02476689392
Underpinning: Underpinning all of our decisions, subject-specific foci and overall balance are our aims for what we would like the children of Good Shepherd to be and to have experienced. We have worked to ensure a complementary balance throughout each year and across years that ensures breadth, depth and the opportunity to spiral and progress learning.
Our Themes will run for a term in order to allow sufficient time for children to explore subjects in detail and to give the scope for our more able children to showcase their higher order thinking skills. Explicit drivers have been established for each theme to ensure that the sense of purpose remains clear throughout. Year groups will follow the same central driver so that wider school opportunities can be taken to reinforce learning and for more effective subject leader monitoring. The main drivers are History and Geography because of their importance in children understanding the world around them. Other subjects have been mapped out to supplement these throughout. These core areas will also be revisited at outlined opportunities throughout the year as best practice of spiralling curricula.
The aim of the Key Stage One theme curriculum is to develop and enhance children’s basic skills within History. The theme curriculum will build on the children’s learning and experiences from early years and equip them with the essential knowledge and skills to thrive within Key Stage Two. Within Year One, the children will build on their experiences from early years focusing on developing their knowledge of their own personal history, their local area, researching and asking questions and finally widening this experience to learning about people beyond living memory and significant British events. Within Year Two, the children will research people beyond living memory and significant events, while starting to consider how this impacts them today
The history elements in Key Stage Two are sequenced in chronological order as this is a key historical objective and concept for children to understand. Their sense and understanding will constantly be referred back to and built upon as they progress through Key Stage 2. In addition to this, subjects have been selected and ordered with consideration for the maturity of the topics- for example being able to discuss the reasoning and impact of war in Britain with Year 6.
In addition to the formal structure of termly topics, we have outlined additional enrichment opportunities. These will have a whole-school focus and present opportunities to supplement core learning, ensure breadth of coverage and to respond to current affairs and issues.
