Curriculum

History Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 


Intent

Our history curriculum aims to build pupils’ understanding of Britain’s past and the wider world through a clear and coherent chronological narrative. We want children to recognise how people and events have shaped our nation, and how Britain has influenced—and been influenced by—other cultures, civilisations and societies across time. Pupils develop secure knowledge of key historical ideas such as empire, civilisation, parliament and peasantry, and learn to use this vocabulary confidently.

 

Implementation

Through carefully sequenced units, children learn about ancient civilisations, significant empires, non-European societies and key developments that have shaped human history. We explicitly teach important historical concepts including continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity and difference, and significance. Pupils use these concepts to make connections, compare periods and ask meaningful questions.

Our approach places strong emphasis on disciplinary knowledge. Children learn how historians work—how evidence is gathered, questioned and interpreted; why accounts differ; and how to construct their own explanations, narratives and analyses. Learning is rooted in timelines, enquiry and rich discussion so that pupils build secure, lasting understanding.

 

Impact

By the end of their time at Falconhurst, pupils have:

  • A confident grasp of British and wider world history across different periods and civilisations
  • The ability to use high-quality historical vocabulary and concepts accurately
  • Strong enquiry skills, using evidence rigorously to form and justify historical claims
  • An understanding of how and why interpretations of the past vary
  • The ability to place events and developments in local, national and global contexts, recognising links between cultural, political, social, economic and religious history
  • A well-developed sense of chronology and perspective, enabling them to explain change over short and long timescales


Together, these skills ensure pupils leave Falconhurst as curious, thoughtful and analytical young historians, well prepared for further study.

Geography Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our geography curriculum is designed to help children understand the world around them—its places, people, environments and processes. Through a rich and ambitious curriculum, pupils develop secure knowledge of significant global locations, both on land and at sea, and learn how physical and human features interact and change over time. We aim to nurture curious, informed learners who can think geographically and understand their place in an interconnected world.

 

Implementation

Learning is carefully sequenced to build strong disciplinary and substantive knowledge. Pupils explore the processes that shape landscapes, climates, settlements and ecosystems, and learn how these processes are interdependent. Throughout the curriculum, children develop the disciplinary skills geographers use every day:

  • Fieldwork: collecting, observing and analysing data to deepen understanding of real geographical processes
  • Interpreting information: using maps, aerial photographs, diagrams and digital tools to investigate places
  • Communicating geographically: presenting information through maps, numerical data, written explanations and well-reasoned conclusions


These skills are embedded from the early years onwards, ensuring pupils develop confidence and accuracy in their geographical thinking.

 

Impact

By the time pupils leave Falconhurst, they:

  • Have a strong sense of place and can locate and describe key global environments and regions
  • Understand how physical and human processes shape the world and how these processes influence each other
  • Can interpret a wide range of geographical sources with accuracy
  • Use geographical vocabulary confidently and can explain their thinking clearly
    Apply fieldwork skills to collect, analyse and present data effectively
  • Communicate their knowledge in maps, diagrams, data sets and extended writing


Our pupils become thoughtful, reflective young geographers who understand our changing world and can make informed decisions about the environment and their role within it.

Design & Technology: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our Design & Technology curriculum equips children with the creativity, technical knowledge and practical skills they need to thrive in an increasingly technological world. We want pupils to become confident problem-solvers who can design, make and evaluate purposeful, high-quality products. Through learning about materials, mechanisms, structures, textiles and food, children gain a rich understanding of how design impacts everyday life.

 

Implementation

Our curriculum is built around clear disciplinary concepts and carefully sequenced strands. Pupils learn to:

  • Design: generating ideas, planning for the needs of different users and developing creative, functional solutions
  • Make: selecting tools, materials and techniques to construct high-quality models and products
  • Evaluate: testing, assessing and improving their own work and the work of others
  • Apply technical knowledge: understanding how mechanisms, structures and systems work
  • Cook and apply nutrition principles: learning essential life skills through hands-on food preparation and understanding how to eat healthily

Each unit builds progressively so pupils develop a secure toolkit of skills and knowledge that they can apply independently and confidently.

 

Impact

By the end of their DT journey at Falconhurst, pupils:

  • Demonstrate strong creative, technical and practical skills
  • Can design and make products that are purposeful, appealing and well-constructed for specific users
  • Use evaluation to refine and improve their ideas and outcomes
  • Apply technical knowledge to explain how their products function
  • Understand the principles of healthy eating and can follow a simple recipe to cook nutritious food


Our children leave as imaginative, resourceful and reflective young designers who can tackle real-world problems with confidence.

 

Art Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our Art curriculum is designed to develop confident, expressive and knowledgeable young artists. We want pupils to understand that art is meaningful, powerful and culturally rich. Through exposure to a wide range of artists, styles and traditions from across the world, children learn that art can communicate ideas, reflect society, show emotions and tell stories across time and place.

We aim for all children to build strong practical skills, secure disciplinary knowledge (how art is studied, discussed and evaluated) and rich theoretical understanding (culture, context and purpose). Pupils learn that art can be realistic or abstract, collaborative or individual, decorative or functional—and that their own ideas have value.

 

 
Implementation

Our curriculum is structured around four core artistic disciplines—drawing, painting, collage and sculpture (clay)—taught progressively from Year 1 to Year 6. Each unit builds secure knowledge and skills through:

Practical Skill Development

Children learn:

  • Drawing techniques including line, shape, proportion, perspective, shading and observational drawing 

Monochromatic (Summary of Progress)

  • Colour theory, including primary/secondary colours, complementary colours, tints, shades and mixing skin tones 

Chromatic (Summary of Progress)

  • How to use sketchbooks for planning, experimenting and refining ideas
  • Painting and collage techniques using a range of tools and media
  • Clay techniques such as pinch pots, coiling, relief designs, joining (score and slip), wedging and sculpting for form and texture 

Sculpture Clay (Summary of Progress)


Disciplinary Knowledge

Across all year groups, pupils learn to:

  • Talk about art using accurate vocabulary
  • Evaluate and refine their own work and the work of others
  • Understand how artists make creative choices and develop personal style
  • Recognise that art can evoke emotion, express ideas, or make a social or political impact
  • Understand the role of design, illustration, architecture and craft alongside traditional fine art

Theoretical Knowledge (Culture & Context)

Throughout the curriculum, children explore:

  • Artists from a wide range of cultures, time periods and disciplines
  • How context (e.g., place, culture, historical moment) influences art and artists
  • How art has been used to reflect society, nature, celebration, belief and identity
  • Examples of artists with diverse backgrounds and practices—from Hokusai to Frida Kahlo, Sarah Biffin to Dapo Adeola, Kathryn Larsen to Vincent van Gogh 

Grammarsaurus Artists
This breadth ensures children see themselves reflected in the curriculum and understand art as a global, evolving discipline.

 

 
Impact

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils at Falconhurst:

  • Demonstrate strong practical skills in drawing, painting, collage and clay sculpture
  • Use art vocabulary confidently to describe, critique and evaluate work
  • Understand how artists develop ideas and how context shapes creative choices
  • Can explain artistic concepts such as abstraction, realism, style, composition, form, proportion and perspective
  • Recognise and discuss art from a wide and culturally diverse range of artists and traditions
  • Apply their skills independently to create meaningful, high-quality artwork
    Express themselves creatively and reflectively, understanding that their artistic voice has purpose and value


Our curriculum ensures that children leave Falconhurst as thoughtful, skilled and culturally aware young artists, equipped to enjoy, interpret and create art long into the future.

Implementation

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that pupils build deep, connected knowledge over time while developing core scientific skills from EYFS to Year 6.

 

Scientific Knowledge

Children study a broad range of topics across the three disciplines:

  • Biology: animals including humans, plants, life cycles, classification, habitats, evolution and inheritance 

Science Skills Progression

  • Chemistry: properties and uses of materials, rocks and fossils, solutions, states of matter, reversible and irreversible changes
  • Physics: forces, magnets, electricity, sound, light, seasonal change, space and planetary movement


This progression ensures pupils revisit and deepen their understanding year on year.

Working Scientifically

Scientific enquiry skills are taught throughout all topics rather than as a separate strand. Pupils learn to:

  • Ask and refine scientific questions
  • Observe closely and take accurate measurements
  • Plan and carry out comparative and fair tests
  • Record findings using drawings, diagrams, tables, charts and graphs
  • Analyse patterns and draw conclusions based on evidence
  • Evaluate results and identify improvements
  • Use scientific language to explain their ideas clearly


These skills develop in complexity from simple observations in KS1 to controlled investigations and data analysis in upper KS2

.

EYFS Foundations

Children begin by exploring the natural world, noticing seasonal changes, comparing environments and talking about what they observe. These early experiences build the foundations for later scientific thinking

 


Impact


By the end of primary school, Falconhurst pupils:

  • Have strong scientific knowledge across biology, chemistry and physics
  • Understand key concepts such as evolution, states of matter, forces, classification and the solar system
  • Can plan and carry out scientific enquiries with increasing independence
  • Use scientific vocabulary with accuracy and confidence
  • Record and present data effectively using tables, graphs, labelled diagrams and written explanations
  • Draw conclusions using evidence and identify whether results are valid
  • Appreciate the relevance of science in everyday life and future careers
    Leave us as informed, reflective and enthusiastic young scientists


Our curriculum ensures children develop both a deep understanding of scientific ideas and the practical skills needed to investigate the world with curiosity and rigour.

RSE & PSHE Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our RSE and PSHE curriculum aims to equip every child with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to thrive personally, socially and emotionally. We want pupils to understand themselves, build healthy and respectful relationships, stay safe, make informed decisions and develop the resilience needed for life in modern Britain.

Our curriculum promotes:

  • Emotional literacy and wellbeing
  • Respectful, healthy friendships and relationships
  • Safe choices in both the real and online world
  • Understanding of changing bodies and growing up
  • Inclusion, equality and respect for diversity
  • Personal responsibility and positive contribution to community


We aim to nurture confident, compassionate and thoughtful young citizens who understand their rights, responsibilities and place in society.

 
Implementation

Our RSE and PSHE curriculum is taught through a carefully sequenced progression from Nursery to Year 6, revisiting and deepening key themes each year. Lessons build knowledge and skills through three main strands:

1. Health and Wellbeing

Children learn about:

  • Emotional regulation and mental health
  • Healthy lifestyles, sleep, exercise and food choices
  • Personal hygiene and keeping their bodies safe
  • Managing risks and making safe decisions
  • Understanding how their bodies change as they grow

2. Relationships

Learning focuses on:

  • Friendships, teamwork and respectful behaviour
  • Recognising positive and negative relationships
  • Understanding families in all their forms
  • Consent, personal boundaries and privacy
  • Anti-bullying and inclusion

3. Living in the Wider World

Pupils develop:

  • Digital safety and responsible online behaviour
  • Understanding of rules, rights and responsibilities
  • Awareness of money, spending and saving
  • Respect for others, communities and the environment

Pedagogy & Assessment
Across the curriculum children are taught explicitly how to:

  • Communicate feelings and solve problems
  • Ask for help and identify trusted adults
  • Reflect on dilemmas and make safe choices
  • Apply learning to real-life situations

Teachers assess learning through discussion, scenario-based tasks, reflection activities and observation of developing skills. The spiral structure ensures content is age-appropriate, revisited regularly and aligned with statutory RSE guidance.

 
Impact

By the time they leave Falconhurst, pupils:

  • Have strong emotional literacy and can talk confidently about feelings
  • Understand how to maintain positive wellbeing
  • Build and sustain healthy, respectful relationships
  • Know how to keep themselves safe—online, in the community and in personal situations
  • Understand the physical and emotional changes of growing up
  • Show respect, empathy and inclusion towards others
  • Can make informed, responsible choices about their health, behaviour and interactions
  • Are prepared for the social and personal challenges of secondary school


Our RSE and PSHE curriculum ensures pupils develop into safe, confident, responsible and emotionally aware young people, ready to contribute positively to their community and wider world.

Religion & Worldviews (RE): Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our Religion & Worldviews curriculum enables children to understand the rich diversity of beliefs, values and ways of living found in our local community, in the UK and across the world. Through exploring multiple religions and non-religious worldviews, pupils learn to recognise how people make sense of life’s big questions, how beliefs influence actions, and how communities express meaning and belonging.

Our curriculum builds secure substantive knowledge (beliefs, practices, wisdom & morality, community and belonging), disciplinary knowledge (how to enquire, interpret and evaluate) and personal knowledge (reflecting on their own perspectives and the perspectives of others). We aim for pupils to think deeply, show respect, and understand how people’s worldviews shape their lives.

 
Implementation

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced and taught through the three Kapow strands, ensuring progression from EYFS to Year 6

1. Substantive Knowledge: Beliefs, Practices, Wisdom & Morality, Community & Belonging

Children explore:

  • Core beliefs across a wide range of religions and worldviews
  • How people express belief through worship, festivals, rituals and sacred texts
  • Moral teachings, values, guidance and stories
  • How communities live together, show belonging and care for others

This develops progressively—from simple recognition of beliefs and practices in EYFS and KS1 to deeper understanding of interpretation, similarities and differences, and the influence of culture, history and geography in KS2.

2. Disciplinary Knowledge: How to Study Religion

Across the enquiry cycle, pupils learn to:

  • Ask thoughtful, respectful and increasingly challenging questions
  • Investigate beliefs and practices using a range of sources (stories, artefacts, scripture, accounts, visits, images)
  • Interpret meaning, symbolism and diverse perspectives
  • Consider similarities and differences between worldviews
  • Use evidence to explain what people believe and why


These skills grow from early noticing and retelling in KS1 to interpretation, comparison and reasoned arguments by Year 6.

3. Personal Knowledge: Understanding Themselves and Others

Pupils reflect on:

  • Their own values, experiences and developing worldview
  • How their perspective may influence interpretation
  • How people with different beliefs can live together respectfully
  • What they can learn from others’ experiences, traditions and ideas

This supports personal growth, empathy and respect for diversity.

 
Impact

By the end of primary school, pupils at Falconhurst:

  • Have secure knowledge of a wide range of religions and non-religious worldviews
  • Understand how beliefs shape actions, rituals, celebrations and community life
  • Can interpret and respond thoughtfully to sacred texts, stories and symbols
  • Use disciplinary skills to compare viewpoints, ask big questions and use evidence in discussion
  • Recognise similarities and differences within and between traditions
  • Reflect on their own developing worldview and show respect for the views of others
  • Understand how people live together in diverse communities and why this matters


Our curriculum ensures pupils leave Falconhurst as reflective, respectful and informed young people who understand the diversity of worldviews around them and their role in contributing to a compassionate, inclusive society.

Physical Education: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our PE curriculum aims to develop physically confident, active and resilient pupils who understand the importance of health, fitness and wellbeing. Through a broad and engaging curriculum, children learn fundamental movement skills, take part in a wide range of sports and activities, and build teamwork, respect and determination. We want every child to gain the knowledge, skills and motivation to participate in physical activity now and throughout their lives.

Implementation

Our PE curriculum follows a progressive, skills-based approach from EYFS to Year 6, in line with national expectations and the Get Set scheme

learning is organised into clear strands including:

  • Fundamental movement skills: agility, balance, co-ordination, running, jumping and throwing
  • Games skills: attacking and defending principles, teamwork and application of tactics
  • Gymnastics: control, balance, sequences and safe use of apparatus
  • Dance: expressive movement, musicality, creativity and performance
  • Athletics: sprinting, jumping, throwing and achieving personal bests
  • Outdoor and adventurous activities: communication, problem-solving and safe navigation
  • Swimming: water confidence, stroke development and essential water safety


Lessons build securely over time, allowing children to practise, apply and refine their skills in a range of increasingly challenging situations. Each unit also develops social and emotional skills such as cooperation, honesty, resilience and leadership, which are embedded throughout the Get Set progression materials

 

Impact

By the end of their primary PE journey, pupils:

  • Demonstrate confidence, competence and control in a broad range of physical activities
  • Understand how to improve their own performance and apply feedback effectively
  • Work collaboratively, showing respect, fairness and kindness in competitive and cooperative contexts
  • Recognise the importance of physical activity for their physical and mental wellbeing
  • Can swim competently, confidently and safely as required by the national curriculum


Our curriculum ensures that pupils leave Falconhurst as active, motivated and responsible young people who value physical activity and are ready to participate in sport and healthy lifestyles beyond primary school.

Modern Foreign Languages (Spanish): Intent, Implementation & Impact


Intent

At Falconhurst, our MFL curriculum aims to foster curiosity, confidence and enjoyment in learning a new language. We want pupils to communicate with increasing accuracy, develop strong pronunciation, and gain a secure foundation in vocabulary, grammar and expressive language structures. Through exploring Spanish culture, geography and daily life, pupils also broaden their understanding of the wider world and learn to appreciate cultural diversity.

Our intent is for every child to leave primary school equipped with the linguistic strategies, cultural awareness and enthusiasm to continue language learning in Key Stage 3 and beyond.

 
Implementation

Spanish is taught progressively from Year 3 to Year 6 through a carefully sequenced curriculum built around vocabulary acquisition, grammatical structures and meaningful communication, as shown in the yearly curriculum maps .

Core features of implementation include:

1. Systematic Vocabulary & Grammar Progression

Across KS2, pupils learn to:

  • Use key question forms (¿Cómo…?, ¿Qué…?, ¿Dónde…?, ¿Cuál…?)
  • Apply first-person and second-person structures to hold conversations
  • Use gender, number, noun–adjective agreement and definite/indefinite articles
  • Build increasingly complex sentences, including conjunctions, opinions and reasons
  • Develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in every unit

Grammar is embedded naturally within units such as greetings, pets, body parts, daily routines, directions, weather, food and shopping.


2. Rich, Themed Learning

Each year builds on the last through culturally relevant topics such as:

  • Y3: greetings, colours, numbers, dates, family, simple stories
  • Y4: pets, home, transport, classroom language, food and hobbies
  • Y5: emotions, body parts, illnesses, countries, nationalities, money and markets
  • Y6: time, daily routine, physical and character description, cities, café culture, professions

This structure allows pupils to revisit and apply language in new contexts, strengthening recall and fluency.

3. High-quality Speaking Opportunities
Speaking is assessed continually through verbal responses, role-play, vocabulary retrieval and structured dialogue. Teachers monitor pronunciation, confidence and accuracy during lessons, as described in each curriculum map .

4. Meaningful Assessment
Children complete listening, reading, writing and translation tasks, with adaptations for different levels of need (HAP, MAP, LAP). Regular review units allow pupils to consolidate prior knowledge and track progress over time.

 
Impact

By the end of KS2, pupils at Falconhurst:

  • Can communicate confidently using a widening range of vocabulary and grammatical structures
  • Pronounce Spanish with increasing accuracy and understand spoken language at an age-appropriate level
  • Read and write simple texts, short dialogues and personal information in Spanish
  • Apply key linguistic concepts such as gender, number, verb forms and sentence structure
  • Engage in role-plays and conversations about familiar topics with growing fluency
    Show interest in Spanish-speaking cultures and understand the value of global communication

Our curriculum ensures pupils leave Falconhurst as confident, curious and culturally aware language learners who are fully prepared for further study in secondary school.

Music Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our Music curriculum aims to nurture confident, creative and expressive young musicians. We want pupils to develop a deep understanding of how music works through singing, listening, composing, improvising and performing. Children explore a rich variety of musical styles, traditions and cultures—building musical knowledge while developing imagination, teamwork, discipline and joy in music-making.

Our intent is to ensure that every child develops secure foundational musicianship, the ability to respond thoughtfully to music, and the confidence to participate in high-quality musical performances.

 
Implementation

Our curriculum is taught through a structured, two-year learning cycle, ensuring progression across the core strands outlined in the Sing Up Skills Progression overview

 

1. Singing and Performing

Across KS1 and KS2, children learn to:

  • Sing with accurate pitch, expression and control (e.g., rounds, call-and-response, songs in harmony)
  • Develop ensemble skills through group singing and whole-class performances
  • Maintain a steady beat, keep time, and change dynamics, tempo and articulation appropriately
  • Use voices creatively to adopt character, style and mood

Upper KS2 pupils also perform more complex pieces including Gospel-style songs, partner songs, three-part harmony and structured arrangements.

 

2. Playing Instruments

Children play both tuned and untuned percussion, progressing from simple beat-keeping to:

  • Playing chords, melodic riffs, basslines and ostinatos (shown throughout the KS2 progression tables)
  • Reading and following graphic notation and simple staff notation
  • Performing as part of an ensemble, including whole-class instrumental work

These skills build gradually from clapping rhythms and basic percussion patterns in KS1 to chord sequences, triads and more detailed parts in Upper KS2.

3. Improvising and Composing

Pupils develop creativity through:

  • Improvising with voice, body percussion and instruments
  • Creating rhythmic patterns using crotchets, quavers, rests and more complex durations (as shown across the termly progression grids)
  • Composing melodies using pentatonic scales, major scales and structured forms such as ternary, rondo and question-and-answer phrases
  • Writing accompaniments, soundscapes and class arrangements
  • Experimenting with dynamics, tempo, timbre and texture

By Upper KS2, pupils compose extended pieces, soundtracks and multi-layered group compositions.

4. Listening and Appraising

Children explore a wide range of music from different periods, places and genres. They learn to:

  • Identify beat, rhythm, pitch, tempo, structure and timbre
  • Describe how music makes them feel, move or imagine
  • Recognise musical features such as the use of call-and-response, harmony, drone, riff and melodic shape
  • Understand context—e.g., Gospel, Brazilian samba, Scottish folk, Reggae, classical symphonies and World War I songs (identified across the Listen & Appraise sections of the progression tables)
  • Compare pieces, analyse patterns and respond through movement, discussion, drawing or writing

This develops increasingly sophisticated musical vocabulary and critical listening skills.

 
Impact

By the end of their music journey at Falconhurst, pupils:

  • Sing confidently, expressively and accurately
  • Play a range of instruments with control, creativity and ensemble awareness
  • Improvise and compose using a widening toolkit of musical techniques
  • Use musical vocabulary to describe, evaluate and compare music
  • Understand key musical concepts—rhythm, pitch, structure, timbre, tempo, texture and dynamics
  • Appreciate diverse musical traditions and recognise how music reflects culture, history and identity
  • Perform with pride and confidence in a range of settings


Our curriculum ensures pupils leave Falconhurst as expressive, skilled and culturally aware young musicians who can enjoy, understand and create music with confidence.

Implementation

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced from Year 1 to Year 6, ensuring children revisit and deepen key knowledge as they progress. It is built on three strands:

1. Writing Composition

Across all year groups, pupils learn to:

  • Plan, draft, edit and publish writing for a variety of purposes
  • Organise writing using clear structures, paragraphs and cohesive devices
  • Use language for effect, including figurative language, dialogue, rhetorical devices and varied sentence structures
  • Draw on high-quality texts as models for writing


Each year’s units include fiction, non-fiction and poetry, with clear progression shown in the long-term writing overviews (e.g., Y3 setting descriptions, Y4 myth reports, Y5 diary writing, Y6 explanatory texts)

 

2. Grammar and Punctuation

Grammar is taught explicitly and embedded within writing units. Children develop skills such as:

  • Using expanded noun phrases, adverbials, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions
  • Applying punctuation including commas, apostrophes, inverted commas, dashes, parentheses, colons and semi-colons (progressing from simple to complex forms across KS2)
  • Manipulating sentence structures for clarity, formality and effect
  • Understanding verb tenses, including progressive, perfect, passive and subjunctive forms (seen in Y5–Y6 grammar maps) 

This builds a strong toolkit that pupils apply purposefully in extended writing.

 

3. Spelling

Spelling is taught discretely and revisited regularly. Pupils learn:

  • Common exception words and high-frequency patterns
  • Spelling rules such as double consonants, silent letters, homophones and common suffixes (e.g., -ous, -tion, -ible, -able)
  • Morphology and etymology, including prefixes, root words and word families
  • Application through dictation, proofreading and editing


The spelling progression (e.g., Y3 homophones; Y5 words with silent letters; Y6 complex suffix patterns) ensures systematic coverage across the school


Impact

By the end of primary school, pupils at Falconhurst:

  • Write confidently across a wide range of genres, adapting tone and structure for purpose and audience
  • Use grammar and punctuation accurately and effectively within extended pieces
  • Spell increasingly complex vocabulary and apply strategies for unfamiliar words
  • Demonstrate rich vocabulary and clarity of expression
  • Edit and improve their writing with independence and precision
  • Show creativity, control and fluency in narrative, informative and persuasive writing
    Transfer their writing skills into all curriculum areas


Our curriculum ensures pupils leave Falconhurst as confident, capable and expressive writers who are fully prepared for the demands of secondary literacy and lifelong communication.

Reading Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 


Intent

At Falconhurst, our Reading curriculum aims to develop fluent, confident and motivated readers who can understand, enjoy and critically engage with a wide range of texts. We want all children to build strong word-reading skills, a deep and secure understanding of language, and the ability to comprehend increasingly complex fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Our intent is to nurture readers who can infer, question, summarise, retrieve and discuss with accuracy—laying the foundations for success across the curriculum and a lifelong love of reading.

 
Implementation

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that core reading skills develop progressively from KS1 to KS2. Teaching is structured around the key domains shown in the Comprehension Crushers progression document

 


1. Word Reading and Fluency

Across KS1 and KS2, pupils strengthen fluency through:

  • Echo reading, timed reading, contiguous reading and repeated practice
  • Fluency grids that embed high-frequency, common exception and tiered vocabulary
  • Decoding and blending strategies, matched texts and reading aloud to build confidence

By Upper KS2, pupils access increasingly ambitious vocabulary and text types.


2. Vocabulary Development

Children are explicitly taught to:

  • Understand the meaning of words in context
  • Clarify new vocabulary using background knowledge and teacher modelling
  • Explore highlighted tier 2 and 3 vocabulary in every unit
  • Discuss how language affects meaning, mood and tone

Visual vocabulary questions illustrate how children identify meaning and select appropriate definitions.

 

3. Retrieval 

Pupils learn to find, record and explain key information across text types. Retrieval questions—true/false, tick-box, copy-from-the-text and direct questioning—are embedded throughout each unit 

4. Sequencing and Summarising 

Children practise:

  • Ordering events in fiction and non-fiction
  • Identifying main ideas across paragraphs
  • Using structured summarising tools such as the 5-finger summary 
  • They learn to understand how ideas connect across longer texts.

5. Inference

Pupils develop deep comprehension by:

  • Inferring characters' thoughts, feelings and motives
  • Using evidence to justify interpretations
  • Distinguishing between fact and opinion in Upper KS2

This supports higher-level reading analysis.


6. Breadth of Texts
Children study a wide variety of high-quality fiction, non-fiction, poetry, playscripts and reference texts, enabling them to apply skills across genres.

 
Impact

By the end of primary school, pupils at Falconhurst:

  • Read with fluency, accuracy and confidence
  • Use vocabulary knowledge to understand increasingly complex texts
  • Retrieve, summarise and sequence information with precision
  • Make justified inferences using evidence from the text
  • Compare viewpoints, identify themes and talk meaningfully about what they read
  • Engage with a wide range of literature, developing personal reading preferences
  • Apply their reading skills across all curriculum areas

Our curriculum ensures pupils leave Falconhurst as confident, capable and thoughtful readers who are fully prepared for the demands of secondary education and for reading throughout their lives.

Phonics Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

 

Intent

At Falconhurst, our intent is to ensure every child becomes a fluent, confident reader by securing strong foundations in phonics from the very start. We want children to develop rapid recognition of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs), automatic blending and segmenting skills, and growing confidence with tricky words so that reading becomes effortless and enjoyable.

Our approach aims to close gaps early, ensure all children keep up rather than catch up, and build the secure decoding skills that unlock the wider curriculum.

 
Implementation

Our phonics curriculum follows the clearly sequenced progression of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, beginning with Foundations for Phonics in Nursery and continuing systematically through Reception and Year 1.

1. Foundations in Nursery

Children begin developing phonological awareness through:

  • Daily Rhyme Time: learning and revisiting rhymes to build sound awareness and vocabulary 
  • Tuning Into Sounds sessions taught 3–5 times per week, focusing on listening, oral blending and sound discrimination
  • Short, playful sessions that introduce early skills needed for later decoding
    This prepares children exceptionally well for Reception phonics.

 

2. Systematic and Cumulative Teaching (Reception–Year 1)

Phonics teaching:

  • Begins in Reception from the second week of term
  • Follows the full progression of GPCs and tricky words from simple to complex 
  • Includes daily review, revisiting and application to secure long-term memory
  • Integrates reading fully decodable books matched to each child’s current GPC knowledge

Reception covers Phases 2–4; Year 1 consolidates Phase 4 and progresses through the full set of Phase 5 GPCs 

3. Mastery Approach and Keep-Up Support

Teaching is designed so that:

  • All children learn the same content at the same time, with scaffolds or enrichment as needed 
  • Gaps are addressed immediately through same-day keep-up sessions using consistent routines, materials and mantras 
  • High-quality teacher modelling, precise questioning and repetition support rapid progress

Children who need more practice receive short, targeted blending and decoding sessions daily.

4. Application Across Reading and Writing

Every session includes:

  • Oral blending
  • Word reading
  • Sentence reading and writing
  • Use of decodable books for practice and fluency

This ensures children apply phonics in meaningful contexts.

 
Impact

By the end of Year 1, pupils at Falconhurst:

  • Securely recognise and apply GPCs from Phases 2–5
  • Blend and segment confidently for reading and writing
  • Read fully decodable texts with developing fluency, accuracy and prosody
  • Use phonics independently to tackle unfamiliar words
  • Demonstrate strong foundations for comprehension and wider literacy
  • Achieve well in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, with targeted support continuing into Year 2 where needed


Our curriculum ensures pupils leave KS1 as confident, capable and fluent early readers, ready to access the full breadth of the curriculum and enjoy reading for life.