Dear Parents, Near to the start of this new term we would like to bring you up to date with what’s happening with learning and teaching at South Benfleet.  

 

Curriculum Planning In recent months we have been preparing for changes in primary education. This is as a result of the recent Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum. This review suggests many things; including making the primary curriculum even more creative. It also promotes the linking together of subjects into six areas, (instead of 12 or so subjects) so that learning is as connected and relevant as possible. Over the next year or two we will be looking afresh at our curriculum and thinking about our themes and topics and considering changes we can make to further link themes and activities together. We are doing this to make learning as practical and real as possible. The continued use of visits and visitors also helps to help bring learning alive. We are continually working to fulfil our school mission statement, particularly the part which states we want to create a school community ‘where learning is fun, real, relevant and memorable’. We also want our learners to ‘develop the motivation, knowledge and skills to prepare them for the world of tomorrow’. Linking themes is important as it can maximise connections and gives good opportunity for the development and application of skills E.g. children writing letters asking for information, thanking someone for a visit etc.  You will notice a development of our current practice of using themes to underpin learning. Themes we use include Fire of London, WW2, Greeks, Invaders etc.

 

The teaching staff want your support to help your child learn and will soon be sending home more detailed information about the curriculum.   With this curriculum re - planning in mind we have arranged a variety of training and planning activities to help staff (and ultimately the children). You may have noticed on the recent newsletter that we have now declared all of our training days including one in December and one in March, both of which will be for planning purposes. I hope this early notification of dates will help you with making arrangements. Please remember that there are many areas of the curriculum that are taught pretty much on their own, separate to that term’s main theme, e.g. much PE, music, aspects of maths etc. We will of course continue with these and meet the requirements of the National Curriculum. In summary we want to be able to provide as many real, practical, learning activities as possible to keep the children motivated and interested in their learning which ultimately we believe will help to ensure continued high attainment.  

 

Assessment for Learning Over the last year or two we have spent a lot of time working on something called Assessment for Learning (AFL). This is a series of strategies developed from continuous research about how children learn. One of the key beliefs is that children learn best when they are told explicitly what they are learning and what sort of outcomes they are working to achieve. Therefore, at the start of lessons children discuss or are made aware of what they are learning in that lesson (the learning objectives). Children also have clear criteria (Success Criteria) they can check their work against at the end of a lesson, a sort of checklist of things that they can do to help them achieve the learning objectives. Assessment for Learning also encourages much discussion and partner work with the view that we can learn more effectively when we talk about and share our learning (thoughts, ideas etc.) in order to find solutions. You should hear your child talk about their talk partner who they work with in certain lessons. These talk partners change on a regular basis. AFL also encourages the active sharing and celebration of work in a lesson in order to help with assessment and to encourage children to find ways of improving their work and helping others change or improve their work. We are very positive about Assessment for Learning as it helps to encourage children to take responsibility for their learning and makes them fully aware that learning is an active process. Other positives include the reinforcement of speaking and listening skills.

 

Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) From later on in 2010 all junior aged children (years 3-6) will have the opportunity to learn French with the aim of introducing the children over time to aspects of French culture and the learning of French words and phrases. The programme is very much about having fun and preparing the way for language learning later in life. The programme will be taught by the class teachers using a popular resource called ‘Rigolo’.  

 

Home Learning (Homework)

This year we are starting to change how we approach home learning (often known as homework!) with the aim of making it more effective, appropriate and meaningful and so that it better supports learning in school. ‘Bread and Butter’ activities such as talking to your child, playing games, daily reading etc are still expected and essential, as is the practising of number facts and skills. We would like to reduce the number of standalone, often one off tasks and activities such as work sheets. Instead we want the children to spend more time (with your support please) where they work on finding things out (by talking, looking in books, visiting the library, looking on the internet etc) directly linked with class learning. They may also be asked to draw pictures, think of questions or solutions, ask for memories and experiences, make sketches etc. We would also like to explore making better use of games and online resources. The most important thing will be your help in continuing to support you child with home learning by encouraging, helping and getting them into good working habits. Each class will send out information (usually term by term) on how you can continue to be involved in home learning.  

We still very much want, need and value your support in helping your child to learn. 

 

Spelling The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) have recently published a pack called Support for Spelling which is part of the Primary National Strategy for the teaching of literacy. One of the key messages from the pack ‘is that the children should be learning about words rather than given words to learn’. With this in mind we would like largely to move away from the ritual of weekly spelling tests as they mainly test short term memory. We are going to continue to sharpen our teaching of spelling rules and patterns and work on ‘how to spell’ in lessons in school. This will mean that for most of the year your child will not usually be bringing home a weekly list of spellings to be learnt for a test. Instead we will be sending home lists of focus words throughout the year – e.g. termly or half termly, that the teacher will be working on in class as part of the spelling focus. Please talk about / display these words. Over time we will also be sending home activities and ideas for games and the like, where you can help with the long term learning of spelling. In school we will be using the materials from the ‘Support for Spelling’ pack supplemented with other relevant materials- i.e. at Key Stage 2 (juniors) a series of books called Key Spelling.

 

Writing One of our key focuses over the next year is to continue to develop writing across the school  so that the children can achieve the very best possible outcomes. Our staff training day in  September was called ‘Big Writing’. The staff learnt how to combine a variety of  strategies to help children continue to develop as writers. Listen out for phrases such as  ‘VCOP’. We will update you further in coming weeks.

 

If you have any queries or questions please arrange to come into school and speak to a relevant member of staff