Curriculum & Assessment Information

Our Curriculum 

Live & Learn

Our curriculum centres around the ambition we have for our pupils in seeking to achieve the best in everyone. We aim to provide an excellent education, which prepare our children for success in life. To this end our curriculum becomes the vehicle that helps everyone to achieve our core purpose:

Working together to create an empowered learning community where all are valued and lives flourish.

The intention of our curriculum is to create a culture that inspires curiosity, confidence and responsibility. It therefore:

• provides a broad and balanced education, full of rich experiences and opportunities that gives our pupils the skills, knowledge and resilience to be lifelong learners.​
• teaches children the relevant skills they need to live in a diverse society where all are equal and valued. It supports the needs of all pupils and encourages them to embrace challenge and achieve academic success.​
• is holistic, valuing the personal and physical development of every child and maximising opportunities to collaborate with parents, families and the wider community.​
• is underpinned by a strong set of core values that inform every interaction of daily school life, helping pupils to reveal and develop their character.​
• is progressive, such that teaching builds upon what has gone before, to develop skills, knowledge and concepts in a systematic way.​

Whilst building essential oracy and literacy skills as well as cultural capital, our curriculum offers both breadth and depth within subjects.

We have designed a curriculum model which covers all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage and all the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum. The exciting and challenging enquiries and units of learning, as well as enriched educational experiences, help our children  to flourish and thrive year on year.

In order to ensure that the knowledge and key skills are being taught effectively, we use evidence-informed research, in conjunction with the experience of our staff, to inform quality professional development and continually improve the teaching methods across the school. All teaching staff are members of the Chartered College of Teaching to support high quality delivery of our curriculum.

You will find out lots more about our exciting curriculum on our Year Group pages by clicking here.

Assessment Information

At Parson Street Primary School our teachers assess the children's progress in line with the curriculum expectations for their year group. Our focus is very much on identifying the next steps in children's learning and using this to plan a personalised curriculum which enables all children to achieve all aspects of the curriculum in line with age related expectations (ARE).

At various times in the year, all year groups from Year 1 to Year 6 undertake more formal NFER assessments in Reading, Grammar and Spelling and Mathematics. These assessments enable the teacher to identify learning gaps as well as show individual progress within the subjects. An individual standardised score gives an indication of how well each pupil is achieving against their age related expectations

We track children's progress against the ARE expectations for their year group using a tracking system called Insight. We are constantly developing our use of this tool and parents are given access to information at certain points in the year (information is sent home to parents).

When we report this information to parents we will use terms that show where they are in relation to their OWN year group expectations (See table below). We ensure we provide every opportunity for children to broaden and deepen learning in the curriculum for their own year group rather than move them on to a different set of expectations.

In our Early Years Foundation Stage, teachers gather evidence to support their assessments using individual Learning Diaries and Insight. Please speak to your child's class teacher for further information and to gain access to your child's learning journey.

Statutory Assessments

There are a number of times during their time at Parson Street that children will undertake statutory assessments. Information about these can be obtained by looking at: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/standards-and-testing-agency

We also offer a number of sessions throughout the year to help parents/carers understand what is involved for their children.

Curriculum Targets

 We use the National Curriculum Government guidance to ensure all our pupils are being taught and assessed on the appropriate objectives for their age range. For your information, see attached Y1 - 6 curriculum sheets which you show you what your child will be learning about over the year.