Curriculum

Pink Classes (Y1 & Y2)

Welcome to the Pink Classes

Year 1 and 2 are the Pink classes.

Pink 1’s (Year 1) Class Teacher is Miss Wegrzynowicz, Pink 2’s Class Teacher (Year 1/2)is Mr Starbuck and Pink 3's (Year 2) teacher is Miss S Ward. Pink classes are supported by Miss Brennan and Miss Evans.

In the Pink classes, we will embark on an exciting adventure in Geography to the seven different continents, and in History, we will go back in time to learn about what schools were like in the past. We will also be learning about what our wonderful world has to offer us.

As we go through the academic year, you will be able to find more information about what we are learning through our yearly creative curriculum map. This year, there will be many cross-curricular and active learning opportunities that will take place in the children’s day to day learning.

At St. Joseph’s, in RE, we follow the ‘Come and See’ Catholic programme. This programme supports the children’s knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith. In the Autumn Term, we will be studying the following units of work: Beginnings, looking at God’s marvellous creations, then moving on to Signs and Symbols, where we will explore the importance of our Baptism, and then, Preparation, where we will begin to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus Christ.

As the school year continues, we will be attending our local Forest School trips and hope to go on other exciting trips to support the children’s learning.

We look forward to a blessed and positive academic year!



Key Stage 1 Curriculum

Art 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 1

Pupils should be taught creativity in art, craft and design by:

  • using a range of materials to design and make products
  • using drawing, painting and sculpture to share their ideas, experiences and imagination
  • developing techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space using clay and printing to a large scale and in 3D
  • being taught about the work of a range of artists, craftsmen and designers, describing the
  • differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.

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 1

Pupils should be taught to:

  • understand what algorithms are, how they are implemented as programs on digital devices, and that programs execute by following a sequence of instructions
  • write and test simple programs
  • use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs
  • organise, store, manipulate and retrieve data in a range of digital formats
  • communicate safely and respectfully online, keeping personal information private, and recognise common uses of information technology beyond school.

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 mechanicaldiagnostic 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 1

Pupils should explore and develop purposeful, practical skills in design and technology, taking advantage of local opportunities and the expertise of teachers. Pupils should be taught the basic principles of balanced eating and where food comes from, and should be encouraged to develop an interest in cooking. 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:

  • perform simple, useful, practical tasks (for instance, making products for a purpose using a basic range of tools and materials, and techniques such as cutting, forming and joining)
  • explore different materials, and become familiar with their properties and uses
  • communicate ideas simply, such as through drawing, jottings, modelling in 2-D and 3-D and, where appropriate, using information and communication technology to record the development of their designs
  • appreciate the need for good design by evaluating a range of design and designers.

English Aims

The overarching aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the written and spoken word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • read easily, fluently and with good understanding
  • develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
  • acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
  • appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
  • write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
  • use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
  • are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Year 1

During Year 1 teachers should build on work from the Foundation Stage, making sure that pupils can sound and blend unfamiliar printed words quickly and accurately using the phonic knowledge and skills that they have already learnt. Teachers should also ensure that pupils continue to learn new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and revise and consolidate those learnt earlier. The understanding that the letter(s) on the page represent the sounds in spoken words should underpin pupils' reading and spelling of all words. This includes common words containing unusual GPCs. The term ‘common exception words’ is used throughout the programmes of study for such words.

Alongside this knowledge of GPCs, pupils need to develop the skill of blending the sounds into words for reading and establish the habit of applying this skill whenever they encounter new words. This will be supported by practising their reading with books consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and skill. At the same time they will need to hear, share and discuss a wide range of high-quality books to develop a love of reading and broaden their vocabulary.

Pupils should be helped to read words without overt sounding and blending after a few encounters. Those who are slow to develop this skill should have extra practice.Pupils’ writing during Year 1 will generally develop at a slower pace than their reading. This is because they need to encode the sounds they hear in words (spelling skills), develop the physical skill needed for handwriting, and learn ho w to organise their ideas in writing.

Pupils entering Year 1 who have not yet met the early learning goals for literacy should continue to follow the curriculum for the Early Years Foundation Stage to develop their word reading, spelling and language skills. However, these pupils should follow the Year 1 programme of study in terms of the books they listen to and discuss, so that they develop their vocabulary and understanding of grammar, as well as their knowledge more generally across the curriculum. If they are still struggling to decode and spell, they need to be taught to do this urgently through a rigorous and systematic phonics programme so that they catch up rapidly.

Teachers should ensure that their teaching develops pupils’ oral vocabulary as well as their ability to understand and use a variety of grammatical structures, giving particular support to pupils whose oral language skills are insufficiently developed. 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.

Year 2

By the beginning of Year 2, pupils should be able to read all common graphemes. They should be able to read unfamiliar words containing these graphemes, accurately and without undue hesitation, by sounding them out in books that are matched closely to each pupil’s level of word reading. They should also be able to read many common words containing GPCs taught so far, such as shout, hand, stop, or dream, without needing to blend the sounds out loud first. Pupils’ reading of common exception words, such as you, could, many, or people, should be secure. Pupils will increase their fluency by being able to read these words easily and automatically. Finally, pupils should be able to retell some familiar stories that have been read to and discussed with them or that they have acted out during Year 1.

During Year 2, teachers should continue to focus on establishing pupils’ accurate and speedy word reading skills. They should also make sure that pupils listen to and discuss a wide range of stories, poems, plays and information books; this should include whole books. The sooner that pupils can read well and do so frequently, the sooner they will be able to increase their vocabulary, comprehension and their knowledge across the wider curriculum.

In writing, pupils at the beginning of Year 2 should be able to compose individual sentences orally and then write them down. They should be able to spell correctly many of the words covered in Year 1 (see Appendix 1). They should also be able to make phonically-plausible attempts to spell words they have not yet learnt. Finally, they should be able to form individual letters correctly, so establishing good handwriting habits from the beginning.

It is important to recognise that pupils begin to meet extra challenges in terms of spelling during Year 2. Increasingly, they should learn that there is not always an obvious connection between the way a word is said and the way it is spelt. Variations include different ways of spelling the same sound, the use of so-called silent letters and groups of letters in some words and, sometimes, spelling that has become separated from the way that words are now pronounced, such as the ‘le’ ending in table. Pupils’ motor skills also need to be sufficiently advanced for them to write down ideas that they may be able to compose orally. In addition, writing is intrinsically harder than reading: pupils are likely to be able to read and understand more complex writing (in terms of its vocabulary and structure) than they are capable of producing themselves.

For pupils who do not have the phonic knowledge and skills they need for Year 2, teachers should use the Year 1 programmes of study for word reading and spelling so that pupils’ word reading skills catch up. However, teachers should use the Year 2 programme of study for comprehension so that these pupils hear and talk about new books, poems, other writing, and vocabulary with the rest of the class.

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.


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.

Key Stage 1

Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.

Pupils should be taught to:

  • name and locate the world’s continents and oceans
  • name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas
  • understand geographical similarities and differences through studying the human and physical geography of a small area of the United Kingdom, and of a contrasting non-European country
  • identify seasonal and daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom and the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the Equator and the North and South Poles
  • use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to key physical features, including: beach, coast, forest, hill, mountain, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, and weather
  • key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, and shop
  • use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the United Kingdom and its countries, as well as the countries, continents and oceans studied at this key stage
  • use simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and locational language (e.g. near and far) to describe the location of features and routes on a map
  • use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key
  • use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment.

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 1

Pupils should begin to develop an awareness of the past and the ways in which it is similar to and different from the present. They should understand simple subject-specific vocabulary relating to the passing of time and begin to develop an understanding of the key features of a range of different events and historical periods.

Pupils should be taught about:

  • simple vocabulary relating to the passing of time such as ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘past’, ‘present’, ‘then’ and ‘now’
  • the concept of nation and of a nation’s history
  • concepts such as civilisation, monarchy, parliament, democracy, and war and peace that are
  • essential to understanding history
  • the lives of significant individuals in Britain's past who have contributed to our nation's
  • achievements – scientists such as Isaac Newton or Michael Faraday, reformers such as Elizabeth Fry or William Wilberforce, medical pioneers such as William Harvey or Florence Nightingale, or creative geniuses such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel or Christina Rossetti
  • key events in the past that are significant nationally and globally, particularly those that coincide with festivals or other events that are commemorated throughout the year
  • significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.

Mathematic Aims

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

  • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
  • reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
  • can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non- routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Key Stage 1 Maths

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in Key Stage 1 is to ensure that pupils develop confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. This should involve working with numerals, words and the four operations, including with practical resources (e.g. concrete objects and measuring tools).

At this stage, pupils should develop their ability to recognise, describe, draw, compare and sort different shapes and use the related vocabulary. Teaching should also involve using a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money.

By the end of Year 2, pupils should know the number bonds to 20 and be precise in using and understanding place value. An emphasis on practice at this early stage will aid fluency.

Pupils should read and spell mathematical vocabulary, at a level consistent with their increasing word reading and spelling knowledge at Key Stage 1.


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 1

Pupils should be taught to:

  • use their voices expressively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
  • play tuned and untuned instruments musically
  • listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
  • make and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions 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 for sustained periods of time
  • engage in competitive sports and activities
  • lead healthy, active lives.

Subject content Key Stage 1

Pupils should develop core movement, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and co- ordination, individually and with others. They should be able to engage in competitive (both against self and against others) and co- operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations.

Pupils should be taught to:

  • master basic movements such as running, jumping, throwing, catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities
  • participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending
  • perform dances using simple movement patterns.

Science Aims

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

  • develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
  • develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
  • are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Subject Content Key Stage 1

The principal focus of science teaching in Key Stage 1 is to enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly-constructed world around them. They should be encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what they notice. They should be helped to develop their understanding of scientific ideas by using different types of scientific enquiry to answer their own questions, including observing changes over a period of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple comparative tests and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They should begin to use simple scientific language to talk about what they have found out and communicate their ideas to a range of audiences in a variety of ways. Most of the learning about science should be done through the use of first-hand practical experiences, but there should also be some use of appropriate secondary sources, such as books, photographs and videos.

‘Working scientifically’ is described separately in the programme of study, but must always be taught through and clearly related to the teaching of 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 at a level consistent with their increasing word reading and spelling knowledge at Key Stage 1.

Contact Us

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

020 7286 3518