The English curriculum at Key Stage 2 aims to foster a lifelong love of language and literature while equipping students with essential communication skills. Through a diverse range of texts, engaging activities, and interactive learning experiences, students develop proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
By the end of Key Stage 2, all our students possess both the desire and the ability to engage with challenging texts. We endeavour to ensure that every child reads fluently and derives pleasure from reading. Moreover, as they find joy in reading, they become adept at using literature to inform their writing, enabling them to craft their own pieces with confidence and creativity. Our goal is for students to amass a rich vocabulary and broad background knowledge, facilitating their capacity to comprehend complex texts so that they are ready for the next stage in their education. Additionally, we prioritize the development of effective speaking and listening skills, enabling students to confidently articulate their thoughts, actively participate in discussions, and comprehend spoken language.
By providing opportunities to write for various purposes and audiences, students attain proficiency in effective communication. They can express themselves articulately in writing and possess the skills to edit and refine their work for clarity and accuracy. Through their enjoyment of writing and their ability to draw upon their reading experiences, students become independent writers, capable of expressing their ideas and perspectives with skill and confidence.
The impact of our mathematics curriculum is that children are flexible and efficient in their approach to mathematics, understanding the relevance and importance of what they are learning in relation to real world concepts. Children know that maths is a vital life skill that they will rely on in many areas of their daily life.
Children have a positive view of maths due to learning in a culture where maths is promoted as being an exciting and enjoyable subject in which they can investigate and ask questions. In promoting this positive attitude, we are able to teach the necessary skills and facts at the appropriate stages. Pupils earn ‘Times Table Rock Star’ certificates to celebrate their achievement in securing their times table and division facts.
Children exhibit a growth mindset, viewing mistakes as opportunities for learning and improvement. This mindset is reflective of a broader culture of resilience within the school community. Children are confident to ‘have a go’ and choose the equipment they need to help them to learn along with the strategies they think are best suited to each problem. Our maths books evidence work of a high standard of which children clearly take pride; the components of the teaching sequences demonstrate good coverage of fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
Our feedback and interventions support children to strive to be the best mathematicians they can be, ensuring a high proportion of children are on track or above.
In summary, our maths curriculum promotes mathematical understanding and a love for the subject, effective implementation strategies that cater to diverse learner needs, and a profound impact on pupil achievement, progress, and attitudes towards Maths
The successful approach of the new curriculum at Ocklynge School will show clear progression of both substantive and disciplinary knowledge, which will be evident in children’s books and articulation. Due to the careful pairing of enquiry type to enquiry matter in lessons, children will be aware of the rationale of the scientific process and be equipped with the skills necessary to carry their own research should they choose to do so.
Through a variety of well-planned wider opportunities including trips, visitors to our school, and specialist lessons in labs in our linked secondary school, children are both inspired and enlightened about the natural world. These exciting and engaging experiences, alongside inhouse practical work, make scientific knowledge meaningful, relevant and memorable for our children.
By the end of Key Stage 2, children at Ocklynge School will be able to question ideas, work collaboratively or independently to investigate them, and be able to evaluate and analyse the reliability of both primary and secondary sources of data.
To assess children’s progress, teachers use assessment for learning strategies. Additionally, each half term, children take part in practical tests to assess their level of disciplinary knowledge and ability to design, plan, carry out enquiries and raise further questions.
The History curriculum at Ocklynge provides students with a rich understanding of the past, fostering curiosity, critical thinking, and a sense of identity and belonging.
Pupils are assessed through these expectations each term. In addition, through reading age appropriate specifically selected texts, our children are exposed to the historical knowledge that they will need to become enthusiastic historians.
Students explore key historical events, figures, and civilizations, developing chronological understanding, historical interpretation skills, and the ability to analyse sources. By the end, students demonstrate a deeper appreciation of the complexities of history, gaining valuable insights into how the past shapes the present and future.
We believe that through our high-quality delivery of Geography every child will have experiences to enable them to be curious and fascinated about the world around them, and its people.
By the end of Year 6, the children will have developed their geographical skills including questioning, identifying, observing, reasoning, explaining and evaluating.
They will have a variety of geographical field-work skills and can use and interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, atlases and aerial photographs. They can communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing.
They will have a sound knowledge of the key features and characteristics of the local area, the UK, Europe and the wider world, including countries and cities.
The impact of their learning over time is for our children to want to continue to learn about the geography of their world in more depth when transferring to secondary school. We aim for the children to be ready to engage in more sophisticated discussions of the world, both locally and globally.
Our Religious Education curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. Through R.E., the children can make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and the wider world. The children are also developing an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life.
The R.E. curriculum offers our children the means to understand how other people choose to live and to understand why they choose to live in that way.
Within Art and Design, we create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry-based learning opportunities. Our Art and Design curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also forms part of the units of work. Children become creative learners, who have some knowledge about the great men and women artists of the world. Creativity and uniqueness are celebrated. Children become astute at editing, improving and evaluating the pieces they have created. When teaching, there is an emphasis placed on individuality and children are given the freedom to explore art using their imaginations. Children have embedded the key Art and Design skills needed to allow them to produce inventive pieces of art and design. Their interest in the art, architecture and design is stimulated and developed over time.
Our children develop substantive and disciplinary knowledge in D&T which enables them to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
All children leave Ocklynge equipped with the skills to prepare and cook a meal and will understand the importance of a healthy and varied diet. Children know more and remember more through making meaningful connections and can apply their technology knowledge to practical tasks independently.
Our curriculum equips children for success to become resourceful, innovative and competent young designers, who are given the opportunity to explore their own ideas and develop the creative and practical skills required to solve real and relevant problems now and in their future.
Children leave Ocklynge Junior School having a love of sport and physical activity both in and out of school and they will have worked on their own aspirations in relation to PE.
All children can discuss the importance of a healthy lifestyle and how to achieve this, as well as develop skills that underpin life such as teamwork, sportsmanship, self-motivation, resilience and independence.
This will be carried on after leaving Ocklynge, with children continuing to enjoy participating in competitive sport and/or physical activity at secondary school and into later life.
All children understand the importance of PSHE, RE, SMSC and British Values and the effects it can have on life in school and the wider communities which they are part of. By teaching pupils to stay safe and healthy, and by building self-esteem, resilience and empathy, an effective PSHE programme can tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations, and improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils.
The skills and attributes developed through PSHE education are also shown to increase academic attainment and attendance rates, particularly among pupils eligible for free school meals, as well as improve employability and boost social mobility.
By the time they leave Ocklynge Junior School, personal, social and health education (PSHE) enables our learners to become healthy, independent and responsible members of a society. It helps them understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. Our curriculum allows pupils to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society.
Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.
Our children are engaged and excited by our music curriculum. The skills they are taught equip them to appreciate music throughout their lives.
Our children have become confident performers, composers and listeners, who are able to express themselves musically at school and beyond. Our children show an appreciation and respect across a range of musical genres, traditions and generations.
Our children demonstrate and express their enthusiasm for music. They make progress through the music curriculum which enables them to meet the expectations outlined at the end of Key Stage 2 for the National Curriculum and the guidance from the Model Music Curriculum.
Spanish teaching supports learners to make progress and empower them to feel resilient and enthusiastic about learning the language. Teachers recognise that making mistakes is an important part of the language learning process but maintain high expectations of individuals.
We want children to leave primary school with an interest and curiosity for learning a foreign language and with the skills to communicate effectively. Regular Spanish practise helps children become confident Spanish speakers and prepares them for a smooth transition to learn foreign languages at secondary school.
Spanish teaching supports learners to make progress and empower them to feel resilient and enthusiastic about learning the language. Teachers recognise that making mistakes is an important part of the language learning process but maintain high expectations of individuals. We want children to leave primary school with an interest and curiosity for learning a foreign language and with the skills to communicate effectively.
Regular Spanish practise helps children become confident Spanish speakers and prepares them for a smooth transition to learn foreign languages at secondary school.
We encourage our children to enjoy and value the curriculum we deliver. We will constantly ask the ‘why?’ behind their learning and not just the ‘how?’.
In computing, the ‘why?’ gives a context for what the children have learnt. E.g: Why do we learn how to design on a computer? To help us understand how the man-made world around us is created.
We feel the way we implement the subject helps children realise the role of computing in our world and the possibilities for them to use these skills in that world. We encourage regular discussions between staff and pupils to best embed and understand this.
We want learners to discuss, reflect and appreciate the impact computing has on their lives and not just see the subject as being about games and leisure. Finding the right balance with how we view and use technology is key to understanding the role computing can – and does – play in our lives. The impact of our curriculum is evident in the children’s digital literacy, their understanding of the use of technology and their responsible use of that technology.
