The Firs' Scheme of Work
Our Firs' Scheme of Work sets out the learning in science and all the foundation subjects (history, geography, art and design, music, design technology, computing, physical education, PSHE (personal, social and health education) and French). It also details learning in religious education.
Creating the Firs' Scheme of Work
In creating the scheme of work, we reviewed the design of our curriculum in these areas and looked at a range of aspects that we wanted as the key drivers behind the makeup of our curriculum e.g.
-
What we wanted to develop a ‘Firs’ Mindset’ (which we defined as the values and approaches to life we wanted our children to live by and hold to).
-
The knowledge and skills we wished to develop in addition to those set out in the National Curriculum.
-
The gaps in children’s knowledge, skills or awareness that we perceived, associated with the context of our local environment, location or general pupil characteristics.
-
Our understanding of what ‘Cultural Capital’ meant to us at The Firs and in each year group, how we could give children the chance to experience it.
For example, when we thought about a 'Firs' Mindset', we prioritised the following 20 aspects:
-
Caring and thoughtful
-
A belief in equality for all
-
Tolerant of other faiths, ways of life and ideas - open minded
-
Being respectful and polite to everyone; ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ used instinctively
-
A good ‘moral compass’
-
Showing respect for the possessions of others
-
Happy with a sense of fun!
-
Healthy in body and mind; understands emotions and knows when to seek help
-
A growth mindset including:
-A positive sense of self, their ability to improve and pride in their achievements
-A belief that mistakes are ‘powerful’ as we can learn from them
-Perseverance
-Resilience
-Ready for a challenge
-Positive when receiving constructive feedback
-
A good ability to socialise and make healthy relationships; a good team player
-
A confident ‘have a go’ attitude
-
Calm, dealing with conflict appropriately
-
Curious, with and a love of learning
-
Independent (e.g. dressing, personal hygiene, organising things they need and in learning!)
-
Respectful of the natural world, with an understanding of the challenging environmental issues we face
-
Articulate and confident when speaking, and a good listener
-
Good concentration
-
Ambitious
-
Adaptable
-
Patient
All the details about the drivers behind our curriculum can be seen in the Scheme of Work document attached below.
The Firs' Themes
We identified 4 additional strands of learning we wanted to pursue with our children, to reinforce and compliment the work on the National Curriculum. We have named these strands the Firs' Themes.
Firs’ Theme |
Aims |
(HBM) |
|
(DM!) |
|
(FSE) |
|
(OC) |
|
Knowledge and Skills Maps
We have created Knowledge and Skills maps for our Firs' Themes, science and for each foundation subject, to indicate what we want children to know and be able to do.
This is to ensure that the curriculum is planned and sequenced well, with staff being able to see where the current lesson is rooted in the sequence of learning from the previous year, later in the current year or into the next year.
Below you can download a summary of our Firs' Themes, an explanatory text about how we evolved our curriculum and the Firs Scheme of Work itself.