We go on local trips and use the wide range of resources London has on offer to deepen our children’s under-standing of concepts.

The curriculum is broad, balanced

and exciting, incorporating British

values and experiences. Open-ended

investigation and activities means

that children have time to rehearse

and achieve deeper learning and un-

derstanding.

We set out our curriculum as a pro-

gression model. We focus relentlessly

of the development of language and

exposure to a vast range of vocabu-

lary. Our staff review children’s pro-

gress regularly through formative

assessment and use precision inter-

vention to follow up emerging gaps

identified.

Our curriculum is a progression model that provides a foundation that equips our children for the next steps in their learning and builds upon prior knowledge and experi-ences. It enhances and enriches chil-dren’s experiences through con-cepts such as Agriculture, Construc-tion, Architecture and Forest school-ing. The range of well-planned expe-riential learning ensures cumulative layers of knowledge, helping our children to have lasting, repeated experiences leading to remembering more. We deeply believe that there should be no limits or barriers to children’s achievements and staff share in our vision and ambition.

Our curriculum is underpinned by research on how children learn best. We view learning from a grounded pedagogical standpoint. We strong-ly believe that creativity fosters

The Curriculum—A Progression Model Volume 3, Issue 1

Autumn Term 2019

better self-esteem, independ-ence, and risk taking. Our chil-dren are eager problem solvers and confident communicators. Through our curriculum we pro-mote and celebrate the interna-tional cultures of the children.

Page 1

Mathematics is a creative and

highly interconnected discipline

that has been developed over cen-

turies, providing the solution to

some of history’s most intriguing

problems. Here at Davies Lane, we

believe it is essential to everyday

life, critical to science, technology

and engineering, and necessary for

financial literacy and employment,

both current and in the future. Our

curriculum is sequential and cycli-

cal: components taught through

key composites, with layers of

knowledge built on over time.

Mathematics provides a founda-

tion for understanding the world,

the ability to reason mathematical-

ly, and a sense of enjoyment and

curiosity about the subject. At Da-

vies Lane, we aim to improve the

fluency, reasoning and problem solv-

ing of all our pupils through a varied

and interesting curriculum.

We believe that children are able to

make improved progress when they

reflect on their learning. Conscien-

tious, independent learners can make

links to other areas of the curriculum,

demonstrating their knowledge of

maths through other subjects, such as

engineering, architecture and science.

This passion to ensure all our children

can improve and develop these links

is the driving force behind the maths

curriculum at Davies Lane. An exam-

ple of a success this year is Enterprise

Week. The children researched and

developed games and products to sell

at the Christmas Fair, raising a

substantial amount in the pro-

Mathematics

it/review, teach, practise and apply

model. To apply their taught sound

of the day, children spend each ses-

sion reading some pages from a de-

codable book with a partner. To

consolidate learning in school and

support the progression of Phonics

at home, these decodable books are

sent home weekly.

Thank you to all the parents who

have been reading at home with

their children regularly. It helps During Autumn Term, across Early

years and Key stage 1, children have

been taught synthetic systematic

Phonics daily following our Letters

and Sounds programme. These daily

sessions ensure children progress

from exploring sounds, through to

understanding grapheme and pho-

neme rules. Flashcards, magnetic

letters and phoneme frames are

used to support children in decod-

ing, blending and segmenting new

words. Sessions followed the revis-

Page 2 Davies Lane Primary

Phonics

move the children forward at a fast-

er pace in their Phonics journey.

cess. For all those that helped and

supported - thank you!

A Year 6 pupil’s weekly reflection on their learning in numeracy

Children are taught and practise a

weekly spelling and grammar rule

which will help them with their

writing fluency. Marking ensures

that children receive instant feed-

back on misconceptions; where they

can improve or simply that they

have been able to demonstrate their

understanding. Using this feedback,

the children then confidently review

and build on their learning .

Self and peer assessment is also a

vital tool to develop children as re-

flective thinkers and as a a tool for

formative assessment. A number of

skills are developed through this:

the ability to analyse their peer’s

work, cite areas of excellence and

areas for improvement and consoli-

date their own understanding of the

required standard.

Reading three novels per term helps

the children to acquire a knowledge

This academic year, have continued

to build on and further develop the

writing curriculum. Our focus is that

children ‘know more and remember

more’. In order to support this, se-

quential learning, where each day’s

learning builds on the previous day

is at the foundation of the curricu-

lum. The weekly goal for the chil-

dren is to be able to use their learn-

ing of the week to produce a long

piece of writing in which they

demonstrate the knowledge ac-

quired. Monday Literacy lesson is

dedicated to reading. The genre of

the text used is one that is carefully

chosen to introduce the week’s

learning goal. This lesson is aimed to

promote reading skills, develop vo-

cabulary and build on speaking and

listening skills as they debate and

engage in discussion with each oth-

er.

of different writing styles, genres

and an enriched vocabulary bank.

New vocabulary is collected by

teachers and children and used

frequently when speaking and

writing. When looking around a

class, it is evident that there is a

vocabulary rich environment to

encourage and facilitate children

to use their newly acquired words.

This term, the academy was in-

volved in two highly successful

competitions: debating and a

spelling bee. These events help to

encourage children to develop

their speaking and listening skills

along with their confidence and a

healthy competition between the

academy schools. We look forward

to having the competitions in the

next terms too. Well done to Y3

and Y4 for bringing the Spelling

Bee trophies to Davies Lane!

During the Autumn term, children have had the opportunity to read and focus on at least three books through shared reading and literacy lessons. Through our ‘novel studies’ children are improving on their reading, comprehension and writing. Children also have speed-reading books, which contain a range of text from fiction to non-fiction. These texts build on chil-dren’s stamina and fluency as well

Volume 3, Issue 1 Page 3

Writing

as expanding on their vocabulary.

Years 3 and 4 are continuing with Ac-celerated Reader and data shows there has been progress in children’s reading across the two year groups. As a school we have invested in many new phonics books which have al-ready made a huge impact in children phonics across KS1 and lower KS2. These are being used in class as well as being sent home for children to

consolidate their phonic knowledge. We encourage all parents to make a comment in the childrens yellow reading rec-ords to ensure communication between home and school. Com-ments regarding stamina, fluen-cy, tricky words or related to chil-dren’s comprehension can be written in these reading record books.

Reading

This year we are seeing a push towards building children’s learn-ing experiences and ensuring that they continue to experience the wider curriculum. This includes continuing with the exciting sub-jects such as architecture, con-struction and engineering that sets Davies Lane apart from many other schools.

History and Geography

Engineering, Architecture and Design

Page 4

Children are articulating how much they are enjoying these les-sons , which sit within the STEM, History and Geography topics.

Year 2 have been learning about the work of Sir Christopher Wren and his most famous building, St Paul’s Cathedral. On their visit the education officer at St Pauls com-mented that never in her 14 years there had Primary School children asked her, or better still, been able to tell her about the architecture of one of London’s most iconic build-ings.

Year 4 have been learning about the Victorians in History so this led nicely into a link with Victorian homes, many of which can still be seen around Leytonstone. Some children even made model houses at home and brought them in to share with the school.

Year 6 have designed and built Anderson shelters, which linked to their History learning about the Second World War.

The standards and expectations in

history and geography have grown

tremendously over the years with

more children taking pride in their

work and greater opportunities for

children to demonstrate that they

‘know more and remember more’.

This is all thanks to more history

and geography lessons being taught

in the morning sessions and having

a broad and balanced curriculum.

Children also enjoy the number of

school trips that link to what they

have been learning in their topics.

For example, Year 3 had a fabulous

time getting to see a range of Ro-

man artefacts up close when they

visited a Roman settlement – The

Verulamium.

Year 2 children also enjoyed their

trip to St Pauls Cathedral - one of

London’s most popular landmarks.

The children impressed the tour

guide with their high-level histori-

cal knowledge.

To enhance the children’s learn-

ing, towards the end of the chil-

dren’s study on a particular topic

for history and geography they

demonstrate their knowledge in a

contextual under-

standing project.

This is where they

get the chance to

write an essay or

complete a project,

showing all that

they have been

learning.

Volume 3, Issue 1

Examples where children used a PowerPoint

presentation to showcase their history

knowledge

The Arts

In Autumn, the ICT curriculum allowed children in all years the chance to learn how to investigate, code and debug computer programs. For ex-ample, in Year 3, the children were tasked with debugging a racing car computer game on SCRATCH. The pupils needed to read the programing code, understand the actions that were being undertaken and decide which variables pro-duced which output, when they had this knowledge they were able to adjust the varia-bles to get the game to play properly.

In the Spring term, all year groups will be using ICT pur-posefully, Year 1 will be illus-trating an eBook, Year 2 will be learning how to take better photos, Year 3 will be videoing their performances of 'A Mid-summers Night Dream.' Year 4 will be producing digital music, Year 5 are using ICT to fuse Geometry and Art and Year 6 will be creating a TV advert. Lots to look forward to in spring!

Page 5

This Autumn term, art has been mingling with drama to create Davies Lane's Got Talent. Contest-ants from year groups 1 to 6 took part and showcased their singing, musical and dance talent. During the lower phase talent show, a singing duo took the lead in claim-ing the hearts of the audience. Whilst the upper phase talent show was dominated by an in-credible dance performance that inevitably won Davies Lane's Got Talent's coveted prize trophy. Well done to all the contestants and all children that took part in

the auditions. We look forwards to seeing a new set of contestants daz-zle our judges in the new year!

The art and D&T curriculum contin-ues to challenge children and build on prior learning. Next term, we continue learning new art skills,

learning about the work of key artists, architects, engineers or chefs as part of our curriculum. Get ready for the children to test your knowledge on famous and well known artists from the past and present!

Modern Foreign Languages

Volume 3, Issue 1

Bonjour and 你好;

Our children at Davies Lane are lucky enough to be learning both French and Mandarin.

Sadly we say goodbye to Madame Chelaru who will be leaving us at the end of this term. She has taught French to the children for several years and has been involved in a number of international day school events, as well as interschool com-petitions. Madame Adele, who joined us early December, will be teaching French to all children in

Key Stage 2 . The French curricu-lum will now be taught to children in Years 3-6 , which allows us to develop and advance children's language skills in a progressive sequence of learning.

Welcome to Ms Wu, who teaches Mandarin to children in Years 1 and 2. This is a new and exciting opportunity for our Key Stage 1 children who are fortunate enough to experience learning languages from a young age, fo-cusing on sounds and rhymes.

Computing

There are now spaces for woodwind

and brass lessons for the Spring Term.

Please sign up at the office if interested.

Pupils have enjoyed a busy Autumn

Term with lots of performances in

school and at other venues. Events

have included the steel pan and

piano concerts, the Civic Carol Con-

cert at the Town Hall, Year 2 and 4

musical productions, nativities put

on by Reception and Nursery and

our end of term Carol Concert.

Many children were awarded cer-

tificates for outstanding progress in

their instrumental lessons.

Music

come and join in with the fun. We

brought the story alive using real

life animals from the story. Chil-

dren stroked and took part in a

photoshoot with a snake and an

owl. Our experiences in Nursery

have been very popular with par-

ents and pupils.

In Reception, the children have

been learning about the seasons,

we were able to talk about the four

seasons and identify changes while

looking at our local environment

on a local walk.

Nursery, the children have estab-

lished good routines and follow a

structured phonics session daily.

Children are gaining confidence in

phoneme recognition and some are

beginning to blend words.

Children have developed their fine

motor skills to cut and prepare

food to cook on the campfire. We

have learnt about fire safety and

enjoyed a visit from firefighters

were children had the opportunity

to squirt water using a hose.

Nursery pupils also took part in an

exciting visit to Leyton bus garage

and enjoyed a bus ride through the

local area.

We held a Gruffalo themed autumn

festival and invited parents to

Reception took part in a junk or-

chestra workshop, which the chil-

dren really enjoyed—they listened

to the music and made instruments

using junk materials.

Children have the opportunity to

access the outdoors in a fun, socia-

ble setting and gain a deeper under-

standing of the natural world

around us. They have been using

the fire pit to cook and have gained

a lot of knowledge and key vocabu-

lary that has then been reflected in

their of learning.

Travel Plan

Children cycling to school is still heavily important to us and you will be hap-

py to know that there will be more FREE cycling training opportunities for

our children at Davies Lane. This will take place in the spring for Year 3 and

4 children and in the summer for Year 6 children. We are also happy to an-

nounce another year of gold accreditation status!

Volume 3, Issue 1 Page 6

Stay and Play

Every Thursday we host some of our local families at our Stay and Play group. The sessions are for parents and their 0 to 3 year old children. These sessions support your child’s learning through play with other children, alongside their parents or carers.

A range of stimulating activities are available at the sessions, allow-

ing your child to play, paint, read, cook, climb, sing, dance, dress up,

jump, run around. We look forward to seeing you there!

Early Years Foundation Stage