Our Curriculum

We are a happy, inclusive school where everyone is valued. Through learning that is creative, rich and full of opportunities, we aspire to develop a love for learning rooted in Christian values. We encourage children to follow their dreams and have the confidence to be the best they can be. Our Core Values that we live and breathe every day are: TRUST, RESPECT, HOPE, RESILIENCE, KINDNESS and JOY.

If you cannot find what you need on any of our curriculum pages please let us know.

Curriculum Drivers at Dundry Primary School

• Our curriculum is driven by an ambition to broaden our children’s cultural capital, opening up the world to their inquisitive minds.
• Our curriculum aims to inspire our children and is enriched through making links, visitors, visits, experiences and opportunities.
• Our curriculum centres on developing our children’s use of and understanding of the English language, with explicit and deliberate opportunities to develop spoken language, vocabulary acquisition and the study of high quality texts. Reading for Learning is central to our curriculum; Reading for Pleasure is central to our ethos.
• Our curriculum is underpinned by meta-cognition. We teach our children how to learn and how to be independent, curious and resilient learners. We have a progressive curriculum that enables children to use higher order thinking skills to learn more deeply. We do this through our Dundry Learning Powers which teach children to be SELF MANAGERS (‘TORTOISE’), TEAM WORKERS (‘BEE’), CREATIVE THINKERS (‘SPIDER’), INDEPENDENT ENQUIRERS (‘CAT’), REFLECTIVE LEARNERS (‘OWL’).

Intent (What do we intend our children to learn?)

Our intention is to create and implement a curriculum for our pupils that introduces a range of key concepts, in ways which enable learners to build them into reliable schemata. We are ambitious for our learners and measure the impact of what we do, using agreed principles of assessment. We regard the proper use of assessment as a key teaching and learning tool, and place it firmly at the heart of our practice. 

Implementation (How is our curriculum being delivered?)

We plan a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum rooted in the National Curriculum and Early Years Framework that enables children to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding over a series of lessons.  We make meaningful connections across the curriculum, enabling children to recognise links across and between subjects and to develop their understanding of the world in which we live. Our subject specific planning helps us to focus on the most important and useful knowledge in each subject and ensure children learn the disciplines and skills associated with that subject. 

Wider Curriculum

We recognise the importance of all areas of the curriculum, which are planned for over a 2-year planning cycle due to our mixed aged-classes. Each curriculum subject has a long term progression document. This sets out the aims and purposes of the subject; the breadth of study for each year group; the ‘Big Ideas’ (threshold concepts) and how these build from the earliest experience in the Early Years up to Year 6; the key vocabulary that must be learnt to support those threshold concepts; the milestones to reach on that learning journey; and the activities teachers may use to assess children’s progress towards those milestones. These long term plans ensure progression which can be monitored by subject leaders. Our Knowledge Organisers, based on the progression documents, ensure each teacher has clarity as to what to cover in each unit of learning. 

The ‘big ideas’ or ‘threshold concepts’ are domain specific concepts which open up new ways of thinking about the subjects and help pupils to link new knowledge and commit it to their long term memories. We consider this to be the most powerful knowledge in each subject domain. Threshold concepts are the key disciplinary aspects of each subject. They are chosen to build conceptual understanding within subjects and are repeated many times in each unit and across the subject area. These concepts help teachers to present new information clearly and build on what has been taught before.

Teachers plan the vocabulary that the children will be taught so that it is extended at every stage of their primary journey with opportunities to ask questions and talk about their learning. It is understood that through developing vocabulary children are better able to acquire and deepen their knowledge. 

There are frequent opportunities for children to practice, remember and retrieve knowledge through ‘no stakes’ quizzes, regular repetition, plenaries in lessons and practice. Teachers use knowledge gained through this regular assessment as part of their teach-do-review cycle. At the end of a unit of learning, teachers will use the milestones to gauge children’s depth of knowledge in that unit, using this assessment to plan next steps in learning.

Assessment, review and evaluation informs next steps in planning, therefore there may be some changes in the Long Term Plans over the 2 year period. These are detailed in class teacher’s plans.

These overviews tell you what unit children in each year group are learning each term. More details about each unit can be found by visiting our subject-specific curriculum pages.

Cycle A_ Dundry Long Term Overview 21-22

Cycle B_ Dundry Long Term Overview 22-23

Personal Development

Opportunities to enrich, extend and develop our children’s personal development are woven into everyday life and our curriculum. These are mapped out in our Personal Development Timetable. This is a working document as opportunities for personal development change all the time so please speak to your child’s class teacher if you have any questions about upcoming trips, visitors or enrichment opportunities.

Personal Development Timetable Dundry 22-23.docx

Personal Development Timetable Dundry 21-22.docx

English

Writing is taught using a highly structured and expertly modelled approach, enhancing the school’s teaching of vocabulary through meaningful writing opportunities. This approach is called ‘Write Stuff’. Every ‘Write Stuff’ piece of writing is based on a high quality text and has a clear audience and purpose. Opportunities for spelling, grammar and punctuation learning are woven into the Write Stuff lessons. Further writing opportunities are planned that link to the wider curriculum whilst maintaining a focus on high quality modelling of sentence structure, appropriate voice and vocabulary. Reading is taught using a range of whole class and group strategies. Children are taught the skills required to retrieve, infer and comment on choices in texts. Each child must also have a personal reading book at their own level. Classes read whole texts together to further foster a love of reading for pleasure. Phonics is taught from the Early Years using Little Wandle. Phonics is taught daily in the Early Years and Year 1 and spellings is taught from Year 2. Speaking and listening opportunities are planned frequently and, where appropriate, will involve links with performances / outside theatre groups. 

Mathematics

Mathematics is taught using a mastery approach with a strong focus on the use of CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) to support children’s understanding of mathematical concepts. There is a strong focus on children learning number facts including multiplication tables. The Calculations Policy ensures that children are taught the 4 operations using appropriate models and images, progressing to become proficient mathematicians who are confident in manipulating numbers. There is a strong emphasis on children learning the necessary skills and vocabulary in order to explain and reason about mathematics. Links are made between discrete ‘classroom’ mathematics skills and real life contexts. White Rose planning is followed to ensure there is full coverage of the national curriculum for mathematics whilst Numbots, Times Table Rockstars and Doodlemaths supports children in practicing their number facts and multiplication recall. 

Religious Education

We teach RE through a combination of Somerset’s ‘Awareness, Mystery and Value’ and the Church of England’s ‘Understanding Christianity’. In this way we ensure good coverage of the main religions whilst also ensuring that pupils develop their own thinking and understanding of Christianity. The long term plan has been arranged over the two year rolling programme that will use the UC headings (God, Creation, Fall, People of God, Incarnation, Gospel, Salvation, Kingdom of God) in sequence with the Anglican year (Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost)  to deliver the teaching of Christianity and Judaism. The teaching of Judaism and Christianity will be separate but sequential to allow children to understand the relationship between the faiths, the origins of Christianity and Jesus’ Jewish heritage. This narrative sequencing is repeated within the terms, echoing the UC focus on understanding the ‘big story’ of the Bible before teaching individual events. Islam, Hinduism and Humanism will then be delivered in term 6 of each year, giving these faiths dedicated time to be taught without confusion between them. Key events within the Anglican year are studied and celebrated within the Wellow community.  The curriculum is further enriched by access to quality artefacts (all religions) visitors from all faiths and external visits. Each term RE lessons give children the time, space and opportunity to reflect on their own spirituality and what it might mean to them to pray.  These lessons link to the term’s value and also our Collective Worship.

SEND

SEND children are supported to make the same progress as all other children in their core subjects, by providing them with appropriate support and guidance to support them in meeting or exceeding their targets. We have as high expectations for pupils with SEND as we do for all pupils. 

Impact (What difference will our curriculum make?)

We continue to support children in their recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. As we embed our DLPs and revised curriculum we are confident that our aims and vision for our pupils will be realised. We want our children to be happy, engaged and enthusiastic learners who strive to do their best. They will have high personal aspirations. They will have a good understanding of Christian values and how these can support them to become successful and happy citizens. Children will develop and take with them a range of life-long skills for learning. Children will have broadened their cultural experiences and deepened their knowledge, understanding and empathy for others. They will be caring and kind individuals. 

The impact of recent improvements in our curriculum can be seen in pupils’ books and while walking around school. Children can talk about their learning with enthusiasm and confidence. They show good recall of key knowledge and can make meaningful connections across units of learning. We track carefully to ensure that our children are making good progress and are fulfilling their potential. We expect to see this reflected in future national assessments.

Our subject leaders will check the impact of our curriculum  through pupil conferencing and work sampling. We anticipate that as we embed our new long term plans and knowledge organisers that children will reach each milestone, demonstrating sustained mastery of the content. Some children will demonstrate a greater depth of mastery.