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Our Curriculum

English

At Exhall Junior School, it is our intention to provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that will develop pupils' ability to speak, read and write with great fluency, master the mechanics of both reading and writing and develop a love and a true interest for English so that they can communicate their thoughts, ideas and emotions effectively. Students have daily English lessons, as well as varied opportunities to apply their writing and reading skills to other areas of the curriculum such as in topic and science.  There are also regular timetable slots to focus on grammar and spelling skills. 
Every student has access to our rich reading scheme as well as a variety of good quality books in class reading corners.  Teachers select high quality texts to study in English lessons, and other curriculum lessons too, to ensure students have the opportunity to read widely. For students who join us who haven't mastered phonics, our school has a dedicated phonics support assistant who uses Read Write Inc.

Students enjoy writing for a range of purposes such as composing diary entries, reports, stories and poems.  They build-up their understanding of the writing process during their time at Exhall; being able to draft, edit and improve their work with increasing independency as they move through Key Stage Two. The teaching of accurate grammar and spelling skills also support our students in become confident writers.

At Exhall, students take a great deal of pride in the way their work is presented.  When a student is fluently joining their handwriting, they may earn their pen licence and use handwriting pen.

English Curriculum

Maths

The children take part in a daily maths lesson using the Power Maths scheme of work. Each lesson is carefully planned  to allow each child to explore concepts using a range of resources so that concepts become fully embedded. The children have many opportunities within the maths lesson to work mentally, use a variety of practical materials, learn many strategies, record both informally and formally and then apply these skills to questions and real life problems. This helps our children to become logical thinkers, to be able to solve problems and think in more abstract ways and to challenge themselves.

Maths

Maths Curriculum Overview and Progression

Ready to Progress Criteria

At Exhall Junior School, we work to ensure that children are 'ready to progress' to the next year group by having the core skills required to access the next years content. In our fluency lessons, we secure these criteria for all children.

Calculation Policy - Years 5 & 6

Calculation Policy - Years 3 & 4

Letter to Parents - Power Maths

Computing and Online Safety

At Exhall Juniors, it is our intention to enable our pupils to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information. We want the children at Exhall Juniors to continuously develop so that they can leave our school being computer-literate.

Computing 3I's 

Science

At Exhall Junior School, Science should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Science; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of knowledge, skills and vocabulary and for the children to develop a love of science.

Science Curriculum

History

At Exhall Junior School, we want our History curriculum to inspire a future generation of historians who develop a life-long love and appreciation for the subject. Through the teaching of History, our aim is that we stimulate and pique all children’s interest and curiosities about those who lived in the past and events that changed history. We aim to teach children a sense of chronology in order to develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. This enables our children to learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern, multicultural Britain.

History Curriculum

Philosophy for Children

Philosophy for Children at Exhall Junior School is embedded into our curriculum with the aim to maximise the potential of all students through the opportunity to have collaborative discussions around topics that are socially, morally, emotionally and culturally important to them. We aim to take every opportunity to encourage a love for learning within all of our pupils, based around our values of being safe, ready and respectful.

Philosophy for Children

Geography

At Exhall Junior School, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. We pride ourselves on our creative learning environment and classroom displays.

Geography Curriculum

Art

At Exhall Junior School, we aim to provide an Art Curriculum that builds on a child’s early creative experiences whilst enabling them to express themselves in a practical and inspiring way. Through learning about a wide range of Art and Crafts, from various cultures, we hope to not only develop the children’s passion and love of the subject but also build a respect, natural inquisitiveness and an appreciation of art in all its forms which they may carry with them throughout their lives.

Art Curriculum

Music

At Exhall Junior School (EJS), we aim for all our students to have an appreciation of and an understanding of music from a musician’s perspective. With this as our aim, we have chosen to use Kapow as a scheme of work, which covers a range of different aspects, including composition and performance.

Music Curriculum

Music 3Is

PSHRSE

At Exhall Junior School our personal, social, health, Relationships and Sex education (PSHRSE) curriculum supports our students into becoming healthy, independent and empathetic citizens ready to move into the next phase of their development. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally, physically and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up in a modern and diverse society.

We provide our students with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and to understand what it means to be a member of a diverse and ever-changing community.   Our students are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.

All lessons are underpinned by our school’s core values of being ‘Safe, Ready and Respectful’ which fit perfectly with our curriculum offer and lesson themes.

PSHE Curriculum & British Values

PSHRSE Curriculum

Growing up & Life Cycles Lessons

RE

We aim for all students to experience a cohesive RE curriculum, rich in opportunities to explore their own beliefs as well as considering the beliefs of others in a respectful way. We aim for all children to explore and learn about a range of religions and worldviews in order to widen their experience and increase their curiosity about the world around them. Our key intentions are to learn about religion and also to learn from religion.

RE Curriculum

Physical Education

At Exhall Junior School, we recognise the importance of Physical Education to a child’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development as well as the role it can play in a child’s spiritual, moral and cultural development.

Physical Education

Design and Technology

At Exhall Junior School, we aim to equip pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum Design and Technology (DT) Programme of Study. It is our intention to offer the children the chance to use creative thinking and design within a defined purpose and tangible outcome.

Design and Technology Curriculum

Outdoor Activities

The children’s experiences of the natural world can sometimes be limited, we want our students to leave Exhall Junior School having the knowledge, understanding and passion to ensure that the natural world is valued and protected.   
We know that for children to achieve their best our curriculum needs to be designed in order to enable the maximum amount of learning, through the recall and understanding of knowledge and concepts. Therefore, our curriculum is organised as a progression that facilitates the re-visiting of learning through recurrent themes, such that it becomes embedded in children’s long-term memory. We also understand the importance of children making connections between prior and new learning. The cyclical nature of our curriculum design, in which topics are returned to over the course of a child’s time with us, helps to enable this. 

Outdoor Activities

Homework

Each week, the children will be given tasks to complete at home through our virtual learning platform: Seesaw.  We encourage our children to take on the responsibility of completing and returning the homework independently.

Homework Policy

MFL

At Exhall Junior school, we intend for children to develop an interest and thirst for learning other languages; our main focus is French. We use the Kapow scheme of work to embed the key skills of speaking, reading, writing and listening, and lay the foundations for future language learning in KS3 and beyond. We take pride in preparing children to be global citizens now and in their future roles.

MFL Curriculum

Music 3Is

If you would like to find out further information about the school's curriculum please contact the school office and ask to speak to Mrs Edwards, our school's curriculum lead.