Upperthong Junior and Infant School

At Upperthong Junior and Infant School, Holmfirth our mission statement is:

Engaging children and staff through a creative and lively curriculum promoting the desire to succeed and achieve, in partnership with parents and the wider community.

Through our curriculum, we strive to ensure we achieve the following: 

At Upperthong we are proud to learn, achieve and belong

We aim to promote an enthusiasm for learning by:-

•  Providing a creative and engaging curriculum
•  Ensuring learning is enriched and inclusive
•  Committing to life long learning
• We aim to:
• Achieve the highest possible standards
• Celebrate success in all areas
• Take pride in our achievements

We aim to develop an awareness of place in the community by:

• Providing a safe, caring and happy environment
• Building strong community partnerships
• Fostering a sense of pride in belonging to the school and wider community

In KS1 and KS2 we follow the National Curriculum programmes of study. These can be viewed in the document section of this tab. In Reception we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. Informtaion on what is covered in each year group can be found by exploring the Curriculum tab further.

Our curriculum has been developed to include the statutory requirements of the subjects within this curriculum. These are: English, Maths, Science, RE, History, Geography, Computing, PE, Art & Design, Design Technology, Modern Foreign Language (MFL) and Music. Children’s learning is enhanced and broadened with additional opportunities and experiences that make up the wider school curriculum. The aquisition of basic skills in Maths and English underpins the whole of our curriculum.

Children in Reception and Year 1 are taught to read through daily synthetic phonics activities using the Little Wandle Phonics scheme . From Y2 we use Whole Class Reading strategies to teach reading comprehension skills whilst still contuing with regular reading practice sessions for those who require this. (see Reading Strategy for further details on phonics and reading).

From Reception to Y6 we use Jane Considine 'The Write Stuff' strategies to teach writing; this includes ensuring the children have a strong understanding of approriate grammar and punctuation structures.

Because we are committed to promoting maths mastery we use White Rose Maths as our teaching scheme from Reception to Y6.

History and Geography are taught as discrete subjects from Y1 -Y6 using Rising Stars as the basis for teaching and learning planning. DT is taught in a similar manner using Kapow as the scheme of learning. 

Children have discrete Computing lessons and then have many opportunities to apply their learning across other subject areas. Teaching sequences are planned using TWINKL Computing to support teachers with this.

The school have developed their own curriculum and progressions maps for Art and PE and these are used to support planning and teaching.

We teach French to children in KS2 and this is delivered through stories, games and other activities using iLanguages as our scheme of learning.

Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHCE) is taught alongside the statutory curriculum as we believe it is important that children have the opportunity to develop strong social and moral values and to have a deep understanding of self and their role in society. We currently use Jigsaw as our scheme of learning to support teaching in this area. British Values form a key part of the PSHE curriculum. Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is taught as part of the PSHE Curriculum.

Religious Education (RE) is taught using the Kirklees and Calderdale agreed syllabus which is reviewed and revised every 5 years.

We are fortunate to have a very talented and experienced teaching staff and this allows us to respond to children’s individual needs. We also have a range of experienced support staff who are able to extend and support teaching and learning opportunities across the school.

Each term we send out a curriculum newsletter which details what each year group will be learning during that term.

Please see curriculum documents for subject specific information. If you wish to find out more about our school curriculum please speak to your child's class teacher or Mr Riley, our Leader for Learning and curriculum lead-alvyn.riley@upperthongschool.co.uk 

Learning philosophy

We expect our children to work very hard during every lesson, to listen intently, to question, to reason, to reflect and to respond appropriately. It is through this strong interaction that excellent learning takes place. There will be times when children struggle with aspects of learning, times when they make mistakes and these struggles and mistakes are celebrated as essential steps to deep learning and to mastery. We want children to experience failure, to experience difficulties and to develop the skills and tools to ‘dig themselves’ out and to enjoy that feeling of success through their own endeavours. We want our children to be independent, resilient learners who do not give up at the first hurdle and who do not expect that someone else will always give them the strategies required. We want them to develop the skills to work out for themselves what they have to do or at least try to do this before seeking help. As parents you can help your child to do this by encouraging this attitude in all that they do at home and outside school.

In order to achieve this, our Learning Values are clearly embedded in all that we do : Resilience, Self-Motivation, Aspiration, Pride , enthusiasm and Respect 

Homework

We understand that once our school day ends our children and families have busy lives and we firmly believe that a well-rounded child with a well-balanced life is very important to future success. We believe that it is important that any additional work from school does not prevent children from attending extra curricular activities and out of school pursuits; widening their interests through music, sport, dance and drama. However, regular additional work at home, through short, regular bursts of practice, usually with an adult, can help to reinforce and embed the work covered in school. Homework takes the following forms allowing parents to fit things in to their already very busy lives:

• Spelling and Phonics- words and sounds appropriate to the year group to practice reading, writing and using. Children can use https://phonicshero.com to support phonics work.
• Reading-Listening to your child read is a wonderful experience enjoyed by many parents. It does not always feel like homework, but it is essential for all age groups to be listened to/ read to and this can be supplemented with questions about the text.
• Basic maths skills-Number bonds and tables to learn and ensure rapid recall. This can be done orally or using the Times Table Rock Stars or Numbots number bonds https://ttrockstars.com/login   https://numbots.com
• Core subject work- Teachers may set Maths, Grammar &Punctuation or Reading Comprehension work. Parents are asked to mark it with their child and to go through errors, as instant feedback is important for a child’s learning and progress. We are grateful for this as it is a valuable way to support your child’s learning. Teachers will use this feedback to plan appropriate work to ensure these misunderstandings are addressed.
• Learning Log work: There will be times when teachers set a task or extended project which allows children to take their learning in a direction of their choice. It may be some research or it may be a representation or follow on of the learning done in school. This allows children to give a s much or as little time to a project as their out of school schedule allows.

We want homework to be meaningful and appropriate and feel that the list above gives parents a clear idea as to how they can support children’s learning at home.