Curriculum

Dunkirk Curriculum Statement

Dunkirk is a creative school which embraces innovative and exciting approaches to teaching and learning. This involves flexible, spontaneous, risk taking approaches which enable a range of providers to work collaboratively. At Dunkirk we follow the National Curriculum as part of our whole school holistic and skills based approach to teaching and learning.

For more information about the National Curriculum click here

A parents guide to the National Curriculum can be found here.

For an overview of the Dunkirk Primary Curriculum scroll down the page

What Will My Child Be Doing At School?

Our aim is to make learning as meaningful, relevant and fun as possible. Teachers are aware of recent research into the way children learn and plan their work to meet the needs and learning styles of the children.

The way we organise our curriculum ensures children have regular opportunities to question, problem solve, work as a team and therefore take some ownership of their own learning. Our curriculum aims to embed global, anti-racist and international dimensions whenever possible with a key priority to develop every child as a global citizen through innovative approaches to curriculum delivery. This includes pupils, staff and artists engaging in creative dialogues with our international link schools in Pakistan and Spain. This work gives real purpose and motivation for children to read and write with many core and life skills covered in an interesting and enjoyable way.

We aim for high standards of achievement throughout our delivery of the National Curriculum. This includes the five core subjects of English, Maths, Science, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Religious Education (RE), plus the foundation subjects of History, Geography, Technology, Music, Art and Physical Education. The school also teaches personal, social, health and citizenship education and Spanish to all pupils. There is a strong emphasis on developing children’s creativity through the Creative Arts subjects and also by teaching other subjects creatively. We have developed a whole school curriculum framework which enables us to teach all subjects within the time allocated. Teachers jointly plan their schemes of work based on the National Curriculum.

Some subjects are taught separately, with links made between areas of the curriculum wherever possible, so that one or more study units (topics) are taught in a term. We fully utilise the expertise of all our staff and regularly use external providers and a range of creative practitioners to ensure the best provision for our children.

Children’s progress is regularly assessed and tracked by class teachers and the Senior Leadership Team and we will keep you regularly informed of your child`s progress.

A wide range of extended learning activities and study support takes place outside normal school hours and these will change according to interest and time of year. We are always keen to hear any ideas you may have or welcome any volunteers to help or run after-school or lunchtime sessions.

Dunkirk Primary Curriculum Overview KS1 and KS2
	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6
Term 1	Brown Rabbit Around the World Locational awareness of the UK and beyond (Geography)	London’s Burning Event beyond living memory-Great Fire if London (History)	The Magic and the Mummy Achievements of Ancient Egypt (History)	The Roaming Romans Roman Empire and Impact on Britain (History)	Crime and Punishment Victorians, rule of law (History)	Arabian Nights Early Islamic civilisations (History/Geography)
	Simple narrative – opening, problem, ending	Narrative – losing tale	Instructions	Non-chronological reports	Diary	Narrative – warning tale
	Fact file	newspaper	Narrative – warning tale	Narrative – conquering the monster	Narrative – rags to riches	Non-chronological report
	Instructions	diary	diary	instructions	biography	Newspaper report
Term 2	Time Travel Now and then, parents, grandparents… (History)	The Adventures of Robin Hood Significant event beyond memory, local study (History)	Dragons .V. Vikings Viking raids and invasion (History)	Pyroclastic Pompeii Volcanoes and Earthquakes (Geography)	Green and Gold Environmental Change – Land use vs Environment (Geography)	3 weekly cycles on different genres
	Diary	Biography	Newspaper report	Newspaper report	Narrative – conquering the monster tale
	Simple narrative – opening, problem, ending	Narrative – conquering the monster tale	Persuasive	Narrative – warning tale	Non-chronological report
	Persuasive letter	Persuasive letter	Narrative – meeting tale	Persuasive	instructions
Term 3	Taking Care of People NHS, Florence Nightingale, Acts of Kindness (History)	Gold, Greed and Power Christopher Columbus Countries, maps, trade etc… (Geography)	Around the World Children’s heritage, maps, countries, cities (Geography)	The Sword in the Stone Britain’s settlement by the Anglo-Saxons (History)	Wollaton at War Local history study - WW2 D Day landing, turning point in British history (History)	It’s All Greek To Me Ancient Greece (History/Geography)
	Biography	Narrative – journey tale	Biography	Diary	Newspaper report	Narrative – journey tale Diary
	Recount	Non-chronological report	Narrative – journey tale	Narrative – rags to riches	Narrative – journey tale	Persuasive
	Narrative – opening, build up, problem, resolution, ending	instructions	Non-chronological report	biography	Persuasive letter	biography
Computing	Term 2: -internet safety -information technology beyond school	Term 1: -internet safety -create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content	Term 3: -internet safety -use search technologies effectively	Term 3: -internet safety -use and combine a variety of software on a range of digital devices	Term 2: -internet safety -collect, analyse, evaluate and present data and information	Term 2/3: -internet safety -understand computer networks and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration
Computing	All coding objectives to be taught through Espresso Coding
R.E.	RE will be taught through 3 whole school immersion weeks, based on the Nottingham Agreed RE Syllabus. Each year group will have a focus religion as identified below, and will compare and contrast with religions studied in previous year groups. Poetry will be explored in these weeks. RE may also be taught through class projects as identified in Curriculum Planning Meetings
R.E.	Christianity	Sikhism	Judaism	Hinduism	Islam	Buddhism
Science	Seasonal changes Materials Animals Plants	Living things and habitats Plants Humans Materials	Animals Rocks Forces and Magnets Light Plants	Living things and habitats Animals Sound States of matter Electricity	Living things Animals Materials Changes of state Earth and space Forces	Living things Animals Evolution Light Electricity
Art and Design & DT	Art and DT skills will be taught progressively during class projects to enable key curriculum knowledge to be applied through a creative medium. These skills and projects will be agreed in Curriculum Planning Meetings.
Music	Music is taught through Musical Express Music skills may be applied through class projects as identified in Curriculum Planning meetings
PE	Taught through a scheme – PE Planning
PSHE	PSHE will be taught through an Action Project each term linked to the cross-curricular topic work PSHE will also be linked in to the RE immersion weeks Additionally, ongoing and responsive lessons will be taught in class as necessary and appropriate Whole school planned assemblies linked to PRIDE values take place weekly
SRE	Taught through the CWP scheme

Curriculum

Dunkirk Curriculum Statement

What Will My Child Be Doing At School?

Dunkirk Primary Curriculum Overview KS1 and KS2