Organisation of the Curriculum

Our vision at Romilly is:

 Access-Attitudes-Achievement.

The curriculum will be taught with the consideration of the needs of all learners (Access). Our curriculum will be exciting and inspire children to nurture a passion for learning (Attitude), ensuring progress for all (Achievement). 

This is underpinned by our mission statement:

“Learning, Growing and Succeeding Together”

Romilly Primary School is committed to meeting the requirements of the Curriculum for Wales.

The Curriculum for Wales is driven by the Four Purposes and our school vision is very much in line with these purposes.

We have worked with our stakeholders over the last few years to develop our understanding of the 4 purposes, and we have sought their views on the types of learning experiences we should be providing for our pupils. We asked all our stakeholders to consider what the 4 purposes would look like at each year group in our school, and we have thought carefully about our school context and the implications this should have on the curriculum offer. School leaders and teachers undertook reading and research and attended professional learning on the curriculum.

These discussions led on to us developing our new vision and values for Romilly Primary School. Our vision on Access-Attitudes-Achievement, along with our core values was created after an inset day which all staff and governors were invited to, and also from parent questionnaire feedback.  

The Four purposes and our curriculum

• We will strive for ambitious capable learners by ensuring our pupils have the opportunities and develop the skills to ask and respond to questions. Our children will seek high challenge, use pervious learning, create and use success criteria and set targets for themselves. They will respond to feedback and be able to self-assess.
• We will ensure our children are working towards being ethically informed citizens by teaching them to listen, respond and care for others. We will give them an awareness of environmental issues and the action that can be taken to help, as well as awareness of other cultures. They will be taught how to learn together and give constructive feedback.
• Our children will learn how to be healthy and confident by teaching them about physical and emotional health. We will also teach them about the use of humour. Through our Values Education, we will teach them about perseverance and resilience, as well as respect, kindness, wellbeing and teamwork. They will also understand how people learn and how to become independent learners themselves.
• Our pupils will develop as enterprising and creative contributors by observing and noticing, making links, and taking risks in their learning. They will have opportunities to be creative and to solve problems, as well as having the experience and opportunity to develop entrepreneurial awareness.

 

This will all be in line with our own personal school vision of Access- Attitudes- Achievement. These three key areas are incredibly important to us at Romilly.

What we do and how we do it

• Our schemes of work reflect the content and challenge of the curriculum. Teachers have received training in key areas of curriculum change and are ready to provide an outstanding curriculum provision. Children will learn through direct and indirect teaching as well as through blended learning.
• To ensure all pupils can access the curriculum, work will be highly differentiated and in line with the pupil’s individual needs. We will also prioritise reading, which we will teach through a carefully planned and well taught synthetics phonics programme-Read Write Inc. Children will be taught at stage and not age and we want all pupils to leave our school with the ability to access any text and have a love of reading and learning. Our mantra is that ‘no child is left behind.’  
• Maths is taught though a systematic and coherent programme with a large focus on number work, which the children will access at, and progress through, a level tailored to them. Our expectations are high as we want all children to be numerate by the time they leave us, and to then be able to continue their learning journey at secondary school.
• Our curriculum is taught through termly themes, through a model of engage, develop, innovate and express.  The themes cover all of the areas of learning to ensure our children receive a broad and balanced curriculum, and learn through authentic leaning contexts. Lessons are taught with a focus on skills and knowledge, ensuring children can transfer their learning across different contexts.
• Each year group will explore three overarching themes a year. Our themes ensure that our pupil are proud and knowledgeable about where they live. They ensure that our children develop knowledge about Wales and the wider world and also includes regular opportunities to learn about the history that has shaped how we think today, including local history, black history, and diversity.
• We follow the Curriculum for Wales: Relationships and Sexuality Education Code (RSE). We use a program called ‘Jigsaw’ to help us deliver this important aspect of the curriculum.
• In the earlier years of the school we ensure that our children have the full experience of the foundation phase philosophy, by doing most of their learning through small focussed tasks and purposeful play, creating inquisitive, independent learners.

How we assess progress and learning

• We will assess children by questioning using formative and summative approaches. Assessment at Romilly happens day to day and the pupils are fully involved and informed of their progress. We also assess termly for reading, spelling, writing and maths, and use these assessments to inform our planning and create next steps for the pupils to ensure constant and consistent progress of our learners.
• We believe monitoring every pupil’s progress is essential if all pupils are to achieve their potential, so we have been mindful to include opportunities for pupils to show the progress they are making at key points throughout their topics. We have reviewed our feedback policy and staff are fully committed to giving pupils regular individual feedback on how they are progressing and what they need to do next, in line with the progression steps and the principles of progression. We use a variety of assessment strategies, and we ensure every assessment strategy has a clear purpose and is useful in helping pupils make progress.

How we will review our curriculum

Our school curriculum will be kept under review to ensure it is meeting the needs of our learners and our school vision. Staff and governors will have opportunities throughout the year to evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum and make changes to ensure it is still relevant to our school context and our learners.