Curriculum and Assessment

In our schools, we follow the statutory National Curriculum, but have designed our own curriculum to go beyond national expectations and meet the specific needs of our children and the wider community. We understand that children and families at Newington Green and Rotherfield share many similarities, but that each of our schools has a unique identity and some school specific pupil needs. Therefore, both schools share the same curriculum, but may take different pedagogical approaches, depending on pupil needs (for further details, please see Section 3 of our Curriculum Policy).

To help support and improve Rotherfield's high quality phonics teaching, we have chosen a new systematic synthetic programme, validated by the DfE.  From 4th January, we will be using 'Little Wandle Letters & Sounds revised' which will give all our readers a solid base upon which to build as they progress through school, as well as developing the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.  'Little Wandle' is based on our previous phonics scheme, Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to prepare your children to go above and beyond the expectations of the Y1 Phonics Screening Check.  We have made this decision based on extensive research and careful consideration of the needs of all our readers.  Training for parents and further information will be available in the Spring term, together with our action plan for our Little Wandle rollout, which will be published here.  

We have also been fortunate to receive £6000 of funding from the English Hub, so your children will be both reading in school and bringing home a range of brand-new books, which exactly match the Little Wandle sounds they are being taught in school.  With these we aim to ensure high quality early reading for every child and help continue to grow a love of reading at Rotherfield. 

Please see Little Wandle's website for more information or see Rachel, our Assistant Head Teacher and English lead if you have specific questions https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/

If parents wish to know more about the curriculum, they should contact Jo, the Head of School.

Our Partnership Aims

We believe by working together we can achieve more than working as stand-alone schools. These are our core aims of both schools:

1. A rich and well-balanced curriculum offer, with enriching experiences

 2. High outcomes for all pupils

 3. Ensuring that all children, regardless of circumstance, achieve well

4. Meeting children’s individual needs through a nurturing ethos

 Our Curriculum Aims

• To promote the highest level of achievement for all pupils, across all subjects, through strong pathways for progression in knowledge and skills as pupils journey through the school.

• To provide systematic exposure to and immersion in high quality literature, both from classic and modern authors, with the aim of pupils demonstrating key skills in debate, critical thinking, articulating a clear point of view and being able to effectively negotiate and converse.

• To provide opportunities for vocabulary development across the curriculum, enabling pupils to access learning opportunities in the world around them through word rich learning environments and explicit vocabulary teaching.

• To promote meaningful learning experiences, which will be fun and memorable, based on knowledge and skills needed to be successful in the wider world. 

• To provide a broad and balanced curriculum which gives pupils social and cultural agency, so that they are advantaged in the wider world.

• To celebrate the diversity of our community, and the communities within the UK and encourage the building of community and social capital. This will include an understanding of issues relating to a range of underrepresented and protected groups (gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, disability, age, race).

• To promote mannerly and appropriate social conduct, so that pupils are advantaged in the wider world.

• To provide a range of out of classroom experiences for pupils which build their cultural capital and understanding of the rich artistic, cultural, spiritual and social heritage of the UK, and its various communities. 

• To empower pupils by providing the opportunities and skills to make positive life choices, through the development of personal character, emotional and social resilience, confidence and a growth mindset.

• To provide a context for living as active citizens, learning and working within a global city, with access to the many cultural institutions and opportunities on our doorstep. This will include balancing life in a heavily built-up borough with regular opportunities for outdoor learning.

• To regularly review our curriculum provision, in order to ensure that the curriculum, alongside current educational research, promotes excellence in the practice of teaching (pedagogy).

For further details of our curriculum intent, implementation and impact, please view our Curriculum Policy in full.

Here are our curriculum documents for 2020/2021 below.