Our Curriculum | English | Mathematics |
Science | PSHE | Music | PE | Art | RE | MFL | D&T | Geography | History | Computing | Extra-Curricular |
Science | PSHE | Music | PE | Art | RE | MFL | D&T | Geography | History | Computing | Extra-Curricular |
ENGLISH
At Dulwich Hamlet, we plan our Literacy curriculum around rich, aspirational texts that provide a stimulating starting point for our children. Within each year group, we aim to teach a broad range of books, for example classic texts that will expose the children to archaic language, picture books which promote thoughtful inference and non-fiction. We also incorporate digital media into our planning and this year, we are developing more regular opportunities for creative writing within our Literacy units. Where possible we link our core texts to our Humanities topics but we only promote this link if it is meaningful and not at the cost of high quality literature.
Writing
In the academic year 2021-22, we had a whole school focus on writing. This year, we continue to build on that. Our incredibly popular ‘Creative Writing Week’ happens three times a year, on a termly basis. The children work on a specific focus, such as story beginnings or characterisation, within a given genre. They are then free to plan and write whatever they like; they love the freedom to create and develop their own ideas. The whole school takes part at the same time, allowing the children to share ideas across and between year groups. The enthusiasm is palpable and it is a fantastic way for the children to demonstrate the excellent grammatical teaching that they receive as part of their daily literacy diet.
We have created knowledge organisers for children to use in class to recall key grammatical knowledge for their key stage (lower key stage 2 and upper key stage 2). The knowledge organisers are designed in a way that can aid children’s independent revision of grammatical terms and children are encouraged to self-test to revise prior learning.
Year 3 and 4 SPaG knowledge organiser
Year 5 and 6 SPaG knowledge organiser
Spelling and Handwriting
We take an interwoven approach to the teaching of spelling and handwriting at Dulwich Hamlet. Every child has a 30 minute discrete spelling lesson once a week to explore the spelling rule or pattern listed on the spelling letters sent home half termly. Throughout the week, class teachers ensure that the spelling words are interspersed in a variety of lessons to embed the rule. Teachers use recall activities to rehearse spelling rules and patterns learnt the previous week, term and year.
Where children lack the solid foundations of phonics to support their spelling, specialist interventions are put in place to accelerate the children’s phonic knowledge and close the gap.
Handwriting sessions are taught at least twice weekly at Dulwich Hamlet, with some pupils receiving more specialist support. We use the Letter Join programme to support the teaching of handwriting and hold high expectations of handwriting across the curriculum from all children. Children are given opportunities to publish their writing with a focus on handwriting which is then displayed across the school and celebrated.
Year 3 and 4 SPaG knowledge organiser
Year 5 and 6 SPaG knowledge organiser
Spelling and Handwriting
We take an interwoven approach to the teaching of spelling and handwriting at Dulwich Hamlet. Every child has a 30 minute discrete spelling lesson once a week to explore the spelling rule or pattern listed on the spelling letters sent home half termly. Throughout the week, class teachers ensure that the spelling words are interspersed in a variety of lessons to embed the rule. Teachers use recall activities to rehearse spelling rules and patterns learnt the previous week, term and year.
Where children lack the solid foundations of phonics to support their spelling, specialist interventions are put in place to accelerate the children’s phonic knowledge and close the gap.
Handwriting sessions are taught at least twice weekly at Dulwich Hamlet, with some pupils receiving more specialist support. We use the Letter Join programme to support the teaching of handwriting and hold high expectations of handwriting across the curriculum from all children. Children are given opportunities to publish their writing with a focus on handwriting which is then displayed across the school and celebrated.
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Reading
At Dulwich Hamlet we pride ourselves on being a school that reads. In English lessons, the children are taught the specific skills that they need to be able to comprehend increasingly complex texts. We call these lessons RICE – an acronym for the skills of: Retrieval; Inference; Choices that the author makes to impact the reader; Explain the meaning of particular words and phrases. These lessons are carefully planned to ensure that our questioning demands a thorough and sustained analysis of specific passages. You can see examples of the question stems below. There are regular opportunities to write extended and detailed responses to texts, an invaluable aid to the writing skills of the children, as well as reading. KS2 Reading question stems |
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The love of reading is integral to daily life at Dulwich Hamlet. The children all visit our fantastic library with their class, where their teacher will guide them to ensure they are choosing books that both interest them and carefully push them out of their comfort zone, extending their reading stamina and exploring a range of genres. In Year 3, we have a dedicated reading support assistant, who keeps a close eye on all the children, helping them work through the Dulwich Hamlet book bands in our newly-created ‘Year 3’ library. The main library is open every lunchtime for the whole school, allowing children to borrow a second book of their choosing. The library is staffed by one of our Assistant Heads, ensuring that children borrow books appropriate for their age.
Every class has a class reader and adults in the school can often be heard discussing their own reading habits and choices with the children. Reading aloud to children is essential and allows the whole class to have access to enjoyable and ambitious texts. Below is a recommended reading list for Year 3&4 and Year 5&6 for any parents looking for inspiration for their child’s next read. Year 3 and 4 recommended reading list Year 5 and 6 recommended reading list |
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Vocabulary
As a school, we have grounded our approach in the research into vocabulary teaching. We recognise that vocabulary acquisition is tightly linked to reading comprehension and in turn, both reading and writing progress. This year we are continuing to embed strategies to extend pupils’ vocabulary breadth and depth of understanding across all subjects.
As a school, we have grounded our approach in the research into vocabulary teaching. We recognise that vocabulary acquisition is tightly linked to reading comprehension and in turn, both reading and writing progress. This year we are continuing to embed strategies to extend pupils’ vocabulary breadth and depth of understanding across all subjects.
As a school, we are committed to continually developing our teaching so as to maximize progress for all children, whatever their starting point when they join the Hamlet.