Curriculum
Our Curriculum – The Felix Way!
At Felix Primary School we believe in providing a world class education locally enabling every child to flourish in line with Sapientia Education Trust.
We have three rules:
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Ready
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Respectful
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Safe
We have three values upon which we pin our experiences we provide every day:
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Achievement
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Resilience
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Kindness
These rules and values are threaded through our curriculum and assemblies. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our students is of utmost importance and will be taught through our PSHE curriculum and assemblies.
Achievement is success! We believe all children should be have the opportunity to achieve to the best of their ability in the curriculum subjects as well as in other areas of their lives.
Resilience is a trait which is needed in order for anyone to achieve. Learning and making progress has its challenges and we aim to build resilience in our pupils so they are able to face challenges and conquer them.
We believe kindness is of paramount importance, and that everyone should be treated with compassion, respect and empathy. This will be explicitly taught through our curriculum and through our enrichment activities.
Through our values, we strive for children to be able to express themselves fluently and confidently whilst showing kindness for others.
Our curriculum is carefully designed to be broad and balanced and carefully sequenced in order to build on the knowledge and skills of every child through each Key Stage. It recognises the needs of individuals and enables them to make progress, whatever their starting point, to enable academic success so they have the learning knowledge and behaviours in order to flourish at high school and beyond. In EYFS, the ‘building blocks of knowledge’ are provided to prepare children for the statutory requirements in Key Stage 1. We have some mixed year groups at Felix and our curriculum is planned to meet the needs of the children in the mixed-age classes by mapping learning objectives and content in line with government guidance.
Our aspiration is for all children to develop a life-long love of learning which will, in turn, enable them to be successful adults.
Enrichment
At Felix, we want our children to have rich experiences which support them to become responsible citizens as well as successful learners. Our enrichment programme is filled with exciting and engaging activities which introduce the wider world to all our pupils. These enrichment activities take different forms from learning a musical instrument to watching a performance, from visiting a historic site to meeting representatives from different careers. They are built in each subject carefully to ensure breadth of experience for our pupils across their time with us.
20 things to do before leaving Felix:
· Represent the school at a sporting event
· Take part in a variety of after school clubs
· Take part in a school performance
· Raise money for a charity
· Listen to a variety of live performances
· Experience a range of music and instruments
· Take part in school and local competitions
· Take part in a variety of sports including swimming, tennis, and football
· Take part in activities with your parents at school
· Visit a historical place
· Attend a Summer Fayre
· Make decisions and offer suggestions on school improvement
· Try new foods at lunchtimes and in the curriculum time
· Make at least one new friend each year
· Travel on public transport – bus, train, boat
· Visit the beach
· Post a letter
· Attend a residential
· Have at least 5 positive things to say about yourself
· Take on a role of responsibility, within your classroom or the whole school
The Felix Way – Our Lesson Structure
In our lessons we use a 5 part lesson structure when delivering lessons. These are supported by four core wrap-around elements within our context at Felix Primary School that support our lesson delivery.
Connection
Knowledge is best transferred to our long term memory by repetition and reviewing regularly. Each lesson begins with a short review of previous learning helping knowledge to stick and enabling children to make connections with the new learning. Here, staff can address gaps and misconceptions in knowledge, students are empowered to know more and remember more.
Vocabulary
A developed vocabulary improves the ability to understand, communicate and think critically. Each lesson, time is set aside to explicitly teach key subject vocabulary to enable pupils to gain a deeper understanding of the learning on offer.
Teach - I do, we do, you do
New information is best learnt in small chunks to avoid cognitive overload. For each step the teacher models the learning and skills being taught – I do. Next carefully scaffolded activities enable the pupils to work alongside the teacher for guided practice – we do. This enables secure assessment for learning where the teachers can determine understanding of the pupils and what more support that may need. Finally, once the pupils have grasped an understanding, they complete a task independently applying the newly learnt knowledge whilst the teacher oversees and continues to assess – you do.
Application - independent
When pupils are secure with the newly learnt knowledge, they apply this to different learning tasks and challenges working independently. Close monitoring of this independent practice provides teachers with opportunities to respond to individual needs of pupils.
Plenary
Each lesson ends with a plenary where new learning is summarised. This allows students to identify and reflect on what has been learned during that lesson encouraging them to become reflective learners. This process of recapping and reflections supports the movement of knowledge into the long term memory. Assessment for learning is used by staff to determine whether further practice is needed here or if a new challenge can be introduced.
Our four core wrap-around elements
Behaviour for learning
To enable effective teaching and learning, staff have high expectations for pupil behaviour. At Felix, we follow the Norfolk Steps Approach where we understand that all behaviour is communication. Staff use many positive strategies to ensure a positive and calm atmosphere and safe learning environment. The school behaviour policy outlines the rewards and consequences used.
Assessment for learning
At Felix, we recognise that teaching and learning is complex; we need to be responsive to the individual neds of the pupils. Thus, teachers should embed a variety of formative assessment strategies into lessons to gauge progress towards the learning objective and adapt the lesson or sequence of lessons to address misconceptions.
SEND
At Felix, we have a higher than national average intake of pupils with SEND and we recognise the barriers these pupils can face. All pupils on the SEND record have an individual teaching plan based on their needs and staff use these to plan for individual need within the classroom.
Absence
Absence is a local and national concern in education. Our staff carefully consider how to cater for students who have been absent by using a range of strategies to ensure they can catch-up and confidently engage with learning again on their return.
For further information on Felix Primary School's curriculum offer, please contact the school office at: office@felixprimaryschool.org
