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Our Curriculum

It is our aim that children are encouraged and challenged to develop to their true potential in a vibrant and exciting learning environment. Through our vision of Excellence for All and our core Christian values of Love, Hope and Faith, we strive to develop an enthusiasm for learning and a desire for the whole school community to achieve their best.

These values are shared by the staff, governors and children and affect all that we do and how we do it! All adults who work in our school mirror our expectations and ethos. The uniqueness and individuality of each child is also a key feature of our curriculum.

                                             

At Overton CE Primary School, we continually strive to improve the provision for our children and to develop authentic relationships. It is our aim that children learn from each other and our high expectations for behaviour and learning are shared with them.

The school aims to serve its community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice. It encourages an understanding of the significance of faith, and promotes Christian values through the experience it offers to all its children.

At Overton, we are committed to providing relevant, first-hand learning and purposeful experiences for all of our pupils.

Overton provides a highly inclusive environment. Pupils at all levels are helped to achieve their learning goals. All of our children are challenged and encouraged to expand their skills and knowledge through rich and varied curriculum opportunities. Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our school community.

                                        

 

Curriculum and Learning Statement 2024

Click here to read our Curriculum and Learning Statement. 

Curriculum Learning Overviews

To view the curriculum overviews for each year group click here

PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME NEW UPDATED CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS WILL BE UPLOADED TO SOME OF THE SECTIONS BELOW SHORTLY (SEPT 2024)

Reception and Early Learning 

The Year R Curriculum is a blend of: 

  • knowledge and skills
  • child-centred and adult-directed
  • direct instruction and enquiry learning
  • observation and interaction (intervening sensitively)
  • core knowledge and emotional nurture
  • taught curriculum and environmental curriculum

The role of the adult is always to "Extend" through direct teaching or well-timed interventions.

Key questions to consider when planning any learning:

  • Why is this particular piece of learning important now?
  • How will it contribute to future learning?
  • How does it build on prior learning?

     

            

Curriculum Documents:

A Curriculum for Overton

Opportunities to use the school grounds, our village and local areas all enrich the curriculum

                              

   Orienteering using our school site                            Local village fieldwork and study             

                      

Invited visitors                                                                              Awe and Wonder

                          

       Local & Global Awareness                                                             Learning in our school grounds 

Sport

Sport plays an integral part of our curriculum and pupils are introduced to a huge variety of activities. Traditional sports such as netball, hockey and football are complimented by cricket, running, athletics, tag rugby, dance and gymnastics. Giving sport a focus across Overton has engaged many children including children with SEND. We invest in high quality CPD for our staff and in utilising the skills of sports coaches and our community to further enhance our provision.

                              

 

The Arts

Our school also values The Arts – providing quality opportunities for pupils to share their creative talents. In addition to our Arts Curriculum, our annual Arts Week provides all our children with the opportunity of working with an artist. 

We provide rich and purposeful opportunities for our children to perform in school, at the local Church and other community events.        

Our Year 5 children also perform in a theatre working as part of the Shakespeare for Schools National Charity and we provide an opportunity for children to participate in Young Voices at the O2 annually.

         

Religious Education and Personal, Social and Health Education

Living Difference IV is the new agreed syllabus for religious education for use in all Hampshire maintained schools. We will be planning and implementing the syllabus from January 2022 onwards. Living Difference IV describes an approach for teaching, seeking to explain the educational value not only of children engaging with new material intellectually, but also of them becoming better able to discern what is desirable for their own lives, and with others, for the world.

Informed by current educational research, as well as research into religion and world views, it builds on the approach to religious education used in Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton since 2004. This revision demonstrates the ongoing and fruitful partnership that exists between the four authorities, ensuring a syllabus capable of securing high-quality religious education for all children and young people who encounter it, at this point in history.

Religious Education Curriculum Documents

HeartSmart was launched across the whole school in the Autumn term of 2019 and is a systematic approach to develop children’s resilience, wellbeing and healthy relationships. It is a fundamental aspect of our PSHE provision. It stresses learning how important, valued and loved we are and explores the importance of others and how to love them well. It develops understanding how to process negative emotion and choose forgiveness to restore relationships. It supports our RE curriculum and is one of the Church of England’s recommended resources. HeartSmart also meets the requirements of the new statutory Relationships and Health Education curriculum for primary schools.  Click here to see our policy on Relationships and Sex Education and how HeartSmart supports.

 

English: Phonics, Reading & Writing

Our vision and intent for English is to:

  • develop children's love of English through the study of high quality texts that lead the reading and writing experiences
  • ensure children have a secure grasp of phonics and apply it to reading and writing
  • promote and use rich dialogic talk to develop understanding through the sharing and justifying of ideas and opinions

The enjoyment and lifelong benefits of reading have been central to the learning culture at Overton CE Primary.  The Oxford Reading Tree provides the core spine of reading in the school and runs alongside the teaching of phonics. We use All Aboard Phonics which is a systematic synthetic phonics (SSP)  programme  completely designed around the new criteria set by the DfE in March 2021. 

                                                   

Children also have access to a selection of banded books to complement the reading scheme books in order to provide variety and breadth. Independent reading for sustained periods is encouraged to help children develop fluency and to become self-reliant readers. A selection of supporting phonics based books ensure books are appropriately matched to children’s current reading and phonics level.

Carefully chosen rich texts provide the stimulus for speaking, listening, drama, reading and writing. Children are encouraged to share and discuss their understanding of books through a dialogic approach where all children’s ideas and opinions are valued. 

Children’s reading skills are developed through focused reciprocal reading sessions with the teacher, whole class discussion and further complemented through a read-aloud curriculum with each year group having a specific selection of books to be read to them. Children's fluency is developed through echo reading, paired reading and whole class teacher modelling.

 

 

Curriculum Documents

Mathematics

Our vision and intent for Maths is to:

  • develop a passion for maths through a mastery approach that provides accessible opportunities for all learners to achieve their potential.
  • develop numerical fluency, instilling a secure use of mathematical language and nurturing problem solvers who are able to think critically and apply their knowledge and skills in a range of contexts.

Overton CE Primary uses White Rose Education Primary Maths programme in order to instil a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts using a full range of fun, inspiring classroom activities. We follow progressive and logical step-by-step schemes of learning.  A wide variety of supporting material covers all the essential topics in key stage 1 and key stage 2 timetables, the four operations, basic decimals and fractions, percentages, number system use and more.  The mastery approach to the subject is a research-driven teaching and learning method that meets the goals of the National Curriculum.

In summary, a mastery approach… 

  • Puts numbers first: Our schemes have numbers at their heart, because we believe confidence with numbers is the first step to competency in the curriculum as a whole.
  • Puts depth before breadth: we reinforce knowledge again and again.
  • Encourages collaboration: children can progress through the schemes as a group, supporting each other as they learn.
  • Focuses on fluency, reasoning and problem-solving: it gives children the skills they need to become competent mathematicians.

At the heart of our mastery approach is the Concrete Pictorial Abstract (CPA) approach. Research shows that when children are introduced to a new concept, working with concrete physical resources and pictorial representations leads to a better understanding of abstract concepts. We use CPA throughout our schemes of learning.

We understand that not all children learn at the same rate or can access the same learning activities so teachers use ongoing assessment in order to adapt teaching and learning. Scaffolds, learning tasks, resources, adult support, modelling and worked examples are some of the adaptations made by teachers  to ensure all children are challenged and to meet their needs.  

Curriculum Documents

Health and Wellbeing

Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. (World Health Organization)

Health and Wellbeing should encourage children to explore and clarify their beliefs, attitudes and values; develop personal and interpersonal skills and increase their knowledge and understanding of a range of health issues.

Health and Wellbeing is not the responsibility of any one teacher or subject, but is best addressed through contributions from a range of teachers in a number of curricular areas. 

This school is committed to the health and wellbeing of everyone here and we will work together with parents and the local community to enable children to make healthy informed choices. 

Our vision and intent is to:

  •  promote positive mental health for every member of our staff and child body.

We pursue this aim using both universal, whole school approaches and specialised, targeted approaches aimed at vulnerable children. We work hard to support children with social, emotional and mental health needs.

Staff use a variety of methods for ensuring sound emotional health and wellbeing for children. These complement and reflect the overall aims and philosophy of the school. Our approach includes:

  • Class teaching and reinforcement of our school values
  • Clearly identified rewards and sanctions, understood by all
  • Rewarding positive behaviour and achievement
  • Setting appropriately challenging tasks
  • Providing a forum for listening and talking, e.g. using circle time as a tool
  • Encouraging co-operation and collaboration
  • Developing social competence
  • Encouraging and developing coping strategies and resilience
  • HeartSmart
  • Thrive Approach screening for all children 3 times per year
  • Philosophy for Children (P4C)
  • Mindfulness and Breath

For more details, click here to read our Health and Wellbeing Policy.

Science

NEW UPDATED CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS WILL BE UPLOADED TO THIS SECTION SHORTLY 

Our vision and intent for Science is to:

  • provide a lively and engaging curriculum which provides opportunities for children to learn skills and knowledge through practical science
  • develop children’s scientific enquiry skills through practical investigations and then apply them independently. 
  • ensure children have knowledge, understanding and curiosity about the world around them and make links between their learning and the world.

                   

    

Curriculum Documents

Art and Design

Our vision and intent for Art and Design is to:

  • provide rich and purposeful opportunities to explore a wide range of the arts and exposure to a wide range of artists
  • help children acquire new skills
  • provide opportunities to explore and critique artistic contributions
  • enable children to express their own individual creativity.

                                       

             

 

Curriculum Documents

Computing

Our vision and intent for Computing is to:

  • provide children with a range of opportunities to develop computational thinking skills which enables them to become confident users of technology in the future
  • provide opportunities to work independently and collaboratively on purposeful, real-life projects
  • develop a deep understanding of the different elements of e-safety to enable them to interact safely and responsibly.

                                   

                                      

     

            

 

Curriculum Documents 

Design and Technology

Our vision and intent for Design and Technology is to:

  • provide a diverse range of hands-on creative experiences with purposeful, real-life outcomes using a broad spectrum of materials.
  • support children to plan, create and evaluate throughout their project experiences
  • develop both independent and collaborative learners

                           

                       

 

Curriculum Documents

Geography

Our vision and intent for Geography is to: 

  • provide an enquiry-based approach to explore different skills required to understand the human and physical features of our world.
  • develop an appreciation and care of the natural world and our impact on it, in order to make responsible choices.

                               

                     

 

Curriculum Documents 

History

Our vision and intent for History is to:

  • develop children’s knowledge and understanding of how past events have shaped our world, our societies and decision making.
  • develop key historical skills needed to interpret the past both within living memory and events beyond living memory.

                              

                    

 

Curriculum Documents

Modern Foreign Languages

NEW UPDATED CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS WILL BE UPLOADED TO THIS PAGE SHORTLY 

Music

Our vision and intent for Music is to:

  • provide all children with a wide range of musical opportunities, while developing their musical knowledge and skills
  • teach children to compose, rehearse and perform to a high standard.
  • promote enthusiasm for Music through whole class instrumental lessons and extra-curricular musical activities for all children

                    

               

Curriculum Documents

Physical Education 

Our vision and intent for Physical Education is to:

  • provide a broad and balanced curriculum with opportunities for all children to enjoy sport and Physical Education at school and beyond
  • develop children’s fundamental skills in Physical Education in order to excel in a wide range of sports and games
  • develop skills which will contribute to healthy and active lifestyles such as leadership, confidence, social and team building
  • improve emotional and mental well-being through physical education and help reduce challenging behaviour and increase attendance

                         

                       

Curriculum Documents