Kirk Smeaton CE Primary Curriculum

At Kirk Smeaton we are dedicated in developing an enjoyable and varied curriculum.  Our Curriculum is the beating heart of our school day.  Please see the curriculum areas for more information on each subject. 

Our curriculum has a clear purpose, an intent.

Intent - What are we trying to achieve here with, and through, the curriculum?  

We, staff and students, are trying to foster life-long learning behaviours at Kirk Smeaton CE Primary School through: independence, choice, collaboration and personal discovery.

Implementation - So, how are we going to deliver this?   We have the National Curriculum, which we use as a starting point, and embellish and deepen further as a school but at the heart of this is children being exposed to quality experiences and lessons with a large element of choice and need for independent thinking.  Pre-learning homework sets this up, often weeks ahead, and children are immersed into experiences with visits or off timetable days of discovery.   

Impact - What difference is this curriculum making to our children?  We place emphasis on all  learners at the centre of curriculum and makes teachers think "What will the experience be for the children and how can we make the absolute most of each element?". We promote learners making both group and personal connections with the content due to having genuine freedom of expression.  It is beginning to produce children who must and can, think for themselves, be resilient and face challenges with strategies to overcome and progress.  It is where we can blend both practical skills and worldy knowledge in a meaningful structure.

Our teaching staff are committed to teaching children vital skills and necessary knowledge from the National Curriculum but allowing them to express and evidence their learning in formats and means that suit their individuality – playing to their individual strengths.

The culture of learning together is a promoted and exemplified by staff and we are proud to be growing children who are remembering how to question learning, to self organise and to take calculated risks within safe boundaries – to take themselves and their learning to new and exciting places.

We use adaptive teaching to ensure that all children have the same opportunities to access work, but with support that is required for them.  Please see the adaptive teaching policy below.

Some of the areas we teach...

Languages- we teach French throughout R-Y6. We have two French specialists who deliver weekly French session to all classes.

Art- we love to express ourselves through art, we have lots of art lessons and often subjects such as Literacy and RE to develop artistic designs and drawings.  We have art exhibitions regularly to showcase the art we do to stakeholders. 

Science- we teach Science weekly and depending on the topic we have Science weeks. We have been involved in the STEM project, so all staff have had recent training.

Geography and History- we love to teach lots of geography skills within all our lessons and wherever possible we like to add curriculum subjects such as History and Geography within our Literacy planning.  We read lots of non fiction texts which give Historical information too.

IT- we have lots of different technology which we have developed over the years.  We have IPADs and laptops and staff have had training to use them.  We like to use technology in every lesson.  We teach a range of skills such as typing, editing, saving, Microsoft programs, apps and coding. 

PE- PE is taught at least two hours per week, we do the golden mile throughout the week too. We have lots of playing equipment at play times, the children are encouraged to run, dance, sing and be happy.  We work with the local Doncaster schools and have termly competitions.  We are very fortunate to have Mrs Jenkinson  from Campsmount High School each week, who teaches the skills needed for the competitions each class is entered for.

Drama- We teach drama through Literacy as well as in collective worship with the weekly whoosh. Each class share a show too.  Reception and Y1/2 showcase a Christmas Nativity, Y3/4 share a play at Easter, this is usually related to the bible stories and Y5/6 share a end of year play. 

Music-  We have a music teacher who comes fortnightly to deliver music teaching.  Mrs Vizard also supports our school choir.  We have weekly singing sessions  that are incorporated into collective worship. Where possible we offer wider opportunities to come and tutor guitar, piano, brass instruments too.

RE- we are committed to our Church Ethos, we teach RE through a range of medias and all staff support and deliver the RE curriculum.  We have collective worship daily which incorporates drama, child led praise and our vicar to support us in prayer. 

Forest schools- we promote the outdoors in all lessons, we often go outside for drama, maths, art etc.   At Kirk Smeaton we have invested in a Forest schools teacher, Ms Wolff.  Ms Wolff comes to us each week and takes groups of children to work on team building and life skills.