Curriculum

At Lordship Farm, we aim to provide an excellent foundation for a fulfilling life for our children.

We believe in providing the best opportunities for our children so that they become academically and emotionally well-rounded, resilient young people with a mindset that will allow them to grow as individuals long after they have left us.

At the heart of all we do is our desire to ensure that our children become

Successful learners
Confident individuals
Responsible citizens

We do this by planning a curriculum that

Helps our children to develop 'character' and the social skills needed to form positive relationships
Ensures equality of opportunity and inclusivity
Fosters our children’s creativity
Creates resilient learners who are able to overcome difficulties and set backs
Nurtures a love of learning in our children and the skills needed to learn independently
Teaches the knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and attributes that will help our children to understand their diverse world.

Accessibility statement - Click here to find out more about our objectives for supporting all pupils, regardless of disabilities

Whole School Assemblies

At Lordship we cover international themes within our assemblies, teaching children about British Values and how they can contribute to the wider world. Pupils also have the opportunity to sing collectively and reflection is encouraged where cultural and ethical themes are explored.

Each year, pupils also access grief awareness assemblies to allow them to understand the related emotions. Lordship Farm is a Contact Me school with Stand By Me, Hertfordshire Children's Bereavement Charity.

Early Reading and Phonics

At Lordship Farm we use the Little Wandle, DFE approved phonics scheme for pupils in YR-Y1 and for Y2-Y6 as support for phonics and reading interventions

At Lordship Farm we use the Little Wandle, DFE approved phonics scheme for pupils in YR-Y1 and for Y2-Y6 as support for phonics and reading interventions. Time is built in for whole class teaching, group reading time, keep up and catch up with a focus on de-coding, prosody and comprehension to ensure that no child is left behind.

Through Little Wandle we structure the learning of language through reading, writing and oral rehearsal.

We support this with physical books and the use of the Collins online library, tailored to each pupil’s individual stage of reading.

Please click here to find out more about what Little Wandle looks like at Lordship Farm

Our curriculum objectives are derived from the 2014 National Curriculum Programmes of Study. Please click here to find out more about the National Curriculum.

Early Years Curriculum

Our curriculum objectives are derived from the National Early Years Statutory Framework Please click here for more information.

Click here to access Lordship Farm's Early Years Curriculum

Subject Statements

Our Subject Leaders have produced comprehensive documents that detail the objectives taught in each year group and are designed to ensure that our children’s knowledge builds incrementally each year, our curriculum remains broad and balanced, and meaningful links are made between subjects where appropriate.

Parents can find additional information on the children's Google Classroom pages where we will share knowledge notes and organisers to support your child both in school and at home.

English

We aim to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word and to develop a love of literature through reading for enjoyment.
We teach reading, writing and spelling following the CUSP Curriculum. This is an evidence informed, carefully sequenced English curriculum, which maps core content in reading and writing across the primary journey, ensuring that learning is taught and revisited over time so that pupils commit their understanding to the long-term memory.

Writing

CUSP writing makes meaningful links with other subjects in the curriculum. Expert subject knowledge is carefully woven into each module with the opportunity for pupils to rehearse key knowledge and skills before applying them in extended outcomes. Grammar and punctuation are taught explicitly in writing lessons and the Cambridge Penpals programme is used for handwriting.

Reading

Each cohort will have a suite of core texts that will form the ‘depth study’ for the academic year. These texts have been mapped carefully to ensure a breadth of experiences, authors, texts and themes is addressed across the primary years. In addition to these texts, there are core poems that each year group studies in detail. The pupils follow a weekly learning sequence which uses pre-coded questions with accompanying response frameworks to help develop comprehension skills. The love of reading is enthusiastically promoted throughout the school.

Spelling

CUSP Spelling has been purposefully built around the principles of evidence-led practice. This is to ensure that pupils acquire deep knowledge about the English spelling system and that this learning endures. CUSP Spelling is a balanced approach, drawing together knowledge about phonics and vocabulary and pairing this with pattern seeking and reasoning.

Maths

We aim to produce confident mathematicians who can use and apply their knowledge and understanding in a variety of contexts. We endeavour to provide children with a diverse range of opportunities to use their maths skills in a variety of different forms. Children are encouraged to take risks and to face challenges and problems with positivity and resilience.

Maths involves many areas including the number system, measures, shape, problem solving and handling data and these are covered throughout each year following the 2014 National Curriculum. It is taught daily and includes individual, paired and group activities using mental and written work with an emphasis on using appropriate mathematical vocabulary when discussing mathematical concepts. Additional fluency sessions using the HFL Fluency materials also take place outside of the maths lesson to help to embed core skills.

As a school, we use the HFL Essentials resources and we follow the mastery approach to maths ensuring that we apply the elements of this in all lessons. We adopt the approach that everyone can do maths and children work through tasks at their own pace, deepening and broadening understanding as they encounter a range of tasks and contexts. A range of scaffolds, supports, models and resources are used to support children in using the concrete, pictorial, abstract structures of maths. Our maths calculation policy can be found here

Science

The CUSP science modules support the framework for our context-based science curriculum which pays close attention to guidance provided by the National Curriculum sequence and content. It is infused with evidence-led practice and enriched with retrieval studies to ensure long-term retention of foundational knowledge. The foundations of our science learning are cemented in the EYFS through learning within the Natural World, and People, Culture and Communities. This ambitious interpretation of the National Curriculum places knowledge, vocabulary, working and thinking scientifically at the heart of our principles, structure and practice.

Through studying science at Lordship Farm, pupils become ‘a little more expert’ as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating, connecting and making sense of the rich substantive and disciplinary knowledge.

Computing

Our scheme of work for computing scheme provides a creative approach to delivering the 2014 National Curriculum. Using the learning objectives from ICT Essentials Curriculum we offer an innovative and engaging program from the EYFS to Year 6.

The content is broken down into strands and then organised into learning themes. At the end of each strand we carry out assessments and an independent task enabling the children to demonstrate their computer capability around the knowledge and understanding of the term. This allows the children to embrace current and emerging technologies to develop their computer science concepts, skills and experience. At Lordship we offer a wide variety of resources and software in order to support teaching and learning in computing.

Useful Computing Websites

BBC Computing website

The National Museum of Computing

National Association of Advisors for Computers in Education

Computing at School

National crime agency with a focus on online protection

Humanities: History and Geography

Our History and Geography teaching follows our CUSP curriculum. Each term will include blocks of teaching for each subject which are designed to build on knowledge and skills as children progress throughout the school. In addition, children have the opportunity to participate in regular enrichment activities such as specialist visitors or themed days in school.

Physical Education

At Lordship Farm we place a big emphasis on physical activity and the need to be healthy. We aim to provide sustainable high-quality PE and School Sport experiences that are innovative, creative and enjoyable.

The PE curriculum consists of 4 main areas: gymnastics, dance, games and athletics. These are taught progressively throughout the school from the basic skills in Early Years, to more routines and tactical awareness of different sports in upper KS2. Outdoor and adventurous, upcoming and paralympic activities are introduced in KS2, including orienteering, handball and boccia.

As it is a statutory requirement that all children can swim 25 metres by the end of Year 6, Year 3 and 4 children have a term of swimming, which is aimed at developing their basic swimming skills. Children who haven’t reached the required level are then offered further top up sessions in later years if possible.

To enhance their sporting experiences, our children are offered a variety of extra -curricular clubs and have opportunities to take part in both intra and inter school competitions.

Religious Education

Religious Education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. It challenges pupils to reflect on, consider, analyse, interpret and evaluate issues of truth, belief, faith and ethics and to communicate their responses. It develops pupils’ awareness, knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other principal religions, religious traditions and world views.

Religious Education has an important role to play in preparing pupils for adult life. It encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging. At Lordship Farm School, we use the Hertfordshire agreed scheme of work to teach Religious Education. This allows us to explore a range of religious beliefs in a variety of ways. The children also get the opportunity to visit local places of worship which is important for developing respect for others.

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from religious education and/or collective worship.

Music

The teaching of music in our school follows the aims of the National Curriculum. We want children to experience music by a way of practical engagement and following the three key steps of performing, composing and appraising. Children are taught to internalise music to develop aural memory, and the emphasis is placed on sound before symbol.

In EYFS, children start by singing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs. They also have the chance to perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others, and – when appropriate – try to move in time with music. Children begin learning through songs and rhymes and follow the Active Music progression through the school.

All children have opportunities to sing within lessons, in singing assemblies and in musical productions. Extra-curricular activities, which include a choir, musical theatre and various musical ensembles, provide further opportunities to develop performance skills in concerts within the school and the wider community. Children also have the opportunity to learn how to play and become proficient with a chosen musical instrument and can engage with additional music tuition.

French

Years 3 to 6 have a discrete lessons using materials from the CUSP curriculum to foster the children’s understanding of the French language and culture. This is taught on a twice weekly basis and follows our lesson structure with knowledge notes. We are aiming for French to be spoken creatively and spontaneously and we practise really hard to speak French without an English accent! Once we have learnt some French words, phrases and sentences we try to link our language knowledge to the grammar we are learning in English.

P.S.H.E. (Personal, Social and Health Education)

Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PHSE) at Lordship Farm Primary School is guided by the National Curriculum and the guidance for Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education published in 2019. Our PSHE provision aims to developing confident citizens and successful learners who are creative, resourceful, and able to identify and solve problems. Our intention is to ensure that by the end of the children’s time with us, they will have experienced a broad and balanced PHSE curriculum that is accessible to all, and they will leave us as well-rounded individuals with open minds.

We subscribe to the Jigsaw curriculum for PSHE/RSE and this includes termly planning, assembly modules and assessment. Further details can be found at this link https://www.lordshipfarm.herts.sch.uk/Curriculum/PSHE-and-RSE/

Design and Technology

In Early Years, pupils are explicitly taught about different materials and their properties and how these can be used to build and create. They are taught how to design, build, join, balance, make enclosures and create spaces. Children are taught to accurately and safely use a range of tools, both when constructing and when completing cookery-based activities. Children are also taught about healthy eating, safety and hygiene when cooking.

In Key Stage 1 and 2, the CUSP curriculum is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of design and technology disciplines, including food and nutrition, mechanisms, structures, systems, electrical systems, understanding materials and textiles. Pupils will revisit key disciplines throughout their Primary journey at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity.

Parents can find year group overviews for further information on the DT block for each term and the designer that inspires the work behind it (where applicable). Please see Google Classroom for Knowledge Notes which breakdown the learning in each lesson and show the explicit vocabulary that children will be learning.

Art and Design

Through our teaching of Art and Design, following the CUSP curriculum, pupils are equipped to successfully think, work and communicate like an artist. Our art curriculum focuses on excellence through the study of a wide range of media, techniques and incredible artists. Our intention is to inspire pupils to acquire knowledge, as an artist, and enable them to skilfully attempt and apply their understanding.

The Lordship Farm Art curriculum is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, 3D and collages all of which are evident in children’s’ sketchbooks. Pupils will revisit key disciplines throughout their Primary journey at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity. Every year children will participate in an Art Festival, which enables the entire school to join with other schools nationally to celebrate creativity and diversity. We will share our creations with the school community through an open gallery. Parents can find year group overviews for further information on the art block for each term and the artist that inspires the work behind it. Please see Google Classroom for Knowledge Notes which breakdown the learning in each lesson.

Please see the Curriculum Map for each year group for an overview of the year and the Termly Overview for a more detailed look at each term.