What does your child learn at school each day? Find information about our curriculum subjects here.
Principles
At Kings Furlong Junior School, we believe that pupils engage and achieve most in a creative, relevant and contextual curriculum, which is underpinned by rigour, challenge and opportunity. The staff have high standards, and this permeates through all that they do. At our core, we value respect, care, enjoyment, community, service and excellence. We want our children to develop creativity, team work, resilience, responsibility, respect, risk taking, and curiosity. This is so that in life they are able to solve problems, plan effectively, make healthy choices, show empathy, be organised, communicate well, be numerate and literate, demonstrate independence, think critically, be safe, use IT effectively, adapt to changes, and be resourceful. All that we do in school is for the sake of our pupils becoming life long, successful learners, who enjoy themselves and make a positive contribution to our society.
Core values
At our core, we value:
Learning behaviours
At Kings Furlong Junior School, we aim for our pupils to be life-long learners. To accomplish this, we develop in them behaviours which underpin and enable successful and deeper learning. We want them to be curious about why things happen, to take risks, to reflect and evaluate, to learn about and demonstrate respect and responsibility, to be resilient through the difficult times, to work in a team effectively, and to have creative ideas and imagination. We cannot teach our pupils everything they will need to know, so we must help them learn how to learn.
Further, we have matched an animal to each behaviour, to help children learn and relate to them. Through our conversations with children, assemblies, marking, lesson activities, and extra-curricular activities, we promote and develop our learning behaviours in our pupils.
Life skills
Building on our core values and learning behaviours, we ensure our pupils have practical life skills, which enable them to succeed whatever they turn their hand to. One day they will be the doctors, mechanics, scientists, carers, teachers, leaders, business owners, or prime ministers, and we are passionate about equipping them with the tools they will need for success.
Therefore, using our curriculum as the vehicle, we aim to develop these skills in our pupils, and recognise that they must have opportunities to do this.
Curriculum
At Kings Furlong Junior School, we offer a curriculum that is rich, relevant and contextual. It is child-led, thematic, and responds to the needs of our pupils. It engages them in their learning through exciting, outcome-based projects, which create a thirst for learning, as well as opportunities for satisfying that thirst.
Our curriculum is also skills based. This means that we teach and develop the learning behaviours and life skills, and that they are at least as important as traditional subject knowledge. Pupils need a solid grasp of English, Maths and IT skills, and they need to be able to apply these skills in various different contexts.
Importantly, all of our activities at school are underpinned by a high-level of challenge and rigour. This ensures that our pupils are constantly learning, being pushed, and reaching their potential. We feel strongly that higher order thinking, questioning and tasks stretch and challenge our pupils, whatever their ability. The use of Bloom’s taxonomy in planning ensures our pupils are ‘in the zone of learning at the higher levels’.
In order for you to understand our curriculum more, do take a look at our Teaching and Learning Policy.
The curriculum is predominantly delivered through multiple projects in each year group. Every project has 3 ‘main’ taught subjects, one of which is always English. The 2 applying subjects support the learning and the project outcome. Maths is taught discretely every day with links made to support project learning whenever possible. RE, music and modern foreign language (French) will be taught discretely when there are not learning opportunities connected to a project. PE is taught discretely.
An outcome is the culmination of all that the children have learned in a project. It may be a piece of work, an activity, a presentation, a play, a performance, or a workshop. The key is that the children put together their knowledge and skills in a way that is purposeful, interesting and fun!
KFJ Curriculum Map History, Geography, Science |
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Y3 |
Y4 |
Y5 |
Y6 |
Aut 1
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‘Water, Water Everywhere’ Water cycle – rivers Eastrop (evaporation/condensation science link) What makes a special place? RE link |
‘From Papyrus to the Pyramids’ The achievements of early civilizations: Ancient Sumer, Indus Valley, Ancient Egypt and the Shang Dynasty Depth study: Ancient Egypt What was the Ancient Egyptians greatest achievement? |
‘Secrets of the Solar System’ Light, earth and space (do before Arctic) (Time zones – geog link) What is most important within our solar system?
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Crime and Punishment Study of a theme in British history - Tudor, Victorian and now Is Britain becoming a more just society?
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Aut 2
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Savvy Stone Age Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age How clever were the Stone Age people?
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‘Fire and Ice’ States of matter (not water cycle) – heating and cooling incl candles Is it important that materials change state?
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‘Life in the Freezer’ Arctic and Antarctica Global warming, glaciers, resources, sustainability How do my actions affect polar bears?
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Circle of Life Evolution and inheritance Animals including humans, living things and their habitats. Include old age. Is it important to maintain a healthy lifestyle? |
Christmas Market |
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Spr 1
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‘ All Creatures Great and Small’ Animals including humans – nutrition, skeleton and muscles, diet, teeth, food chains Living things and their habitats How are human and animal bodies the same and different from each other? |
‘There She Blows!’ Volcanoes, earthquakes and mountains Study of European region (rocks science curriculum) Should humans be allowed to live near volcanoes?
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‘It’s All Greek to Me’ Study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world. What is the greatest legacy of the Ancient Greeks? |
‘Carnival’ South America rainforest and climate study Is it right for the carnival to cost so much money when there are so many people live in poverty? |
Spr 2
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‘Flower Power Living things – habitats and plant life. Where is the most effective location for plants to grow?
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‘From Invaders to Settlers’ Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots What makes your tribe more successful at survival? |
‘Come Fly with Me’ Use of forces to create aeroplanes for flight competition. Electricity Which is the most important force to mankind? |
‘Ancient Adventures’ Mayan Civilization c AD900 (non-European study that contrasts with British history) (Why did they settle there? – geog link) Mayans or Britons – Who had it best? |
Sum 1 |
‘The Empire Strikes Back – the Romans’ Roman Empire and its impact on Britain (including light science curriculum) What did the Romans ever do for us? |
‘Leisure and Pleasure’ Field work project Land use and development of local leisure park Map work |
‘Climb Every Mountain’ North America Don’t need to do mountains – let me know. Are mountains beautiful or dangerous? |
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Sum 2
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Making Your Mind Up Field work project Land use of local football ground Map work |
‘On Your Bike!’ Forces and magnets (Sound linked through year to music) QMC Should schools force children to wear cycle helmets to school? |
‘England United’ The Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor Local history study Is it right to call Alfred great? |
‘All Mixed Up’ Properties and changes of materials Electricity (Cooking D and T link) Should children’s snacks always be healthy? |