Rednal Hill Junior School

Curriculum update for the remainder of 2020-2021

Our first priority is the safety of everyone in our school community. We know that you, as parents, will have many questions and concerns. We hope this document will answer your questions and will reduce the concerns that you have. We also hope that it will provide you with information around how we will care for your child and what school-life will look like. We have used the current guidance from the Government, as well as our core values, to action plan and make decisions about how pupils return full-time, with safety being our number one priority.

School will open to all students from Monday 8^th March

We hope that you find the following information useful so that you are able to understand what school-life will be like and the measures that we have put into place to prioritise the safety of everyone:

Rednal Hill Junior School - 'Bounce-Back Curriculum'

Overarching Theme: Community

As our children return to school, we feel it is important to carefully plan our curriculum and lessons so that we are supporting our children to transition back into school life successfully. We will aim to do this with their wellbeing, confidence and happiness at the heart of our plans. At RHJS, we want our learners to be confident and ready to learn. We are aware that this lockdown will have impacted on children in many different ways and we want to fully support our children in successfully re-engaging them with their learning at school.

For some children, the national lockdown and absence form school will have meant a loss of routine, structure, friendships, opportunity and freedom. These losses can trigger anxiety in any child. We know that an anxious child is not in a place to learn effectively. So, with this in mind, our school team has thought about the most effective way to support our children’s ability to learn through embracing a ‘Bounce Back’ approach. Our main focus for our ‘Bounce Back’ curriculum will be community. This has been selected as our overarching theme as we believe it to be fundamental in ensuring that children feel safe, supported and confident to learn. Additionally, within this theme are values that we deem important for pupils to flourish within school. These are: connectivity, teamwork, sense of belonging, friendships, relationships, inclusivity, equality, supportiveness and positivity.

Our ‘Bounce Bank’ approach will aim to reintroduce children to lessons gradually and will ensure that valuable time is spent in engaging children in activities and lessons that allow them to talk, express their feelings and experiences and to be creative. It is our aim for all children to be back to a full timetable by the week beginning the 22^nd March. We are really looking forward to welcoming the children back and for them to enjoy our inspiring and purposeful ‘Bounce Bank’ curriculum and sharing what the children have been up to during this period with you.  

A Return to a Full Timetable

Once children have returned to a normal timetable following our Bounce Back curriculum, we will aim to re-assess the children in a supportive manner in order to gather information regarding gaps in learning and misconceptions. Teachers will use this information to plan for specific interventions for children to address any lost learning. These interventions will run until the end of the academic year.

Adaptations to the Curriculum

We plan for all children to be back to a full timetable from the 22^nd March although there have been some adaptations made for the rest of this academic year. The children will receive a broad and ambitious curriculum offer; however, there have been modifications made to how Modern Foreign Languages and Music will be taught. These lessons will not appear on a weekly timetable but pupils will be exposed to enrichment days within these subjects during the summer term. These enrichment days will aim to inspire and interest the children within these subject areas in preparation for a full return to these subjects in the Autumn term. Please note that Year 4 will continue to receive their weekly music sessions from specialist teachers from the Music Service. The reason behind this decision is that we will need to prioritise key areas and objectives of the curriculum in the first instance so that we able to close the gap and address any lost learning during the lockdown. If you have any questions about our adaptations to the curriculum, please e-mail enquiry@rednalhilljuniors.com.

Rednal Hill Junior School Curriculum Intent Statement

Intent Statement

At Rednal Hill Junior School our curriculum is driven by our key values, these are drawn from the fundamental British values of: democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs, and for those without a faith. We aim to provide our learners with the appropriate support, experiences, skills and knowledge to develop as independent, confident, successful learners, able to play a full and active role in modern society.

We have shaped our curriculum into four key priority areas to achieve our goal, whilst responding to the particular needs of our learners and the community we serve. We prioritise learners being secondary ready in our approach to curriculum delivery. Alongside the key priority areas is an overarching desire for our curriculum to be enjoyable and to foster a lifelong love of learning. The development of effective communication skills is interwoven though each of our key priority areas.

Curriculum Implementation

RHJS engages all learning styles using a variety of resources: National Curriculum Statutory Guidance, Values Based Learning, Outdoor Learning and enhancement opportunities, which support the teaching of our curriculum.

The implementation of this curriculum is in its infancy. We have woven together: science, the humanities, the arts and English and used a thematic approach to deliver these. They are taught in 5 units over the course of the academic year. We have looked to find links with the following discrete subjects: mathematics, music, PE, PSHE, RE, MFL, computing and music and will continue this work over the course of 2020-21.

To support committing knowledge to long term memory we have introduced "Knowledge Prompt Cards" for the humanities and science, we intend to push this out to other subjects. The approach uses multiple testing moments for smaller pieces of learning. 

Research

RHJS recognises the benefits of utilising evidence based research to support our practice. 

Values at RHJS

Our values are at the core of all we do. We use a rolling programme of values’ assemblies to promote these and look to further promote them through actions and activities in school.

Subject Leaders

At RHJS we have subject leaders who oversee, develop, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their subject within school. Staff are committed to delivering high quality learning experiences throughout the curriculum. Support staff have developed their strengths in order to further enhance the quality of learning.