At The Rissington School we believe that the curriculum is a powerful tool that promotes a love of learning and willingness to explore.

We are proud to use the National Curriculum as a starting point for a wide and varied learning experience for our children, but enrich it by our strong ethos based on respect for ourselves and others, equality and a sense of wonder at the world we live in. We are committed to developing the whole child. Our children will have the opportunity to be creative, to be physically active and to be academically challenged.

We are continually reviewing and improving the curriculum we offer to our children,  evolving it  according to the needs of our children and to the aspirations of the staff and community.

At the beginning of the 2020 academic year we reviewed our curriculum to ensure that it was representative of the community, skills and interests of teachers, current affairs and greater diversity.  Using the themes of Exploration, Discovery and Power, we have designed our curriculum around historical themes, with links to other subjects actively planned to ensure that the termly themes are inspirational and add meaning to learning.  Subject Leaders have ensured that within years, and across the whole school, skills and learning is progressive.  Due to the structure of our classes, we will be operating a two year cycle, which allows our teachers with mixed-year classes to plan and work together, sharing interests and strenghts. 

Click on the links below to see the 2 Year Curriculum Overview.  20/21 is Cycle A. 

Foundation Stage Overview 

Year 1/2 Curriculum Overview

Year 3/4 Curriculum Overview

Year 4/5 Curriculum Overview

Year 5/6 Curriculum Overview 

VALUES: 

We value the way in which all children are unique, and our curriculum promotes respect for the views of each individual child, as well as for people of all cultures. We value the spiritual and moral development of each person, as well as their intellectual and physical growth.  We foster a love of learning, and aim to support children in the development of skills to make them life-long, independent learners through the development of a Growth Mindset (based around 'The Power of Yet!' and the '5Rs of Independent Learning').

We value the importance of each person in our community. We organise our curriculum so that we promote co-operation and understanding between all members of our community and use the community to enrich the curriculum. We actively promote British Values, ensuring that our pupils are responsible members of the global community.  To find out more about how we do this, click here.

We value the rights enjoyed by each person in our society. We respect each child in our school for who they are, and we treat them with fairness and honesty. We aim to enable each person to be successful, and we provide equal opportunities for all the children in our school.

We value our environment, and we aim, through our curriculum, to teach respect for our world, and how we should care for it for future generations, as well as our own.  We actively seek opportunities to use the outdoor environment as a stimulus for, and a place to enhance, learning recognising the impact that Outdoor Learning can have on a child’s engagement, the development of independent learning skills and how it can add context to learning.

We value parents and work in partnership with them to enrich the curriculum. Parents are informed about the curriculum through topic letters, homework and curriculum workshops, and are positively encouraged to become involved.

ORGANISING AND PLANNING OUR PRIMARY CURRICULUM:

At The Rissington School we have a Creative Curriculum, where cross curricular activities link learning to real-life situations and often have a practical approach. Pupils are actively involved in the decision making during the term and each topic starts with pupils working with their teacher to decide what they would like to know and what they know already. Our topics are wide ranging and we aim to ensure that all pupils are actively engaged in and enjoying their learning. Each term a curriculum letter is published to parents and carers, which outlines the programme of study that will take place. 

We believe that it is important that pupils really engage with their learning, and use opportunities to 'bring learning to life' by augmenting classroom based learning with visits and trips.  These are designed to extend learning, and also to act as a springboard for further learning and to give context.  Children find these opportunities inspiring and memorable and the impact on their learning is evident in the work they produce in response to trips etc.

We also believe that children learn best when they feel part of a community that is all learning and working together.  We organise themed weeks and days, where the whole school may be working on the same broad topic, often in classes but sometimes across classes.  This enables our older pupils to 'teach', share  and model learning with younger pupils, and also allows us to draw on specialists within our local communities.  For example, during a whole school science week classes learned about 'flight' to celebrate 100 years of the RAF (drawing on the schools' strong links with the RAF); classes carried out activities based around flight, ranging from balloons in Reception to rockets in Years 5 and 6; we also drew on our parents and community to come into classes and share their experiences.  It was an amazing and unforgettable week for the whole school community - how many schools have a helicopter landing on the school field? 

In addition to all the class based topic activities we also offer a wide range of extra curricular activities. These are open to all ages from Year 1 to Year 6 and are varied, including sports, musical and creative clubs.

Throughout the year we encourage parents and carers to visit the school for various activities and events. We hold Celebration Assemblies weekly on Fridays, where we celebrate the successes and achievements of our children, and three times a year each class hosts an assembly where they share their learning. We also invite parents to join us at fund-raising events, such as Coffee Afternoons, and at the end of Themed Weeks, where we can showcase our learning.

We are always open to suggestions and ideas from parents as to how we can improve communication and opportunities to share what we are doing.

EARLY YEARS CURRICULUM:

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, which sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old.

Our creative approach to learning , supports an integrated approach to early learning and care.  We deliver high quality early education and childhood experiences to all our children, equipping them with the skills and knowledge they need to become active learners.

Part of this process is the ongoing assessment of the stage in development that a child is at, so that we can plan for and develop their next steps in learning.  To support us in  our assessment we use the following document:  EYFS – Development Matters (2)

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS:

If a child has a special need, our school does all it can to meet their individual needs. We comply with the requirements set out in the SEN Code of Practice in providing for children with special needs. If a child displays signs of having special needs, his/her teacher makes an assessment of this need. In most instances the teacher is able to provide resources and educational opportunities which meet the child’s needs within the normal class organisation. If a child’s need is more severe, we consider the child for a statement of special needs, and we involve the appropriate external agencies when making this assessment. We provide additional resources and support for children with special needs.

We also recognise that some pupils may have particular talents or be gifted at certain subjects, and identify opportunities to enhance and extend their provision through participation in partnership or Gloucestershire activities, for example Science Fairs, STEM competitions, Literary Festivals etc.

RESOURCES: 

We use a range of phonics and reading schemes, depending on the needs of our learners. Published schemes that are used in Reception and Key Stage 1 include Songbirds, Phonics Bug and aspects of Letters and Sounds for phonics teaching and Oxford Reading Tree, Ginn, All Aboard and Rigby Star for reading development. Parents, Carers and members of the public can find out more about our curriculum by reading the curriculum letters, consulting with the national curriculum and its age-related expectations or by contacting the school to make an appointment to discuss the curriculum with a member of the school management team.

Further Links :

For further details on curriculum skills coverage and age related expectations please use the following links:

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6