Wider Curriculum

 

Teaching of the wider curriculum at Adwick Primary

 

Year groups teach one over-arching topic per term. There are six topics in each phase that are split between the year groups. Every year group produces a Topic Overview each term, which is displayed in classes and on the school website. This overview document shows how the Essential skills are woven into the Topic being studied.

The first half term for each topic is based around the teaching of historical subject knowledge or geographical knowledge and skills. These facts are explicitly taught by the teacher and not researched by the children. This is to ensure the children gain a good understanding of life during these time periods or a good understanding of these geographical areas.

At the end of the first half term, the children produce a written piece of work linked to the topic, during their afternoon sessions. This could be a letter, a non-chronological report, an explanation, a diary entry from a famous event etc.

The second half term sees the teaching of the wider curriculum, linked to the topic. By the end of this half term, the children have planned, produced and evaluated an end product. Each year group teaches a D&T unit; two art units that use different media (one must use painting skills); and a music unit linked to the topic.

The lessons during this half term focus on skills the children need to use and develop in order to make their final product. These skills are explicitly modeled by the teacher and are matched to our age-appropriate Essential Skills document.

Areas of coverage KS1 (in each of the first half terms)

Year 1

Autumn 1

Spring 1 Summer 1

Oceans and Seas

Seas around the UK

Oceans around the world

What lives in Britain’s seas?

What lives in difference oceans

Location of the world’s oceans

Transport/traveling across the sea

Underwater worlds

Our School and Local Area

Make comparisons between features of different places.

Children could visit another nearby area to make comparisons and contrasts about the features and geography of different places.

Children could visit a local shops, churches, key buildings, parks, look at maps, posters and general information about their local area.

A collection of leaflets, local study books and local area maps would be useful for this unit.

Recognise a range of housing types.

Plan routes to and from school giving reasons for choice.

Use different maps and understand the key features of maps.

Use compass directions (NESW), locational and directional language.

Use map symbols in a key. 

Express views about the environment and begin to suggest improvements with reasoning.

Changes within living memory (Toys)

Toys from around the world

Toy production

Compare toys from different times.

Create a timeline of iconic toys

Ask and answer questions (using parts of stories)

How can we tell the difference between new and old toy?

How a particular toy has changed/ developed e.g. history of teddy bears

Year 2

Autumn 1

Spring 1 Summer 1

 Carnival of the Animals

Local wildlife

Mammals

Domestic Birds

Exotic Birds

Reptiles

Fish

Amphibians

Fossils

 

Weather Experts

To identify different types of weather

To understand the impact that the weather has on our everyday lives.

To understand weather forecasts

To understand the adverse effects of extreme weather 

Study different places that experience different weather/climate

Understand the position of climates around the world ie climate along the equator ad climate near the poles

 

Great Fire

To sequence the events correctly

Locate the event on a timeline and recognize that it took place in London.

Recognise difference between modern and 17th century London.

Describe the key features of houses and streets in the seventeenth century.

Understand why the fire spread quickly, and why it stopped.

Know where people went for safety.

What made cities safer from great fires today.

Recall correctly some of the events of the fire.

Know the main sources of information about the fire.

Show an understanding of what an ‘eyewitness’ is.

Know that Pepys saw the fire and that he wrote about it in his diary.

 

Areas of coverage Lower KS2 (in each of the first half terms)

Year 3

Autumn 1

Spring 1 Summer 1

Vikings

Viking raids and invasions

Resistance by Alfred the Great and Athelstan, first king of England

Further Viking invasions and Danegeld

Anglo-Saxon laws and justice

Edward the Confessor and his death in 1066

Timeline of events

Home life in that period ie homes, food, family life

Customs and religions

Key events in that time period

Impact of this period on modern life

Weaponry and warfare

Tools and inventions

Notable figures of that time period

Volcanoes

Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography

Types of volcanoes

Look at range of volcanoes around the world and compare differences and similarities

What causes a volcano to erupt?

The make-up of the world’s crust

Historical eruptions

History of Pompeii

How do we use science to keep us safe from volcanic eruptions?

 

Modern Europe

Name and locate cities of European countries

Understand geographical physical similarities and differences between the countries and the UK

Identifying human and physical characteristics - including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers)

Understand how some of these aspects have changed over time

Brief history of key events for a European country

Famous people, events and places from that country

Language, food and culture of chosen country

 

Year 4

Autumn 1

Spring 1 Summer 1

Romans

Successful invasion by Claudius and conquest, including Hadrian’s Wall

The Roman Empire by AD 42 and the power of its army

Julius Caesar’s attempted invasion in 55-54 BC

British resistance, for example, Boudicca

“Romanisation" of Britain: sites such as Caerwent

 The impact of technology

 Culture and beliefs, including early Christianity

Timeline of events

Home life in that period ie homes, food, family life

Customs and religions

Key events in that time period

Impact of this period on modern life

Weaponry and warfare

Tools and inventions

Notable figures of that time period

 

Rainforests

Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography - climate zones, rivers, mountains.

Look at range of rainforests around the world and compare differences and similarities

Study the wildlife

Deforestation and threats facing the rainforests around the world

People who live in the rainforest

Tribal cultures such as religions and initiations into adulthood

Anglo Saxons

Roman withdrawal from Britain in c. AD 410 and the fall of the western Roman Empire

Scots invasions from Ireland to north Britain (now Scotland)

Anglo-Saxon invasions, settlements and kingdoms: place names and village life

Anglo-Saxon art and culture

Christian conversion – Canterbury, Iona and Lindisfarne

Timeline of events

Home life in that period ie homes, food, family life

Customs and religions

Key events in that time period

Impact of this period on modern life

Weaponry and warfare

Tools and inventions

Notable figures of that time period

 

Areas of coverage Upper KS2 (in each of the first half terms)

Year 5

Autumn 1

Spring 1 Summer 1

Ancient Egyptians

Discovery of Tutankhamun

Howard Carter

Mummification

Line of the pharaohs

Pyramids

Timeline of events

Home life in that period ie homes, food, family life

Customs and religions

Key events in that time period

Impact of this period on modern life

Tools and inventions

Notable figures of that time period

Ancient Greeks

Timeline of events

Home life in that period ie homes, food, family life

Customs and religions

Key events in that time period

Impact of this period on modern life

Weaponry and warfare

Tools and inventions

Notable figures of that time period

Achievements of the Ancient Greeks and their influence in the modern world

The Spartans

Earth Matters – Rivers

Water cycle

Source to sea

Types of rivers

Study famous rivers around the world  - ie lessons of the The Nile, Mississippi, Amazon, Seine and the Thames

Comparisons between similarities and differences between famous rivers

Life and settlements on the river

River transport, industry and leisure

 

Year 6

Autumn 1

Spring 1 Summer 1

WWII

Women at war

Children in WW2

Warfare

Beginning of the war

Holocaust

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party

Life at home

Life in the trenches

Timeline of key battles and events

Weapons

Women of Bletchley park

French resistance

Battle of the Atlantic

Allies and the Axis

D-Day

Secret spies

After the war was won

The Blitz

Dinosaurs

Timeline of periods

Dinosaur species

Diets

Migrations

Extinction of the dinosaurs

Dinosaur family life

Adaptations

Mary Anning  and William Buckland

Links to living creatures

Fossilisation

Fossil locations

How can we learn how the Earth has changed?

London

Timeline of key events

Modern London life

Roman London

Medieval London

Tudor London

The Gunpowder Plot

The Great Plague

The Great Fire

Physical and geographical features of the city

Famous landmarks and their history

History of the underground

Famous Londoners

London traditions – cockney rhyming slang etc

Comparison of London life with other localities like Doncaster

Famous prisoner in the tower

History of the Thames

ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Topic coverage overview

Possible enrichment

Science

 

 

 

FS

1. Celebrations

2. Dinosaurs

1. Church visit / vicar birthday / christening party

2. Visitor

 

+ one of the following

3. People who help us

or

4. Seaside / The Beach

or

5. Farm

 

3. Nurse / fire brigade / police etc visit

 

4. Trip to the seaside

 

5. Trip to the farm (Canon hall / Whitepost)

 

 

 

 

 

KS1

1.The Great Fire of London

or

2.Changes within Living Memory

1.School visitor, fire service, bakers

 

2. Ilkley Museum (toys) Cusworth Hall 1950’s school day

 

Y1

 

Animals incl Humans

Everyday materials1 Everyday materials2

Seasonal changes

Plants

Y2

 

Animals incl Humans

Everyday materials1

Everyday materials2

Plants

Living Things & their habitats

3.Our School and Local Area

or

4.Weather

3. Local walks lib, chu, post, sho

 

4. Speaker / visitor

5.Carnival of the Animals

or

6.Oceans and Seas

5.Wildlife Park

 

6.The Deep

 

 

 

 

LKS2

1.Invaders and Settlers – Anglo-Saxons

or

2.Invaders and settlers – Vikings

1.Murton Park

 

2.Murton Park

Y3

Light

Rocks

Forces

Plants 1

Plants 2

Y4

Electricity

States of matter

Sound

Living Things & their habitats 1

Animals incl Humans

Living Things & their habitats 2

3.The Romans in Britain

or

4.Modern Europe

3.Doncaster Museum

 

4. Speaker / Visitor

5.Rainforests

or

6.Volcanoes

5. Butterfly house/animal visitor

 

4. Speaker / Visitor

 

 

 

 

 

 

UKS2

1.Ancient Greece

 

2.Ancient Egyptians

 

3.Earth Matters

1.York Museum workshop

 

2.Leeds Museum

 

3.Austerfield

 

Y5

Earth & Space

Properties of materials Changing materials

Living things & their habitats

Animals incl Humans

Y6

Light

Electricity

Living things & their habitats

Evolution & inheritance

Animals incl humans

Second look Science

Human reproduction & relationships

4.World War Two

 

5.Dinosaurs

 

6.Comparing people and places - London

4.Eden Camp

 

5. Speaker / Visitor

 

6.London Residential