Curriculum Maps
Nursery
Reception
KS1 Cycle 1
KS1 Cycle 2
At Lee Mount Academy, our curriculum is designed to ignite a lifelong passion for learning, nurture inquisitive minds and promote the holistic development of every child. We deliver a broad and balanced curriculum which recognises the importance of communication, language and reading to successfully access the rest of the curriculum. Rooted in our core values of the ‘4Rs’ (Respect, Resilience, Responsibility and Reflection), our curriculum aims to:
- Instil Positive Learning Behaviours: Our curriculum aims to provide our children with a wide range of skills necessary to succeed in modern Britain. We focus not only on academic outcomes but also on fostering critical thinking, creativity, resilience and effective communication.
- Encourage a Love of Learning: Our goal is to establish a meaningful learning environment where children are eager to investigate, inquire and learn. By offering a bespoke personal development programme, we hope to foster a true passion for learning which goes beyond the classroom.
- Promote Personal Development: We prioritise the well-being of our students, nurturing their social, emotional, and mental health. Our curriculum encourages self-reflection, empathy, and a strong sense of self-worth, enabling children to flourish as confident and compassionate individuals.
- Build Relationships: We believe in a coherent curriculum, which connects prior learning, linking learning to real-life experiences and the wider community. Our curriculum aims to encourage collaboration, and community engagement and foster a deeper understanding of the world.
- Embrace Diversity and Inclusivity: Our curriculum places a strong emphasis on celebrating differences. We encourage understanding, appreciate diversity and promote an atmosphere where every perspective is heard and respected.
- Inspire Lifelong Learners: We hope to empower our pupils to become lifelong learners and responsible citizens. By nurturing their curiosity and resilience, we aim to instil a passion for discovery that extends far beyond their time at Lee Mount.
For further information on our curriculum, please contact us.
English
At Lee Mount Academy, we recognise that English skills underpin all elements of the school curriculum and are an essential life-skill. Considering the fundamental importance of speaking, listening, reading and writing in everyday life, we strive to develop a broad and balanced curriculum that meets each learner’s needs. We know that children arrive at school with broad and diverse language experiences. Through a vocabulary rich, broad and balanced curriculum, we aim to provide our children with the very best opportunities to become fluent, confident and skilled communicators in both written and spoken English.
Maths
At Lee Mount Primary we strive for all our children to become successful problem solvers and resilient mathematicians. We want the children to have a strong and secure mathematical knowledge that will give them the foundations for later life. To do this we use the Concrete Pictorial Abstract (CPA) approach to teach mathematical concepts. This enables children to solve problems in a variety of ways. By following the stages of CPA the children develop a deep understanding that they can reason with and explain.
You can support your children’s learning in Maths using the following links below!
Science
At Lee Mount Academy, we teach science in a way that ensures children have a concrete understanding of chemistry, biology, physics and geology. We believe science is not about having the right answer but instead is about a set of processes and skills which allow us to better understand, question and reason with the world around us. Our science curriculum follows the national curriculum and is progressive throughout the school so that each topic and skill can be built upon one year after another. In each year group there are a variety of investigations which involve tangible experiences that teach the children a range of scientific enquiry skills. We have constructed our curriculum, not only for the children to have a breadth of knowledge, but to have the depth also.
Geography
Our geography curriculum aims to provide our children with quality first hand experiences whenever possible, creating excitement and wonder through studying the world beyond the classroom. Initially, our focus is on their immediate environment and the local landscape including hills, moors, crags and rivers. During our residentials, children are able to explore the wider environment, in a contrasting locality, to provide them with an opportunity to compare and contrast their understanding of geographical areas, both urban and rural. Through our carefully tailored curriculum, children will develop into explorers. We aim to enthuse children about the possibilities that their world has in store for them to explore. Our children will leave school with a sense of their place in the world, both culturally and physically, and a desire to enquire into the world around them.
History
Our history curriculum aims to provide our children with a sense of time through an understanding of people, places and objects. The children will learn about the experiences of others and of significant events from the past through quality first hand experiences, artefacts, historical texts and other primary and secondary sources. Our children will practise the Lee Mount building blocks of teamwork, relationships and confidence in order to gain a broad and balanced understanding of their local, national and world history. Our children will leave school with a chronological awareness of historical periods, an understanding of people and their impact on the world as we know it today.
Music
We have specialist from Calderdale Music Trust who teach our music lessons and music assemblies once a week. At Lee Mount, we recognise the vital role of music in allowing curiosity, creativity and self –expression to develop alongside resilience, confidence and critical thinking skills.
Computing
Through our computing curriculum we aim to give our pupils the life-skills that will enable them to embrace and utilise new technology in a responsible and safe way to ensure that pupils become digitally literate and digitally resilient. At Lee Mount Academy the safety of our pupils is paramount. We take online safety very seriously and we aim to give children the necessary skills to keep themselves safe online. Children have a right to enjoy childhood online, to access safe online spaces and to benefit from all the opportunities that a connected world can bring them, appropriate to their age and stage. As a school we have Smoothwall Filter that protects students with real-time filtering and blocks harmful content without restricting their freedom to explore and learn. Smoothwall Monitor works in real-time to alert safeguarding teams to risks as they happen.
Art / Design Technology
At Lee Mount Academy our Art curriculum has been designed to expose children to a rich and varied diet of creativity and Art history. We believe that high-quality Art lessons will inspire children to think innovatively and develop creative understanding. The Art curriculum provides children with opportunities to develop their skills using a range of media and materials. Children learn the skills of drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles and 3D work.
Through a variety of creative and practical activities, pupils will have the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making.
PSHE
Our responsive PSHE programme is at the centre of the school curriculum, providing opportunities to teach concepts, knowledge, language, strategies and skills that enrich the wider curriculum. Here at Lee Mount Academy, we are preparing our pupils to be able to flourish and thrive with the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in modern day Britain. We use the SCARF programme from CORAM life education. Our adaptive and inclusive curriculum meets the needs of all our pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by adapting teaching and learning to suit all children and all abilities. We ensure that our curriculum fosters gender equality and LGBT+ equality by ensuring the quality of an inclusive and diverse curriculum. External visitors are used within our PSHE programme. They are carefully selected and enrich learning, provide expert input and act as role models throughout our PSHE provision.
RE
The Lee Mount Academy R.E curriculum recognises the importance of developing our pupil’s as individuals so they can grow up to be responsible citizens. It develops our values, behaviours, knowledge and understanding of religions and beliefs. The Lee Mount Academy RE curriculum is based on the Local Agreed Syllabus for Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds produced by SACRE for teaching from September 2019.
Physical Education
Lee Mount aims to inspire all children to develop a love of physical activity and sport. Through quality physical education, whole school values and a whole child approach, we aim to nurture confident, resilient children who will strive for their personal best. We listen to our children’s wants and needs and provide them with a broad range of active experiences and clubs. We want to aid our children in obtaining the values and skills to celebrate and respect the success of others, as well as celebrating their own successes…
Spanish (MFL)
At Lee Mount, we start to teach Spanish as our modern foreign language in KS2. After speaking to our local secondary schools, we have chosen to deliver Spanish as this was the most common Key Stage 3 language. Children are taught a language to foster their curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world and other cultures. We equip children with knowledge to further learning in KS3 and beyond which will broaden their ability to study and work in other countries.
Reading
“If pupils cannot read, they will not be able to access the curriculum, and will be disadvantaged for life”
Research for EIF framework, p20, 2019 Tweet
Reading
Through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. Within Lee Mount Academy, we highly value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers with a love of reading. We believe reading is the bedrock of success in education. Encouraging and enhancing children’s motivation to read for pleasure is a key driver in our academy through our Love of Reading provision which is included in our ‘Reading Diet’.
Love for Reading
Reading is a main driver of our academy and children are taught to know the importance of reading. At Lee Mount, we promote a love of reading in many ways such as: library visits; reading rockets café; reading records; challenge booklets; author visits and more. At Lee Mount, we believe story time is an integral part of the children’s day. Story time is a huge part of developing our children’s love for reading, that is why we have carefully selected the books we read to our classes. We believe that all children should have the opportunity to imagine themselves as the main protagonist in a story. We have made sure this is possible by creating a story time reading journey. We have selected a range of books that link to these criteria: cultural, diverse, world and current issues, current, topical and books that show our children’s demographic and socioeconomic background.
Reading at Home
Reading at home is essential to enable all children to succeed in their learning. Each child is provided with a reading record. Reading is the cornerstone to your child’s learning, and, as such, we encourage children to read at home for 15 minutes every night. We celebrate your child’s reading through ‘Reading Rockets’, which is our reading café that enables all pupils to voice their opinions about books and their reading lessons. Reading for 15 minutes each day will build your child’s reading stamina and wider vocabulary. Please support your child to enable them to become a confident reader.
Phonics
For the teaching of phonics we use the DfE accredited Essential Letters and Sounds programme. This programme is followed with rigour and fidelity by all teachers and teaching assistants. Discrete whole-class phonics lessons are taught to all children, daily in Reception and Year One. To ensure that learning is embedded, flashcards and reading opportunities continue throughout the day and additional phonics teaching is given to identified children. Phonics remains the main strategy that we use to approach/decode unfamiliar words and spelling across the school.