In speaking and listening, we create as many opportunities as possible to develop the children's confidence in speaking and listening. In EYFS everything is based around developing this and we work from an initial assessment using the British Pictorial Vocabulary Scale. We use Narrative Therapy for those children needing additional support with their speaking and Nelly, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention. The Primary Writing Project also develops speaking with each class learning to recite a story every half term. Later the children have the opportunity to develop their skills to present and argue with debating, etc. Our Year Six children go on to present at all our main events e.g. our Open Morning where they tell parents about our school.

In reading, we use a variety of reading schemes including Reading Eggs, Literacy Tree, Accelerated Reader, Project X, and The Power of Reading. We ensure that all children have access to a wide range of materials to meet their interests in order to gain pleasure in reading. We assess our guided reading along with termly comprehension assessments using PM benchmarks and PIRI. KS1 and KS2 use Accelerated Reader to answer comprehension quizzes after each book that they have read. The children love improving their scores. For children who find reading more challenging they use a variety of strategies including computing programmes e.g. Nessy. Our children are offered coloured transparencies to help with dyslexic tendencies and also Barrington Stoke books without 'white' pages.

In writing, we introduce pre-cursive handwriting in the Foundation Stage which leads onto the children starting to join up their handwriting in KS1. This ensures that they have a neat handwriting style by the end of Key Stage One. We use the Literacy Tree scheme to ensure that all genres of writing are covered throughout the year and carry out weekly spelling tests and grammar hammers using Assertive Mentoring. We also use aspects of The Primary Writing Project and the Power of Reading, realising the importance that reading has on our writing. For children who find writing more challenging we use Write Away Together. We follow cursive writing advocated by the Dyslexic Institute which helps those children who find writing more difficult as they don't take the pencil off the page until the word has been written.

In Phonics, we follow the Letters and Sounds scheme and use the Jolly Phonics actions and songs to reinforce the phonemes. Every Friday from 9:00 to 9:20am, parents, grandparents etc. with children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are encouraged to come into school to watch how we teach phonics and to learn the sounds and games that we have been teaching each week. We link our phonics with the reading books so that the children can apply their learning to what they read.

At Poverest we try to make the teaching of Science as interesting as possible. Practical activities are encouraged to bring science 'alive'.

We follow the EduKent scheme of work for Science. Teachers use the long term plan and objectives from the scheme and select tasks relevant to that objective which are suitable for the children in each class. Lesson activities can be sourced from a variety of published schemes including EduKent and Hamilton Trust.

During our Science lessons, we mainly focus on the 5 key skills that are required to conduct successful enquiries and experiments. These skills are embedded throughout both KS1 and KS2. We learn to observe and record changes over a period of time; to find patterns when collecting and organising data; research information by using secondary resources like the internet and books; to group and classify objects and lastly, conducting fair experiments. We try and create activities that encourage 'awe and wonder'.

Science is often covered on external educational visits and you can see examples of this in our newsletters or on our class pages.

In Mathematics, we edit the Hamilton online scheme based on the national objectives for mathematics. We pride ourselves on our daily chanting of timetables or number bonds and children strive to improve their recall of these facts. We aim to make mathematics fun and purposeful and learning takes place around the school and across subjects. We use fun online resources to support our understanding of mathematics both at home and school. Mathletics is used to revise and revisit all taught concepts, helping children to retain taught objectives. Numbots and TT-Rock Stars supports children in remembering those key facts that are so crucial in providing strong mathematical foundations for learning the various mathematical concepts.

Our main Computing scheme was Purple Mash but from 2021/22 we are starting the Teach Computing curriculum, although we will still use Purple Mash resources. This provides a long term plan ensuring that every part of the computing curriculum is taught efficiently across the years. We begin teaching computing skills in Reception to ensure that by Year 6, the children are competent users of computing. Purple Mash is also a cross curricular tool, the website offers activities, games and worksheets for every aspect of the National Curriculum. This allows us to easily integrate computing into all our subjects.

As a school, we also use the 'Education for a Connected World 2020' (please see below) which is a framework to equip children and young people for digital life. This is built into the Teach Computing curriculum. We focus on the eight areas of this document which are:

1. Self image & identity. This strand explores the differences between online and offline identity beginning with self awareness, shaping online identities and media influence in propagating stereotypes. It identifies effective routes for reporting and support and explores the impact of online technologies on self-image and behaviour.

2. Online relationships. This strand explores how technology shapes communication styles and identifies strategies for positive relationships in online communities. It offers opportunities to discuss relationships, respecting, giving and denying consent and behaviours that may lead to harm and how positive online interaction can empower and amplify voice.

3. Online reputation. This strand explores the concept of reputation and how others may use online information to make judgements. It offers opportunities to develop strategies to manage personal digital content effectively and capitalise on technology’s capacity to create effective positive profiles.

4. Online bullying. This strand explores bullying and other online aggression and how technology impacts those issues. It offers strategies for effective reporting and intervention and considers how bullying and other aggressive behaviour relates to legislation.

5. Managing online information. This strand explores how online information is found, viewed and interpreted. It offers strategies for effective searching, critical evaluation of data, the recognition of risks and the management of online threats and challenges. It explores how online threats can pose risks to our physical safety as well as online safety. It also covers learning relevant to ethical publishing.

6. Health, well being and lifestyle. This strand explores the impact that technology has on health, well-being and lifestyle e.g. mood, sleep, body health and relationships. It also includes understanding negative behaviours and issues amplified and sustained by online technologies and the strategies for dealing with them.

7. Privacy and security. This strand explores how personal online information can be used, stored, processed and shared. It offers both behavioural and technical strategies to limit impact on privacy and protect data and systems against compromise.

8. Copyright and ownership. This strand explores the concept of ownership of online content. It explores strategies for protecting personal content and crediting the rights of others as well as addressing potential consequences of illegal access, download and distribution.

Our Purple Mash scheme of learning is linked to every one of these topics across the whole school. Each half term, the year group will focus on the relevant area and complete activities on Purple Mash based around this.

However, we use an extensive range of other computing websites in school, including Busy Things, J2E and Code Club. Computing is one of our biggest strengths, we are on the pathway to each child having a 1:1 device, which is either a Chromebook or iPad. Our children are strong users of computing, online safety is a huge topic for our school so they have a good understanding of this and we use computing almost daily.

In History, we edit the Hamilton Trust online scheme to plan our exciting and engaging lessons. This ensures all the national curriculum outcomes are covered in each year group. We use a skill progression grid to make sure that each year group makes progression every year. We use artefacts, technology, art, design & technology, buzz days, theatre productions, visitors and real-life trip experiences to make our History learning memorable. Lots of our lessons are recorded through photographic evidence as well as written evidence in books.

We include many topics:

EYFS: The World' and it now has a specific Early Learning Goal called 'Past and Present.

KS1: Medicine, Toys, Our school and local area, Explorers, We are Britain (seaside), The Great Fire of London and how the Circus has changed over time.

KS2: Romans in Britain, Crime & Punishment, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, World War 2, Stone Age, Ancient Egypt, The Maya and Ancient Greece.

In Geography, we edit the Hamilton online scheme to plan our exciting and engaging lessons. This ensures all the national curriculum outcomes are covered in each year group. We use a skill progression grid to make sure that each year group makes progression every year. Each lesson will cover at least one of the Geographical skills, these are location and place knowledge; Geography skills (mapping) and fieldwork.

We use technology, art, DT and real-life trip experiences to make our Geography learning memorable. Lots of our lessons are recorded through photographic evidence as well as written evidence in books.

This school year, we have completed some very exciting Geography projects. These include 3D maps, Geography Awareness Week (based on the environment) and Geography day (based on fieldwork).

The 3D maps became a real competition and the children made some fantastic maps of places around the world. They were so eye-catching and were displayed in our school. We now have the winning 3 in our display cabinet.

Our goal in Geography is to create memorable, long-lasting experiences which the children can talk about with confidence in years to come.

For our RE lessons, we use the Bromley scheme to guide us on how RE should be taught. With the new RE curriculum update, RE is now an enquiry based topic where we looked at different philosophical questions (e.g. what makes a building sacred?) and explore how people from different religions may answer this question. We use plans created by Stacey Burman who is a Religious Education advisor for the Bromley borough. Whilst we use a lot of class discussion during our RE lessons we also ensure the children are exposed to religious artefacts from our many resources and also different world views using videos and knowledge from the children in our classes.

As a school, we love celebrating the different cultures and religions of our families and always ensure that we celebrate prominent religious festivals of all the children in our care. Some examples of this are our yearly Diwali dance workshop and Eid parties which engross the children in the culture of their peers.

For Art and Design we use Kapow Primary. Following progressive schemes of work, the children have the opportunity of building their skills and knowledge as they move through the school. Learning about innovative artists- past and present; exploring the formal elements of Art and Design; making and evaluating their own art. These elements are all part of our creative curriculum. With our children developing their artistic side and becoming confident, budding artists.

For DT at Poverest we are following the Kapow primary scheme of work. This website is fantastic for providing the children with exciting and engaging DT lessons that allow the children to build on and progress their skill set as they move up through the school. We look forward to sharing lots of their innovative creations with you.

Each year the skills of games, athletics, dance, gymnastics and outdoor/adventurous activity are taught. The developmental skills are built year on year. Here at Poverest, we make use of coaching expertise from outside clubs where it is available. Expert coaching of skills through cricket, tennis, rugby, gymnastics and dance has occurred. Swimming is taught in years 3 to 6. We have dedicated PE teachers who work with class teachers and two trained Forest School leads to deliver the outdoor and adventurous activity teaching in our fabulous grounds and forest school area.

Accordion content

Accordion content

• Hamilton Trust
• The Literary Curriculum
• Edu Kent Science
• Language Angels
• Letters and Sounds
• Purple Mash
• BusyThings