Curriculum
BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN EVERYONE
At Grove Primary School, we have planned a curriculum that engages children from their very first day. Childhood should be a happy, investigative and enquiring time. Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome the differences within our school community.
We want our children to become skilled readers, confident writers and adept mathematicians to ensure they are ready to contribute to the world around them. Through our broad and balanced offer, we develop scientists, artists, historians, geographers, musicians, linguists, athletes, and designers. Our focus on the individual enables each child to develop self-confidence and ambition - vital skills in the modern world. We take great care to ensure our values of ready, respectful, safe are woven into each discrete subject.
Enhancement opportunities support and ignite the curriculum and are carefully planned. The whole school starts their academic year with a 'Malvern and Me' term. We want all children to understand what makes their town unique and how it has contributed to the development of our country.
Other events promote positive attitudes to learning in all subjects. More importantly, they often give children the opportunity to try something new, make mistakes and build on these mistakes in order to learn a new skill.
The curriculum is carefully mapped so that we
- Recognise children’s prior learning
- Provide first-hand learning experiences
- Allow the children to develop interpersonal skills
- Develop resilience
- Enable creative and critical thinking
Children should leave primary school with a sense of belonging to a tightly-knit community. Within this community, children are taught to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners. Cultural Capital is developed through a wide range of inspiring, engaging and exploratory learning experiences in each subject. We aim to raise pupils’ aspirations by teaching them about human creativity and achievement and how they can have a positive impact on their world.
The curriculum covers the full expectations of the National Curriculum, starting with our Early Years provision. The Early Years curriculum is one of exploration and discovery. The children are prepared and equipped with the skills and vocabulary needed to succeed as they progress through the curriculum,
From Year 1 to Year 6, each subject is taught discretely to ensure that children develop the knowledge, skills and vocabulary that each subject requires. Meaningful links between subjects are made so that children can apply their knowledge and skills in different contexts.
Within each lesson, teachers use an 'I do, we do, you do' structure so that each new concept and skill is modelled carefully. It is part of the curriculum plan that children revisit prior learning regularly to ensure that learning is embedded in the long-term memory.
Adults in each classroom are on-hand to support every child. We recognise that not every child has the same academic, social or emotional starting points. Where necessary, we make adaptations to ensure all pupils can access the intended learning. Each lesson provides a level of challenge, recognising that pupils do not all start at the same level. Staff effectively and continuously assess and support all pupils in order to identify and address any gaps in children’s substantive and disciplinary knowledge. This ensures access to and progress within the curriculum for everyone.
Your Right to Withdraw from Religious Education (RE)
We respect the choices of all families. Under UK law, parents and carers have the right to ask for their child to be withdrawn from some or all Religious Education (RE) lessons. You don’t need to give a reason, and we will always support your decision.
If you choose to withdraw your child, they will still be supervised in school during RE lessons. While we’re not required to provide alternative lessons, you’re welcome to share any work you’d like your child to do during this time.
If you’d like to discuss this or make a request, please contact the school office.
Safeguarding and the Grove Curriculum
The safety and wellbeing of children is at the heart of everything we do at Grove Primary School. Opportunities are identified in the taught curriculum for children to learn how to keep themselves and others safe and enable them to contribute positively beyond our school community.
Our bespoke and broad curriculum provides opportunities to experience life in its diversity, to acquire knowledge, understanding and skills to enable positive personal development. Personal safeguarding skills are supported by the Behaviour Policy to ensure that our vision of ‘bringing out the best in everyone’ is achieved.
The ‘Jigsaw’ P.S.H.E. curriculum covers all areas of safeguarding and personal development. Our knowledge of our children ensures that sensitive strands are taught at an age-appropriate level. Where necessary, small group or 1:1 teaching opportunities are provided.
Children are challenged to think carefully about safeguarding matters such as online safety and to question the world around them. Children are encouraged to consider the impact of their individual choices and behaviours. Physical and mental wellbeing are actively promoted.
A programme of practical and purposeful safeguarding activities, often working with specialist external providers, is used to support the curriculum:
- Road and rail safety
- Bike-ability
- Pool and water safety in the PE curriculum
- Fire awareness and visits to Malvern Fire Station
- Visits to school from medical staff
- Work with our Community Support Officers to respond to local issues
- Work with charities such as N.S.P.C.C, Macmillan and The Dogs’ Trust
- A 2-year programme of high school transition opportunities, with additional support for children with SEND.
- Weekly assemblies
- Promoting personal risk assessment skills through visits, as well as during play and outdoor learning
- The safe use of technology in school and at home
We have developed a nurturing and supportive learning environment in which children feel safe to express their views, seek support and help others. The promotion of equality of opportunity for all helps to prevent any form of direct or indirect discriminatory behaviour.
The Behaviour Policy promotes positive behaviour choices in order to ensure all children can learn and feel safe. Class circle times are for sharing ideas, recognising and celebrating success. However, they are also a time for reflection and to respond to safeguarding matters if they arise.
Ready Respectful Safe
Assemblies are carefully planned to promote our school values. Within these values, safeguarding matters are promoted. For example, we create our child-friendly ‘Anti-Bullying’ policy and use reflection time to reflect on the theme of each assembly. We also work with the N.S.P.C.C to deliver the 'Speak Out Stay Safe' programme every Autumn Term.
Staff and children act quickly to challenge stereotypes and the use of derogatory language is not accepted in school and beyond. It is a core aim to provide our children with experiences beyond their local community and promote a cultural awareness of life outside of Malvern.
Please follow the link below to find the Department for Education's statutory guidance on the Early Years and Primary curriculum.
Department for Education's statutory guidance on the primary curriculum
Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework
Art and Design
Art and Design at Grove Primary School
We take great pride in using 'Kapow Primary' to deliver our Art and Design curriculum. Kapow ensures full National Curriculum coverage whilst ensuring that learners are constantly developing their knowledge and skills through:
- Generating ideas and using sketchbooks: taking inspiration from a range of artists
- Making: developing drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, mixed media, craft techniques and sculpture skills
- Formal elements: exploring colour, form, line, pattern, shape, texture and tone
- Knowledge of artists: discovering artists' work and techniques
- Evaluation: critiquing their own work and that of others
Take One Picture
All the children from Nursery to Oak class completed a piece of art work based on 'Surprise' by Henri Rousseau, to show in our exhibition. The children all visited the gallery during the school day and the parents were welcomed after school.
Birch Class Years 1 & 2
Pine Class Year 3
Pine Class Year 4
Beech Class Year 5
Oak Class Year 6
Birch Class Year 1 and Year 2
Pine Class Year 3 and Year 4
Pine Class Year 3 and Year 4
Year 5 and Year 6
Bringing art and design alive is important at our school. This year Grove Primary School took part in the Voices and Visions Art Exhibition at Worcester Cathedral. The theme this year was 'People and Places.' We chose to base our art work on the seven continents, with each year group designing and making a board about their continent.
- Nursery and Reception - Europe
- Antarctica - Year 1
- South America - Year 2
- Africa - Year 3
- Australia - Year 4
- North America - year 5
- Asia - Year 6
Here are 6 of our boards in the cathedral. We were very lucky to have all 7 of our art boards on show. They looked amazing and showed off so many of the children's art and design skills.
Art and DT long term plan 24 25
Computing
Our Rationale
At Grove Primary School and Nursery we are all computer programmers.
We want our pupils to love computing. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be jobs related to computing. We want them to embody our core values and be programmers, ICT technicians, administrators, game developers or vloggers.
We all believe that we can: “Bring Out the Best in Everyone”.
The computing curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their computing capital. We want our children to remember their computing lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the opportunities they are presented with.
Pine
Beech
Oak
Design and Technology
We take great pride in using 'Kapow Primary' to deliver our Design and Technology curriculum. Kapow ensures full National Curriculum coverage whilst ensuring that learners are constantly developing their knowledge and skills through exploring:
- Cooking and nutrition
- Mechanical systems
- Textiles
- Electrical systems
- Structures
- Digital world
Why is Design and Technology important?
Design and Technology helps us to develop as reflective learners, as we work through the design process. Throughout this subject, we are able to work collaboratively to solve problems and find solutions, teaching us to deal with uncertainty whilst developing communication, organisational and other practical life skills. We learn to appreciate the needs of others, the 'built environment' and the likely impact of future technologies.
Design and Technology gives pupils the opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of designing and making functional products.
Art and DT long term plan 24 25
English
At Grove Primary School and Nursery, we are confident writers and skilled readers!
We want our pupils to love English. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be journalists, authors, librarians, editors, lawyers, or social media managers! We want them to embody our core values and be imaginative. We want to develop effective communicators using the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
We all believe that we can: “Bring Out the Best in Everyone”.
The English curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their literary capital. We want our children to remember their English lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the opportunities they are presented with!
English at Grove Primary School and Nursery
Guided Reading
Children will have the opportunity to read every day in school with dedicated reading lessons. In Guided Reading lessons, children will be supported by an adult who will discuss the text and promote questioning to allow children to develop a better understanding of the text they are reading. For more information see Reading tab.
A Word of Caution!
You won't be doing your child any favours if you rush them through books. It is not a race, it is a journey! Children learn at different rates just as they learn to walk, dress themselves etc. at different rates. Reading must not be treated as a competition. If children are rushed through the books, they will not achieve the enjoyment and understanding necessary. Books that they find too difficult will soon put them off reading!
Things to Remember
Do hear your child read every day.
Little and often is more beneficial than a long session once a week.
Think about how long you are reading for - the amount of reading time shouldn’t exceed your child’s span of attention.
Pick your timing carefully - it’s best not to embark on a reading session when your child is tired.
Every child is an individual - try not to compare your child’s progress with other children or with brothers and sisters.
“Parents can instill a love of reading long before a child goes to school and deepen that love of reading as the child grows up.”
Enjoy reading with your child and help them become lifelong readers.
Writing
Children begin their writing journey in Nursery and Reception with 'mark-making' opportunities. Children are set individual targets that enable them to develop their motor skills and become confident writers at their own pace.
As they get older, children are given opportunities to create pieces of writing that link to a text. Each writing task is linked to the Punctuation and Grammar skills that the children are investigating. Our children are encouraged to check, edit and improve their own work. This process enables them to become reflective and resilient learners.
Helping your child to read at home
Parents' Guide to Supporting Reading.pptx
Geography
The Grove Primary Geography Overview details how our geography curriculum is bespoke to our school, whilst fulfilling the requirements of the National Curriculum for England. This is linked below.
We are proud users of 'Kapow Primary' throughout our geography curriculum. Please have a look at the Kapow Curriculum Overview for Parents and Carers which gives a summary of key geography learning for Reception to Year 6. We have also included our Humanities Long Term Plan which details when each topic is taught.
Grove Primary Geography Overview
Geography Curriculum Overview Parents and Carers
Grove Humanities Long term plan
History
The Grove Primary History Overview details how our history curriculum is bespoke to our school, whilst fulfilling the requirements of the National Curriculum for England. This is linked below. We pride ourselves on ensuring our topics meet the needs of our pupils and include studying the history of Malvern, the town which we call home.
We are proud users of 'Kapow Primary' throughout our history curriculum. Please have a look at the Kapow Curriculum Overview for Parents and Carers which gives a summary of key history learning for Reception to Year 6. We have also included our Humanities Long Term Plan which details when each topic is taught.
History Curriculum Overview Parents and Carers Cycle A
History Curriculum Overview Parents and Carers Cycle B
Grove Primary History Overview
Grove Humanities Long term plan
Languages at Grove Primary School
At Grove Primary School and Nursery we are linguists!
We want our pupils to love communicating in more than one language. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to explore the World, work in travel and tourism, be interpreters, translators and teachers. We want them to embody our core values and be excited to learn about the similarities and differences between languages and cultures.
French is our modern foreign language of choice here at Grove Primary School. We use the 'Rigolo' Primary French scheme which offers a spell binding combination of teaching resources and carefully maps lessons across Key Stage 2. We want our pupils' language skills to develop across all four key areas of listening, reading, speaking and writing. We want our children to remember and cherish their language lessons in our school and to embrace the many opportunities with which they are presented.
Take a look at the Rigolo scheme below...
Rigolo National Curriculum Links
Rigolo National Curriculum Map.pdf
Maths
Maths Curriculum Intent
To 'bring out the best in everyone' we want every learner to be confident mathematically and have a strong conceptual understanding that enables them to successfully apply their knowledge in a range of different contexts preparing them for the world around them and life after Grove Primary School.
- Pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value.
- This should ensure that pupils develop efficient written and mental methods and perform calculations accurately with increasingly large whole numbers.
- As pupils progress, they will extend their understanding of the number system and place value to include larger integers. This should develop the connections that pupils make between multiplication and division with fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio.
- Pupils can recall and remember key mathematical knowledge (including technical vocabulary) and build on this knowledge.
- Children have opportunities to reason and master a range of maths skills, applying them to a wide range of contexts.
- Children can confidently use a wide range of mathematical vocabulary.
- Children can think independently and persevere when faced with challenges.
- Children understand the importance of mathematics and the role it has in adult life.
Skills Progression and Calculation Policy
White Rose Progression Map.pdf
Times Tables
At Grove Primary School, we believe that times tables are a key foundation for all further mathematical understanding.
With the National Curriculum changes in 2014 and new statutory assessments being implemented in Year 4 2019, there are greater demands on children knowing and being secure in their multiplication and division facts up to 12 x 12.
We use Times Tables Rockstars to learn, practise and assess times tables. Each child has their own username and password which allows them to develop their understanding of times tables in school and at home.
Click here to login to Times Tables Rockstars.
Documentation
Long Term Plan 2021 - 2022
The 5 Big Ideas
Lesson Design in Maths
Calculation Appendices
Milestones
Addition and Subtraction Milestones.pdf
Multiplication and Division Milestones .pdf
Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Milestones.pdf
Ratio and Proportion Milestones.pdf
Music
.All children have a natural enjoyment of singing, playing and experiencing different forms of music. Our curriculum for Music develops this natural enjoyment from the Early Years to the final concert in Year 6. The Grove Primary Music Overview details how our music curriculum is bespoke to our school, whilst fulfilling the requirements of the National Curriculum for England.
Musical Vocabulary Progression Document
School Music Development Summary 25-26.pdf
Physical Education
At Grove Primary School and Nursery, we are athletes! We take huge pride in representing our school in many local sporting events and fixtures, including: netball, football, rounders, tag-rugby, cricket, gymnastics, dance, indoor athletics, cross-country and more! We are regular attendees at tournaments run by our local secondary schools, The Chase School and Dyson Perrins C of E Academy.
We want our pupils to love physical education and sport. There are no limits to what their ambitions are. Through our P.E curriculum and participating in a range of events, children can be champions, personal trainers, nutritionists, sports journalists or gold medal winners. Through regular participation, our children embody our values of 'ready, respectful, safe'. These core values link closely with the School Games Values.
'Bringing out the best in everyone'
The P.E. curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their sporting capital. We want our children to remember their PE lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the opportunities they are presented with. In order to ensure that our PE lessons are engaging and challenging, we use 'PE Hub' as an online curriculum resource. PE Hub focusses on skill progression and student engagement.
All our lesson plans follow the same format. Every lesson has:
- A starter activity
- Teaching Points
- Skill Development
- Key Questions
Our love of sport really does shine through here at Grove Primary School, particularly during our play times!
P.E. in Action
14.3.25
Autumn Term 24/25 football tournament at Dyson Perrins C of E Academy - Our Year 6 Team
Religious Education
At Grove Primary School and Nursery we are theologists! We want our children to love religious education. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be priests, anthropologists, lecturers or social workers! We want them to embody our core values and to ask and investigate challenging questions about life. We want them to find out about and respect different faiths and cultures
We all believe that we can: “Bring Out the Best in Everyone”.
The RE curriculum has been carefully crafted so that our children develop their SMSC capital. We want our children to remember their RE lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the opportunities they are presented with! Bringing RE alive is important; we will do this through meaningful experiences through visits, workshops and bringing visitors into school.
Chinese New Year Celebrations
Christmas Celebrations
Diwali Celebrations
Easter Celebrations
Science
The Grove Primary Science Overview details how our science curriculum is bespoke to our school, whilst fulfilling the requirements of the National Curriculum for England. This is linked below.
As detailed in the overview, we are proud users of ‘Developing Experts’. This fantastic body of online resources has created a comprehensive science curriculum which is delivered through sequenced lessons mapped against the National Curriculum. At Grove Primary School, we know that we can rely on the 'Developing Experts' scheme of learning to ensure our Science curriculum is progressive and challenging.
Grove Primary Science Overview
Science topic coverage document 24-25