Our curriculum ensures learning is effective, exciting and above all, relevant to the needs of our children.

 

All our pupils will leave Parklands with a very good education in both English and mathematics that underpins a growing excellence in the other subjects of the curriculum. Our child-led and knowledge-based curriculum offers the full range of National Curriculum and other recommended subjects from Early Years to the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2). We believe in bringing children’s learning to life, both indoors and outdoors, with the aim of all children being excited by a love of learning that prepares them for their future lives.

While great importance is placed on children learning the core skills of English and mathematics, Parklands Primary School also places great value on developing the ‘whole child’ by providing a rich programme of study across all curriculum areas. This programme is enriched by an exciting range of visits to places of interest and importance, and visits from people of complimentary backgrounds who share their experiences and knowledge in exciting and interesting ways.

The Resource Provision (RP)

The Resource Provision meets the complex learning needs of 25 children aged 4 to 11, all of whom have their own, personal curriculum and learning plan. These children are divided into 2 groups, each in their own home-room, and teaching is carefully matched to each child’s abilities rather than their age. Thus, learning looks different for each of our children in the Resource Provision, as it is planned to meet their own identified needs.

Children who are academically, socially and emotionally able to learn through an academic curriculum are included in mainstream maths and cross-curricular lessons. The wider foundation subjects are taught through planning matched to their ability, that closely follows that taught in the rest of the school. This enables children in the RP to enjoy the same enrichment of the curriculum through visits and visitors that the main school experiences.

For other children in the RP, their curriculum is planned through direct experience and play-based learning across a range of rich and varied sensory experiences within their home-room, the sensory room and our outdoor environment.

All children in the RP enjoy daily outdoor activities, enriched physical education (PE) and weekly swimming lessons. The aim of Parklands Resource Provision is to enable all children to become successful and independent individuals as they grow, through their wide ranging, enriched curriculum.

 

The Early Years and Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Our high expectations for all children in Parklands Primary School start in the EYFS, where it is our aim to provide a high-quality curriculum planned to meet the many different needs of our children and the community we serve. We are proud of the fact that we know our children and their families so well, and we use this knowledge to shape our curriculum which gives knowledge and enrichment to our children’s lives. We have high expectations for our children, aiming for them all to learn well and succeed as they grow and move through our school. Thus our curriculum is skilfully planned to meet the needs of all children and to make sure that there are no gaps in their learning and understanding, with planned assessment points throughout each year to ensure that every child is making the expected progress.

Children in the Reception Year will enjoy a very busy curriculum in school. Learning in Reception takes the form of both planned lessons that include English, phonics, mathematics and topic, and investigative learning both in the indoor and outdoor environment. Both the Reception curriculum and the outdoor learning environment are planned and designed in such a way as to make sure that every child makes good progress, whatever their starting points.

At Parklands Primary School, the English curriculum is provided through ‘Talk for Writing’ (including in Reception) which is a fun and interactive way for children to learn language structures and vocabulary through exploring and understanding stories and then planning and then writing their own stories. The framework of texts is planned across the year, and is supported by the story-spine of books known as the ‘Fab 5 Stories’, which are carefully selected for their content and enrichment that broaden children’s experiences and expand the language opportunities.

In the Early Years, the child is at the heart of the curriculum and subject knowledge is matched to the interests and expected leaning of the children. Curiosity, awe and wonder are inspired through real and rich experiences that engage the full interest of the children. We are committed to giving all children learning through real life-experiences such as seeing and touching live farm animals, observing and drawing the life-cycle of a caterpillar or washing, cutting and eating a wide variety of fruit, many unknown to our children.

Parents and carers are frequently welcomed into our Early Years setting, as we believe that when we all work in partnership together we can provide the best start for a child’s learning journey. We provide many ways for families to join us, including a daily ‘open door’ where parents and carers can help their child with their ‘early bird’ work, ‘stay and play’ sessions each week and many termly events including parent meetings, craft mornings and other learning experiences.

 

Key Stage 1 (KS1)

In KS1, children at Parklands Primary School continue their exciting learning journey through a wide and varied curriculum. Each morning they learn English, including phonics and reading, and mathematics. In the afternoons they enjoy carefully planned topics that provide an interesting and exciting context for learning across the wider curriculum, as well as daily lessons covering the subject requirements for science, RE, PSHE, history, geography, computing and music. Art and DT are taught in weekly blocks across each half term. Wherever possible, cross-curricular links are identified to make learning more meaningful. PE is taught in timetabled morning sessions every week, by specialist coaches who are part of the fully trained school staff.

Throughout KS1 there are a range of support sessions in place for children with identified specific needs. These mainly take place through targeted work to address gaps in learning in phonics, English, mathematics and speech and language. These support sessions change across each half term, in response to the needs of the children. Each week, children in Year 1 enjoy weekly performing arts lessons with Artis, which is linked to their current learning across the curriculum, and through which they further develop their speaking and listening skills.

Learning across KS1 is fun, interactive and relevant to the experiences of our children at Parklands Primary School, their environment and the wider world. Children are encouraged to be independent learners with enquiring minds and a love of learning in all aspects of their school life. They are supported to be the best that they can be, celebrating their differences, their joy and their cultures through their strengths and interests.

 

Key Stage 2 (KS2)

Across the 4 years of KS2 at Parklands Primary School, we are committed to the importance of helping every child to develop as a whole person, happy and ready to take their next steps in both their education and wider life experiences beyond this school.

Each morning starts with Early Bird Arithmetic, which helps children to develop number skills through daily practise. This is then followed by wider mathematics, guided reading and English – which includes weekly spelling, grammar and handwriting. Children experience the wider curriculum through afternoon lessons in science, art, music, RE, PSHE, computing, history, geography, DT and Spanish. PE is taught by specialist coaches. In addition, children enjoy deep and meaningful learning of through topic.

Our aim, across KS2 at Parklands Primary School, is for education to take place within exciting and interesting activities that explore and provide purposeful learning for each year group. This will be through a curriculum that fosters confidence, independence, co-operation and self-esteem so that all children leave our school with a wide range of learning and knowledge, and the self-belief to excel in their later lives.

Carefully planned interventions are provided for children identified as being in need of additional support, but we ensure that their provision does not lead to pupils missing out on the wider curriculum. In Year 4 all children access a daily ‘mastering number’ programme focussed on improving the recall of times tables. We also have additional ‘fresh start’ reading interventions for children in UKS2.

Children across KS2 further develop their academic, social and cultural skills through our carefully planned enrichment curriculum. This includes learning both within school and through termly school trips or workshops organised in each year group. The Year 6 pupils also celebrate the end of their primary school journey while at PGL exploring their limits through outdoor adventure.

 

Subject Specific Curriculum Information.

 

Mathematics:

Early Bird Maths: starts each day from Y3 upwards. In KS1 children also access daily arithmetic practice in the afternoon to fit in with their early morning phonic sessions.

White Rose Maths Curriculum (across KS1 and KS2): Our maths curriculum ensures progression from concrete activity learning into numerical challenge and problem solving. A carefully structured programme that ensures number and skills fluency and leads to the ability to solve complex tasks. WRM is planned through a rigorous programme of small-steps with regular opportunities to revisit and consolidate learning.

Penguin Jump is a weekly session devoted to the improved recall and fluency of times tables or number bonds in KS1 across the school.

Intervention in maths is delivered via the Numberstacks intervention programme which is designed to specifically target gaps in children’s understanding of the key skills within mathematics.

 

English:

Read Write Inc Phonics: Reception and Year 1 experience a daily 20-minute lesson which follows the recommended revisit, review, teach, practise, apply structure of lively, fast and fun lessons. Following the end-of-year Year 1 National Phonics Test, consolidation and intervention take place in Year 2. Any child who has not completed the programme by the end of KS1 will continue with phonics in interventions at KS2.

Reading: Children follow a school-planned rigorous programme of reading motivation and teaching activities. ‘First Chapter Friday’ introduces children to high quality reading.

Writing: In Early Years, the ‘Hold a Sentence’ daily writing session is completed as a group activity by all children. Writing for Purpose is thoughtfully planned across Key Stages 1 and 2, using high-quality texts to create engaging English lessons. Each writing unit lasts several weeks and follows a structured approach: immersion in the text type, sentence building, planning, writing, editing, and publishing. This method allows children ample time to refine and embed their writing skills based on feedback and responsive teaching.

Oracy: the entire curriculum, including for English, is planned through oracy with learning and creating through talk at its heart. Talk is a key part of planning writing, evaluating writing and exploring understanding in learning across the curriculum. Weekly ‘Suave Words’ are learnt and used across a range of learning each week.

SPAG: (spelling, punctuation and grammar): the teaching of SPAG + vocabulary is embedded across all reading and writing lessons. There are also 3 timetabled grammar lessons each week across Key Stage 2.

Word Ladders: weekly sessions explore the roots of words and how they change for purpose.

Spelling is taught through the Read Write Inc spelling scheme from Years 2-6. This builds on the phonics knowledge and spelling skills taught in Year 1.

Handwriting is taught using the Letter -join scheme with daily lesson in EYFS and KS1 and lessons 3 times a week in KS2. Children are taught the cursive style of handwriting from Year 2.

 

Science: 

Children throughout the school follow the school’s curriculum for progression and learning in science. They work as practical scientists, investigating and conducting experiments both indoors and across the extensive school site. The regular cross-curricular trips across school, include opportunities to study aspects of science to broaden our children’s experiences.

Participation in British Science Week provides an exciting and challenging opportunity for working as scientists each year.

This year, Parklands will be embarking on the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) aiming for recognition of the School’s commitment to excellence in Science education.

 

Computing and Online Safety:

Here at Parklands we want pupils to be MASTERS of technology and not slaves to it. Technology is everywhere and will play a pivotal part in students’ lives. Therefore, we want to model and educate our pupils on how to use technology positively, responsibly and safely. We want to equip pupils to use computational thinking and creativity that will enable them to become active participants in the digital world. We want our pupils to be creators not consumers and our broad curriculum encompassing computer science (programming and understanding how digital systems work), information technology (using computer systems to store, retrieve and send information) and digital literacy (evaluating digital content and using technology safely and respectfully) reflects this.

Our progression is mapped thoroughly following the Teach Computing Curriculum where every year group will cover

• Computing systems and Networks
• Creating Media
• Programming
• Data and Information

In order to teach our children to be safe online we will cover in every year group:

• Self-Image, wellbeing and lifestyle
• Online reputation
• Online relationships
• Online bullying
• Managing online information
• Privacy and security
• Copyright and ownership

 

History:

The key concepts of the National Curriculum for history have been mapped out through the school’s history curriculum, to ensure progression through effective teaching and revisiting of key skills and knowledge.

EYFS – History is taught through topics in which children learn through experiences in their own lives and that of their family, and changes within living memory.

KS1 – Children are taught about aspects of British History beyond living memory, significant events such as ‘the Great Fire of London’ in Y2 and the lives of significant people such as Queen Victoria and Neil Armstrong.

KS2 – Children are taught through topics which cover aspects of British History and these are taught in chronological order: Stone Age, Romans, Anglo-Saxons & Vikings, Victorian Leeds and World War 2.  Each year group is also taught about an Ancient Civilisation.

 

Geography:

The key concepts of the National Curriculum for geography – with adaptations to reflect the locality of Parkland’s Primary School – have been mapped out through the school’s geography curriculum, to ensure progression through effective teaching and revisiting of key skills and knowledge. Pupils learn appropriate geographical vocabulary and fieldwork skills whilst using a wide range of resources including maps, atlases, globes and compasses. By the time our children leave primary school they have developed a good understanding of the complexity of our world and an appreciation of the diversity of cultures that exist across the continents.

EYFS: Our ‘Understanding of the World’ curriculum guides our children in exploration of our locality, through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places and the environment.

KS1: Children study 3 main aspects: 1) The United Kingdom, its 4 countries, their capital cities and the seas around them. 2) 2 contrasting locations, through studying Leeds as a small area of the United Kingdom and Mumbai, as a small area of India. 3) Children study the geography of the world, naming its 7 continents and 5 oceans, and compare the similarities and difference between hot and cold localities.

KS2:  1) Children expand their learning from the United Kingdom to include Europe and South America. They study the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. 2) Knowledge of the world is extended through study of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and the Lines of Latitude and Longitude. Children investigate climatic zones of the world, and significant geographical features including earthquakes, volcanoes and The Water Cycle. 3) Understanding of contrasting localities is further developed by comparing Leeds with a region in Europe (Andulasia, Spain) and the United Kingdom with countries in South America.

 

PSHE and Personal Development:

‘The One Decision Programme’ is followed throughout the Reception Year of the school.

The ‘You, Me, PSHE’ Scheme of Work provides the curriculum for KS1 and KS2. Through these 2 very thorough and well-planned progressive programmes, children develop strong personal awareness, including emotions, relationships and their bodies; social awareness including behaviour, respect and making choices; and health education awareness, including hygiene, mental health and body development and awareness. All year groups study the most sensitive and crucial aspects that include anti-bullying, mental health, internet safety, consent and ‘Speak Out, Stay Safe’ (NSPCC).

At Parklands Primary School, we not only focus on academic growth and achievement but also on personal strength of character. They learn through our values of ‘Nurture, Grow, Succeed’. These values are celebrated through both school assemblies and our commitment to both pupil voice and representation on the School Council.

 

RE:

The Leeds Syllabus ‘Believing and Belonging’ 2024-2029 provides a broad and balanced programme for RE throughout school. It is designed to cover the content of RE through six learning pathways. These are:

1. The nature of religion and belief
2. Expressing belief
3. A good life
4. Personal journey
5. Influence and authority
6. The big picture

This syllabus ensures that all religions/ worldviews are taught across the key stages which will support the understanding of specific faiths/ main religious traditions so that all learners build substantive knowledge sequentially. The syllabus emphasises the importance of pupils encountering the lived experience of people in order to understand diversity within religions and worldviews.

 

PE:

The Parklands Curriculum for PE is planned through a bespoke assessment framework that enables an overall progressive development programme that ensure children develop overall physical literacy from an early age. It ensures that pupils leave primary education able to make informed choices about their personal physical activity both in and outside school.

KS1: ‘The Four Core Skills Strategy’ leads to a high level of engagement for all and provides an overall focus on movement, balance, control and co-ordination, and includes the understanding of physical language.

KS2:  Termly formative assessments inform the progression and adaptation of each following term’s learning. This ensures pupils experience a much greater exploration of physical activities – both competitive and non-competitive. They learn about fairness, rules and safety as well as personal development.

 

Art:

The Parklands Programme for Art, offers a broad and balanced curriculum, which is the expectation reflected in the national curriculum. A good art education improves students’ skills to appreciate, interpret, communicate, and create, making it both mentally and creatively rewarding.

EYFS: Children investigate and experiment with a range of media, building their confidence, skills and language.

KS1 and Lower KS2: Children develop techniques for working in a range of media within the 3 areas of learning: sculpture, modelling media and a variety of 2-dimensial work, including painting, sketching and collage, using a range of media.

Upper KS2: Children work both independently and collaboratively on termly ‘Art and Design Briefs’, making their own decisions on media and tools to produce original and creative work.

 

DT: 

The Parklands Primary School DT curriculum ensures children throughout the school develop the skills of exploring the way things are made, how they work, what they are used for and how the materials are chosen and constructed. Pupils learn and apply their skills through projects that include: food technology, textiles, mechanics, electronics and structures. They learn to test, make and evaluate their own designs, working towards critical thinking and problem solving as they mature.

The curriculum includes the study of the history of design as well as modern day designers and inventors to ensure that the world of design is relevant to our students.

 

Music:

The Parklands Curriculum for Music nurtures a passion for music throughout the school, bringing joy to learning in every aspect of the children’s lives. Our progressive curriculum encourages children to explore and develop their abilities across the three vital areas of performance, composition, and appraisal.

Singing holds a special place in our school culture. Pupils participate in singing assemblies and are provided with numerous opportunities to enhance their singing skills during music lessons and performances. Our after-school choir plays a crucial role in supporting all school shows, reflecting our belief that every child deserves the chance to sing.

In addition, we offer composition workshops for every class three times a year. These workshops provide children with the opportunity to become music creators, allowing them to build compositions both in groups and as soloists. They also develop the skills needed to record their ideas through notation, further deepening their understanding and appreciation of music as an expressive art form.

As children progress through the school, they experience a wide range of instruments and musical styles, from the rhythm of drums in EYFS, through the xylophone in KS1, to the ukulele in KS2. Throughout this journey, pupils develop essential skills in performance, notation, creation, and evaluation as they engage with each of these areas annually. Our curriculum fosters a deeper love and understanding of contemporary music, which pupils are encouraged to compare and contrast with music from the ancient world.

Through these diverse and enriching experiences, Parklands nurtures confident and creative musicians, who carry a lifelong appreciation and love for music.

 

MFL:

The ‘Language Angels’ scheme steers the Parklands MFL Curriculum for Spanish across Key Stage 2. Spanish is delivered weekly by our subject lead teacher. The lessons are designed to motivate, captivate and interest children from the first moment. They have clear, achievable objectives and incorporate different learning styles.

We aim to ensure that pupils of all abilities develop solid foundations in Spanish – properly preparing them for the next stage of their language learning journey. Our Spanish curriculum is carefully planned to develop our children’s ability to understand what they hear and read and enable them to express themselves in speech and writing in Spanish. We extend their knowledge of how language works and explore the similarities and differences between the foreign language they are learning and English. This also helps strengthen their sense of identity through learning about culture in other countries and comparing it with their own.

 

EAL:

The Parklands Curriculum for English as an Additional Language ensures that all children learn in an inclusive and supportive environment with a priority for learning English whilst learning in English, and understanding the culture of our country. Children develop their skills of speaking, understanding and learning in English as they study across the curriculum in all other subjects, through a carefully planned and sequenced programme that leads to cultural understanding and successful integration into the school, the wider community and beyond.