Curriculum

Blue Classes (Y3 & Y4)

Welcome to the Blue classes, years three and four.

Year 3 Blue 1 - Miss Donnellan
Year 4 Blue 3 - Miss Armstrong

We are also lucky to have  Mrs Lawrence , Mr Anthony and Mrs Crossey who will provide extra support in all three classes.

Throughout the year, we will take the exciting journey from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, travel back in time to visit the Anglo Saxons and Scots whilst also learning about countries in every corner of the world as well as our own local geography. We are particularly excited that the creative curriculum will be at the forefront of many lessons this year. The topics that you will find on our curriculum maps will form a basis for many lessons in subjects such as Maths and English, ensuring that the children get the most out of our History and Science topics.

In Religious Education, we follow the ‘Come and See’ Catholic programme. In Autumn, the pupils be studying the following themes: Homes, Promises, People, Gift and Visitors. Each class will approach the themes through different topics whilst collectively focusing on the role our faith plays in our lives.

The children will still be undertaking trips to The Forest School for outdoor learning in Paddington Rec and this will continue throughout the year. 




Key Stage 2 Curriculum

Art and Design Aims

The National Curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
  • become proficient in using drawing, painting, sculpture and other creative expressions
  • evaluate and analyse artistic works using the language of art, craft and design
  • know about the great artists, craftsmen and designers, and understand the historical
  • development of their art forms.

Subject Content Key Stage 2

Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

Pupils should be taught:

  • to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas, and collect visual material to help them to develop their ideas
  • to improve their mastery of techniques, such as drawing, painting and sculpture with materials (e.g. pencil, charcoal, paint, clay)
  • about the greatest artists, architects and designers in history.

Computing Aims

The National Curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • can understand and apply the fundamental principles of computer science, including logic, algorithms, data representation, and communication
  • can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
  • can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
  • are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.

Subject Content Key Stage 2

Pupils should be taught to:

  • design and write programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts
  • use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output; generate appropriate inputs and predicted outputs to test programs
  • use logical reasoning to explain how a simple algorithm works and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs
  • understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world-wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration
  • describe how internet search engines find and store data; use search engines effectively; be discerning in evaluating digital content; respect individuals and intellectual property; use technology responsibly, securely and safely
  • select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information.

Design and Technology Aims

The National Curriculum for design and technology aims to ensure that all pupils understand food and nutrition and have opportunities to learn to cook. In meeting this aim schools without access to a teaching kitchen, nearby kitchen or mobile kitchen may have to adapt what they teach accordingly to the facilities available.

It also aims to ensure that, working in fields such as materials (including textiles), horticulture, electricals and electronics, construction, and mechanics, they:

  • develop valuable practical skills and use these safely with a range of resistant and non- resistant materials, drawing media, tools and equipment, in both 2-D and 3-D
  • design and make well-crafted products that are fit for purpose
  • develop and use a range of common practical skills, in contexts such as mechanical, diagnostic and repair tasks
  • understand and, where appropriate, use the design cycle of planning, developing prototypes, modifying, making and evaluating
  • know about good design, everyday products and use correct technical terminology
  • investigate the rich history of design and technological innovation in Britain and further afield, from the Industrial Revolution onwards, as well as current innovations.

Subject Content Key Stage 2

Pupils should develop their skills and the safe use of tools and equipment by undertaking a range of practical tasks, such as making products, maintenance or cooking. They should increase their experience in different areas of design and technology, including through learning about local crafts or industries. They should understand how to use constructive feedback to improve what they design and make. Pupils should be taught about key historical developments in design and technology. Pupils should be taught about the major components of a balanced diet and how ingredients can be combined to prepare healthy meals. They should be taught basic cooking techniques and how to cook a variety of savoury dishes. In meeting these requirements, schools without access to a teaching kitchen, nearby kitchen or mobile kitchen may have to adapt the dishes and techniques they teach accordingly to the facilities available.

Through working in fields selected from those listed in the introduction materials (including textiles), horticulture, electricals and electronics, construction, and mechanics, pupils should be taught to:

  • use safely and increasingly effectively, a wider range of tools, equipment and materials with increasing skill to make products that are fit for purpose
  • develop and use straightforward practical, maintenance and repair skills
  • extend their skills to communicate their ideas visually in 2-D and 3-D, including through using information and communication technology
  • use constructive comments from others to improve their work
  • understand key events and turning points in design and technology, such as the Industrial Revolution, and how they have shaped the world we live in.

English Aims

Subject Content Key Stage 2

By the beginning of Year 3, pupils should be able to read books written at an age- appropriate interest level. They should be able to read them accurately and at a speed that is sufficient for them to focus on understanding what they read rather than on decoding individual words. They should be able to decode most new words outside their spoken vocabulary, making a good approximation to the word’s pronunciation. As their decoding skills become increasingly secure, teaching should be directed more towards developing the breadth and depth of their reading, making sure that they become independent, fluent and enthusiastic readers who read widely and frequently. They should be developing their understanding and enjoyment of stories, poetry, plays and non-fiction, and learning to read silently. They should also be developing their knowledge and skills in reading non- fiction about a wide range of subjects. They should be learning to justify their views about what they have read: with support at the start of Year 3 and increasingly independently by the end of Year 4.

Pupils should be able to write down their ideas with a reasonable degree of accuracy and with good sentence punctuation. Teachers should therefore be consolidating pupils’ writing skills, their grasp of sentence structure and their knowledge of linguistic terminology. Teaching them to develop as writers involves increasing their competence as well as teaching them to enhance the effectiveness of what they write. Teachers should make sure that pupils build on what they have learnt, particularly in terms of the range of their writing and the more varied grammar from which they can draw to express their ideas. Pupils should be beginning to understand how writing can be different from speech. Joined handwriting should be the norm; pupils should be able to use it fast enough to keep pace with what they want to say.

Pupils’ spelling of common words should be correct, including exception words and other words that they have learnt (see Appendix 1). Pupils should spell words as accurately as possible using their phonic knowledge and other knowledge of spelling, such as morphology and etymology.

Most pupils will not need further direct teaching of word reading skills: they are able to decode unfamiliar words accurately, and need very few repeated experiences of this before the word is stored in such a way that they can read it without overt sound- blending.

As in Key Stage 1, however, pupils who are still struggling to decode need to be taught to do this urgently through a rigorous and systematic phonics programme so that they catch up rapidly with their peers. If they cannot decode independently and fluently, they will find it increasingly difficult to understand what they read and to write down what they want to say. As far as possible, however, they should follow the Year 3 and 4 programme of study in terms of listening to new books, hearing and learning new vocabulary and grammatical structures, and discussing these.

Specific requirements for pupils to discuss what they are learning and to develop their wider skills in spoken language form part of this programme of study. In Years 3 and 4, pupils should become more familiar with and confident in using language in a greater variety of situations, for a variety of audiences and purposes, including through drama, formal presentations and debate.


Geography Aims

The National Curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • develop knowledge of the location of places of global significance, their defining physical and human characteristics and how they relate to one another; this place knowledge should provide a sound context for understanding geographical processes
  • understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time

are competent in the geographical skills needed to:

  • collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
  • interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
  • communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps and writing at length.

Subject Content Key Stage 2

Pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area and the United Kingdom to include Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should develop their use of geographical tools and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge. Pupils should be taught to:

  • locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe and North and South America and concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
  • name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, including hills, mountains, cities, rivers, key topographical features and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time
  • identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, and time zones (including day and night)
  • understand geographical similarities and differences through the study of human and physical geography of a region or area of the United Kingdom (different from that taught at Key Stage 1), a region or area in a European country, and a region or area within North or South America
  • describe and understand key aspects of: physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle
  • human geography, including: settlements, land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals, and water supplies
  • use maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied
  • use the eight points of a compass, four-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
  • use fieldwork to observe, measure and record the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.

History Aims

The National Curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • know and understand the story of these islands: how the British people shaped this nation and how Britain influenced the world
  • know and understand British history as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the story of the first settlers in these islands to the development of the institutions which govern our lives today
  • know and understand the broad outlines of European and world history: the growth and decline of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; the achievements and follies of mankind
  • gain and deploy a historically-grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
  • understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
  • understand how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
  • gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

Subject Content Key Stage 2

Pupils should be taught about the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome. In addition, across Key Stages 2 and 3, pupils should be taught the essential chronology of Britain’s history. This will serve as an essential frame of reference for more in-depth study. Pupils should be made aware that history takes many forms, including cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history. Pupils should be taught about key dates, events and significant individuals. They should also be given the opportunity to study local history.

Pupils should be taught the following chronology of British history sequentially:

early Britons and settlers, including:

  • the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages
  • Celtic culture and patterns of settlement

Roman conquest and rule, including:

  • Caesar, Augustus, and Claudius
  • Britain as part of the Roman Empire
  • the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire

Anglo-Saxon and Viking settlement, including:

  • the Heptarchy
  • the spread of Christianity
  • key developments in the reigns of Alfred, Athelstan, Cnut and Edward the o Confessor

the Norman Conquest and Norman rule, including:

  • the Domesday Book
  • feudalism
  • Norman culture
  • the Crusades

Plantagenet rule in the 12th and 13th centuries, including:

  • key developments in the reign of Henry II, including the murder of Thomas Becket o Magna Carta
  • de Montfort's Parliament

relations between England, Wales, Scotland and France, including:

  • William Wallace
  • Robert the Bruce
  • Llywelyn and Dafydd ap Gruffydd
  • the Hundred Years War

life in 14th-century England, including:

  • chivalry
  • the Black Death
  • the Peasants’ Revolt

the later Middle Ages and the early modern period, including:

  • Chaucer and the revival of learning
  • Wycliffe’s Bible
  • Caxton and the introduction of the printing press
  • the Wars of the o Roses
  • Warwick the Kingmaker
  • the Tudor period, including religious strife and Reformation in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary

Elizabeth I's reign and English expansion, including:

  • colonisation of the New World
  • plantation of Ireland
  • conflict with Spain

the Renaissance in England, including the lives and works of individuals such as Shakespeare and Marlowe:

the Stuart period, including:

  • the Union of the Crowns
  • King versus Parliament
  • Cromwell's commonwealth, the Levellers and the Diggers o the restoration of the monarchy
  • the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London
  • Samuel Pepys and the establishment of the Royal Navy

the Glorious Revolution, constitutional monarchy and the Union of the Parliaments.


Mathematics Aims

Subject Content Lower Key Stage 2

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in lower Key Stage 2 is to ensure that pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value. This should ensure that pupils develop efficient written and mental methods and perform calculations accurately with increasingly large whole numbers.

At this stage, pupils should develop their ability to solve a range of problems, including with simple fractions and decimal place value. Teaching should also ensure that pupils draw with increasing accuracy and develop mathematical reasoning so they can analyse shapes and their properties, and confidently describe the relationships between them. It should ensure that they can use measuring instruments with accuracy and make connections between measure and number.

By the end of Year 4, pupils should have memorised their multiplication tables up to and including

the 12 multiplication table and show precision and fluency in their work. Pupils should read and spell mathematical vocabulary correctly and confidently, using their growing word reading knowledge and their knowledge of spelling.


Languages Aims

The National Curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
  • speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
  • can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
  • discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Subject Content Key Stage 2: Foreign languages

Teaching should focus on enabling pupils to make substantial progress in one of the following languages: French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, Latin or Ancient Greek. The teaching should provide an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and should lay the foundations for further foreign language teaching at Key Stage 3. It should enable pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing, focused on familiar and routine matters, using their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary. The focus of study in modern languages will be on practical communication, while the focus in Latin or Ancient Greek will be to provide a linguistic foundation for learning modern languages and for reading comprehension. Pupils studying ancient languages may take part in simple oral exchanges, while discussion of what they read will be conducted in English.

Pupils should be taught to:

  • listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
  • explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
  • engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help
  • speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
  • develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
  • present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
  • read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
  • appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
  • broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
  • write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
  • describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
  • understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, such as (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

Music Aims

The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of great musicians and composers
  • learn to sing and to use their voices, to compose and make music with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
  • understand musical notations and how music is constructed, produced and communicated through its inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure.

Subject Content Key Stage 2

Pupils should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control. They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds as part of an aural memory.

Pupils should be taught to:

  • play and perform in solo and ensemble contexts, using their voice and playing musical instruments with increasing accuracy, control and expression
  • improvise and compose music using the inter-related dimensions of music separately and in combination
  • listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory
  • use and understand the basics of staff and other musical notations
  • appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live and recorded music from different traditions and from great musicians and composers
  • develop an understanding of the history of music.

Physical Education Aims

The National Curriculum for physical education aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
  • are physically active for sustained periods of time
  • engage in competitive sports and activities
  • lead healthy, active lives.

Subject Content Key Stage 2

Pupils should continue to implement and develop a broader range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and to link them to make actions and sequences of movement. They should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other. They should develop an understanding of how to succeed in different activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.

Pupils should be taught to:

  • use running, jumping, catching and throwing in isolation and in combination
  • play competitive games, modified where appropriate, such as football, netball, rounders, cricket, hockey, basketball, badminton and tennis, and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
  • develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance, for example through gymnastics and athletics
  • perform dances using a range of movement patterns
  • take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team
  • compare their performances with previous ones to achieve their personal best.

Swimming and water safety

All schools must provide swimming instruction either in Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2. In particular, pupils should be taught to:

  • swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
  • use a range of strokes effectively such as front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke
  • perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

Science Aims

Subject Content Lower Key Stage 2

The principal focus of science teaching in lower Key Stage 2 is to enable pupils to broaden their scientific view of the world around them. They should do this through exploring, talking about, testing and developing ideas about everyday phenomena and the relationships between living things and familiar environments, and by beginning to develop their ideas about functions, relationships and interactions. They should ask their own questions about what they observe and make some decisions about which types of scientific enquiry are likely to be the best ways of answering them, including observing changes over time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple fair tests and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They should draw simple conclusions and use some scientific language, first, to talk about and, later, to write about what they have found out.

‘Working scientifically’ is described separately at the beginning of the programme of study, but must always be taught through and clearly related to substantive science content in the programme of study. Throughout the notes and guidance, examples show how scientific methods and skills might be linked to specific elements of the content.

Pupils should read and spell scientific vocabulary correctly and with confidence, using their growing word reading and spelling knowledge.

Contact Us

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School
Lanark Road, Sutherland Avenue
London, W9 1DF

020 7286 3518