The school curriculum includes all of those activities which are planned to promote the development of pupils and to prepare them for the responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
The Education Act 1996 requires that all maintained schools provide a balanced and broadly based curriculum that:
Provides the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society.
Prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
To achieve these requirements, the school follows a national framework, which incorporates the National Curriculum, Religious Education and other statutory requirements.
The National Curriculum secures, for all pupils, an entitlement to a number of areas of learning to develop knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes necessary for their self-fulfilment and development as active and responsible citizens.
It also makes expectations for learning and attainment and establishes national standards for the performance of pupils.
We aim to achieve this through a program of lessons using a variety of teaching styles and also many cross-curricular activities. In our school much of the learning is achieved through activity and experience, which is carefully planned to challenge and extend children.
However, the curriculum itself does not remain static. We are responsive to changes and we regularly reappraise our teaching in response to the changing needs of our pupils and society.
While the following curriculum summaries give an outline of the main areas of learning, more details are available in the school subject policy documents.
There are 3 stages to the Curriculum at our school:
FOUNDATION STAGE
(Children in the Reception, YR)
KEY STAGE 1
(Children in Years 1 and 2)
KEY STAGE 2
(Children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6)
LITERACY
The Importance of Reading
At Weston Park we believe that developing reading skills is an essential part of children’s education. Research suggests that children who read for pleasure are more likely to achieve at school. To this aim we encourage reading of a variety of materials.
Comics Newspapers Web pages Picture books Fiction books Leaflets Recipes Non- fiction books Magazines and many other materials…
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Reading projects at Weston Park
Reading Connects
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We are in the process of applying to become a ‘Reading Connects School.’
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‘Reading Connect Schools’ are schools that promote and develop reading.
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Schools participating in the project, receive a logo for use on school materials that indicates their status as a reading school, and ongoing support in developing reading from Reading Connects.
Read a Million Words
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We are involved in the Read a Million Words project.
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Read a Million Words is a Bristol wide project that encourages and motivates children to read.
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Read a Million Words runs competitions throughout the year to encourage reading as well as Radio workshops and GWR Breakfast shows.
Each child is given a Millionaire's Passport and becomes a Word Millionaire when they have read a million words. Names are published on the read a million words website, as well as competition details
www.readamillionwords.org.uk
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What’s happening at the moment?
October 2005
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Launch of Read a Million Words
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Introduction of Superhero Competition
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Introduction of Aladdin Competition
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Add a comic to the library launch
November 2005
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‘Catch Me Reading’ week: Can children catch adults in the school reading and take their picture?
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‘Catch Me Reading’ launch for children. Every child caught reading will receive a raffle ticket for the monthly draw.
What’s coming up?
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Radio Workshops
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Christmas Productions
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Story Telling Groups
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Free Library Visits
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Reading Circles
Thank you to every one who took part in the book fair week. I hope you are all enjoying your new reads. We have raised £341 to buy new books for the school!!
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Science
Children from Foundation to Year Six enjoy a great diversity of Science activities at Weston Park. They benefit from good resources and we have been helped in setting up experiments by staff from Bath University. Science is the third core subject and children are tested in Science in Year Six in the SATS tests.
We teach a wide variety of topics each year. These can be divided into 3 categories: Forces, Materials and Living Things. The children do at least one investigation each term and the older children are taught to help plan these.
Support from the Friends of Weston Park, Neighbourhood Renewal and the Bristol Breakfast Rotary Club have enabled us to develop our nature study and conservation area, Wild Watch. This has a major effect in enabling children to understand the “living things” strand of the curriculum.
There is a Conservation Club for children in Years 3 and 4. This takes place in the lunchtime and children enjoy supervised activities in Wild Watch.
We hope to increase planting around this area and we also plant flowers and weed other areas of the school grounds. To enable work to be done at all times of the year, regardless of weather, we would welcome any unused (grown out of) Wellington boots you could spare.
If parents/friends haven’t yet seen “Wild Watch” please come and explore for yourself – just contact me to arrange a guided tour.
Other Subjects
Foundation Stage
The curriculum in the Foundations Stage at Weston Park is divided into six areas of learning to develop the whole child. They are:
We provide a safe, exciting and challenging environment for the children to work in both indoors and outside. The children are introduced to the skills that care necessary to develop into hard working, motivated members of the school community.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND COLLECTIVE WORSHIP
The school has no affiliation with a particular religious denomination.
Religious Education is provided on a non-denominational basis in accordance with the 1944 Education Act safeguarding the rights of parents who may wish to withdraw their children under the terms of Section 25 of that act.
Each school day there is a collective worship which will take the form of either whole school assembly, Key Stage Assembly, Year Group Assembly or on an individual class basis.
In Religious Education our principal aims are to achieve religious literacy which will enable pupils to understand the nature, beliefs and practice of religion and also to stimulate spiritual development through fostering awe and wonder.
Our approach to religious education reflects the broad tradition of Christian belief but other beliefs will also be taught through the LEA Agreed Syllabus and the QCA recommended programmes of work.
Parents are again reminded that they have the right to withdraw their children from Religious Education and/or acts of Collective Worship.
SEX EDUCATION
Sex education will be taught throughout the school through other subjects such as Science and Personal, Social and Health Education. (PSHE).
Aspects of sex education will be taught mainly by Y6 class teachers but also by outside agencies such as school nurses and health visitors.
We believe that parents are the key figures in helping their children to cope with the physical, social and emotional aspects of growing up and in preparing them for the challenges and responsibilities that sexual maturity brings. However, we would aim to support the role of the parent by helping our pupils with these challenges of growing up and by giving them elementary understanding of reproduction.
Parents who may wish to withdraw their children from those parts of the Sex Education programme that are not part of the National Curriculum should make their wishes known to the Headteacher who will be pleased to discuss their concerns and the content of the Sex Education Policy with them.
SPECIAL NEEDS
During their time at school many children will have a “special need” which will need to be met by helping them in ways that may be specific for them. At Weston Park we do this in a number of different ways using our own resources and outside specialist help where necessary.
We follow the LEA’s policy for Special Educational Needs and a copy of this is available for parent/carers if they would like to read it. A key part of this Policy is the involvement of the child and the parent/carer in agreeing what steps need to be taken to help the child and how all can help to achieve this. The outcome of this discussion will be an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for the child which will be reviewed at least twice a year with you and your child.
If the child has needs which are very special and likely to continue for a large part of their time in school then we will draw up a Statement of Special Needs (again with your involvement) and this may enable us to get additional funding and specialist support, for example a Speech Therapist, to help your child. At Weston Park we are familiar with the processes needed to get this support and there can be as many as 10 children benefiting in this way during the year.
We are also fortunate at Weston Park that our funding allows us to have several Learning Support Assistants and a Learning Mentor who can provide additional support without the need to get a Statement.
The Deputy Headteacher, Mrs. R. Briggs, will be the Special Needs Coordinator (SENCO) and will be closely involved with any children who will be having IEPs. If your child’s class teacher is unable to provide you with the assurances you need then you should ask to speak to Mrs. Briggs. There is also a governor who has responsibility for SEN to ensure that the needs of these children are always being considered in all aspects of school life. From September the SEN Governor will be Emma Palmer-Givan who is a parent governor.
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