South Parade Primary School

Curriculum Statement

At South Parade Primary School we believe that great learning opens doors and expands horizons. A love of learning is the greatest gift a school can bestow and should help all its children become the very best that they can be; developing a thirst for knowledge and building lifelong learning habits.

Our curriculum at South Parade has evolved in a bespoke nature, meeting the depth of requirement as well as suiting the culture, context, vision and ethos of our school.

We do not simply cover a range of content, we teach children key knowledge and skills to give them a real depth of learning that sticks in their long term memory.

Each of our curriculum schemes of learning have been carefully selected or designed to ensure that our children have a rich and varied curriculum where key knowledge is identified and taught, ensuring this 'sticks' in their long term memory.

We have worked together to create our SOUTH PARADE WAY. This is a document that we continually tweak and add to, ensuring that we have a consistent approach to all aspects of teaching and learning and that both pupils and staff know exactly what our expectations are. 

At the heart of our curriculum are our key drivers:

• Lifelong learning
• Eco-learning
• Community

Lifelong learning – we are proud to have been the launch school for Wakefield as part of the national Primary Futures programme. We hold an annual Aspirations week where children are exposed to a wide range of careers, focusing on their skill set and giving options for their futures. We regularly have volunteers in from the world of work whether from our local community or further afield. This culture of lifelong learning is embedded within our curriculum with children enjoying our weekly Primary Futures afternoons. Our curriculum units link in with job aspirations for our children’s futures to help children think about the world of work from a young age. It shows children what careers are out there and the skills they'll need to leave a positive footprint wherever they go in life. It's also about building their self-belief, their resilience, recognising their qualities and how they could be used in the workplace. In Wakefield 17.5% of households have no adults over 18 in employment. Job aspirations and skills for employment therefore need to be integral within our curriculum offer to help towards improving this on a local level.

All staff will seek out relevant and meaningful opportunities to develop pupils’ social, moral, cultural and spiritual understanding and British Values when teaching all subjects. We teach children to be respectful of each other in every way and operate a fully inclusive ethos where diversity is accepted by all.

We are fully committed to getting our children immersed in current, topical issues. This includes keeping them up to date with what is going on in the world around them, involving them in weekly whole school debates in our Picture News assemblies or other relevant discussions around British Values or current concerns or celebrations locally. Our School councillors have a very clear voice in school and support us to drive our school aims.

Our focus on eco-learning promotes a culture where children promote care towards our environment and our planet. We have Eco Warriors who run our Walk to School incentive and help ensure we ‘do our bit’ to help keep our planet and community safe.

We are always seeking out opportunities to be involved in our local community. We are part of the Education Ossett Community Trust (EOCT) where children unite in activities such as sports events, choir, Big Build (with local engineers), book clubs/awards and pen pal projects and we have links with many local businesses such as Sainsburys and WHSmith.

Our foundation subject lessons are structured to ensure children build on and are able to retrieve knowledge from their long term memory. 

Lessons begin with a Rapid Re-cap revisiting crucial prior knowledge. Children are introduced to carefully selected (tier 2 & 3) vocabulary and lessons conclude with a review to recap sticky knowledge gained throughout the lesson. 

 Specifically, our 'knowledge rich' subjects, Science, History and Geography, have knowledge organisers for each unit. There is also an end of term curriculum quiz in the style of 'The Chase' which teachers re-visit throughout to ensure that children retain sticky knowledge. 

Curriculum Intent

Throughout our curriculum, we offer rich and vibrant opportunities which draw upon meaningful real-life experiences. The curriculum is designed to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND and it is ambitious for all learners with the intention that no child is left behind.  Knowledge, skills and concepts are clearly outlined in an age-appropriate and progressive way from when they enter our school, through to when they leave us in Y6, so that the children’s understanding and knowledge is deepened and extended, year upon year. Our Pupil Premium Strategy ensures that all children have great opportunities and experiences to develop their cultural capital and we have reading and vocabulary very high on our agenda with a clear ‘whatever it takes’ approach to becoming a fluent reader as quickly as possible.

Curriculum Implementation

Our key drivers thread their way through all aspects of our curriculum.

In English, pupils at our school will be supported to become articulate individuals, with oracy and vocabulary being high on our agenda. Reading through our Little Wandle programme takes priority and staff continually promote pupils to read widely from a great range of books we offer – children like to share their book interests.

Maths is taught in daily lessons and is based around the White Rose Maths approach alongside a range of other resources. Pupils in Reception, Y1 and Y2 all have a Mastery approach to maths where they grasp a real understanding of number – for example the ‘fiveness’ of five. Children develop fluency in number and then apply this to help them become confident at reasoning. We believe that children’s chances of success are maximised if they develop deep and lasting understanding of mathematical procedures and concepts.

Children benefit from meaningful and memorable learning across the curriculum, with highly skilled subject leaders overseeing, monitoring and supporting the sequence of teaching across our curriculum. Teachers are passionate about the subjects they lead and work hard to share that passion with children and staff – constantly looking at the latest research or incentives to help out pupils become the best possible masters of their subjects.

Curriculum Impact

Children’s subject books showcase the learning journey they have been on. Children remember more which is evident through our rapid recall sessions, popular class quizzes to check understanding and through our threads and curriculum links which we plan to help our pupils build on knowledge over time.

We foster hard working learning attitudes at South Parade encouraging all children to be intrinsically motivated to do well, with SEND children achieving the best possible outcomes. As a result, our pupils achieve well and leave us as young individuals who are equipped for the next stage of their education and with aspirations for their futures. Children talk about their learning and time at South Parade and are proud to be a pupil here.

Cultural Capital

At South Parade we are committed to ensuring that all pupils have a wide range of experiences to maximise their cultural capital. We have produced a professionally printed leaflet to showcase our highlights. 

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