What does your child learn at school each day? Find information about our curriculum subjects here.
Reception KS1 & KS2 | |
gatesand doors open | 8:35 am |
School begins | 8:45 am |
Morning break | 15 minutes |
Lunchtime | 50 minutes |
School finishes | 3:15 pm |
The total hours provided on a typical week are 32 hours and 30 minutes.
Assemblies
Assemblies are held daily, each week the focus for the assemblies is one of the Co-operative values.
All of our assemblies follow themes that we feel are important for our children to understand as they prepare for modern Britain. Themes about shared values, tolerance and respect, diversity, building resilience and being proud of who we are. In addition, we look at important religious festivals of all faiths and important and significant dates that occur in Britain. We also celebrate the great work and behaviours that the children have completed in our weekly Merit assembly.
We aim to provide a curriculum, underpinned by the co-operative values, which is broad, balanced and promotes a sense of self-worth and place within society and the natural world. One that will help today’s young learners meet the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow and giving them a perspective on the past. It will inspire them to create and imagine, reach out and enquire, whilst also securing the fundamentals of reading, writing, maths, science and ICT.
Our curriculum recognises the importance of active learning and use of the outdoor environment to engage and enthuse, as well as the role of sports and the arts in providing enrichment and enjoyment. It will enable children to achieve a wide range of outcomes, and strive to achieve the best possible progress.
We aim to be an inclusive school, where all are valued within an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust and we strive to make each child’s time with us, purposeful, challenging and enjoyable. Our vision is for every child to become a successful, independent and resilient lifelong learner and a responsible member of the community, prepared for an ever changing world. We have high expectations for all our learners, and we aim to provide every child with equal opportunities to access a broad and balanced curriculum, including the Foundation Stage and National Curriculum. We aim to raise the aspirations and expectations for all our pupils with SEND, focusing on the outcomes for children. Every teacher is a teacher of every child including those with SEND. (For more information on this please see the SEN Policy, SEN Information Report and Equality Statement).
At Stanford le Hope Primary School we use the Cornerstones Curriculum to plan and deliver the subjects of Art and Design, Design and Technology, Geography and History.
This is a vibrant and creative curriculum that puts children at its heart. We believe Cornerstones excites children's imaginations, inspires them to learn, and extends their horizons by deepening their knowledge and understanding of the topics covered.
At the core of the curriculum are a wealth of knowledge-based lessons in which key ideas are introduced, re-visited and built upon year-on-year to enable the children to develop a deep, interconnected understanding in a wide range of subjects. There are opportunities for creative expression through Art and Design topics, and innovation when covering Design and Technology. An extensive range of related vocabulary is built into each topic, and links to previous learning are taken into account to provide a joined-up learning experience, leading to learners becoming engaged, enthused and fascinated.
The Cornerstones Primary Curriculum is built upon a four stage teaching and learning philosophy.
The Four Cornerstones:
Engages learner's creativity to express their understanding in creative ways.
We base our Science curriculum on the Snap Science scheme, which covers all the requirements for National Curriculum Science. In addition we use some Cornerstones lessons to enhance the learning experience. Each class covers the key concepts for each science topic, and applies these through a variety of practical activities, thus improving their investigational skills such as observation, measuring and drawing conclusions. They also study an aspect of 'Ongoing Science' over each academic year, which enables them to experience, observe and measure long-term changes in the environment; for example to life cycles of plants over a year, or the behaviour of birds.
The science topics for each year group have been ordered so they make sense with the Cornerstones topics, thus providing children with a joined-up learning approach. (See pdf document above for details).
Classroom music is supported throughout the school using the Charanga! online music scheme. This is an interactive resource, covering a wide range of genres, through which children learn to listen and appraise, compose and perform. Each half-termly unit of work is based on a piece of music, with built-in skills covering singing, rhythm and pulse work and responding in a variety of ways to the music. The scheme is lively and engaging.
In addition to classroom music, in Year 5 the children have whole-class instrumental lessons delivered by a visiting teacher from Thurrock Music Services. These cover different instruments, for example, guitars, violins, and African drumming. As well as learning the rudiments of playing the instruments, the children are also taught musical notation and enhance their listening, pulse and singing skills.
Individual music tuition also takes place in the school for any child wishing to sign up to Thurrock Music Services lessons.
The school gives groups of children the opportunity to perform in public by participating in the annual Thurrock Music Festivals for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. These events see schools from around the borough coming together to perform a range of songs in a 'professional' setting to large audiences.
At Christmas, the whole school visits the local St Margarets Church in order to sing carols and songs to each other in a celebration event. Other national events are also marked by the school through collaborative singing experiences.
At Stanford-le-Hope we use a scheme of work called Jigsaw. Jigsaw is an inclusive, mindful approach to PSHE. It perfectly connects the pieces of Personal, Social, Health and Well-Being education. The programme teaches children emotional literacy, social and lifelong skills and resilience in an age appropriate manner.
Jigsaw PSHE is designed as a comprehensive approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (puzzle) at the same time, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike. All of the themes are brought together to form a cohesive picture, helping children to know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in the world.
The 6 themes covered are:
Being me in my world
Celebrating Difference
Dreams and Goals
Healthy me
Relationships
Changing me
We start the school year in September with the ‘Relationships’ theme and then move onto ‘Being me in my world’.
Each class has two P.E. sessions per week, details of which are in the pdf below. Children are required to come to school in their P.E. kits on the days they have P.E., and in the colder months may wear additional layers to keep themselves warm when outside.
In addition to the class lessons, there is a programme of clubs each term (see pdf) as well as sports fixtures with other local schools. We aim to give all children who wish to participate in a team representing the school to have a chance to do so, as we firmly believe that its taking part rather than winning that is important at this stage of a child's development.
In Key Stage 1, pupils are taught basic skills such as running, jumping, throwing, catching and get the opportunity to use these in both non-competitive and competitive activities.
Pupils are allowed to develop at their own pace through carefully planned lessons which cater for all abilities.
Pupils are taught:
In Key Stage 2, pupils are given the opportunity to consolidate their existing skills and learn how to refine and adapt them to improve their effectiveness.
They learn how to work as part of a team and overcome problem solving activities. Pupils take more responsibility for their learning and are encouraged to seek and give feedback on their own and others' performances. They are also encouraged to seek and give feedback on their own performance and look at areas where they can improve.
Pupils are taught:
Clearly label all PE kit -
this helps us and your child, as well as helping you to avoid having to replace lost PE kit.
Regularly check that the kit fits -
children have huge growth spurts, a kit that fits well helps keep them comfortable and safe.
Ensure they have warm clothing during the Winter months -
unless it is snowing or heavily raining, we go outside for many PE lessons.
Encourage and support with extra-curricular clubs -
as well as keeping children fit and healthy, clubs help them develop new skills, independence, confidence and social skills.
Do not hesitate to contact the PE department if you have any questions -
we want to work with our parents to help pupils make the most of their PE lessons