Curriculum
History at Spring Bank
At Spring Bank Primary pupils enjoy learning about people’s lives and lifestyles in the recent and more distant past.
Key Stage One
Pupils enjoy learning about how children’s toys and homes have changed over time. They learn about seaside holidays in the past and significant events such as the Fire of London. They enjoy listening to stories, using CD Roms and learn how to ask questions using historical sources.
Key Stage Two
People enjoy learning about changes in their own area, in Britain and in other parts of the world. They enjoy studying aspects of British History such as the Vikings, Tudors, Victorians and Britain since 1930. They also study the civilisations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. They learn how to use dates and vocabulary to describe the passing of time and use a range of sources of information including ICT to find out about the past, communicating their findings in different ways.
DT at Spring Bank
Children are involved in Design and Technology activities throughout their time at Spring Bank. They acquire and develop skills in a range of areas and apply these to situations where they need to design, make and evaluate their own products. Areas covered include:
- Food technology – from fruit salads in Year 1 through to biscuits in Year 5.
- Textiles – including designing and making Joseph’s Coats in Year 2 and bags in Year 6.
- Mechanisms – creating moving pictures and moving books.
Where possible these projects are linked to other curriculum areas such as Science, Literacy, Art or Music.
Children are encouraged to explore a variety of tools and materials (both specialist products and found objects) and to make decisions about how these are used. Through careful evaluation of their work they consider any changes that were made to their original plans and how effective their product is.
ICT at Spring Bank
At Spring Bank the ICT curriculum is designed to develop our children’s skills in the following areas:
- Text and Graphics
- Data Handling
- Digital Media
- Control
- Internet/web2
- Presenting
Right from Reception the children will be taught skills within each area and then be given opportunities to use and develop them throughout their school life.
Each year group is designed to build upon the previous years experience allowing the children to progress through each strand and achieve a good understanding of current ideas and equipment.
Text and Graphics
This strand covers things like using a basic word or picture bank, creating text and images for a specific audience, capturing images from a variety of sources and manipulating them for effect and making more sophisticated linked presentations to include images and sounds.
Data Handling
This strand covers things like collecting basic data and using ICT to present it as a pictogram, inputting data into a data-base and interrogating it, creating spreadsheets and adding formula to calculate specific outcomes.
Digital Media
This strand covers things like taking photographs, recording sounds, downloading images and adding captions, basic storyboarding and animation with a script and narration, manipulating sounds and filming techniques.
Control
This strand covers things like using simple remote control and programmable toys, creating a series of simple instructions, testing and amending a series of instructions, using an on-screen robot to give directional instructions, using simple procedures, combining sequences of instructions and procedures to turn devices on/off or to control events.
Internet/web2
This strand covers things like clicking on hyperlinks or pictures, talking about online safety, using the forward/back buttons, emailing with safety, using a keyword search, contribute to a class Blog, downloading and uploading from/to a website.
Presenting
This strand covers things like talking about a teacher made sequence of images, creating a class presentation, making a presentation for a specific audience, creating non-linear links, preparing and presenting appropriate digital resources from a variety of sources, personal presenting skills.
PE at Spring Bank
During the Spring Term each class will continue to enjoy at least two hours of curriculum time P.E. as follows:
Reception, Years1 & 2 will experience a variety of Gymnastics, Dance & Games sessions.
Year 3 – Invasive Games, Fielding & Striking Games also Gymnastics & Dance.
Year 4 – Swim each week at Kirkstall Sports Centre and enjoy Dance & Gymnastics.
Year 5 – Cricket at the Headingley Cricket School also multi- sports at Lawnswood High School. Dance & Gymnastics.
Year 6 – Cricket at the Headingley Cricket School, Invasive Games, Gymnastics.
Extra Curricular PE
Spring Bank Primary School offers a variety sports clubs throughout the year. During this term the following clubs will run.
Gymnastics
Year 1 Gym Club
Key Stage 2 Gym Club for those preparing to enter the Leeds Schools Gymnastics Competition.
Our own KS2 School gymnastics competition will be held during the afternoon of Wednesday 28th March 2012.
Dance
Key Stage 2 – Zumba
Football
Year 4 Football Club
Year 5 Football Club
Year 6 Football Club
Throughout the year clubs change as do those invited to attend. We aim to provide opportunities for all children to attend extra-curricular sport at some time during the school year.
Music at Spring Bank
Music plays an important part in life at Spring Bank. All classes have a weekly music lesson delivered by the class teacher or Music Co-ordinator. In addition to this, music is experienced across the school in many ways.
Singing
A wide variety of songs are sung enthusiastically in a whole school singing assembly every week, with some songs including actions, Makaton signs and percussion instruments. Singing can also be heard in many classes supporting every area of the curriculum from Science to History.
Listening
Children are exposed to a wide variety of musical styles through carefully selected assembly music which is played on the way into and out of assembly every day. This music is changed weekly and introduced by the Head teacher in Monday morning’s assembly.
After-school clubs
A variety of free after-school clubs are available at different times throughout the year. These have included:
Year 3 and 4 – glockenspiel, djembe and boomwhackers
Reception and Key Stage 1 – musical games and composing music for a story
Year 4, 5 and 6 – world music (with students from Leeds College of Music)
Years 1 – 6 – Christmas choir
Outside performances
In 2010/2011 all of Year 6 took part in a project with Little London Primary School using steel pans, djembes and other percussion to perform together. They had weekly sessions in school and this culminated in a performance at the National Festival of Music for Youth. We hope to continue this project in future years.
Some children from Years 5 and 6 are taking part in a Schools’ concert at Leeds Town Hall at Christmas this year as part of a choir.
Instrument lessons
From Year 3 or 4 children have the opportunity to learn instruments in small groups. At the moment we are able to offer guitar, trumpet, flute and clarinet lessons. These are provided by peripatetic teachers from Artforms and subsidised by the school although there is still a charge for lessons.
Last year, all children in Year 4 learnt world percussion for an hour a week as part of the Wider Opportunities scheme provided by Artforms.
Arts Award
Children in Year 6 are given the opportunity to work towards their Bronze Arts Award (a national level 1 qualification) to celebrate their experiences of the arts (not just music!) and we are fortunate that our music co-ordinator is a trained advisor.
Reading at home
Readin
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During Reception and beyond, our children learn to read using schemes such as Jolly Phonics, Rigby Star and Oxford Reading Tree.
As they travel on their journey to becoming independent and enthusiastic readers the children have access to a full range of exciting books.
All children are encouraged to take home a reading book to share with parents or to read on their own – for our fully independent readers these books may not adhere to a particular scheme and may be a book borrowed from our library.
Sharing Stories and Learning to Read
At Spring Bank we value parents’ involvement in their child’s reading. It is important for you to read regularly with your child, so that they may practise regularly the skills we teach them at school.
Here are some tips which may be helpful:
1. Choose a quiet time
Set aside a quiet time with no distractions. Ten to fifteen minutes is usually long enough.
2. Make reading enjoyable
Make reading an enjoyable experience. Sit with your child. Try not to pressurise if he or she is reluctant. If your child loses interest then do something else.
3. Maintain the flow
If your child mispronounces a word do not interrupt immediately. Instead allow opportunity for self-correction. It is better to tell a child some unknown words to maintain the flow rather than insisting on trying to build them all up from the sounds of the letters.
4. Sounding out
If your child does try to ‘sound out’ words, encourage the use of letter sounds rather than ‘alphabet names’. Encourage them to keep the sounds clipped short, without an ‘uhh’ at the end, as this helps with blending the sounds together.
e.g. ‘mmm – u- mmm’ makes ‘mum’, but ‘muh-u-muh’ makes ‘muhumuh’, which doesn’t make much sense!
Or ‘c – ah – t’ makes ‘cat’, but ‘cuh-ah-tuh’ only makes ‘cuhahtuh’ – nonsense!
5. Be positive
If your child says something nearly right to start with that is fine. Don’t say ‘No. That’s wrong,’ but instead say ‘Let’s read it together’ and point to the words as you say them. Boost your child’s confidence with constant praise for even the smallest achievement.
6. Visit the Library
Encourage your child to use the public library regularly.
7. Regular practice
Try to read with your child on most school days. ‘Little and often’ is better than longer sessions.
8. Communicate
Your child has a school reading diary. Try to write in it regularly with positive comments and any concerns. Your child will then know that you are interested in their progress and that you value reading.
9. Understanding
There is more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words accurately! Just as important is being able to understand what has been read. Talk to your child about the book; about the pictures, the characters, how they think the story will end, their favourite part. You will then be able to see how well they have understood and you will help them to develop good comprehension skills.
10. Favourite stories
Allow your child to re-read favourite stories, or hear you re-read them. Knowing a familiar book will help them notice more about the words on the page and they will start to recognise the patterns in new words and stories.
