Our School Curriculum
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Curriculum Organisation
We have developed an ambitious, creative curriculum which includes the teaching of subject knowledge and skills. Our curriculum allows pupils the experience of a wide breadth of study and to have, by the end of each key stage, long term memory of an ambitious body of procedural (knowledge of how to perform a specific skill or task) and semantic (general) knowledge to prepare them for their next steps in education.
The curriculum we have developed is based on an annual cycle where each year is divided into three, 10 week blocks of lessons. We also have themed weeks which are often based around Christian celebrations such as Christmas and Easter, other themes may be focused on local or worldwide events such as The Tour de Yorkshire or environmental issues.
We organise our working day so that English and Maths are taught predominately in the morning. We ensure our planning covers text level work (getting to know a story/drama/writing) and Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG), Phonics and Handwriting. The units of work are largely based upon a text and wherever it is possible we link our English work to the characters and themes of the story to engage children.
In Maths we use the White Rose Schemes of Learning to ensure we use a mastery approach to our teaching. Pupils are encouraged to use apparatus, before moving to pictorial and then abstract methods of calculation. Maths is all around us and our aim is to link maths to other subjects so that pupils gain a sense of maths in everyday life.
Other subjects are taught with spaced repetition (key learning is revisited) throughout year groups and key stages, mainly during the afternoons, our content is subject specific. Continuous provision is used at various levels throughout school to provide independent new learning and provide retrieval practice for previously learned content.
When children enter school they work within the Early Years Foundation Stage and whilst in EYFS children follow the Statutory Framework, the framework Comprises of:
- Communication and language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive Arts and Design
When children move to Key Stage 1 (Year 1) they follow the National Curriculum, the National Curriculum comprises:
Three Core Subjects
- English
- Mathematics
- Science
Foundation Subjects
- History
- Geography
- Design and Technology
- Art and Design
- Music
- Physical Education
- Modern Foreign Language
- Computing
We also teach RE and PSHE to all pupils throughout school.
The curriculum at Honley is creative and relevant to an ever changing 21st Century world.
We believe the curriculum should engage children and provide opportunities through which they can apply attitudes, skills and knowledge to new situations and extend their understanding.
Our Curriculum is underpinned by our curriculum drivers: Learn, Take Notice, Give, Keep Active and Connect. The curriculum at Honley CE (VC) Junior, Infant and Nursery School stimulates, motivates and challenges our pupils to achieve their best. We aim to create conscientious, independent learners who are confident in their own beliefs and are always respectful of the views of others. We aim to develop resilient learners who are proud of themselves, recognise their achievements and are supportive of others’ success.
We believe in providing children with inspiring and engaging learning opportunities beyond the classroom, using our two school sites and community as a resource to support learning and bring learning to life in real-life contexts.
Curriculum Pages
Click on each page for details abut the subjects we teach at Honley.
Age Related Expectations
Reception Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
Phonics and Reading
We use Monster Phonics as a scheme for phonics throughout school. Monster Phonics is child-centred and improves results. Children make progress because the approach is meaningful, interactive, and easy to understand, creating high engagement. The systematic colour-coding of graphemes linked to phoneme monsters makes phonics easier to understand. Children also love the monsters, and this brings phonics to life. The activities are multisensory requiring reading, writing, singing and actions. Typically, schools that fully embed Monster Phonics increase phonics screening scores by 15% points in the first year. Studies also show a 23-month improvement in reading age over a 5-month period. These gains can be attributed to the child-centred systematic phonics teaching that underpins Monster Phonics.
All reading material is closely matched to the Monster Phonics pedagogy and phonics progression. We use a range of reading materials including: Monster Phonics, Pearson's Bug Club and Oxford Reading Tree reading books. Care is taken to align all books to the children's phonics stage enabling them to decode and feel confident and successful readers.
As children become more adept in their phonetic knowledge and skills alongside decoding skills, we ensure there are a range of texts types to engage different interests and build reading confidence, including fiction, non-fiction, comics, plays and poetry.
Children read daily in school using individual reading books, they also take part in daily guided reading lessons and all have a home reader. All pupils have reading records for parents and carers to record reading at home.
Meet the Monsters from Monster Phonics below:
