Our Curriculum
Pupils’ learning and development should be at the heart of every school’s curriculum; it should be broad and balanced and equip pupils with the skills necessary to succeed in life after school.
We offer our children a broad and balanced curriculum covering all National Curriculum subjects. From Year 1 onwards, children have daily maths and English lessons whilst, in Year R, children have daily opportunities to complete activities which will help them to develop their early reading, writing and maths skills. English is taught as a distinct subject but also across the whole curriculum in order for the children to practice their skills. Phonics is taught from Nursery, continuing throughout KS1 and into KS2 if necessarily for some children.
As well as the core subjects, we also teach the foundation subjects of: history, geography, computing, design technology, music, art, PE, RE, PHSE, French, Philosophy for Children and Mindfulness (KS2).
To find out more about our individual subjects, click the links below:
Extra Curricular Activities
We also offer a range of extra-curricular activities and clubs, such as; sports clubs including basketball, table tennis, tag rugby, cricket and football; music lessons using Medway Dynamics who teach recorders, samba and brass; and trips, such as a KS2 trip to a London theatre.
Topic Map
Teachers try to use a cross curricular approach when planning so that all lessons link to a common theme wherever possible. To aid this, we create a Topic Map each year, which outlines the theme for each term in each year group. Our current Topic Map is as follows:
Phonics and Spelling
At Deanwood Primary School we teach a DfE approved systematic, synthetic phonics programme. This is delivered through the Twinkl Phonics Scheme. Children are supported to progress through each of the 6 phonic phases, starting with Phase 1 in Reception and ending with Phase 6 in Year 2. In conjunction with this, the children are set spellings each week consisting of the Common Exception words and a ‘phonic rule’.
The Twinkl Phonics Scheme provides staff with the interactive resources to revisit, teach, practice and apply. The scheme builds on children’s speaking and listening skills, as well as prepares pupils to learn to read, by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. Alongside the programme, staff are encouraged to use the Twinkl mnemonics and letter formation to ensure consistency from EYFS to KS1.
Deanwood Primary School also uses the Rhino Readers collection of books to promote a love of reading and to build on children’s fluency as readers. With clear progression and complete fidelity to Twinkl Phonics, children will only read the sounds and tricky words they’ve already learnt, helping them to build confidence and regularly apply their new learning.
We are keen to promote a love of learning and to have high aspirations for reading and writing for all of our pupils. This journey to success starts with phonics and we are proud to be raising the profile of phonics by celebrating our Monster Phonics Day and inviting parents/carers to our phonics workshops.
Please follow the links below to see the attached documents that may be of use when beginning your phonic journey at Deanwood Primary School.
Reading Week
Please find a video showcasing the fantastic work which our children produced during Reading Week 2022.