Intent

At Leedstown, we provide a positive and caring environment that ensures every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential. We are committed to providing all children with learning opportunities to engage in Art and believe that every child within our school should have full access to the Art provision as laid down in the National Curriculum regardless of age, gender or ability. The intent of our Art education is to give pupils the skills, concepts and knowledge necessary for them to express their responses to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form. It fires their imagination and is a fundamental means of personal expression. 

While it is essentially a practical subject, art should provide opportunities for reflection and, with increasing sensitivity, pupils should acquire the ability to make informed, critical responses of their own work and that of others. There is great pleasure to be derived from Art learning and, through deeper understanding; pupils can gain access to cultural richness and diversity. The appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts enriches all our lives. At Leedstown we believe that the learning of Art provides a valuable educational, as well as social and cultural experiences for children of all ages. Pupils develop life skills and have the chance to extend their knowledge of a practitioner’s works.

Implementation

Our whole school curriculum provides children with opportunities to develop their skills in art using a range of media and materials. Children have the opportunity to explore and evaluate different creative ideas developing skills in drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles, 3D work and digital art.

Children study a range of works by famous artists to develop knowledge of styles. The skills they acquire during art lessons are linked to their PSHE, allowing children to use their art skills to reflect on and explore topics in greater depth; for example, using art as a medium to express emotion and thoughts to enhance their personal, social and emotional development; as well as through cross-curricular opportunities in the classroom.

Lessons follow the Chris Quigley milestones for each media, which plans for progression and depth. Art is displayed to motivate and inspire others and to celebrate the pupils’ artwork in their class.

Impact

Our Art Curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and to stimulate creativity. Pupils are clear about what the intended outcomes are and have a means to measure their own work against this, as a means of expression or to explore the styles of other artists that inspire our own work.

In Art, children are reflective and evaluate their own and each other’s work, thinking about how they can make changes to keep improving. This is meaningful and continuous throughout the process, with evidence of age-related verbal and written reflection. Children are encouraged to take risks, experiment, and then reflect on why some ideas and techniques are successful or not for a particular project. 

 

 

 

 

 

Intent

The computing curriculum at Leedstown School aims to provide the children with the skills and knowledge necessary to use technologies safely and creatively. Over time, the children will become increasingly more independent using technologies, be able to work collaboratively when solving complex problems and develop resilience when finding solutions by learning from mistakes. Children will embrace and enjoy technology, understand its importance in their everyday lives and recognise that there are exciting career opportunities to be had in computing technologies. It is the intention to develop every child’s computing abilities and technical knowledge during their time at Leedstown, in order that they leave primary school with a solid foundation in 21st century skills.

Implementation

Implementation of the computing curriculum will build on the subject leader evaluation completed during the previous academic year. It will seek to ensure consistency in the teaching of computing and the experiences of the children across the year groups. The following measures will help ensure the curriculum is thoroughly implemented and the intent is achieved.

• Computing lessons taught at least once a week
• Standalone lessons are provided to tie in with wider curriculum and ensure computing is not taught in isolation.
• Scheme of work progression-grid available to track progress across the school.
• Yearly overviews provided to teachers in order to highlight teaching requirements for academic year.
• Teachers to gather proof-of-progress evidence for 3 children of mixed ability termly.
• Pupil voice to be completed in autumn 2, spring 2 and summer 2 in order to ascertain progress
• Links with local secondary schools to be strengthened and inter-school initiatives (e.g. middle-school internet safety sessions) to be developed.
• Links with technology professionals in and around the local area to be developed in order to bring inspirational speakers into school.
• Safer internet week to be promoted and school to participate in nation-wide initiative.
• Internet safety issues continue to be addressed through parent workshops, provision of reading materials and regular updates of current issues through the school facebook page.

Impact

A thorough implementation of the computing curriculum will have the following impact for the children in Leedstown School:

• The children will have been taught, understand and can apply the subject content as laid out in the computing programme of study.
• The children are able to articulate their understanding of computing science, digital literacy and information technology. They are able to give examples of ways to stay safe on-line and recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour.
• There is consistency across the year groups in the quality and frequency of learning using technologies and in the progress made by the children.
• The children can cite examples of times technology has allowed them to access a lesson in the wider curriculum.
• The children can talk enthusiastically about technologies and suggest ways that the digital age differs from that of older generations.
• The children enjoy using technologies, can do so safely and creatively and are receptive to new or unfamiliar technologies, viewing them as a natural development in the modern world.

 

 

 

Intent

At Leedstown, our geography curriculum is designed to develop pupils’ curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them throughout their lives.

Learners will investigate a range of places, both in Britain and abroad to help develop knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes. We provide opportunities to investigate and enquire about our local area, this will support children to develop an understanding of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area so unique and special.

We aim to give our learners strong geographical knowledge, good enquiry skills, the ability to use a range of maps, the skills to collect and analyse data and the ability to communicate information in a variety of ways.

We want the children to have a love of geographical learning, gaining knowledge and skills through high quality teaching both inside and outside the classroom. As the future generation responsible for our planet, we want our children to have a sense of respect for the world around them in line with our Leedstown School mission statement: Caring, Sharing, Giving.

Implementation

At Leedstown, we implement a progressive geography curriculum that builds on prior knowledge and skills year on year. The geography curriculum will be taught in response to driving questions which are aimed to be challenging, inspiring, creative, nurturing and encourage active learning. The learners will revisit geographical skills and knowledge in order to embed and deepen understanding. The lessons are carefully planned to ensure that all children are well supported in their learning and that opportunities for depth is planned for. We ensure that trips and visiting experts enhance the learning experiences for the children.

Impact

The impact of our geography curriculum is that our learners are equipped with the geographical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the secondary curriculum and for life as an adult in the wider world. The children will be able to discuss their learning and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through a range of activities.

The children’s learning is assessed against the age-related expectation bands that are based on the 2014 National Curriculum statements for Geography.

 

 

Intent

At Leedstown, we aim for a high quality expansive history curriculum which should inspire in pupils a curiosity and captivation about the Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Our teaching throughout the year groups, equips pupils with knowledge about the history of Britain and how it has influenced and too, been influenced by the wider world. Pupils will recognise and understand about significant aspects of the history of the ancient civilisations and empires in addition to changes in living memory and beyond living memory. Pupils will learn about the lives of significant individuals of the past and in doing so, understand the methods of historical enquiry and be able to ask and answer variety of skills and knowledge based questions.

At Leedstown, we want our pupils to relish and love learning about history. Pupils will gain knowledge and skills, not just through experiences within the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits, enabling them to deepen their understanding of who and what has shaped our world today.

Implementation

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught as part of a half-termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum measured by key milestones which are often revisited, to ensure retention of both skills and knowledge and stimulate pupils’ thoughts and allow for reflection. At Leedstown, we ensure that within the teaching of history, it is important to empower all children to gain a ‘real-life’ hands on experience, encompassing as many local points of interest in Cornwall and reflecting on our heritage (such as local museums, castles and points of interest) – right through to immersion days, in which pupils are thrown into differing time periods, enabling them to gain first-hand knowledge that equip their historian skill set.

Impact

The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at Leedstown are equipped with historical enquiry skills, knowledge and concepts, in addition to guiding their attitude to historical events which will enable them to be reflective learners ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3. Whilst doing this, we aim to implement a buzz across the school, fuelling excitement year upon year across year groups when studying a new historical events. We aim for our pupils to be passionate for history readying them as well-informed lifelong learners in the wider world.

We want our children to have thoroughly adored learning about history, highlighting the importance of studying events from the past and bringing them to our pupils present, will shape their futures.

 

 

The school follows the White Rose Maths progressions and schemes of learning and participate in a daily mathematics lesson. White Rose Maths is influenced, inspired and informed by the work of leading maths researchers and practitioners across the world. White Rose Maths mantra is ‘everyone can do maths: everyone can’ and has proven to shape assured, happy and resilient mathematicians who relish the challenge of maths. The children access a vast bank of clear practical resources supporting them deepen their knowledge and understanding of all mathematical concepts.

One of the fantastic parts of White Rose Maths is the online video lessons that are available to cover all lessons for all year groups. Using these in conjunction with the maths workbooks the school was able to provide a fantastic remote maths experience for all our students during lockdown that matched the workbooks they use in normal school lessons. This familiar approach to learning saw that pupils were able to continue making fantastic progress in maths.

CPA Approach

The Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract Approach

This approach recognises that in order for pupils to understand abstract concepts, they must first learn mathematical concepts through the use of concrete resources and pictorial representation. 

Concrete is the ‘doing’ stage, using concrete objects to solve problems. It brings concepts to life as children have the opportunity to be hands on and use physical objects to aid them in developing their understanding. 

Pictorial is the ‘seeing’ stage, where representations of the objects are used to support learning. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object and abstract levels of understanding, by drawing or looking at pictures, circles, diagrams or models which represent the objects in the problem.

Abstract is the ‘symbolic’ stage, where children are able to use abstract symbols to model and solve maths problems.

 

Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice.

Each week concentrates on a different times table, with a recommended consolidation week for rehearsing the tables that have recently been practised every third week or so.

This format has very successfully boosted times tables recall speed for hundreds of thousands of pupils over the last 8 years in over 14,000 schools - both primary and secondary - worldwide.

Here at Leedstown School we have subrscirbed to Rockstars so that pupils can access this wonderful resource both at school and at home. Click here to login and play. https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student

 

Calculation Policies

Below you can download copies of our calculation policies.

Intent

At Leedstown, we believe that music should not only be taught and experienced in our classrooms, but achieve ubiquity within an enriched and engaging wider curriculum. At our school, we progressively promote the musical concepts of performance, composition, transcription and description. Knowledge and understanding is not confined to the school grounds; permeating our local community and providing children with the valuable performance experience that they require, in order to realise their potential as young musicians.

Implementation

Music at Leedstown is taught by classroom teachers through use of the ‘Charanga’ scheme, which further subdivides children’s musical learning and experiences into four key, progressive skill areas. These are taught consistently throughout the key stages and ensure the provision of a rich and holistic musical education:

Rhythm & Pulse

The children first learn and play songs and games repeatedly. They then use the rhythm patterns from chants and songs they already know to begin to learn the rhythms and their names.

Pitch
Children are taken on a journey from learning one-note songs to songs with all five notes of the pentatonic scale. The scheme is designed to include plenty of repetitive singing, while the game-playing element keeps children’s motivation levels high. Many games feature solo singing, thus allowing the monitoring of children’s pitch-matching ability. The songs and games are interactive and highly motivating.

Singing Games

These are a kinaesthetic way to learn, involving simultaneous sound and movement. They help children develop important thinking skills including memory, sequencing and concentration; physical skills such as motor skills and coordination; and they encourage friendships through interaction and turn-taking. The games are very inclusive by nature.

Instrumental Activities

Children often think that music means instruments but although instruments are a fantastic means of musical expression, they are not the first step in the process, which is why we teach this as the final unit after ‘Rhythm and Pulse’, ‘Pitch’ and ‘Singing Games’ have been completed. We believe that children need to first vocalise sounds, then show their understanding of pulse and rhythm through body percussion before playing instruments. In this way, children have fully internalised the music before they play it. Instruments can be seen as an extension of children’s hands, so once they can clap a rhythm accurately they can go on to play it accurately. The children’s inner musicality is then extended by progressing to thinking the words and playing their instruments, in unison and in 2 parts.

Impact

Through the implementation of our music curriculum, we endeavour to produce passionate and skilled young musicians who possess:

• a rapidly widening repertoire which they use to create original, imaginative, fluent and distinctive composing and performance work.
• a musical understanding underpinned by high levels of aural perception, internalisation and knowledge of music, including high or rapidly developing levels of technical expertise.
• a very good awareness and appreciation of different musical traditions and genres.
• an excellent understanding of how musical provenance – the historical, social and cultural origins of music – contributes to the diversity of musical styles.
• the ability to give precise written and verbal explanations, using musical terminology effectively, accurately and appropriately.
• a passion for and commitment to a diverse range of musical activities.

 

 

Intent

PE at Leedstown aims to develop confidence in physical abilities, skills acquisition and sporting knowledge, to allow all of our children to establish strong mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing. Our PE curriculum underpins all of the ABC’s – agility, balance and coordination that is taught and instilled within the foundation stages. By teaching physical literacy, this teaches children about leading a healthier lifestyle and ultimately, this can transformation attitudes towards sport and exercise. Teachers encourage, reassure and support during every PE lesson to increase resilience within the children, dedication, determination and confidence to succeed.

Our intent is to teach all children from Reception to Year 6 the skills needed to progress within sport and physical activity. Our intention is for PE lessons to positively influence children’s primary years and allow them to move into secondary and further education with a healthy attitude towards exercise. We want PE lessons to embed all of the lifelong cooperative skills needed; working in a team, communication, leadership and fair play.

Implementation

At Leedstown, we implement a thrilling and stimulating curriculum, integrating popular games along with unfamiliar sports. We teach skills, mini games and full matches that lead to the understanding of rules and regulations, team officials and sportsmanship. We recognise that all children have diverse abilities and ensure that all lessons are differentiated to promote an inclusive approach, which endeavours to encourage not only physical development but also well-being. We regularly give our children the opportunity to coach their peers and run events for younger children; this gives confidence, self-belief and determination. We offer many extra-curricular clubs, allowing children to try new sports and activities. Leedstown School uses the diverse skills from ‘The Saints, Southwest’ to support learning and engage the children through specialised knowledge.

Impact

Our curriculum provides children with 2 hours of stimulating activity per week, which has an advantageous impact on their wellbeing. Children will learn about the impact and importance of healthy body, healthy mind. PE lessons will give children a platform and concrete understanding of how sport and exercise can, and should be sustained throughout their lives. Our impact is therefore to motivate children to employ these underpinning skills in an independent and effective way in order to live a happy and healthy life.

Intent

At Leedstown School, personal, social and health education enables our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally, emotionally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our children with opportunities 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 through opportunities such as school council, friendship ambassadors, worship ambassadors, learning ambassadors, sports ambassadors and peer buddies and mentors.

Implementation

We follow the scheme ‘Jigsaw’ at Leedstown School, which meets the current needs of our children. The curriculum focuses on the three core learning themes: health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world and builds in opportunities to link British Values and SMSC. The curriculum is constantly reviewed and updated according to the Governments advice, building on the statutory content already outlined in the national curriculum, the basic school curriculum and in statutory, on: drug education, financial education, sex and relationship education (SRE) and the importance of physical activity and diet for a healthy lifestyle. We are a TIS school and as such, every member of staff understands the importance of relationships.

PSHE is taught both as a discreet subject, as well as through whole class teaching and assemblies. Children are provided with frequent opportunities to have their voice heard and because of this; they play an active part in school life. Children are able to express their opinions and views through a variety of mediums including suggestion boxes questionnaires, school council discussions, and comments on various correspondence throughout the year e.g. reports, SEND support profiles, focused reviews, annual questionnaires, work and homework. Children have the opportunities to meet and work with members of the community, such as health workers, firefighters, police, and representatives from the local church and community. We also develop PSHE through activities and whole-school events e.g. the school council representatives from each class meet regularly to discuss school matters. We offer residential trips to various year groups, where there is a particular focus on developing pupils’ self-esteem, self-confidence, self-belief and giving them opportunities to develop leadership and co-operation skills through team building, as we want all children to aim high to achieve their maximum potential.

Impact

Children are resilient learners and excellent communicators and are able to discuss personal matters with appropriate adults, as well as sharing in emotional literacy and discussion. Children demonstrate and apply the British Values of Democracy, Tolerance, and Mutual respect, Rule of law and Liberty. All of our children demonstrate a healthy outlook towards themselves and school and all behaviour is good so that all children can achieve their age related expectations across the wider curriculum.

 

 

Intent

The intent of teaching Religious Education at Leedstown, is to support and challenge pupils to reflect upon, develop and affirm their own beliefs, values and attitudes and those of others through an exploration of shared human experience and to understand the place and significance of religion in the contemporary world.

The Cornwall Agreed Syllabus progressively builds their understanding of significant theological concepts within Christianity with their own self-understanding and understanding of the world as part of their wider religious literacy.

Implementation

The Implementation of the School’s programme of study for RE is in accordance with ‘The Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in Cornwall 2014.’

All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value the links that can be made between home, school and a faith community. We acknowledge that each religion studied can contribute to the education of all our pupils. We promote teaching in Religious Education that stresses open enquiry and first-hand experiences wherever possible for both staff and children. Our Religious Education Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. The syllabus is implemented in school through a sensory approach, where children may look at and handle religious artefacts, hear religious music or taste food from a religious tradition. Work in Religious Education builds on the pupils’ own experiences and uses contemporary issues to stimulate discussion. Reflection on learning is a key aspect to each RE lesson and we build in Spirituality through adopting the Self, Others, Beauty and Beyond template which encourages pupils to think deeply.

Impact

Religious Education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. It develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal religions, other religious traditions and other worldviews that offer answers to questions such as these. It offers opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development. It enhances pupils’ awareness and understanding of religions and beliefs, teachings, practices and forms of expression, as well as of the influence of religion on individuals, families, communities and cultures.

Religious Education encourages pupils to learn from different religions, beliefs, values and traditions while exploring their own beliefs and questions of meaning. It challenges pupils to reflect on, consider, analyse, interpret and evaluate issues of truth, belief, faith and ethics and to communicate their responses.

The importance of Religious Education is that it encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging. It enables them to flourish individually within their communities and as citizens in a pluralistic society and global community. Religious Education has an important role in preparing pupils for adult life, employment and lifelong learning. It enables pupils to develop respect for and sensitivity to others, in particular those whose faiths and beliefs are different from their own. It promotes discernment and enables pupils to combat prejudice.

Leedstown School has achieved 100% Expected Standard in Reading for the past 4 years running. There are 7 main aspects in achieving this. Please click on each of our little books below for more information.

Our school uses the Accelerated Reader program to help children make substantial progress in their reading through personalised goals which is fully tracked by the detailed analytics it provides to the teachers. Reading quizzes monitor comprehension, while literacy skills and vocabulary quizzes extend student learning and build skills mastery.

At Leedstown Primary School, we use the ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics programme designed by Ruth Miskin to teach early reading. The structured programme helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. At the core of the programme is the lively and vigorous teaching of synthetic phonics. Children learn the 44 common sounds in the English language and how to sound-blend words for reading (decoding) at the same time as developing handwriting skills and spelling (encoding).

We have found that by using the Read Write Inc. programme, children experience success from the very beginning of their reading journey. Lively phonic books are then closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and as children re-read stories their fluency increases. The stories include prompts to support thinking out loud and discussions, helping children develop the skills they need to be successful storytellers.

Read Write Inc. lessons are fun and engaging and all staff who deliver the reading sessions are fully trained. The lessons are taught daily and pupils are regularly assessed and grouped to enable appropriate challenge and pace throughout the programme.

 

 

 

Intent

In our rapidly evolving world, science is a vital part of our curriculum intention. Science stimulates and excites pupils’ curiosity about phenomena and events in the world around them. It also satisfies their curiosity with knowledge. Because science links direct practical experience with ideas, it can engage learners at many levels. Scientific methods are about developing and evaluating explanations through experimental evidence and modelling. Pupils learn to question and discuss science-based issues that may affect their own lives, the direction of society and the future of the world.
 

Implementation

At Leedstown we implement a progressive Science curriculum that builds on prior skills and knowledge year on year. The science curriculum will be taught in response to driving questions which are aimed to be challenging, inspiring, creative, nurturing and encourage active learning. As far as possible, each topic must have an element which challenges the “Thinking Scientifically” element of the curriculum and focuses on building different aspects of enquiry skills.

At Key Stage 1 pupils observe, explore and ask questions about living things, materials and physical phenomena. They begin to work together to collect evidence to help them answer questions and to link this to simple scientific ideas. They begin to evaluate evidence and consider whether tests or comparisons are fair. They use reference materials to find out more about scientific ideas. They share ideas and communicate them using scientific language, drawings, charts and tables with the help of ICT if it is appropriate.

At Key Stage 2 pupils learn about a wider range of living things, materials and physical phenomena. They make links between ideas and explain things using simple models and theories. They apply their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas to familiar phenomena, everyday things and their personal health. They think about the effects of scientific and technological developments on the environment and in other contexts. They carry out more systematic investigations, working on their own and with others. They use a range of reference sources in their work. They talk about their work and its significance, using a wide range of scientific language, conventional diagrams, charts, graphs and ICT.

We want every child to see themselves as a scientist and never stop being amazed by the wonders our world has to offer; to carry on asking questions and explore the possibilities open to them.

Impact

The impact of our Science curriculum is that our learners are equipped with the scientific skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the secondary curriculum and for life as an adult in the world outside the classroom.

Children will be able to demonstrate their ability to interpret scientific thinking and suggest ways in which they might explore a scientific principle.

Children’s learning is assessed against the age-related expectations for science.