Approach to Learning
Curriculum Introduction
At Standens Barn, our children enjoy an engaging curriculum that is planned to support them in their development in becoming independent, lifelong learners.
Our school values; Brave, Enthusiastic, Safe and Thoughtful are key to the learning across the school with opportunities planned and offered with every child at the forefront of our minds and each subject being delivered with engagement, ambition relevance and nurture.
Each child is unique and our curriculum is adapted to suit each child, cohort and need as necessary to enable them to succeed at every opportunity. We are an inclusive school and more information about how we meet the needs of all our children and how we comply with the Equality and SEND Acts is available in the following link: https://www.standens.northants.sch.uk/page/?title=SEND&pid=23
The National Curriculum framework is adhered to at Standens Barn alongside personalisation to ensure the learning is pertinent to children's understanding of their local area and current topics both nationally and worldwide.
We want children to be able to articulate themselves, be good readers and writers and be able to carry out mathematical calculations. For this reason, these areas of learning underpin all that we do at the school. The greater part of curriculum time is spent on ensuring that these skills are taught to your child.
We also use a 'Themed Learning' approach so your child will become immersed in an area of learning during their time of study. Subjects may be linked together to support learning around a particular 'theme'. For example on the theme of the Romans, the children will use drama to explore life in Roman times, they will write historical stories and newspaper accounts of significant events, they will explore mosaic art and make Roman shields, they will learn about sun dials and the Roman Clock and become fully immersed in the area they are learning about.
Our curriculum is a 7-year design - beginning in reception and moving through to Year 6. It is planned long term to ensure progression and give the children the ability to build on prior learning, make links and challenge their understanding.
To keep you up to date with what areas your child is studying please follow the Classes link above.
Reading Curriculum at Standens Barn Primary School
Our reading curriculum is based on the learning statements from the National Curriculum which are organised into the DERIC components (Decode, Explain, Retrieve and Infer). We use the Read Write Inc programme to deliver consistent and effective daily phonics lessons to children in Reception and Year 1. Please visit https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/ for videos on how you can support this at home.
In Years 2 and above the children have daily whole class reading sessions. We ensure we cover all the domains of reading relevant to each academic year group and also ensure progression in learning across terms, years and key stages. We encourage a love of reading amongst our children through their own individual reading book, the main school library, the BEST books in our classroom libraries and our class readers. We also organise many reading events to prioritise reading and share an enjoyment of story, poetry and literature such as Story advent books and Big Barn Book Swap.
Writing Curriculum at Standens Barn Primary School
At Standens Barn, we teach our children how to use written English language effectively for a variety of purposes. We want children to form letters clearly and neatly while developing their own style of handwriting. Pupils will learn the basics on sentence construction to accurately and coherently express themselves and soon develop understanding of many more complex grammatical devices, which develops their skills of explanation, persuasion, description, instruction and narration. Through phonics (Read Write Inc) and spelling sessions, children will write accurately and know when they need support. We want children to write ambitiously by including ideas, features and vocabulary that transports the reader to new worlds. In summary, we want children to be able to use writing as a tool for enjoyment, self-expression, career development, friendship and as a vehicle to demonstrate their ability and knowledge across many areas of learning.
Maths Curriculum at Standens Barn Primary School
Our maths teaching is based on the White Rose scheme of work and is underpinned by the bar modelling theory of mathematical teaching, which is also supported by My Maths. There is a strong emphasis on developing number work and fluency alongside problem-solving and relational understanding. This ensures that children quickly develop their number bonds and times tables knowledge so that they can apply this to mathematical understanding.
RE Curriculum
We follow local SACRE guidance for religious education (RE). It is compulsory for all state-funded schools in England to teach religious education (RE). However, it is not part of the national curriculum, and parents have a legal right to withdraw their children from all or part of the lessons.
PSHE Curriculum
We follow the Scarf programme for PSHE, which fully complies with the DfE requirements as outlined from September 2022. Please visit https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/family-scarf to support your child's learning at home. We also incorporate this with our Trust wide approach to Relationships and Sex Education and our PSHE and RSE curriculum incorporates lessons from 'No Outsiders'- an online curriculum source offering progressive curriculum plans emphasising ‘All different but all welcome’.
Computing Curriculum
Our computing curriculum is based on the Teach Computing programme. Online Safety is taught throughout the year and identified in each unit as recognised within https://teachcomputing.org/
PE Curriculum
We follow, adapt and contextualise the PE Hub programme as the basis of our PE curriculum.
For current learning in each class, please visit the Classes section.