School:

As a unique village school, inspired by our Christian love, we strive to nurture our family to ‘Grow and Shine in God's Glory’.  We will open our hearts to God’s wonderful, diverse creation cherishing everyone as a child of God. Through Jesus’ example, we will instill resilience and confidence for tomorrow.

We are a very small, friendly rural Primary School (including Nursery) with a welcoming family feel. We work closely with families, friends and members of the parish and wider community to confident, secure individuals who enjoy being part of this close-knit school family.

Our aim is to ensure the curriculum is tailored to the needs of our pupils, is ambitious, that it stretches the children from their comfort zone and provides all our children with a love of learning and the knowledge, experiences and cultural capital they need to succeed in the modern world.

Our school is committed to ensuring that the curriculum is broad and balanced, in order that the needs of all the children are provided for, whatever their needs, gifts or talents. We will provide a curriculum that offers exciting, challenging and stimulating opportunities in a vibrant environment, enriched by visits and visitors linked closely to the topic we are studying. Visits and visitors change year on year depending on the topics being taught.

However, some of our experiences, visits and visitors are regular, for example:

• Engaging and educational before and after school clubs
• Peripatetic music lessons
• ProSport & Sportscool club
• Authors
• Year 5/6 Residential visit to Lower Bank Ground Outdoor Activity Centre in Coniston, Cumbria
• Links with Bolton-by-Bowland CE Primary School
• The Hyndburn & Ribble Valley Sports Partnership
• Life Education caravan
• Governors and parishioners
• Book fairs

We aim to nurture children so they can plan tasks independently and reflect on their success. Children who can engage and talk about their learning are children who are not afraid to make a mistake. We make provision for academic achievement and spiritual, moral, cultural, physical and creative development whilst being underpinned by British Values.

Children will be encouraged to become

• Respectful, with love for one another and who embrace the differences in modern society regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation
• Ambassadors for looking after the environment
• Confident in the basic skills of English, Maths and ICT
• Able to work independently and collaboratively
• Aware that learning is a lifelong process and there is always room for improvement
• Enquiring, through questioning, investigating and reasoning
• Engaged in physical activities that enable them to enjoy and make the best use of their time both in and out of school
• Knowledgeable about the world in which they live

All children follow the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum for Key Stages One and Two. All pupils, no matter what ability they are, are ensured quality access to the whole curriculum where knowledge is cumulative, prior learning is built upon in a sequence of learning that ensures sufficient knowledge and skills are gained for future life. This gives the opportunity for all pupils to learn effectively, make good progress and attain levels at least in line with, but ideally better than, their prior attainment. As a team of teachers and support staff, challenging targets are set in order to help pupils achieve this.

The school ensure all children have access to the Blackburn Diocese Syllabus for Religious Education, ‘Questful RE’, that develops an enquiry based approach to the way Religious Education is taught. It embraces the explicit teaching of Christian concepts and together with the supporting resource ‘Understanding Christianity’ which explores God’s big Salvation story, both give a deeper understanding of Christianity and other leading world faiths. Through an open investigative enquiry approach, the pupils will be given the sense of being on a quest of discovery.

A love of reading will be at the centre of all we do. Reading books on offer in EYFS and KS1 are linked closely to the phonics knowledge children are taught when learning to read.

Reading will continue throughout and across the curriculum ensuring children access appropriate vocabulary related to the topic, their age and their ability. This can then be used in their own speech and writing across the whole curriculum.

Each teacher makes sensitive links between subjects that make the learning more cohesive for the children. Learning is therefore strengthened by allowing children to revisit concepts and understanding in meaningful contexts. The whole staff work together to plan ‘themes’ under which they deliver the linked subjects. Although the skills progression remains the same (subject to curriculum review), the themes change to reflect the interests of the particular class or particular events in the calendar.

We want all children to leave Grindleton with a range of skills and knowledge that equip them for the next stage of their lives. They will have had the opportunity to access a range of learning experiences, met aspirational people and visited places that will inspire them as to the way they want their lives to take shape. With our Christian faith being the golden thread that holds together all we do, children will have grown wholly and become the best they can be.

Curriculum Support

Grindleton Primary School prides itself in being very inclusive and will endeavour to support every child regardless of their level of need.  All pupils follow the National Curriculum at a level and a pace that is appropriate to their abilities. At times, when it is felt appropriate, modifications to the curriculum will be implemented in line with The Children’s and Families Act 2014 and the Equality Act 2010.

To successfully match pupils’ ability to the curriculum there are some actions we take to achieve this:

• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities.
• Help all pupils achieve to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
• Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is appropriate to their needs.
• Strive to develop confidence and improve learners’ self-esteem.
• Work in partnership with parents/ carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities.
• Identify at the earliest opportunity, all children that need special consideration to support their needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional)
• Make suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
• Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
• Promote self-worth and enthusiasm by encouraging independence at all age and ability levels.
• Give every child the entitlement to a sense of achievement.
• Regularly review our policies and procedures in order to achieve best practice.

At Grindleton, we believe in participation and progress for all. We aim to create an inclusive culture in our school and value high quality teaching for all learners.

We understand that children learn and develop in different ways. Teachers and teaching assistants recognise this and use different teaching styles, resources and adapt work in the classroom to cater for the various ways children learn. The majority of children in our school will receive support through good quality teaching in the classroom (Quality First Teaching).

However we are mindful that some children, at some time in their school life, may need extra help and support in a variety of different ways. If staff feel that a child’s needs cannot be met through quality first teaching alone, then additional support or intervention may be put into place to compliment the curriculum and enhance access. This is monitored regularly and adjusted as necessary.

Each learner identified as having SEN is entitled to support that is ‘additional to or different from’ a normal differentiated curriculum. The type of support is dependent on the individual learning needs and is intended to enable access to learning and overcome the barrier to learning identified.

The waves of intervention model describes how different levels of intervention can be used to facilitate learning.

 Wave 1 Quality First Teaching

This is about what should be on offer for all children: the effective inclusion of all pupils in high-quality everyday personalised teaching. This could include:

• Adapted work to meet pupils’ needs
• High expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils
• Good subject and curriculum knowledge
• Well-structured lessons
• Adapting teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils
• Behaviour managed effectively to ensure a positive and safe learning environment which promotes progress
• Deploying support staff effectively.

Wave 2 Interventions

Where children need additional support, they may be given some Wave 2 intervention to help them ‘catch up’ with their peers or prevent a gap from appearing or increasing. Wave 2 interventions are often targeted at a group of pupils with similar needs. These are monitored for each class using the class provision map. 

Wave 2 interventions may include:

• Handwriting interventions as a small group
• Phonics catch up groups
• Social skills or nurture groups
• Motor skills groups
• Speech & Language groups
• Maths intervention e.g. pre-learning activities surrounding vocabulary or strategies to apply in lessons
• Reading comprehension small group interventions
• Targeted spelling interventions in a small group
• Stretching a sentence work or sentence structure targeted small group support

Wave 3 interventions

If pupils continue to make inadequate progress, despite high-quality teaching targeted at their areas of weakness, the class teacher, with support from the SENCO , should assess whether a pupil has a significant learning difficulty, which may require highly- tailored interventions. This may include specialist or individualised provision.

Accessibility

Current good practice: Increasing the extent to which pupils with SEN can participate in the school curriculum.

Grindleton has close working relationships with other professionals in order to ensure that a pupil's provision is meeting their individual needs. Multi-agency meetings with parents and all professionals involved in supporting the child  take place to facilitate the best support possible. The school SEN policy ensures that staff identify, assess and arrange suitable provision for pupils with special educational needs and / or disability. Working with the LCC SEND team, outreach services, health professionals and Educational Psychology Service, the SENCo manages the Statutory Assessment process, ensuring additional resources, including staffing, are allocated where appropriate through additional top-up funding. The school works closely with specialist services including:

• Advisory Teacher for Hearing Impaired
• Advisory Teacher for Visual Impairment
• Occupational Therapists/Physiotherapists
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Local specialist provision
• Educational Psychology Service
• LCC SEND Team specialist teachers
• CAMHS
• GPs and paediatricians
• School Nurse Team
• Counselling
• Other advisory services and charities