Rationale for the Curriculum at Locks Heath Junior School

We believe children learn best when they can make connections and links between aspects of their learning, so we have adopted a topic based approach that combines subjects into cohesive units of work. The school’s vision and values underpin the planning and opportunities are created for developing higher-order thinking activities. Whilst as a school we recognise the importance of acquiring knowledge, a greater emphasis is placed on the acquisition of skills that are transferable to a range of learning situations.

Curriculum Intent

The ambitious curriculum that we offer pupils at Locks Heath Junior School is designed to do the following things:

• Be enjoyable, engaging and memorable;

• Equip children with a love of learning;

• Equip children with the skills and attitudes they need to continue with their education and fulfil a happy and rewarding life; 

• Immerse the children in rich, quality texts, so that they develop a love for reading and the skills to apply to all aspects of their learning;

• Develop the children’s ability to reason and make informed choices; 

• Develop the children’s fluency and confidence in learning;

• Develop the children spiritually, morally, socially and culturally;

• Meet the needs of all our pupils;

• Meet the requirements of the National Curriculum 2014.

Curriculum Organisation 

The majority of learning occurs within three main cross-curricular topics per year. Topics have a lead subject that is either History or Science and are enquiry based around a concept. English and Maths learning links to these subjects in order that learning can be meaningful and purposeful wherever possible, but some aspects of English and Maths are taught discretely. Geography is taught through continuous provision and where this links to topics. Similarly, where PE, Music, Art, Design Technology and Computing legitimately link to a topic these are taught in a crosscurricular way. Some discrete teaching is necessary to ensure coverage. RE is taught according to the Hampshire Syllabus – Living Difference. The Modern Foreign Language taught at Locks Heath Junior School is French. Children have access to specialist teachers for aspects of their Music, PE and French teaching. We recognise, value and plan for rich learning opportunities that happen beyond recognisable class based lessons. These opportunities include: exciting activities that take place during recreation times, stimulating assemblies, rich and exiting trips and visits, an extensive residential programme and varied extra-curricular activities.

Equality within the Curriculum

At Locks Heath Junior School we comply fully with the letter and intent of the Equality Act 2010.

Care is taken to ensure that all children have access the full and wide ranging curriculum on offer at Locks Heath Junior School. For some SEND children this may mean additional supervision or support or an adaptation of the task. Where children have previously fallen behind in their learning they may require an intervention to help them to catch up. At Locks Heath Junior School we are committed to ensuring that wherever possible interventions do not result in a narrowing of the curriculum for those children. With this in mind interventions are scheduled to take place at times where there is little or no impact on access to the wider curriculum.