Curriculum
Our Preparatory Curriculum
PHONICS
PHONICS
At Bankhall Preparatory, we believe that all our children can become
fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through ‘Little
Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics
programme. The teaching of phonics is a real strength of Bankhall Preparatory School.
READING
READING
We intend for our children to develop a life-long love and
passion for reading. We aim for all of our children to be confident, fluent
readers who read widely, read often, read for pleasure and read to learn. We
enable our children to be able to choose from a wide range of fiction,
non-fiction and poetry books throughout their years at our school. Our pupils
will not only be passionate about reading, they will also develop a full range
of comprehension skills to deepen their understanding of what they read.
ORACY
ORACY
Oracy is the ability to express oneself fluently and
grammatically in speech. At Bankhall Preparatory, we understand how this is
crucially important in all aspects of the curriculum. We pride ourselves on
challenging our children in all areas of the curriculum. One aspect of the
curriculum we feel to be of great importance is that of speaking and listening
and, as a result, creating brilliant public speakers. This is something that
will benefit the children going forward in to high school and on in to the
wider world.
WRITING
WRITING
At Bankhall Preparatory, we intend for our
children to be able to write independently for a range of purposes and apply
these skills at school, across all subjects, being well-prepared for the next
stage in their education. We aim to develop pupils’ abilities within an
integrated programme of Speaking & Listening, Reading & Writing.
Pupils will be given opportunities to develop their use, knowledge and
understanding of spoken and written English within a broad and balanced
curriculum, with opportunities to consolidate and reinforce taught English
skills.
MATHS
MATHS
Our Maths curriculum design is based on the White Rose
schemes of work. The long and medium term plans provided by White Rose have
been adapted and rearranged in order to suit the needs of the children in our
school. Class teachers design short term planning with resources taken from a
variety of sources or, if more appropriate, produced internally. Maths lessons
are designed to provide children with numerous opportunities to discuss and
explain their learning, alongside completing fluency questions and questions
that enable the children to reason and problem solve.
COMPUTING
COMPUTING
Computing begins in our EYFS where children have daily
opportunities to access computers and other electronically controlled devices
such as remote control cars, CD players, BeeBots and recordable microphones.
From Years 1-6 children are taught discrete computing lessons on a weekly
basis. We use the TEACH Computing scheme of work as, after a great deal of
research, we felt this best meets the needs of our pupils and is planned by a
vastly experienced team of Computing experts to ensure excellent quality.
SCIENCE
SCIENCE
Our science curriculum is intended to create scientists;
children who are eager to investigate and to ask questions, seeking out answers
to these. We provide opportunities for children to learn independently and
collaboratively, with and without the class teacher to explore the world around
them. From Year 1 to Year 6, children are given the opportunities to
explore and investigate a variety of products and phenomena. We ensure
opportunities for the 5 lines of enquiry are frequent and provide children with
the chance to look at a variety of research and scientists.
HISTORY
HISTORY
Our history curriculum offers children a coherent knowledge and understanding of the past; it provides children with opportunities to look at artefacts and to ask questions about what the past was like. From Reception to Year 6 children look at progressive timelines, placing themselves within this to gain an understanding about the previous periods of time and the changes that have occurred. The curriculum has been designed to provide children with knowledge and understanding about the history of the United Kingdom, including our local area, and that of the wider world.
GEOGRAPHY
GEOGRAPHY
Our geography curriculum focusses on map work and locational
knowledge, providing children with a strong sense of the world around them and
their place within this. Beginning in KS1 children learn about our school.
Each year this knowledge and understanding is built on, moving from the school
to the local area, to the UK, to Europe and, finally, to the wider world.
Physical and human geography are widely discussed, as is the impact of human
activity on the world. Children learn about the earth’s natural resources and natural
geographical phenomena such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Local area fieldwork
is used to put much of the geographical learning into context and children look
at the geography of the local area each year.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
PE in KS1 focusses firstly on gross motor skills as pupils learn to move in different directions and at different speeds. This then progresses onto working on good control and coordination in large and small movements. Moving into Key Stages 1 and 2, we focus on teaching children a range of skills and then apply these to a different sports. As many of our pupils do not have chance to access sports clubs outside of school, we plan our curriculum to expose pupils to as many different sports as possible during their time at our school.
ART
ART
The creativity of the arts is seen in its rawest form where children spontaneously engage in creativity. We intend to foster this artistic creativity throughout the school through our weekly discrete art lessons. Our art curriculum is split into six units of work, each looking at a different artist. Through these artists, each year children will complete a unit of work in sketching, painting, textiles, sculpture, 3D and print. We believe that the emphasis of art should be placed on the process of creating the art and the knowledge, skills and understanding that has been learnt, rather than the end product.
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
The beginnings of our design technology curriculum can be seen through the continuous provision opportunities provided in the start of KS1 where children create and construct. Moving into the latter part of Key Stage 1 and Key Stages 2, we follow the KaPow Primary scheme of work. We develop pupils knowledge and understanding by ensuring that our DT curriculum provides children with the opportunities to research, design, experiment, make and evaluate. Each year children undertake six design technology projects, one of which is cooking and nutrition. Other projects involve textiles, mechanisms, structures, electrical systems and digital world.
MUSIC
MUSIC
Music lessons (Nasheeds) from Year 1 to 6 follow the
Charanga scheme of learning. This provides opportunities for singing and
playing the xylophone and/or recorder to a wide range of songs from different
cultures, artists and genres. Children are given opportunities to compose,
improvise and refine their own musical compositions, performing these to the
wider school. Throughout these lessons children are taught about the elements
of music such as pitch and rhythm, musical history, harmony, melody and
notation. All music conforms to Shariah.
PSHE
PSHE
At Bankhall preparatory, we value Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) as one way to support children’s development as human beings. We intend to enable them to understand and respect who they are, to empower them with a voice and to equip them for life and learning. We teach PSHE, through the Jigsaw Programme, as a whole-school approach to underpin children’s development as people. We believe that this also supports their learning capacity.
RE
RE
The curriculum in RE begins with children developing a positive attitude towards their peers, respecting their right to have beliefs that are different to their own. Children from Year 1 to Year 6 are taught RE through stories, visitors, circle time, images and artefacts. This learning continues through Key Stages 1 and 2 where children look at the five main religions. They develop an understanding of the influence of beliefs, values and traditions on individuals, communities, societies and cultures. Children are encouraged to discuss similarities and differences between religions and their beliefs, understanding the importance of dialogue between them.
MFL (URDU)
MFL (URDU)
At Bankhall preparatory, we consistently promote the study of a foreign language (in our case, Urdu) because of its increasing importance in both personal development and in global society. Our lessons are taught by a fluent Urdu teacher.
Bankhall preparatory curriculum is vibrant, inclusive, systematic and communicates to pupils the principles and benefits to language learning. Our intent is to achieve high quality provision so that all pupils at Bankhall benefit from the unique social and educational advantages and experiences learning a language can bring to pupils at primary school. It provides pupils with a grounding of skills and knowledge in linguistic competence creating a sound basis for further study at KS3 and promotes positive attitudes towards in linguistic diversity in their school and beyond.