Our Approach

Aims

• To deliver a relevant and ambitious curriculum that supports our pupils to understand the world around them and encourages them to form and express educated opinions.
• To provide an inclusive and safe environment that equips all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to unlock their full potential.
• To foster inquisitive minds, providing opportunities for all children to question, choose, evaluate and argue rationally.
• To adequately prepare children for the next stage of their educational journey.
• To maintain high expectations of our pupils’ behaviour and attitude towards learning in school.
• To establish and maintain positive relationships between everybody in our school community including pupils, staff and parents, recognising each person’s worth.
• To maintain a culture of mutual respect and co-operation.

Knowledge

The Prototype Theory (Rosch 1973) suggests that when we encounter words, we use our previous knowledge and experiences to inform our understanding of the word. Furthermore, over time we build up webs or networks of meaning called ‘schemata’ (Anderson 1977) and one prototype triggers another, which triggers another, and so on. In order for our pupils to be able to create these layers of meaning and association, it is vital that they encounter rich and subject-specific vocabulary across the curriculum. In this way, every subject in the curriculum serves to improve children’s literacy, rather than the other way around. Sequencing the curriculum is vital; knowledge must be deliberately and explicitly practised and revisited from the beginning, throughout each key stage and beyond.

Skills

Although skills are not as prevalent in the current national curriculum as perhaps they were previously, they are still a fundamental part of what we teach our children. Fleetham (2018) states that ‘skills-based learning provides classroom environments where independence, thinking skills, collaboration and active learning are developed at the same time as knowledge is acquired.’ Therefore, an engaging, high-quality curriculum should consist of a balance of both knowledge and skills. Knowledge and skills are intertwined – being able to effectively use knowledge arguably matters more than just the acquisition of it, which is why skills are equally important. Research indicates that children learn more effectively and remember more when they can use skills to access, process and express their knowledge. An extreme swing to one approach rather than the other leaves a significant gap in children’s learning which is detrimental. (Moore 2017).

Values

At Little Thurrock, our co-operative school values of self-responsibility, self-help, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity are extremely important to us and underpin everything that the children learn. By embedding these values into our curriculum and school life, we aim to nurture responsible, resilient and mindful individuals who are well-prepared for life in the wider world. We ensure that our values are celebrated in all lessons as well as weekly circle times and children are rewarded for displaying them through our celebration assemblies. 

Current issues

We believe as a school that our children have a right to become informed about the issues and current affairs that affect the future of the world they live in.  We strongly encourage our pupils to develop informed opinions about the challenges faced around the world and then channel their emotional investment in these issues in a positive and constructive way. It is our hope that all children at Little Thurrock Primary School can make a meaningful and valuable contribution to the world around them.

In this section you will find all the information you require to view our whole curriculum. If you would like to find out information about each Year group topic for this term click on the year group tab.

The teaching of early reading starts with ‘Read, Write Inc’ (RWI)  which is our chosen phonics scheme for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. This has a very clear teaching and learning structure for phonics, letter formation, sentence structure and reading.  Writing in Read Write Inc focuses on word and sentence structure with the appropriate use of punctuation, vocabulary and spelling expected at each RWI stage. Children practise and apply their reading and writing skills to other curriculum subjects.