The Walton Curriulum
At Walton we base our curriulum planning and delivery on the Cornerstones Curriculum. This is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 primary national curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. It is based on a child-centred pedagogy called The Four Cornerstones and is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning.
We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides many learning challenges throughout the academic year that require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively.
We also have a rigorous essential skills framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These essential skills are tied to activities and are age-related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs. Subject leaders base use this to map out the skills progression across the school.
For more info on the National Curriulum please see the following link;
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum
Some children will be working towards these expectations, some at these expectations and some at greater depth. Your child's class teacher will keep you informed of your child's stage of learning and progress at the twice yearly parents' information evenings. These are held in October and March each year. An end of year report is sent home in July.
If you require more specific information about how to help your child more at home, please do not hesitate to make an appointment with the class teacher.
Don't forget to check the class pages and our twitter page for further information too.
Please go to the individual class pages for more information about the long term topic planning for each year group. We do half termly topics in each class. You can find more information about how reading is taught in each class too on these pages.
If you have any questions about the curriculum in a specific year group, please speak directly to the class teacher.
You can also refer to our subject policies under the Key Information tab. For example our calculations policy is a really useful policy in helping you to understand how we teach all of the strategies to work out maths calculations.
Click on the link below to access a free letters and sounds resource to support the teaching of phonics. Each of the different phases are explained too.
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/
We also have our own dedicated phonics information page. You can find this on the main tab under Key Information.
Reading
Please see the information below for ideas on how to help your with their reading and how you can help teach inference skills. The reading toolkit is particularly useful... can you encourage your child to use all of these skills to help them read?
We expect that you will listen to your child AT LEAST five times every week. This may only be for 10 minutes at a time. Our Rainbow Reading Rewards system at school encourages your child to read as many times as possible. Please help them to achieve this but do not push them through the Book Band stages. Teachers will decide when they are ready to move up to the next colour. It is not just about reading (and racing) through the books...it is more important to understand and enjoy the stories!
The most important thing is that the more you read at home with and to your child, the more confident a reader your child will be!
We know that if your child is helped to read well and enjoy and talk about stories, the better chances they have in all other subjects.
Homework at Walton
We consulted the children about homework in order to rewrite our homework policy.
Homework is set both weekly and half termly at Walton.
Weekly Homework expectations
Reading a minimum of five times per week
Learning spellings
Learning times tables
Any other work that teachers may send home to reinforce learning in class.
AND ...
Half termly Homework expectations
A half termly independent homework project linked to the class topic. We expect parents to work with their child to complete this over a number of weeks. This may involve researching, designing, creating, discussing and making amongst many other tasks! This independent project should enable children to use their own personal interests,talents and skills to produce their project linking learning in class to their own research.
Please see each class page for examples of projects completed.
The children say they love doing their homework in this way. Please help them to make the most of this opportunity and really produce some excellent projects that they are proud to showcase!
We also realise that children need time to be children after school and we really want them to have time with parents, brothers and sisters. We value family time and the importance to talk, listen to each other and play and share together.
Spending quality time with your children is just as important!