Our Curriculum
At Langdale, we have designed a distinct and unique curriculum which meets the academic requirements of the National Curriculum whilst also providing the social and emotional learning that is so essential to our pupils in this day in age. Our curriculum mirrors our vision: Love Learning, Love Langdale.
We believe our curriculum will strike the right balance between engaging, meaningful learning and also enabling key skills to be mastered. Learning is differentiated to meet the needs of all children, challenging and supporting where appropriate. The curriculum is relevant to the children’s life experiences, inspires and engages them in their learning and enables them to work in a flexible and collaborative way using their imagination.
Our curriculum aims to build on the children’s knowledge and helps them to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative and critical thinkers. Our curriculum will focus on the development of children’s knowledge and skills across all primary subjects with the aim of ensuring pupils are ready for the next stage of their learning.
Every child in the school is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our diverse school community. Through our teaching, learning and behaviour expectations, we give pupils the knowledge and understanding of how discrimination and prejudiced behaviour is dealt with, including the prevention of bullying. Pupils with special needs are well-supported in school with extra support and/or resources deployed where necessary to help close individual learning gaps.
Community involvement is an integral part of our curriculum, inviting families and visitors (when it is safe to do so) to facilitate learning new skills and sharing experiences such as assemblies and Arts Week (new in 2021). Children leave Langdale with a sense of belonging to a community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.
Our key aims are that when children leave us to move on to secondary school, they have:
At Langdale Free School we previously used the Lancashire Curriculum Overview as a basis for our planning. It provided a themed, cross curricular approach to the children's learning based on the National Curriculum. The staff at school are currently tailoring our curriculum to be relevant to our children and community, the documents you see are a work in progress.
At Langdale, our Reception team provides high quality, integrated early education for 4 – 5 year olds, ensuring that our children have solid foundations on which they can build their future learning.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum that we follow encourages the children to enjoy success and achievement in an atmosphere of care: Langdale children feel included, valued and secure.
The Foundation Stage gives children the opportunity to learn through structured play and through hands-on tasks and challenges which match the children's needs and abilities. Learning opportunities are planned for indoors and outdoors and, as a result of being part of a broader learning environment, the children all have access to extension activities that allow each child to maximise his or her potential.
The Early Years programme develops key learning skills such as listening, speaking, concentration, persistence and learning to work and cooperate with others, as well as developing early communication, literacy and numeracy skills.
Early Years Curriculum is organised into 7 areas of learning and the following descriptions briefly highlight the key learning outcomes for each:
The main school teaches children ages between 5 and 11 years, and follows the National Curriculum for England Programmes of Study for the delivery of the core subjects (Literacy, Numeracy, Science and ICT) and the foundation subjects (Art, Music, Geography, History, Religious Education, Physical Education, Personal Health and Social Education).
Classes are small and the staff to pupil ratio is low, resulting in greater opportunities for the staff to ensure that learning is relevant, individualised and enjoyable. In addition to the curriculum options mentioned earlier, the children also have access to Speech and Drama coaching as well as specialised music lessons.
The Langdale teaching staff work together as a team, planning and sharing ideas and providing a supportive, caring and stimulating learning environment that encourages children to become independent learners. The curriculum is designed to enable the children to grow in confidence and ability.
In Key Stage 1, reading and spelling homework is given on a regular basis and serves to reinforce class teaching. There is a balance and range in other homework activities, although these often reflect the topic that is being taught at any given time. The Key Stage 1 Phase ends with Standard Assessment Tests which are administered in Year 2.
In Key Stage Two (KS2), the emphasis is on "learning how to learn". Learning is seen as a process; education as an adventure and a journey that is both exciting and rewarding!
KS2 children are ages between 7 and 11 and are encouraged to be receptive to new concepts and to evaluate their own progress when dealing with them. They have access to a wide range of information and media and are taught the value of effective communication as a tool for furthering understanding.
For those children who have completed Key Stage 1 at Langdale, we aim to build on and enhance the wide variety of knowledge, skills and experiences that the children have already learned and to equip them for the future. For children who are new to Key stage 2, we hope to ensure that they have access to everything they need to ensure that their learning journey is both highly successful and highly rewarding. Activities are differentiated to meet the needs of individual children.