The Courtwood Curriculum

We provide a broad and balanced curriculum, which is enhanced with the option to participate in many extra-curricular clubs and activities. Maths and Literacy are taught every day for at least an hour and links made to applying knowledge in real-life contexts. Foundation subjects such as science, history and art are taught via Learning Journeys which immerse the children in a topic.

Literacy

We teach literacy using a scheme of work called The Power of Reading. Reading and writing skills are embedded and taught by studying a whole text from beginning to end, lasting anything between a week and six weeks. As well as reading and writing there are opportunities for speaking and listening, drama, art and music.

Numeracy

Numeracy is taught using a scheme of work called Abacus. All areas of maths are covered within this scheme including calculation, data handling, shape and space, geometry, measurement and mental maths. Children are regularly taught problem-solving skills and given the opportunities to apply these to a real-life context.

Learning Journeys

Learning Journeys bring together many of the remaining school subjects such as art and geography. Class trips are often organised to enhance a topic and support the learning taking place at school. Junior children receive French lessons for a term and Year 3 receive a years’ worth of SoundStart music tuition. Some subjects such as RE, PE, PSHCE, Music and French are taught discretely, whilst others such as history, geography, DT and art are usually taught through Learning Journey’s in a cross curricular way. Please see the Curriculum map in this booklet for a wider overview.

Homework

Homework is set half-termly and matches the class Learning Journey for the half term. There are non-negotiable tasks that must be completed weekly such as spellings and times-tables practise. In addition there are a further nine tasks (either literacy, numeracy or topic based) that the children can choose to complete (a minimum of three must be completed.)

Extra-Curricular

We provide a wide-range of extra-curricular clubs and activities throughout the year at Courtwood. Clubs include: Multi-Sports, Gymnastics, Cheerleading, Street Dance, Ball Skills, Craft, Gardening, Cookery, German, Science, Computing and Lego. Years 5 and 6 may have the opportunity to represent the school in teams such as Netball and Football.

What Will You Be Learning About in Year 4?

During the year you will go on many Learning Journeys with your class. You can find information about some of these below.

Who is a Bright Spark?

This Learning Journey is all about electricity. Children will learn how to build basic circuits and about which materials conduct and insulate electricity. Children will research alternative energy sources and discuss how and why we need electricity in our modern lives.

How Would You Survive Without Water?

During this Learning Journey children will learn what solids, liquids and a gases are and how these are states of matter. They will experiment with how they can change these states, and if the changes are reversible. Children will also learn about evaporation and condensation.

Are you Brave Enough to Swim with Sharks?

During this Learning Journey children will learn about the human digestive System, our teeth and comparing these to other animals. Children will also learn about food chains in the animal kingdom and which animals are predators and prey and why.  

Why is the Sound that ‘One Direction’ Makes Enjoyed by so Many?

This learning journey focuses on sound; children will learn how sound travels in sound waves and create art using these waves. They will test how sound travels through making string telephones. Children will learn how the human ear works and investigate how we hear in different states.

Which Wild Animals and Plants Thrive in Croydon?

Children will go into the local area and conduct research about the plants we have in our locality. They will focus on grouping animal and plants by categories. Children will research environmental change and discuss the impact this could have on the community. Children will develop their skills of comparison by comparing our location to a coastal town.

Where Would you Choose to Build a City?

Children will learn what the common features are of a big city in the UK and other countries. Children will learn about the historic role that rivers played in the location and development of cities. Children will experiment with materials to build a sky scraper. Map skills will be developed through children drawing and locating cities on maps.

Why Were the Romans so Powerful and What did we Learn from Them?

During this topic children will develop their historical enquiry skills and be taught about the development of the Roman Empire and how this affected the UK. Children will research Boudicca and discover why she became so famous. Children will consider what it would be like to be a roman child and how different their loves would be.

What Would you Find if you went to Rome for a Holiday?

This topic will focus on Art, Geography and History; children will consider which Roman artefacts have stood the test of time and how different Rome looks today. Children will look at different Italian artists and what we can learn from them. Children will develop their persuasive writing techniques by creating a travel brochure for a holiday in Rome.

Wise Owl Woods (WOW)

The woods were gifted to the school in 2013 and officially ‘opened’ by the Deputy Mayor of Croydon in September 2013. They are a superb resource and we use them as often as possible, to enhance learning across the curriculum. Trained teachers and Teaching Assistants lead Forest School sessions and Year 5 and Year 1 children attend scheduled Forest School sessions on Friday afternoons during the course of the school year. Class teachers will use the woods at any other time to support outdoor learning. 

The Tree House Enhanced Learning Provision

The Tree House is a purpose built SEN unit for children on the Autistic Spectrum, built and opened in 2014. The Tree House can cater for up to 14 children, two per class from Reception to Year 6. There is an infant classroom (Holly class), a junior classroom (Chestnut class), a therapy room, sensory room, meeting room and toilets. There is also an outdoor area. Where appropriate, children from the Tree House will join their mainstream classes for lessons.

Reading – Year 4

• Give a personal point of view on a text.
• Re-explain a text with confidence.
• Justify inferences with evidence, predicting what might happen from details stated or implied.
• Use appropriate voices for characters within a story.
• Recognise apostrophe of possession (plural).
• Identify how sentence type can be changed by altering word order, tenses, adding/deleting words or amending punctuation.
• Explain why a writer has used different sentence types or a particular word order and the effect it has created.
• Skim & scan to locate information and/or answer a question.

Writing

• Vary sentence structure, using different openers.
• Use adjectival phrases (e.g. biting cold wind).
• Use appropriate choice of noun or pronoun.
• Use fronted adverbials.
• Use apostrophe for plural possession.
• Use a comma after fronted adverbial (e.g. Later that day, I heard bad news.).
• Use commas to mark clauses.
• Use inverted commas and other punctuation to punctuate direct speech.
• Use paragraphs to organised ideas around a theme.
• Use connecting adverbs to link paragraphs.
• Write with increasing legibility, consistency and fluency.

Mathematics

• Count backwards through zero to include negative numbers.
• Compare and order numbers beyond 1,000.
• Compare and order numbers with up to 2 decimal places.
• Read Roman numerals to 100.
• Find 1,000 more/less than a given number.
• Count in multiples of 6, 7, 9, 25 and 1000.
• Recall and use multiplication and division facts all tables to 12×12.
• Recognise PV of any 4-digit number.
• Round any number to the nearest 10, 100 or 1,000.
• Round decimals with 1dp to nearest whole number.
• Add and subtract:Numbers with up to 4-digits using written columnar method.
• Multiply:2-digit by 1-digit; 3-digit by 1-digit
• Count up/down in hundredths.
• Recognise and write equivalent fractions.
• Add and subtract fractions with same denominator.
• Read, write and convert time between analogue and digital 12 and 24 hour clocks.

Rights and Responsibilities

We use our Courtwood Rights and Responsibilities as a way for all the children in the school to understand the school rules. The principle is that children understand that they have a right to certain things, but with that right comes a responsibility to behave in certain ways. We have a right to: 

RIPPLE

The RIPPLE effect is a set of six learning behaviours that we believe will enable the children to do the best they can in their learning, whilst at Courtwood. These were developed in partnership with our children, governors and staff. They are: 

Our children understand the language of learning and are able to articulate how these skills are used in their daily lives at Courtwood. Achievement is celebrated weekly. 

PSHE Curriculum

At Courtwood, we see PSHE as central to everything we do.  We teach PSHE as a discreet subject at least once a week, but it is also integrated in all aspects of daily school life. We place great importance on helping children to learn the knowledge, understanding and skills required to live healthy, safe, responsible and rewarding lives. We recognise that in order for children to achieve their full academic potential they must also develop socially, emotionally and morally.