English at Ocklynge follows a text-based approach in which pupils enjoy a broad and diverse range of high-quality literature. We believe in not just teaching children how to read but also why. We think that providing children with immersive, memorable, and meaningful reading experiences encourages a love of reading that will last a lifetime. We believe that exposing children to the best texts is the most effective way to nurture and develop them as both readers and writers.
If we want children to be the best writers, they need to have read the best texts. We think that teaching children how to analyse quality texts not only makes their writing more purposeful but also develops their independence and cultivates a love and appreciation for great writers. Teaching children to read as a writer helps them make purposeful and thoughtful choices in their writing. Children’s reading supports their writing, and their writing supports their reading.
We believe that selecting high-quality texts takes children beyond their immediate environment and immerses them in the world of literature. Children learn to examine their own lives and the lives of others through the prism of fiction. This develops their cultural capital as they explore worlds that are unfamiliar to them and compare them to their own. In this way, literature not only develops children’s oracy and literacy but is also critical in enhancing their social and emotional well-being.
At Ocklynge, texts have been chosen to align with our school values: respect, responsibility, resilience, and reflection.
For example:
English at Ocklynge is taught as a discrete subject. This approach allows us to structure the English curriculum in a way that ensures children experience and analyse the best texts. It also ensures that texts are selected based on several factors, such as the progression of difficulty, cultural representation, diversity of narrative structure, and coverage of the National Curriculum. Separating English from other subjects enables children to write creatively without being bound by subject knowledge. While children apply the skills they learn from English to other subjects, this is separate from the English curriculum. In history, children learn to write like historians. In science, children apply their literacy skills to write like scientists. In all subjects, reading, writing, and oracy serve as curriculum enablers. This is distinct from the study of English, which focuses on developing a love and appreciation for great literature.
Maths at Ocklynge follows a mastery pedagogy and pupils take part in a mathematics lesson each day. This mastery approach gives pupils the best chance of securing both deep understanding of mathematical concepts and fluency in applying them with pupils building coherent learning with small steps based on: representation and structure; mathematical thinking; variation and fluency.
We believe mathematics teaches pupils how to make sense of the world around them through developing their ability to apply their knowledge when calculating, reasoning and solving problems and we use the CPA approach to support this. We aim to nurture a love for Maths among our pupils, equipping them with the essential knowledge and skills that will promote lifelong learning and retention of these key mathematical concepts.
We think creatively about the mathematical experiences we offer our pupils, enabling them to understand relationships and patterns in both number and space in their everyday lives. Teachers use a bespoke curriculum based on a wide variety of resources which develops children’s knowledge sequentially throughout Key Stage 2 revisiting, remembering and applying earlier skills whilst learning new skills to achieve the objectives set by the National Curriculum for mathematics (2014) and Development Matters (2021).
At Ocklynge our young scientists take part in practical, hands-on skills-based learning, full of exploration, investigation and discovery. We aim to harness the children’s natural curiosity by encouraging them to ask questions and building their skills of classification, observation, research, pattern seeking and testing, to draw evidence-based conclusions. Our progressive skills-based curriculum underpins the children’s scientific learning as they tackle a range of topics including Animals and Humans, Living Things and their Habitats, Forces, Properties of Materials, Light, Sound, Plants, Evolution and Inheritance and Electricity.
Our curriculum enables the children to contextualise their learning. Examples include learning Geography alongside Science to understand the cause and effects of volcanoes in Year 3, or Year 5 combining History and Science when considering which materials have suitable properties to build a replica Mayan pyramid.
The children have many opportunities to practice their communication skills, learned in English lessons, by offering predications, asking questions, reporting on enquiries, explaining their thinking, presenting their findings and suggesting improvements. Central to this is our focus on using and understanding key scientific vocabulary within each topic. The links in our and Science and Maths curriculums enable the children to employ their knowledge of measure and statistics to gather and interpret scientific data.
At Ocklynge Junior School we teach history to enable the children to develop a sense of their place in time and to help them to understand different times and cultures so that they can develop their own identity.
We want to stimulate the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. We teach the children a sense of chronology and through this they develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage.
They will learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in our modern multicultural Britain. We teach children to understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today. We also teach them to investigate these past events and by so doing develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem solving.
“Geography is a subject which holds the key to our future.” Michael Palin.
At Ocklynge Junior School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Through our enquiry-based approach, children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it.
Geography has a wide application to everyday life, teaching the children to enjoy learning about the world and to have a better understanding of how people live in different locations and the human effect on the planet. Teaching will equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.
Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
We aim to inspire in our pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
At Ocklynge, we want our children to know about and understand a range of religions and world views. Our approach to R.E. seeks to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural
development of pupils at the school, and to prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
We believe it is important that R.E. should not seek to indoctrinate or to persuade pupils to take up any one particular belief, but enable pupils to clarify and enlarge their ideas about religion in an environment which promotes respect, tolerance, integrity and harmony.
Religious Education at Ocklynge School follows the East Sussex Agreed Syllabus, Faith and Belief in the 21st Century 2022-2027.
At Ocklynge we strive to let children lead in their learning, providing them with the skills and inspiration to adapt and apply to their own projects.
Our curriculum is skills based and progressive, ensuring broad coverage of media, skills and contextual understanding. We cover the skills of drawing, painting and sculpture, developing and implementing ideas, being an independent artist and art in context/in history across the school.
The intention behind this, is to ensure we build upon previous experiences and form consistency between classes in any one year group. The curriculum is vibrant and fits into and around each year group.
Our Art provision allows inclusivity, creativity and ensures children are given opportunities to succeed outside of traditional academic subjects.
At Ocklynge we strive to let children lead in their learning, providing them with the skills and inspiration to adapt and apply to their own projects. Our curriculum is skills based and progressive, ensuring broad coverage of technical skills and contextual understanding.
We cover the skills of designing, making and evaluating – specifically looking at woodwork, mechanical systems, use of prototypes, food technology, circuits in design, computer aided design, paper technology and history of design/famous designers and architects.
We build upon previous experiences and form consistency between classes in any one year group. Our DT provision allows inclusivity, creativity and ensures children are given opportunities to succeed outside of traditional academic subjects. It draws together learning in other foundation subjects and extends opportunity to express their understanding in new and inventive ways.
In this regard, it aids in developing a creative learning environment, improving outcomes and ensuring children are learning progressive, relevant and specific skills.
At Ocklynge, our Physical Education curriculum is committed to cultivating lifelong wellness and character development. Through diverse and inclusive activities, we foster a deep respect for movement, teamwork, and healthy living.
Our goal is to empower pupils to embrace an active lifestyle whilst embodying our school values of respect, reflection, responsibility, and resilience.
We encourage a competitive spirit, a drive for excellence in sports, with an emphasis on respect and fair play.
We aim to instil not only physical strength, but also the mental fortitude, collaborative spirit, and respect for diversity that form the foundation for lifelong health, success, and fulfilment of an active lifestyle.
We embrace a mindful approach to teaching PSHE to all pupils at Ocklynge Junior School. Our lessons are taught using the Jigsaw scheme of work to ensure the children have full coverage of this subject and the National Curriculum content.
We bring together Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education, including emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development. All year groups work on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike.
We aim to embed our school values of Responsibility, Resilience, Respect and Reflection through our teaching and challenge pupils through questioning and discussions.
The curriculum provides the relevant context to build skills, attitudes, self-esteem, resilience and confidence all of which we believe should be taught explicitly as well as nurtured implicitly.
The children are encouraged to reflect on their own perspectives and make comparisons to their own lives and the various communities in which they are part of.
Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. We want our music curriculum to inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. We strive to enable our pupils to develop a critical engagement with music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions.
We aim to do this by giving pupils the opportunities to:
perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of great composers and musicians.
learn to sing and use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately.
understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and musical notations.
The Modern Foreign Language taught at Ocklynge is Spanish. By studying a foreign language we aim to encourage respect for other peoples: foster an understanding of the interrelation of language and culture and to expand pupils’ view of the world and make pupils more flexible and tolerant. Foreign language study leads to an appreciation of cultural diversity, so supporting our value of respect.
At Ocklynge, we aim to equip our learners with the skills needed to thrive in an ever evolving, digital world.
A thorough knowledge and understanding of ICT is of vital importance- both for home and the world of work. Our computing curriculum focuses on a progression of skills in, digital literacy, computer science, information technology and online safety to ensure that pupils become confident in safely using the transferable skills that computing provides.
Our intention is that computing supports the children’s creativity and cross curricular learning adventures to enhance their learning experiences.
