The David Ross Education Trust

David Ross Education Trust schools create a rich and exciting learning environment that inspires students to become their confident, academic best.

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Greenfields Primary School & Nursery

Greenfields Primary School and Nursery stands proud as an oasis in the community where every child has the right to succeed and feel proud of their individual achievements.

Curriculum

Here is a brief overview about the curriculum at our school.

To find out more about what each year group is doing by subject each, please click on the curriculum overviews at the bottom of this page. 

Our teachers bring lessons alive, ensuring children go on an adventure whilst travelling along their learning journey. All children at Greenfields Primary School and Nursery follow a broad, knowledge-rich curriculum in the foundation subjects: geography, history, science, art, design and technology, music, and computing.  The curriculum has been designed by curriculum specialists from across the Trust.  The schools follows local SACRE guidance for religious education (RE) and the Jigsaw programme for PSHCE, that fully complies with DfE requirements for September 2020. 

Greenfields Primary School and Nursery is proud to be a Singing School: we work with colleagues from The Voices Foundation to ensure that everybody sings every day; that each class has a choir and that there are many opportunities for learning, rehearsal and performance throughout the school year, both in the school and at venues locally and nationally.

Specialist tuition

The David Ross Education Trust believes in 'broadening horizons'; ensuring that children across the school experience high-quality arts and sports tuition. .  Alongside this, we offer a range of musical activities within the curriculum and specialist instrument teaching. 

We work closely with NMPAT, the Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust, and welcome teachers in to instruct whole classes to play Samba drums, stringed and wind instruments.  We are delighted that from 2018-19, colleagues from Voices Foundation will be supporting the development of an elite choir for the Trust.

For individuals with a keen interest in pursuing their musical ambitions, we subsidise music lessons: for a small cost we also offer tuition in guitar, drumming and violin. 

Specialist sports tutors support our After School Enrichment Clubs.  As well as seasonal sports like tennis and cricket, Greenfields Primary School offers Karate year-round training for budding martial artists.

More information, including how to enrol for music tuition can be accessed by contacting the School Office.

Reading and Phonics

The ambition that all children at Greenfields learn to read well and develop a love of reading is at the heart of our reading curriculum.  We work hard to make sure that children start learning to read fluently right from the start.

It is important to everyone at Greenfields that early reading, especially the phonics skills that support children to become independent readers, is taught well. 

We work hard to narrow the gap between Greenfields’ children’s attainment in Phonics and the attainment in Phonics nationally.  The percentage of children at Greenfields achieving the expected level of development at the end of Year 1 in Phonics has improved sharply since 2012, and usually more children at Greenfields pass the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check than children in other schools nationally.

All members of staff who teach phonics have been thoroughly trained to use the Read, Write Inc scheme and receive weekly training and updates to ensure that they are teaching ‘at the top of their game’.

All children at Greenfields are involved in a daily half-hour session that teaches either Phonics or higher-level and more complex spelling strategies.  All children are fully assessed once a term and placed into groups across the school (KS1 and 2) appropriate to their level.  Phonics lessons are fun, highly engaging and most importantly move the children’s phonic learning on rapidly and effectively.  

In order to make sure that children use their phonic skills in their reading immediately, the school uses Read, Write Inc scheme books for guided, group and individual reading practice.

Additional support for children in phonics is provided during the week, particularly for children who are new to English and those who experience specific difficulties with reading and writing.

Talk 4 Reading

Children learn to read each and every day at Greenfields, continuously through the curriculum, and directly taught during specific reading sessions.

The approach we use is called Talk 4 Reading and takes place daily throughout the school.  Talk 4 Reading,  is an approach to reading which is based on whole class reading and in-depth questioning and investigation so children develop the skills to read ever more complex and challenging texts. Teachers have access to a range or class novels which have been carefully selected tor each year group, and Talk 4 Reading is delivered using whole books and extracts from a carefully designed spine of texts that run from Nursery to Year 6 so that every child develops a love of a wide-range of familiar, and not-so-familiar books.

Talk 4 Reading is a well-researched method used to develop learners’ reading skills, promote higher order thinking, develop listening and talking, and ensure access to the curriculum for all learners.

Home Reading

Children are expected to practice their reading frequently, so that they can develop their fluency.  Every child will take home a reading book that is well-matched to their developing reading and phonics skills, and there is good access to a wide range of books to take home to read for pleasure, virtually (in e-libraries) and in real life.  The school has a virtual reading Log, that is accessible via QR code, to log reading each day.

Phonics

EYFS Phonics Video

Year 1 Phonics Video

 

 

Effective Maths and Big Maths

At Greenfields, we believe in a Mastery approach to the teaching of Maths: a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject.

To achieve this, we have reduced the amount of mathematical topics taught discretely, in favour of taking longer over each topic and making explicit links with other mathematical skills and areas of the curriculum.

To deliver Mastery, the Maths teaching sequence comprises three clear strands:

FLUENCY – rapid and accurate recall and application of facts and concepts from the age-related section of the Maths Curriculum;

APPLICATION – the ability to use learnt concepts and skills to solve puzzles and real life situations, to respond to conjecture and test hypotheses;

REASONING – the ability to explain mathematical thinking.  This is integral to the development of conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills.

At Greenfields Primary School, Effective Maths is our mastery approach to the teaching of mathematics. It is a comprehensive framework for ensuring high quality maths teaching.

Children develop mastery of age-related concepts and skills through:

  • procedural and conceptual understanding
  • variation
  • mathematical patterns, relationships and connections

To reach Greater Depth in Mathematics, all age-related tasks are linked to a built-in challenge activity .As children complete each task, it is expected that they explain their thinking, deepening their understanding at their own level.  This could take the form of annotations, sentences, diagrams, taught strategies or written calculations.

Foundation Subjects

All foundation topics are planned using the DRET Primary Core Knowledge Curriculum resources.

This is a knowledge-based curriculum that provides children with the all knowledge, skills and understanding to give them a flying start in right from Nursery to the time when they are 'secondary ready' and leave Greenfields to continue their journey in education.  Teachers are provided with the planning and resources that help them to deliver the essentials of the CKC curriculum, adding their own unique twists to inspire and engage all learners.

David Ross Education Trust and British Values

The Trust is very supportive of the ethos of promoting British Values, and preparing our pupils for success in a modern Britain.

A heavy reliance is placed upon broadening horizons for each and every child and this includes developing the core skills of tolerance, respect, teamwork, resilience and building self-esteem. These are all values and qualities that we feel are relevant in order to play a full and meaningful role in society, and are promoted via our extensive house system that lends itself to cultural and sporting competition, democratic principles, social mixing, the development of greater pastoral care and enhanced PSHE

Click here to find out more about British Values at our academy

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