Red Oak Primary School, Lowestoft

“Nothing Is Learned Until It is In Your Long Term Memory”

At Red Oak Primary School our mission is to develop a place of learning with our local community, to raise aspirations and enable all learners to fulfil their potential.

Curriculum Intent:

We are committed to providing a full curriculum experience for every child so that each can learn more and remember more. We will help them succeed by broadening their experiences and enable them to reach their potential in every area of school life – academic, social, personal, physical, spiritual and creatively, through a rich curriculum offer.

The staff, governors and Active Learning Trust work together to make sure that by the time pupils leave us:

1. They will acquire expertise across the subject disciplines enabling them to develop their creativity, linguistic, investigative and philosophical knowledge and skills.
2. They know what it feels like to be good at something and will have achieved their best.
3. They will love learning new things and want to keep on learning more.
4. They will understand just how incredible they are, develop self-belief and confidence in their abilities.
5. They will have grown healthy and strong and understand how to look after their body including their mind.
6. They will have known friendship and how to get along with other people, including how to resolve conflicts.
7. They will feel part of their local community and be proud of Red Oak.
8. They will know how to keep safe, take calculated risks and know where to get support and help when needed.

Our school logo is ‘Where Learning Is Living’, this is at the heart of all that we do. We believe our children should gain an interest in a range of subjects and develop their general knowledge.

We place enormous value in each child and our desire to ensure standards, in all areas, remain as high as possible within a caring, respectful and happy environment.

Curriculum Implementation:

Our broad and balanced curriculum follows the Early Years Foundation Stage Revised Framework for our Little Acorns and from Year 1 until Year 6 our children move in to the National Curriculum (2014), continuing to provide the children with the skills they need to become effective independent learners.

Early Literacy skills are taught through a consistent phonics approach from Nursery. When children are able to read fluently they join whole class teaching for English.

Maths is taught as mixed ability classes and in Early Years includes continuous provision with number work, shape, space and time through a range of approaches including practical tasks, singing and technology. These early skills are built upon from Year 1, where Maths includes daily practice tasks, for long term retention, covering the areas of Number, Calculation, Measures, Geometry and Statistics.

An Enquiry based approach is used for the teaching of History, Geography and Science through a topic which spans a half term or over a whole term. Within the topic the teacher plans for learning opportunities building on children’s previous knowledge and their interests. This approach encourages children to research, investigate, problem solve and begin to make their own views and conclusions based on evidence or theory.

Other subjects are taught either weekly or as a block. These include Religious Education, exploring the main 6 faiths. Art, Design Technology, Music and Physical Education, which includes the creative areas of Dance and Drama. Modern Foreign Languages which follows the Rigolo scheme, PSHE/Citizenship which includes extensive work on relationships, friendships, safety and the values associated with being a positive member of the school, community and wider world. Computing is taught weekly and is also used to support learning within other subjects.

All of our curriculum, including the extra-curricular opportunities, break times and lunch times are underpinned with our embedded ethos of developing the school values and learning behaviours of Engagement, Enthusiasm, Resilience, Independence and Perseverance. We also enrich the curriculum with opportunities for the children to learn outside of the traditional classroom by visiting many places, experiencing a range of cultural opportunities such as visiting theatres, authors, musicians and subject specialists. These all add to the unique experience pupils of Red Oak enjoy.

Curriculum Impact:

At Red Oak Primary School we measure the impact of our curriculum in several ways. This includes ongoing tracking of pupil’s progress through formal data and 6 weekly meetings, scrutiny of work and monitoring of teaching. This enables the provision to be flexible and adjusted accordingly to the varying needs of our children.

Accountability for positive outcomes for our pupils is the responsibility of all staff and leaders. Teachers are responsible for a curriculum subject and monitor the content and outcomes, ensuring progressive skills and knowledge are sustained over time.

The child's voice and parent opinion is always sought and this along with national agendas enable us to reflect, review and respond to changes as required.

Ultimately our children leave Red Oak with a set of skills, knowledge and experiences that prepare them for the next stage of their learning journey. These all add to the unique experience children at Red Oak enjoy and further build on their cultural capital.