Links to documents
Intent
The breadth of our curriculum is designed with three goals in mind:
- To give pupils appropriate experiences to develop as confident, responsible citizens;
- To provide a rich ‘cultural capital’;
- To provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to sustained mastery for all and a greater depth of understanding for those who are capable.
Appropriate experiences
We have developed three curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, bring about the aims
and values of our school, and to respond to the particular needs of our community:
- Real Relevant Rich – to give our children learning experiences that are pertinent to their lives both now and in the future and increase the opportunities for first-hand experience
- Danger – children to experience things that are slightly outside their safe environment – from climbing to reading aloud on stage to cycling around our track
- Possibilities - which helps pupils to build aspirations and know available possibilities for their future lives
Cultural capital
Cultural capital is the background knowledge of the world pupils need to infer meaning from what they read. It includes vocabulary, which, in turn, helps pupils to express themselves in a sophisticated, mature way.
A coherently planned academic curriculum
underpinned by the three drivers, our academic curriculum sets out:
- a clear list of the breadth of topics that will be covered;
- the ‘essential concepts’ (learning objectives) pupils should understand;
- criteria for progression within the threshold. concepts;
- criteria for depth of understanding.
We arrange the learning in Milestones spanning two year groups to allow time for children to work at a greater depth of understanding.
- EYFS
- Milestone 1 – years 1 and 2
- Milestone 2 – years 3 and 4
- Milestone 3 – years 5 and 6
During each milestone children will work at a range of levels. Pupils by the end of Year 1, 3 and 5 should achieve a ‘basic’ level of work as we are all apprentices when we start new things. Pupils in Year 2, 4 and 6 should achieve an ‘advancing’ level of work, they are qualified (they have met national expectations). Pupils who grasp concepts quickly will be working with greater depth, making broader connections with increased autonomy to become masterful in the subject by the end of the milestone.
A = apprentice = your child is approaching the national expectation
Q = qualified = your child has securely met the national expectation
M = masterful = your child has gone beyond the national expectation and has shown they can get to grips with deeper thinking in that area.
Sustained mastery
Nothing is learned unless it rests in pupils’ long-term memories. This does not happen, and cannot be assessed, in the short term. Assessment, therefore answers two main questions:
- ‘How well are pupils coping with curriculum content?
- ‘How well are they retaining previously taught content?’
Implementation
Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science and we are working on a long term plan to integrate three main principles:
- learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
- Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.
- Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.
In addition to the three principles we also understand that learning is invisible in the short-term and that sustained mastery takes time. Some of our content is subject specific, whilst other content is combined in a cross-curricular approach. Continuous provision, in the form of daily routines, replaces the teaching of some aspects of the curriculum and, in other cases, provides retrieval practise for previously learned content.
Impact
The impact of our curriculum is that by the end of each Milestone, the vast majority of pupils have sustained mastery of the content, that is, they remember it all and are fluent in it; Some pupils have a greater depth of understanding. We track carefully to ensure pupils are on track to reach the expectations of our curriculum.
Leadership
Term dates 2022-23
Holiday Dates
Term Dates
Autumn Term 1
Tuesday 6 September to Friday 21 October
Autumn Term 2
Spring Term 1
Monday 20 Feb to Friday 31 March
Wednesday 4 January to Friday 10 February
Monday 31 October to Friday 16 December
Monday 17 April to Friday 26 May
Spring Term 2
Christmas Holidays
Monday 19 December to Monday 2 January
Half Term
Monday 24 October to Friday 28 October
Half Term
Monday 13 February to Friday 17 February
Summer Term 1
Easter Holidays
Monday 3 April to Friday 14 April
Summer Term 2
Half Term
Monday 29 May to Friday 2 June
Summer Holidays
Wednesday 26 July to Friday 1 September
Monday 5 June to Tuesday 25 July
Here are our curricular plans for each class. This year we are currently on cycle B.
Our Aims & Values
Kippax North Primary School aims to enable all young people to become;
Successful learners
- Ensuring a curriculum that provides young people with the best possible learning opportunities and experiences in conjunction with the National Priorities for Education
- Encouraging all pupils to reach their full potential, thereby raising standards and attainment at an appropriate rate
- Promoting and recognising achievement and excellence
- Enabling all pupils to enjoy the highest quality learning experiences by fostering a positive attitude to their learning
- Ensuring that all pupils are encouraged to demonstrate good behaviour, self discipline and a respect for others
Confident individuals
- Providing effective support to enable personal achievement
- Ensuring a safe and secure environment for all pupils
- Promoting an ethos of social inclusion and equality
- Encouraging all pupils to be involved in and express their opinions about their education
- Promoting a healthy lifestyle for all pupils
Responsible citizens
- Equipping pupils with the core skills, attitudes and expectations required to prosper in a changing society
- Encouraging creativity, curiosity, ambition and enthusiasm for lifelong learning
- Encouraging entrepreneurial experiences which will foster development of skills and competencies in working with others
- Encouraging tolerance of diversity
- Involving pupils in events to support those less fortunate than themselves
Effective contributors
- Encouraging links to organisations within and out of school
- Promoting effective partnerships between pupils, parents, carers, and the wider community
- Ensuring that all pupils realise that they have an important part to play in the life and work of their school
- Creating and solving problems independently and collaboratively in a climate of mutual trust and respect for others
Application timetable
The below timetable applies to applications made to Leeds City Council. If you apply to another local authority, they may have different dates
We would love to hear from you.
