We offer our children a broad and balanced curriculum covering all National Curriculum subjects. From Year 1 onwards, children have daily maths and English lessons whilst, in Year R, children have daily opportunities to complete activities which will help them to develop their early reading, writing and maths skills. English is taught as a distinct subject but also across the whole curriculum in order for the children to practice their skills.
We are fortunate to have an ICT suite with enough computers for one per child. As well as being taught computing skills, classes also have the opportunity to use the ICT suite in other curriculum areas.
As well as the core subjects, we also teach the foundation subjects of: History, Geography, ICT, Design Technology, Music, Art, PE, RE, PHSE, French, Citizenship, Philosophy for Children and Mindfulness (KS2).
Teachers try to use a cross curricular approach when planning so that all lessons link to a common theme wherever possible. To aid this, we create a Topic Map each year, which outlines the theme for each term in each year group. Our current Topic Map is as follows:
| Term 1 | Term 2 | Term 3 | Term 4 | Term 5 | Term 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | All About Me | Aliens | Polar Regions | Bright Lights, Big City (London) | The Enchanted Woodland (Fairy Tales) |
Famous People |
| Year 2 | Dinosaurs | The Great Fire of London | Around the World | Around the World Explorers and Transport |
Explorers and Transport | Africa |
| Year 3 | Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age | Romans | Cultures from around the world | The Tudors | What Makes the Earth Angry? | |
| Year 4 | Route 66 Fantastic Pharaohs |
Fantastic Pharaohs | Europe | Anglo-Saxon Vikings | Extreme Conditions | Ancient Greece |
| Year 5 | Revolutionary Way of Thinking (Victorians) | Go Green - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | Earth and Space | Chocolate Aztec/Mayan |
Horrible Histories | Carnival Brazil |
| Year 6 | Why do tourists want to visit London? | Why was Nelson Mandela an inspirational person? | Battle of Britain and WW2 | The Olympics | ||
Phonics and Spelling
At Deanwood Primary School we teach synthetic phonics in structured sessions lasting 20-25 minutes daily. This is delivered through Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics as well as Jolly Phonics. Children progress through the six phases of Letters and Sounds, starting with Phase One in Reception and ending with Phase Six in Year Two. In conjunction with this, children progress onto No Nonsense Spelling in Year 2 and this is continued throughout the school into Year 6.
Letters and Sounds is a scheme published by the Department of Education and provides us with games and resources to support our teaching of Phonics. It aims to build pupils’ speaking and listening skills, as well as prepare pupils to learn to read, by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It aims for pupils to become fluent readers by the age of seven. Jolly Phonics actions, songs and rhymes are also used to help the children learn the 44 phonemes (sounds). As we recognise that all children have different learning styles, a multi-sensory approach is used. Children who do not meet age related expectations receive additional Phonics interventions through targeted small group support within school.