Curriculum Overview at Joydens Wood Junior School

What is the Curriculum at JWJS?

Our vision is to provide inspirational learning experiences that will ignite sparks within the children and enable them to develop as confident, articulate and happy individuals who achieve academic excellence.

We have taken great care to design our curriculum to achieve our vision and ensure that our values underpin it. The curriculum is all the planned activities that we organise in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. It includes not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also the range of extra-curricular activities that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of the children at Joydens Wood Junior School. It also includes the ‘hidden curriculum’, or what the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave. 

Curriculum Intent

Joydens Wood Junior School’s curriculum meets the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum and is designed to reflect the needs of our school and its community. We re-designed our curriculum in 2019 to become an Experience Curriculum. We teach the children through a number of experiences over the year, which develop the children’s natural inquisitiveness and excitement. We aim to involve the local community in as many experiences as possible with parents/grandparents etc. involved in tea parties, art exhibitions and documentary presentations.

Our Curriculum has been designed in a way that reflects our own agreed pedagogy. Our reasons and beliefs for its design include:

• We believe it reflects our cultural capital of providing our pupils learning opportunities that develop their resilience and hook them into their learning.
• It equips pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Our understanding of ‘knowledge and cultural capital’ is derived from the following wording in the national curriculum: ‘It is the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.’
• We plan our curriculum in a way that we feel gives the children a fluid curriculum that alternates between different areas of the National Curriculum.
• We believe by having a set time allocated for each area of the curriculum ensures that our children are stimulated and engaged with their learning and school life.
• We want our children to be motivated and excited about coming to school as well as feeling that they belong here.
• We also want our teachers to feel empowered and excited with the range of topics and skills they are sharing with our children. We want them to take ownership and feel that what we are teaching does engage the children.
• By planning our curriculum in this manner, we believe our children will be able to link learning across the curriculum and build upon knowledge and skills they have gained in previous learning opportunities.
• We also aim to ensure that skills taught are transferable across all areas of school life and that our curriculum reduces barriers to learning so all children are included to enjoy it.

Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum is planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and towards its clearly defined end points. Our aim is to provide the knowledge and skills that pupils need in order to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Promoting enjoyment of reading and a love of books also underpins our curriculum and the use of exciting and stimulating texts is a key feature across school. We ensure that we deliver a broad and balanced curriculum using appropriate resources including appropriate texts that we believe lead teachers to champion diversity and equality and challenge disadvantage and stereotyping.

The school sets a long-term plan, which lays out how each year group covers the national curriculum. Each foundation subject feeds into the learning and is woven together to allow for cross-curricular links where possible.

Within medium-term plans, the national curriculum objectives are covered and show how the children are engaged in a lesson-by-lesson case with learning activities and opportunities planned.  Prior learning, intended outcomes and key vocabulary is also listed on these.  

The school has a range of resources on offer to support the delivery of the curriculum and the budget set for this is determined by the Trust with the senior leadership team on a yearly basis.

Provision for the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development of our children is embedded across the curriculum with many opportunities for the children to experience the different aspects of this important area. Our varied programme of enrichment activities make a significant contribution to this. Provision is also made within the curriculum for the personal development of the children that includes the important areas of health and emotional wellbeing.

Collective Worship is a time when the children gather to reflect upon aspects of the world and their lives that we believe need consideration. Collective Worship is broadly Christian in nature and has a well-planned balance of themes, often linked to our School Values. It may be a time of quiet reflection or a celebration of good work and behaviour. This is also an opportunity to explore current local, national and international events. Celebration Assemblies take place on Fridays and these are a time to celebrate the children’s achievements. Individual classes lead an assembly annually to share their learning with their parents/carers. During the assemblies we place a high value on music and children routinely sing as part of our acts of worship. Other assemblies through the school week include book assemblies where we share with the children to drive our passion for the love of reading.

 Homework is set to enhance the learning that is done in school as well as providing an opportunity for the children to investigate, research and present their learning in a way that they want to. In addition, we hope that all the parents will be involved with their children’s learning. They are intended to both enhance and reinforce the work carried out at school and develop the skills of independence and resilience. We believe that homework set in the context of a positive partnership between school and home makes an important contribution to a child’s progress at school.

Curriculum Impact

 We aim to ensure that the curriculum is exciting and challenging and reflects and nurtures children’s interests and needs and celebrate traditions that are important to our community. Links between subjects are made to ensure an engaging and relevant context within which to learn. We strive to create and provide opportunities for the children to develop their creativity and imagination; promoting new interests and an awareness of the wider world. We are fully committed to teaching the vital life skills children need in order to be safe and happy in and out of school.

Assessment in all subject areas is managed by the class teacher and is recorded through and at the end of a unit of work as to whether the child has achieved specific National Curriculum objectives relating to that unit. This judgement is based on either formative and/or summative assessments that take place. At the end of each term our children will undertake a pupil survey to feedback to class teachers and subject leaders their thoughts and feelings as well as their understanding.

We also measure the impact that our curriculum has based on the results of National Assessments for the end of Key Stage Two. The results of these are then used to inform planning for the following academic year.

Inclusion

Teachers set high expectations for every pupil. They plan challenging work for pupils whose attainment is significantly above the expected standard. They have an even greater obligation to plan lessons for pupils who have low levels of prior attainment or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Teachers use appropriate assessment to set targets which are deliberately ambitious.

The curriculum in our school is designed to provide access and opportunity for all children who attend the school. If we think it necessary to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of individual children, then we do so in consultation with the child’s parents.

If a child has a special educational need or disability, our school does all it can to meet these individual needs. Our provision complies with the requirements set out in the SEND Code of Practice [2014]. In most instances, if a concern arises suggesting that a child may have special educational needs, the teacher is able to provide resources and educational opportunities which meet these needs within the normal class organisation.

Further information can be found in our statement of equality information and objectives, and in our SEND policy and information report.