North Borough Junior School

Curriculum Intent

Here at North Borough, we strongly believe in creating a safe and happy school community where our pupils are motivated to learn and develop as individuals.

We are a school with a constantly evolving curriculum, which responds to the needs of learners and their interests by enhancing learning experiences and raising awareness from the local area to national and global arenas. Thus, we will develop outward looking pupils who are able to engage in learning about themselves and have an understanding of the wider world and its complex cultures. It provides pupils with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills.

We are committed to providing a broad and balanced curriculum which ensures secure development and attainment. This allows children to achieve their personal best. Our curriculum structures nurture children's curiosity. Alongside this, children are also encouraged to explore and exceed their own limitations. 

The children will be exposed to the skills they need in order to achieve purposeful futures, doing something they are passionate about. This will be achieved by fostering ambition, well-being and self-worth. Children leave North Borough with a sense of belonging and are proud of their achievements and place in society.

We encourage each child to become a caring, confident and curious young person who has a passion for learning and achieving.

Our curriculum enables us to build strong relationships, celebrate diversity, encourage respect and build a sense of community. It provides and acknowledges success for all children, in all aspects of their development and it recognises, encourages and celebrates all types of talent. Within all subjects in the curriculum, teamwork and responsibility are an essential aspect that enable children to take on key roles within school, becoming involved in the community and celebrating local traditions, learning new skills and enabling them to take an active part in events throughout the year.

We provide a highly inclusive environment where children enjoy their education and are helped to achieve their full potential. Our cross curricular approach to education enables our children to make meaningful links with their learning which will then support their understanding of the wider world and its complex cultures. Those who are most able are challenged, encouraging them to expand their skills and knowledge through varied curriculum opportunities.  Those who find learning more difficult are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace and to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.

Children leave North Borough Junior School with a sense of belonging and are proud that they have developed the confidence and skills needed to reach their fullest potential.

Writing

At North Borough Junior School we believe that all children should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas, understanding and emotions through their writing. We want children to develop and use a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time with us. We want them to write fluently, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We believe that all children should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, developing a clear, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. We know that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.

Teachers achieve this by selecting a wide range of quality texts, including poetry, novels, plays and non-fiction. This may be linked to topics studied in class to enrich understanding and enjoyment. Texts are carefully scrutinised and evaluated, making full use of newer as well as classic literature. Teachers plan their writing activities with care, including specific skills sessions alongside spelling and creative writing tasks. Every aspect of the writing process, from planning, through writing, to editing, is modelled by the adults in the classroom to enable every learner to develop their skills in this area.

Grammar is taught both discretely and incidentally as a part of every writing session, developing the children’s understanding of terminology, correct use and how it has an impact on a piece of writing. Teachers do not put any limitations on what children can achieve in writing and expect every child to be able to make progress, no matter what their starting point is.

We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both grammar, spelling and composition skills and encourage this through a home-school partnership to help parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school.

Mrs Worrall  (Writing Subject Leader)

Writing Skills Progression Document

Reading and Phonics

At North Borough Junior School, we believe that a rich English curriculum should motivate our pupils to become life-long readers: embracing reading for pleasure; experimenting with ambitious vocabulary; and writing for a variety of purposes. This is nurtured through the children designing and creating their own reading incentive programme ‘Book Busters’ which rewards children for reading as often as they can. Our overarching aspiration is to ensure every child leaves us as a confident reader and is prepared for secondary education.

Teachers work hard to plan and use a wide variety of high quality picture books, novels and poems which are language rich and interesting the children. Our aim is to inspire our pupils through exciting texts which spark their interests and encourage them to ask questions to gain further meaning. Where possible this links to the topic in curriculum or science to help the children develop a deeper understanding of what they are learning. Teachers are not afraid to adapt the Reading curriculum to engage a diverse group of pupils, modelling that different children enjoy different books and, by extension book choice is personal one.

We believe that our pupils need to develop secure skills in reading and work closely to support pupils joining us from KS1, aiming to ensure there is consistency in the approach to teaching of reading skills. We value the importance of quality teaching of early reading skills and quickly identify pupils who need continued support in this stage of learning to read. We offer continued phonics using the Sounds~Write Programme as an intervention for pupils who did not pass the phonics screening check in Year 2.

Mrs Nicholls (Reading & Phonics Subject Leader)​

Reading and Phonics Skills Progression Document 

Maths

At North Borough we have adopted a mastery approach to mathematics. That means we value a maths curriculum that is creative and engaging and all our children have access to this curriculum to make progress in their lessons. Our children need to develop the necessary skills to make them “deep thinkers” acquiring maths skills that can be recalled quickly and transferred and applied in different contexts and we are proud that our maths lessons deliver this. We hope to help children make rich connections across the different areas of maths and to use this knowledge in other subjects.

Maths is the foundation for understanding the world and we want our children to know the purpose behind their learning and to apply their knowledge to their everyday lives.

Mr Haynes (Maths Subject Leader)

Maths Skills Progression Document

Science

At North Borough Junior School we want our pupils to develop an enjoyment and interest in science, a sense of awe, excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena and an recognition of the power of rational explanation. During their time here, we seek for them to gain an appreciation of the contribution science makes to all aspects of everyday life and for some pupils to become inspired to follow a future career in the subject, possibly leading to the next great discovery of our time. To enable them to fulfil  this journey, we recognise that a firm grasp of scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding is essential in order to provide them with a secure foundation for their future learning. We help them to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes. We aim for all pupils to be Scientifically literate and able to discern scientific fact from scientific fiction, interpreting the evidence accordingly so that they are well equipped for life beyond our school.

Mr Cornell (Science Subject Leader)

Science Skills Progression Document

PE

At North Borough Junior School we aim to ensure that our pupils both enjoy exercise and excel at sporting activities through a balanced curriculum. 

Lessons are taught by both teachers and specialist Sports Coaches who ensure that lessons cover:

• Acquiring and developing new sporting skills
• Selecting and applying new skills
• Developing their knowledge and understanding of fitness and health
• Learning to evaluate and improve their own sporting performance

Government funding has been used to improve the provision of physical education and after school clubs.  The impact of the funding is considered in terms of: achievement in weekly PE lessons, increased participation in competitive school sport, personal health and well-being and improved attitudes towards sport. 

We provide our pupils with two hours of physical education a week, which is delivered by the class teacher and a specialist PE teacher.  Pupils also have the opportunity to attend many sporting clubs and this has led to an increase in the number of pupils participating in competitive sports tournaments and winning!

We encourage pupils to join after school sports clubs which include: football, cricket, dodge ball, dance, and basketball and tag rugby. 

Miss Fowler (PE Coordinator)

PE Skills Progression Document

Understanding Faith

At North Borough Junior School we believe that the purpose of Religious Education is to explore big questions about life and to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live. By doing this, our pupils can develop the understanding and skills needed to make sense of religion as well as reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living. We therefore have adopted a new title for our Religious Education and use the term ‘Understanding Faith’.

Our Understanding Faith curriculum follows the Kent Agreed Syllabus and aims to ensure that all pupils:

1. Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews.
2. Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews.
3. Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews.  

In order for children to achieve these by the end of KS2 we follow a syllabus based around a key question approach. Every year group has 4/5 key questions to study over the year and these questions open up the content to be studied, allowing teachers to meet the needs of pupils in their classes as well as ensuring progression throughout the key stage. The curriculum also reflects the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian but also takes into account the teaching and practices of other principal religions represented in Great Britain. These include learning about Hindus, Muslims and Jewish people. Furthermore, children from families where non-religious worldviews are held are represented in most of our classrooms so we also include teaching and learning of non-religious world views including Humanism.

In order to deliver the aims of the curriculum, we allocate sufficient time to the subject based on the guidance of 45 hours per year, however we are flexible in our allocation of time and this may vary from 1 hour weekly lessons to themed days or weeks.

Miss Pailing (Understanding Faith Subject Leader)

Understanding Faith Skills Progression Document

DT

Design Technology (DT) is the practical application of all of the skills and knowledge the children develop across the curriculum at the school. Children develop problem solving skills as they are exposed to design briefs, challenging their creativity and initiative.

Mr Treays (DT Subject Leader)

DT Skills Progression Document

Music

At North Borough Junior School we recognise the important role that music plays in everyday life as a powerful, unique form of communication that can change the way children feel, think and act. We want our pupils to develop an enjoyment and interest in music and have the opportunity to express themselves creatively through singing, composition and performance, increasing their self-confidence and sense of achievement. We seek to develop their listening skills and their understanding of the different musical elements. When they join us in year 3, all pupils have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. Throughout their time here, children begin to engage more critically with music and develop an increasing awareness and appreciation of a wide variety of musical traditions, reflecting the cultural diversity of our school.

Mr Cornell (Music Subject Leader)

Music Skills Progression Document

PSHE

Mrs Leid (PSHE Subject Leader)

PSHE Skills Progression Document 

MFL

It is our intent at North Borough Junior School to provide all of our children with a high-quality education in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL), which develops their love of learning about other languages and cultures. The current language taught is Spanish, through a scheme of work called Language Angels, however we strive to provide children with opportunities to experience a range of other languages within the school community and events such as our annual language fair.  It is our intention to ensure that by the end of our children’s primary education, they have acquired the skills to communicate effectively in the world.

Miss Durkan (MFL Leader)

MFL Skills Progression Document