Our Curriculum
Linton Heights Junior School Curriculum Statement
Intent
The school motto “Together we learn, together we thrive” is at the core of the Linton Heights curriculum for all pupils, irrespective of their backgrounds and starting points.
Our school values underpin our curriculum which has been created to build global citizens and life-long, successful learners. Wellbeing is a high priority to enable our pupils to be emotional literate.
Children are taught to be resilient; be respectful; show responsibility; have ambition; display kindness and always be honest. These are our school values.
By teaching skills, knowledge, concepts and vocabulary in all curricular subjects our pupils receive a thorough, broad and balanced curriculum.
Our pupils progress to clearly identified end points in each phase of learning. We build on the foundations set by KS1 and prepare our pupils for the challenges of KS3 and beyond.
According to the 2024 IDSR, 81% of our school is white British, therefore we are keen to intersperse diversity to broaden the horizons of our learners. Inspiring people, irrespective of religion, race, disability or sexual orientation are studied and we also aim to teach pupils about different cultures. Diversity in the curriculum is not a ‘bolt-on’ addition, rather a staple element in our curriculum.
Through an extensive range of enriching experiences – trips, residentials, visitors and activity days the staff at Linton Heights make learning captivating, empowering and uplifting. Staff and volunteers at the school offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities and clubs from crochet to cross-country; choir to Harry Potter club – every night pupils have a choice of at least two activities.
We want our pupils to love their learning and always fondly remember their time at Linton Heights.
Implementation
We have chosen to follow the Kapow curriculum for all foundation subjects (except PE) because there are explicit, identified skills progression end points in each subject which build upon what skill has been taught before and gives pupils the required knowledge for their next stage of learning. It also support our focus on diversity. The Kapow curriculum is written by subject experts and regularly updated so that the learning is always current and adapting as the world around us changes. A fundamental factor when deciding on this curriculum was to balance teacher workload with consistently high expectations in subject delivery whilst supporting teacher subject knowledge. The Kapow curriculum covers all the National Curriculum (2014) requirements for all foundation subjects including PSHE (incorporating RSE & Drugs Education).
The role of the subject leader is pivotal in the successful implementation of our curriculum. Using the Kapow curriculum, we aim for all foundation subject leaders to have the knowledge, expertise and practical skill to be able to lead and support teachers in the delivery of their subject areas.
From pupil voice, we have enhanced the given curriculum by providing planned, additional learning opportunities influenced by pupil needs, resources available and staff expertise. Time is being given to support children’s wellbeing through: morning check-ins, trusted adult support, access to Drawing and Talking therapy and emotional literacy work.
Our aim is that new learning – where relevant – is based upon what has been taught before either at Linton Infants or in an earlier year at Linton Heights and prepares pupils for what they will learn next at Linton Village College or an alternative secondary school. See subject specific progression documents.
In PE we use Complete PE which is supplemented by additional units such as the teaching of adaptive sports to ensure inclusivity.
Teachers have a flexibility to timetable the curriculum in a way that best suits the learning needs: some subjects occur weekly and some are blocked into whole days.
Mathematics is taught through the Maths No Problem scheme. This is a DfE recommended resource for maths mastery. It is developed by top authors and advisers in the field and backed by research. It includes daily real-world contexts, variable representations e.g. bar model, part-part-whole and a small-stepped approach to the maths curriculum. The scheme is further enriched by opportunities for further problem solving to help build resilience. Teacher-designed starters allow for previous learning to be embedded and gaps to be filled. Early morning multiplication tables practice/operations improves fluency. Deepening understanding tasks allow children to have further opportunities for reasoning and to ensure all children are challenged in every lesson.
Following the need to improve standards in writing, in 2022, the school started to use The Write Stuff by Jane Considine. Consequent improvements in the quality of pupil writing in all year groups have been impressive. We insist on whole class reading where pupils are exposed to a wide range of texts and children answer VIPERS questions. There is a clear reading progression spine of texts which is tailored by our English leader. Where children need additional reading support, Phonics International (DfE validated scheme) and its matched texts are used. This leads on to the teaching of spelling through a programme called Sounds and Syllables (Jason Wade). For grammar and punctuation, we follow the requirements of the national curriculum. Appropriate staff have been trained in all these areas.
For core and foundation subjects, lessons are designed to provide all pupils with requisite scaffolding or challenge so that they can access the learning, develop themselves irrespective of their ability or appetite for the subject. Our inclusive teaching styles encompass flexible grouping, using technology (iPads), adaptive teaching to ensure all pupils can access the learning, formative assessment and a focus on shared behaviour standards for learning.
We recognise that not all learning needs to be captured in the written form and or by every child. Whole class floor books, video or sound recordings, photographs or conversations/observations are often just as valuable in demonstrating understanding.
Pupil voice via our School Councillors and Junior Leadership Team is used to support our decision making at Linton Heights Junior School. Our school Eco Council provides the School Leadership Team with inspirational thoughts and ideas about how we can all play our part in safeguarding the future.
Impact
Using the carefully designed Kapow Curriculum which focuses pupils on and regularly revisits key learning, pupils are able to recall knowledge and skills independently weeks or months after a unit has been taught. Checking that pupils are learning will enable pupils and teachers to see if their fluency and mastery is incrementally improving and therefore impact has been achieved.
A curriculum subject leader is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of their own subject area. The information from the monitoring and evaluation, coupled with the results from the Kapow end of unit tests, then forms the basis of the impact assessment for that curriculum area. Judgements on the impact of the curriculum on pupils are based upon a triangulation of different monitoring and evaluation activities within school. Work and book looks, pupil voice discussions, outcomes of assessments and quality of teaching and learning are all used at tools to help senior leaders assess the impact of the curriculum.
Assessment is not onerous. On a half-termly basis, teachers assess each pupil in the foundation subjects, recording it on FFT using Kapow assessment tools. Following this, subject leads and class teachers focus on which parts of their curriculum need attention. Three times a year, children undertake summative assessment in core subjects using either NFER assessments or past KS2 SATs in Year 6.
On starting each new topic, key skills and concepts for the relevant curriculum areas are revisited. This provides context to the new learning. These skills are also applied in different contexts and in different curriculum areas.