Primary Subjects
At Grove Academy, the staff and governors are committed to designing a broad and balanced curriculum which is underpinned by our Grove 5 values. It is our mission to enable children to build on their prior learning to develop a deep understanding, high aspirations and cultural capital.
Our curriculum is based around interesting topics which are relevant to our community and the objectives are mapped to the National Curriculum (2014) and Development Matters to ensure comprehensive coverage of the national expectations from EYFS to the end of KS4.
We use other curriculum approaches to support the planning and delivery of the core areas of our curriculum:
Grove Maths Mastery Curriculum
Grove-Primary-Maths-LTP-2023-2024.pdf
Intent
At Grove, in Primary Maths, we aim to cover the National Curriculum using Teaching for Mastery pedagogies. This approach has reasoning at its heart: we support children to become problem solvers and critical thinkers with an ability to convey their thoughts clearly and reflectively to others. We teach children to be brave, creative and innovative when they encounter problems – giving them space and confidence to find their own solutions and then reflect on key learning and the most efficient methods. By adopting a Mastery approach, it is also intended that all children, regardless of their starting point, will maximise their academic achievement.
Implementation
As a primary phase, we use the White Rose Maths Hub materials to plan and deliver high-quality maths lessons. The learning is broken down into small steps which are carefully sequenced to build on prior knowledge and time is given to revisit concepts so children can gain a deeper understanding and make links between topics. Lessons are designed to actively engage students in the concept and use concrete, pictorial, structural and abstract methods to represent the problem and find a solution. Repetition of stem sentences exposes key mathematical concepts and makes them accessible and memorable for all learners.
Fluency is given dedicated timetable time and is taught in EYFS and KS1 under the direction of the Mastering Number workgroup, using rekenreks. In KS2, fluency is taught and consolidated using Number Sense Maths and Timestable Rockstars.
Grove Writing Curriculum
Writing-Overview-2022-23.docx.html
Writing
Intent
At Grove Academy, we help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well equipped with the skills they need to become life-long learners; English learning is key in this.
It is our intent at Grove Academy to provide children with a high quality education in English that will teach them to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively. Careful links are made across the curriculum to ensure that our children's English learning is relevant and meaningful: where possible linking our reading, writing and the topic. We ensure that children develop an understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life, and herefore how important, and useful the skills are that they are learning.
Our intentions in writing are for children to:
• Write for a purpose.
• To acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn.
• See themselves as real writers.
• Take pride in the presentation of their writing, by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.
• See writing as an interesting and enjoyable process.
• Acquire the ability to organize and plan their written work.
Our writing curriculum focuses on the skills outlined in the National Curriculum. Progressive units of work teach children to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
A high proportion of our children have English as an Additional Language (EAL) so we ensure that teachers and support staff incorporate key vocabulary and clearly model skills using visual aids, ICT and cues to enhance the learning.
Our approach to teaching writing
At Grove, we use Talk for Writing in Key Stage One and in Key Stage Two (where appropriate). Talk for Writing, developed by Pie Corbett, enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version.
• Children orally rehearse writing through story maps.
• They imitate writing (so that they are familiar with the writing structure).
• They innovate writing (this is where they can change the writing, adapt it and extend it to meet a purpose).
• Teachers model writing of all genres through shared writing activities.
• Writing skills are further developed in group guided writing and modelled writing sessions (short burst writing).
• Children practice writing through independent writing tasks.
• Childrenare given opportunities to plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing (crafting their ideas).
Handwriting
We feel that children should be able to write with ease, speed and legibility so we follow a consistent approach across the school to the teaching of handwriting.
Letter formation is taught in reception through Read Write Inc., and then children are taught to use cursive handwriting through the Letter Join scheme from Year 1 onwards.
Spelling, punctuation, and grammar
We believe children require a secure understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar to develop a true understanding of English and to be successful, so these concepts are taught discretely within English lessons. Through careful planning, teachers introduce new concepts in relation to the genre that the children are currently studying. We follow the Spelling Shed scheme to ensure consistency and coverage across the school.
Grove Reading Curriculum
Reading-LTP-23-34.pdfAt Grove, it is our intention to foster a love of reading and ensure that, by the end of their primary education, our pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence.
Intentions:
- For children to have the skills to decode words in order to be able to read fluently with understanding of what they have read.
- To encourage a love of literature and an enjoyment of reading for pleasure .
- For children to become confident, enthusiastic and motivated readers.
- To develop children’s confidence in reading a wide variety of genres and text types.
- To use reading to provoke thought within children.
reluctant_readers_primary_booklist_.pdf
