Our Curriculum 

Please see above for the 2024-2025 long term plan.

We are proud of our Riddings Junior School Curriculum.

It is exciting, appropriate for our children, is broad and balanced and exceeds the demands of the National Curriculum. It is underpinned by our PRIDE aims, the Embark Award wider offer, British Values and it considers our Trust's Global Themes.

Its overarching intent is that children should, over time, know more and be able to do more because of the learning, knowledge and experiences to which we give them access. Extending their knowledge, understanding, abilities and appreciation of the world and their place in it (our definition of cultural capital) means they are fully prepared for the next stage of their learning journey and are well-placed to be positive, purposeful, successful members of our diverse and changing society. For more information on the intent of individual subjects, please see the Intent Statement tab.

Reading is at the heart of our school and our curriculum. From the well-structured phonics teaching in lower school to our Reading Fluency strategy, we focus on children being able to read familiar, new and increasingly challenging texts with fluency, prosody and automacity as this supports their enjoyment, comprehension and learning. Book Study and Class Reader texts are chosen from an agreed (but open to change) reading spine to ensure all children have the opportunity to enjoy a variety of novels and be immersed in a range of different and increasingly diverse worlds. We believe books should be both mirrors that reflect our lives and windows to new worlds as shown by the titles chosen in our most recent book buying. Reading is embedded within Units of Learning whilst our on-going celebration and passion for books is evident as you walk around our school.

Our Maths teaching builds from the solid foundations provided by the White Rose Hub scheme which we supplement with additional resources, experiences and opportunities. Pre-assessments allow teachers and TAs to more closely target their planned learning with post-assessments celebrating progress and supporting future planning. Our aim is for children to be fluent mathematicians who can reason, problem-solve and discuss their maths confidently, recognising the rich creativity and connections within the subject. Children thoroughly enjoy times tables and number bond challenges whilst our current focus on developing mental maths strategies is helping with their manipulation of number.

Purpose-led Writing is embedded in the wider curriculum with the majority of writing content linking directly to our History, Geography, Reading, PSHE, RE and DT Units of Learning (the term we use rather than topics). This means all children have something to write about whilst the Embark Writing Strategy and interweaving of English objectives ensures children  develop their writing-specific skills. Stand-alone 'traditional' English UoL enable children to further strengthen and celebrate their writing.

Lower phase:

Upper phase:

Developing cohesive, well-sequenced Units of Learning (UoL) has been a significant aspect of our curriculum development work in recent years. Taking the decision to move away from individual co-ordinators for subjects other than English and Maths in 2019 was quite revolutionary but meant curriculum development was truly whole school.

It means teaching staff have created RJS Knowledge Grids together across focus subjects which set out clearly and precisely the key content, knowledge and skills that children will learn within each UoL. Whilst a significant piece of work and quite time consuming, this has been an exciting, energising process which has led to some interesting discussions and debates as we seek to ensure that our children have "... the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement."

Knowledge Grids are used to plan progressive sequences of learning which we block for DT, English, Geography, History, RE, Science and some Art and PSHE UoL. Book Study, Computing, Forest Schools, Latin, Maths, Music, PE and some Art and  PSHE are not taught as blocked units. Decisions about whether to block or not are sometimes pragmatic and logistical - based on timetabling and staffing.  However, the majority of timetabling considerations are driven by an understanding of how children learn and remember best - the benefits of immersion in similar content versus regular revisiting over time.

Pre and post assessments linked to the UoL agreed knowledge means teaching and learning is better targeted to the needs of individuals. The clear statements of what children will learn allows more effective building-on of previous learning - whether in a blocked or over time UoL- and also provide opportunities to foreshadow future learning. Subject development work and strategy days within our Trust are supporting our development of the curriculum and the children's learning, enjoyment and success.

Example of a Pre-Assessment showing some knowledge.

The progress made by the post-assessment

Developing our curriculum is an ongoing and constant journey. Each year we identify focus subjects, those which we are embedding and those which we are maintaining to allow subject knowledge development, support staff workload and so we can continuously improve our curriculum offer. Focus and embedding subjects now have named subject leads who work in pairs whilst maintenance subjects remain the responsibility of the Curriculum Lead and Head with the support of wider staff.

We know we can always tweak and improve; there will also be bumps along the way (Covid and its aftermath being one of the larger bumps!). However, the model that we have and are putting in place, based on wide reading, research, our own knowledge and expertise, the school community's views and the support and challenge of our Trust makes this an exciting, purposeful journey.

The children are clear that they enjoy our way of learning and are proud to show off how much more knowledge they have acquired.  Significant INSET and staff meeting time each year is devoted to improving what we teach and how we teach it as we know that we will continue to adjust and enhance our curriculum in future years. 

There is a link to our Long Term Map at the top of this page.

For further information about the thinking behind our curriculum development and our journey so far, please contact Miss Saville via the school office.

We remain committed to the following ideals that, however designed, our curriculum should be ambitious and that it entitles ALL children to a broad, balanced and relevant education that enables them to make progress, to develop their skills, knowledge and interests and which prepares them for the next stage of their learning journey. Enabling access to learning for all children (our term for the scaffolding and support built into the 5-A-Day/CSTEP principles) is central to our ethos and is considered within all planning, teaching and assessing.

We aim to :

• enable all children to make progress and to achieve
• develop the basic skills that will support them throughout their life 
• broaden their aspirations, experiences, knowledge, skills and understanding
• promote British values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs)
• equip children with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to make positive choices
• help them become healthy and active adults

Focussing on our school motto of PRIDE allows us to personalise the national curriculum (click here) so that it meets the needs of all of our children and allows them to:

Progress

through                 

Respect,

Independence, 

Determination           

Excellence.

Other useful national documents: