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Key stage one
Our Key Stage 1 Curriculum builds upon the firm foundations made in our Early Years Foundation Stage.
Last day of school term: Friday, 19th July (at normal time)
Return to school: Tuesday, 3rd September (Yr1 to Yr6) / Monday, 9th September (Nursery and Reception)
English
We strongly believe that alongside language development, reading is key to pupils successfully accessing the curriculum and making good progress.
We develop a love of reading in our children, whether for pleasure or to inform and broaden knowledge. We will emphasise the importance of books and literature (including ebooks) in enabling children to become confident, happy and enthusiastic readers and writers, with all the benefits this brings.
In EYFS and Key Stage 1, phonics is taught using a structured and creative approach based on letters and sounds in preparation for the National Phonics Screening Test in the summer term in Year 1.
At Tameside Primary Academy we follow a programme called Letters and Sounds. This is a resource published by the Department for Education that supports the development of children’s speaking and listening skills as well as preparing them to become successful readers through set phonics phases.
As pupils move from into Year 1 into Year 2 and beyond, other skills such as spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG), alongside some comprehension aspects, will have discrete sessions allocated. Writing and genre types in reading will be taught through the themes.
Literacy is fully embedded into our Thematic Curriculum to provide authentic opportunities to apply knowledge and skills that children learn for a real purpose. In KS1 the purposes for writing focus on ‘Writing to Entertain’ and ‘Writing to Inform’. We have inspirational writing opportunities interwoven to our themes and pupils get a chance to develop their literacy skills across all aspects of the curriculum.
Mathematics
Our aim in KS1 is to lay the foundations to equip all pupils with the skills and confidence to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, to reason mathematically and to have the ability to solve increasingly sophisticated problems as outlined in the 2014 National Curriculum programmes of study.
We increase confidence and deepen understanding in KS1 with an emphasis on building a solid foundation for all pupils. Research suggests that once children fall behind, they continue to do so throughout their education. Our curriculum is therefore designed to allow pupils to learn concepts in greater depth (mastery approach). This means designing sequences of lessons that enable pupils to demonstrate not just that they have superficial knowledge of a concept, but that they can apply that knowledge in different situations and can make links between different areas of mathematics.
Children’s understanding and fluency in mathematics is strengthened if they experience concrete and pictorial representations of a concept during a lesson. Children across Key Stage 1 will use a variety of equipment such as pegs, counters, ten frames, multilink, Numicon shapes and number rods to support their learning.
We also recognise that spending a short time every day on rapid recall of number facts, such as basic number bonds to five or ten and times table facts, quickly leads to improved fluency. This is not meaningless rote learning; rather this is an important step to developing understanding through identifying patterns and relationships between the tables (for example, that the products in the 4× table are double the products in the 2× table).
Thematic - E3L Curriculum
At Tameside Primary Academy, our themes are carefully chosen to show progression through content and knowledge across the subjects, taking account of seasons across the year and the first theme of each academic year focusing on PSED, such as ‘Memory Box’, ‘Superheroes’ and ‘Street Detectives’.
A theme lasts up to half a term, and starts with an Excite experience, which are used as a hook to engage pupils and base their learning on. Our underpinning philosophy is that they learn better in context rather than studying a single subject in isolation.
Science knowledge and skills are delivered through the E3L themes, some of which are specifically science focused such as ‘Superheroes’ and ‘Wiggle and Crawl’. We also have an extra emphasis on practical science through additional practical science investigations.
All themes have within them certain key characteristics. A large piece of extended writing, time for developing reading, and a number of skills that the pupils will develop. A pupil can produce a variety of outputs such as an animated ‘Wanted Poster’ in the ‘Street Detectives’ theme in Year 1 or a recipe for a class book that will be printed in the ‘Muck, Mess and Mixtures’ theme in Year 2.
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