Our Curriculum at Thames

Intent

At Thames Primary Academy, we have created a wide and varied learning experience for our pupils to enjoy. We have built a curriculum which meets the requirements of the National Curriculum and is underpinned by some key principles of educational research: 

  • Learning is most effective with spaced repetition. 
  • Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention. 
  • Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength. 
  • Learning is invisible in the short-term and sustained mastery takes time. 

Teaching and learning follows a carefully-chosen, deliberately-sequenced and well-linked journey of core knowledge from our nursery up to Year 6. Key knowledge and end points that pupils are working towards are clearly identified. Key vocabulary is taught explicitly and the subject matter is brought to life where possible with a visit or expert visitor to school. The way we teach enables children to recall and talk about their learning and to link this understanding to new knowledge so they know more and remember more, thus strengthening their schema.

Implementation

We use a variety of approaches to support learning including: Read,Write,Inc for phonics and  Maths No Problem. Speaking and listening and reading are threaded throughout the curriculum so that all children develop a love of reading and have access to a rich vocabulary to enable them to access the wider curriculum. We strive to develop each and every child’s communication skills, both written and verbal, to ensure they are equipped to express themselves fully throughout their lives.

 Our curriculum is everything our children learn here, from the moment they walk through the gates. We value the spiritual and moral development of each person, as well as their intellectual and physical growth. All children make progress from their starting points; they develop a love for learning and they grow in confidence from recognition of their achievements. We provide our children with rich opportunities– such as musical performances and sports tournaments, as well as classroom learning– so they can enjoy being active members in our local and global communities. Using our towns’ history and local cultural opportunities, our children learn about their place in, and ways to shape, their community. Cultural capital opportunities have been identified across the curriculum to give our children the powerful background knowledge required to be informed and thoughtful members of our community who understand and believe in British values. 

At Thames Primary Academy, we hope to widen horizons and prepare our children to be active citizens who can take their part in the world with knowledge, with respect, with confidence and with creativity.