Curriculum

Curriculum at Chewton Mendip Primary School

“The seed fell into good ground and grew up increasing and yielding thirty, sixty and a hundred times as much” Mark 4:8

We strive to be that ‘good ground’ where our children can grow in knowledge, skills, and wisdom, with hope, aspiration, dignity, and respect. Our ambition is that they can thrive and contribute to their communities and live well together. We embrace the Church of England’s vision for education that all children will have “life in all its fullness” (John 10:10).

At Chewton Mendip Primary school we committed to ensuring children receive a broad and balanced curriculum that motivates them to develop their understanding of the world around them. We aim to deliver a curriculum that engages children in learning, develops curiosity and makes links across subject areas. Children are given opportunities to apply what they have learnt in a range of contexts through activities and enrichment events that excite and motivate them to want to learn more.

Our learning environment extends beyond the school grounds to the local woods and surrounding village. We ensure that the children are well supervised, though still allowing them the freedom to play and interact with their environment.

All children participate in regular ‘forest school’ sessions. These are led by our qualified staff and enable pupils to problem solve and work as a team.

We embrace all elements of a healthy lifestyle, developing healthy minds and healthy bodies. We ensure that all children engage in at least two hours of physical activity a week and have access to extended school opportunities to maintain their physical fitness. The benefits of outdoor activities are recognised.

Information on how we support children with SEND to access the curriculum can be found in our SEND policy and information report. SEND Policy

Curriculum Maps

We are a small school with four mixed age group classes. To ensure children cover all of the statutory curriculum requirements, we work on a 2-year curriculum cycle. We use the KAPOW schemes of work for Science, History, Geography and DT.

Each curriculum area has been carefully mapped out to ensure there is a clear progression in knowledge and skills as children move through the school, and that they cover all of the national curriculum objectives.

Detailed information on the curriculum can be found here:

Phonics

We follow the ‘Little Wandles Letters and Sounds Revised’ to teach phonics in Reception and Key stage 1 to teach children to read. Children can be taught past Key stage 1 if they need this support. Children are taught phonics daily where they are taught Grapheme-phoneme correspondence. (GPC) This is the process of matching both the grapheme (the symbol) and phonemes (unit of sound) together and vice versa. The programme is organised so children are taught more simple GPCs first and then complex ones, taking into account the frequency they occur in the most commonly encountered words.

Graphemes are taught and practiced in words, sentences and later in fully decodable books. Books sent home are carefully matched to learning that has taken place in school and the graphemes taught. Children review and revise tricky words and GPCs daily. Children who are not keeping up with their peers are identified quickly and given additional support.

At the end of Year 1 children are assessed using the national phonics screening check. This identifies where children may need additional support to enable them to become confident and fluent readers.

Parents can find videos to support the teaching of phonics and reading, and information on the Little Wandles programme using this link:

For parents - Letters and Sounds (littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk)

Reading

At Chewton Mendip Primary School we use ‘Fred’s teaching’ reading scheme across the school to ensure children are taught all reading skills to enable them to become confident and fluent readers. Texts are carefully selected to ensure children have exposure to a range of different text types.

Information on the progression in reading and an outline of the texts we will be using can be found here: