CONTEXT

Leopold Primary School is a unique four- form entry, inner city school, on two sites, (one with Nursery provision) in the culturally rich and diverse London borough of Brent.

The school is situated in a challenging locality, however, due to the strong partnerships and commitment of all stakeholders, pupil attainment is in line with national expectations and progress is good. There is a small number of children with; social and emotional needs, and a high number of children known to, or recently involved with social services. Families benefiting from Pupil Premium is above national. We serve a disadvantaged community with high levels of social deprivation and we believe that our children deserve a curriculum that enhances their life chances. Many families in our school community have low incomes with complex social housing issues. Crime rates in the area are some of the highest in the country with knife, gun and drug crimes. The majority of children enter our foundation stage with starting points well below the national average and there is a high level of special needs across the school. Many of our parents have low levels of literacy and numeracy and limited experiences outside of the local area. However, this contrasts with a growing number of professional households.

Therefore, the curriculum intent, outlines the drive and ambition of staff and the community to overturn this deficit, accelerate progress and provide unique experiences, including cultural capital, to ensure each child has every opportunity to thrive and succeed in the 21st century.

SCHOOL CURRICULUM INTENT

• We believe that our pupils deserve a first- class education, through high quality experiences and enrichment opportunities that embed life- long learning, therefore we aim to provide our children with rich, inspiring and evolving curriculum opportunities which build confidence, tolerance, resilience, communication, respect and readiness to contribute to society.
• Our intention is that through a broad, connected curriculum offer, pupils create stems for their future careers.
• Safeguarding is our number 1 priority, therefore it is reflected in our daily practice and embedded in every decision we make to maintain a culture of vigilance at school and in the community. Our awareness of high crime, growing mental health concerns and gang affiliation in the area, has sharpened our efforts and we work closely with the Safer Neighbourhood police team, Safer schools police officer, IMAGO, local secondary and primary partners, transition programmes, citizenship programmes, local businesses, Wizard theatre, London Transport, Local authority and parents to deter pupils from choosing a life of crime. A Parent Forum, held each term with the Heads of School, provides a platform for community speakers and updates from the inclusion team. In addition, regular safeguarding updates are shared with parents. Effective, bespoke transition arrangements are built into the curriculum to support parents and pupils into the next phase of their development from Nursery to year 7.
• We respect parents as the first teachers of their children and aim to work with families to secure a learning and growing relationship together
• Given that EAL is at 49%, we recognise that we are a language rich school therefore bespoke reading and writing opportunities are planned across the curriculum so that we are fluent in Standard English. Cultural barriers to learning have been actively broken down to ensure equality of opportunity for all pupils regardless of gender, race or religion. 32% of Leopold pupils are Black Caribbean and Black and white mixed Caribbean heritage, therefore we ensure that the curriculum is connected to black history and heritage so that pupils can feel proud and valued.
• We recognise the rich cultural background of our community therefore language opportunities are embedded across the curriculum so that we are fluent in Standard English.
• We aim to overturn inequality by ensuring that all pupils, regardless of circumstance, have every opportunity to succeed and thrive.
• Clear succession planning has ensured that the staffing structure has been developed to meet the needs of the children and community, with staff representing our pupil profile. Coherent plans for the improvement of leadership have resulted in a specialist team with the capacity for robust and continuous improvement. High quality professional development, ensures that pupils are taught by a strong team of staff, with subject specialism and knowledge, evidenced through improving pupil outcomes.
• Timely assessment opportunities, ensure that pupils receive feedback to improve their work and consolidate their knowledge. Reporting arrangements are in place to keep parents well informed about their child’s progress.
• Through professional networking and ambitious target setting, stakeholders work collaboratively with leaders to achieve a common vision. This Vision underpins everything that we do.

All curriculum policies are available for parents to view (please ask at the office for details or find out further information on our website). The school combines a variety of published national schemes together with its own Creative Curriculum to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for quality learning and teaching.

Our school curriculum is explained in further detail below and more information about the school curriculum is available from the DFE website. Parents and members of the public can find out more information about our school curriculum by contacting us via admin@leopold.brent.sch.uk

Updated February 2021

 

Synthetic Phonics – Read Write Inc

Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and selected Year 2 pupils are working under the Read, Write, Inc scheme of learning. The programme guides children on their reading journey, and helps them to establish skills in writing, spelling and phonetic work.

By the end of Year 1, all children utilising the Read, Write, Inc framework have progressed into accurate and well-practiced readers.

Further information, and introductory videos for parents, can be found here.

The Power of Reading

In addition, we have adopted the approach developed and recommended by the Centre of Primary Literacy Education (CLPE). This approach is steeped in research of how to effectively teach reading and writing through high-quality texts. Selected texts are rich in vocabulary; reflect our pupils’ experiences and develop a love of reading. Pleasure for reading is a central driver of the approach along with developing pupils’ literacy skills.

The impact of this approach can be seen in this video:

All children, from Reception to Year 6, are given a personal login to access IXL online English resources. The website complements all of the skills taught in class, and teachers are able to view reports showing children’s IXL usage and progress. The site can be found here.

 

 

At Leopold, we have implemented the Singaporean mathematics mastery approach supported through the Math No Problem scheme of work. A fundamental aspect to this approach is applying the concrete, pictorial and abstract framework

Here is a further explanation from Maths No problem

Children (and adults!) can find maths difficult because it is abstract. The CPA approach builds on children’s existing knowledge by introducing abstract concepts in a concrete and tangible way. It involves moving from concrete materials, to pictorial representations, to abstract symbols and problems. The CPA framework is so established in Singapore maths teaching that the Ministry of Education will not approve any teaching materials that do not use the approach.

Concrete step of CPA

Concrete is the “doing” stage. During this stage, students use concrete objects to model problems. Unlike traditional maths teaching methods where teachers demonstrate how to solve a problem, the CPA approach brings concepts to life by allowing children to experience and handle physical (concrete) objects. With the CPA framework, every abstract concept is first introduced using physical, interactive concrete materials.

For example, if a problem involves adding pieces of fruit, children can first handle actual fruit. From there, they can progress to handling abstract counters or cubes which represent the fruit.

Pictorial step of CPA

Pictorial is the “seeing” stage. Here, visual representations of concrete objects are used to model problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object they just handled and the abstract pictures, diagrams or models that represent the objects from the problem.

Building or drawing a model makes it easier for children to grasp difficult abstract concepts (for example, fractions). Simply put, it helps students visualise abstract problems and make them more accessible.

Abstract step of CPA

Abstract is the “symbolic” stage, where children use abstract symbols to model problems. Students will not progress to this stage until they have demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the concrete and pictorial stages of the problem. The abstract stage involves the teacher introducing abstract concepts (for example, mathematical symbols). Children are introduced to the concept at a symbolic level, using only numbers, notation, and mathematical symbols (for example, +, –, x, /) to indicate addition, multiplication or division.

Each year group In addition, from Reception to Year 6, there is a 15-minute Maths Meeting every day, during which the teacher focuses on basic maths skills.

The following PDFs contain examples of the activities children may participate in during a Maths Meeting.

• Reception
• Year One
• Year Two
• Year Three
• Year Four
• Year Five
• Year Six

All children, from Reception to Year 6, are given a personal login to access IXL online maths resources. The website complements all of the skills taught in class, and teachers are able to view reports showing children’s IXL usage and progress. The site can be found here.