Our Curriculum
Curriculum Rationale
Our Vision and Values
At Ysgol Sŵn y Don we work together to provide the children in our care with an excellent education, whilst nurturing and caring for their needs as they develop and grow.
We strive to provide a caring ethos where everyone in the school community feels safe, confident, valued and respected. By promoting an environment where everyone can live and work together supportively, we hope to enable all to reach their full potential, emotionally, socially and intellectually.
Our Partners
Sŵn y Don – Context
Phase 1 – Principles and Purpose
We are a distinctive school and our curriculum aims to reflect that. Ysgol Sŵn y Don is a mixed Nursery and Primary school situated on a social housing estate in Old Colwyn, North Wales. We provide education for approximately 130 pupils from three to eleven years old; we offer Nursery provision in the mornings. There is an on-site playgroup catering for children from the age of two. The playgroup also offers wrap-around care for all of our learners.
The three year average for pupils eligible for free school meals is 67%. We have identified about 45% of pupils as having additional learning needs. (2021 figures).
We have a specialist, full-time, on-site Foundation Phase Resource base and a part-time key stage two Resource Base for learners from across the local authority with moderate learning needs.
At Sŵn y Don, we are very proud to be awarded the Trauma Informed Schools UK Award. The principles of this approach underpin all that we do ensuring that the wellbeing of all is of the highest priority within school.
Our school dog Syd is a massive part of our team. She supports learners and staff wellbeing and is much loved by all of the pupils.
Outdoor learning is a key part of our Sŵn y Don ethos. We have a dedicated beach school / forest school leader and a fantastic forest school area which all pupils’ access as part of their learning offer. Along with this, we have a minibus that allows us to use our local area in Conwy to enhance the offer. Pupils are often out at sites such as: The Marian, Conwy Mountain and the local beaches.
At Sŵn y Don, we teach predominately through the medium of English but aim to use incidental Welsh in classes and around school. We also ensure that we have daily oral Welsh 2nd Language lessons and a dedicated longer session through the week. The home language of nearly all pupils is English.
As a school, we celebrate the Welsh language, culture and heritage. We ensure to incorporate the principles of the Siarter Iaith into all aspects of the curriculum. During their time in ks2, pupils have opportunities to attend residential trips to Glan LLyn and Nant Bwlch yr Haearn.
What do we mean by Curriculum?
Phase 2 – Entitlement and Enhancement
A curriculum refers to the variety of activities designed to foster education and meet the needs of a learning community.
As a school, along with stakeholders, we have identified important factors about our school and these are used to design and drive a unique curriculum for the needs of our learners. These are:
- Expanding Horizons, we aim to give our pupils a range of learning experiences that involve real life context, visits and experiences
- Trauma Informed Schools, putting wellbeing at the heart of everything that we do
- Rights Respecting Schools, empowering our pupils to know and understand their rights and the rights of others
- Our school dog, Syd, she supports learning and general wellbeing
- Community, we recognize the importance of good working relationship with parents and carers and strive to include and support the whole family
- Outside learning, using our forest school area, the local beaches and sites within the county of Conwy
- Right Track Behaviour system: Teachers have a right to teach; pupils have a right to learn; everyone has a right to be safe
The aim of our curriculum is to ensure that during their time with us pupils become: Ambitious Capable Learners; Healthy, Confident Individuals; Enterprising, Creative Contributors; Ethical, Informed Citizens.
Our curriculum is broad and balanced and suitable for learners of different ages, abilities and aptitudes. It provides appropriate progression for leaners and includes a range of provision to ensure this.
Curricular Responsibilities
Our Sŵn y Don Curriculum embeds the mandatory cross-curricular skills and the integral skills which underpin the four purposes of the curriculum.
Literacy, numeracy and digital competence skills are essential in enabling learners to realise the four purposes. These three mandatory cross-curricular skills are embedded and developed across all areas of learning and experience, to enable learners to access the whole curriculum and to use them in the future.
Our learners are given opportunities across the curriculum to:
- Develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills
- Be able to use numbers and solve problems in real-life situations
- Be confident users of a range of technologies to help them function and communicate effectively and make sense of the world.
At Sŵn y Don we carefully consider the mandatory elements of the curriculum when planning. These may be taught discreetly but also are used to enhance and give real life contexts to learning experiences.
AoLE – Statements of What Matters
Phase 3 – Breadth and Balance
We have collated a broad range of experiences, knowledge and skills that are explored through a range of contexts and concepts. We have AoLE leaders who support others to plan for and incorporate What Matters statements from each area of learning into the curriculum. We strive to make links with all concept planning to give a well-rounded focus to the learning as well as focusing on basic skills as part of our ‘local curriculum’.
Planning the Delivery of the Curriculum
Phase 4 – Pedagogy
When planning for our Curriculum we have used the 12 Pedagogical Principles, along with the Four Purposes to drive teaching and learning. We use a mix of discreet teaching of skills / knowledge and a multi-disciplinary approach to engage learners.
All classrooms have learning zones, these include: Language Zone; Mathematics Zone; Digital Zone; Creative Zone; STEM / Problem Solving Zone and Calm Areas – to relax and contemplate.
We have adopted a Foundation Phase approach in each class where pupils move between working with staff on focus skills and independent learning / reinforcement activities in the zones.
Pupils are invited to contribute to and develop the planning of the curriculum at the start of each concept.
Progression & Assessment
Phase 5 – Progression & Assessment
The Curriculum for Wales guidance describes mandatory principles of progression for the curriculum as a whole and for each individual Area. These articulate the ways in which learners make progress in their learning and contribute to the four purposes. This means that progression must be embedded in learning and teaching and should form the basis of thinking in schools when designing and planning the school curriculum.
At Sŵn y Don we ensure that we plan activities that allow pupils to work within and across progression steps as is appropriate for their age and ability. We use Taith360 to monitor and track pupils during their time with us. The Assistant Head monitors all pupils’ progress and holds termly progress meetings with staff to ensure that pupils are working at the correct level and are being appropriately supported and challenged to reach their full potential.
The Purpose of Assessment
Curriculum for Wales has defined that schools assess for three key reasons:
- To support learners on an ongoing daily basis
- To identify, capture and reflect on individuals progress over time
- To understand group progress so that practice can be reflected upon.
At Sŵn y Don we use a range of assessment strategies to identify pupils strengths and weaknesses, set individual next step targets, inform planning and provide extra support and interventions.
These include: teachers marking of daily work (assessment for learning); termly formal school assessments in spelling, writing, Cymraeg; on-line National Tests in Reading, Mathematics Procedural and Reasoning and Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) for pupils at the end of Year 3.
On entry to school pupils are assessed to give us a benchmark so that we can track progress over time. We also assess and monitor learner well-being using Conwy’s Learner Wellbeing test which gives us a whole school view and PASS tests which are more individualized.
We involve the pupils in the assessment process by allowing them: to assess their own work and that of their peers; set themselves next step targets and comment on their own progress.
Communicating & engaging with patents/carers
We communicate effectively with parents/carers on an ongoing basis to foster positive relationships in order to engage them in purposeful and meaningful dialogue. This aids learner progression by helping parents/carers to understand how they can support learning within and outside of the school environment. Communication includes:
- Face to Face parents meetings
- Regular telephone calls home
- Written reports
- Newsletters
- Weekly Planners
Feedback will include:
- A brief summary of the child’s progression across the curriculum
- Next steps for the pupil
- Information on the general health and wellbeing
- Learner comments / contributions
We will continue to develop and refine our assessment and progression processes throughout the academic year 2022/23.
Review & Evaluate
Phase 6 – Review & Evaluate
Curriculum for Wales becomes statutory for Primary schools in September 2022. As a school, along with all of our stakeholders, we will continue to monitor and evaluate our provision making changes where needed to ensure that our pupils have the best possible opportunities to enable all pupils to reach their full potential, emotionally, socially and intellectually.
