Curriculum

At Portland, we ASPIRE in everything we do.

Our Connected Curriculum allows children to see the links between subjects and their previous learning ensuring learning make sense!

It is…

• Designed for and by all our children 
• Underpinned by research around how children learn best (click here to find out more)
• A passport to the world through a love of books 
• Enhanced by real life experiences and inspirational people to create lifelong memories
• A vehicle to promote curiosity whilst having lots of fun!

 

Our curriculum is broad and balanced, with every subject meeting or going beyond the National Curriculum requirements.

Subjects are taught to a high standard – click below for individual subject intents.

• Reading
• Writing
• Mathematics
• Science
• History
• Geography
• Religious Education
• PSHE & Life Skills
• Computing
• Modern Foreign Languages
• Art
• Design Technology
• Physical Education
• Music

 

Our curriculum is progressive with clear links between subject areas in half termly themes.   We use knowledge organisers to support children and parents to grasp the key conceptual knowledge, skills and vocabulary needed for each half term. Our subject curriculum scrolls enable us to continually build upon previous learning and through the use of regular retrieval practice, we ensure children know more, remember more and can do more. 

Please click here  for more information and to see our Portland library.

 

Overview of Themes from Nursery to Year 6

with main subject drivers indicated

Year	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
F1	Who lives in our family? PSED/P&C	What changes can we see? UTW	What is the weather like around the world? UTW	What is life like around the world? UTW/P&C	How are animals different? UTW	What can we grow? UTW/P&C
F2	Who lives in our community? PSED/ P&C	What is our local area like? UTW	How is our world different? UTW	Where in the world do our families comes from? PSED/P&C	What changes can we see around us? P&P/UTW	How are we changing? PSED/UTW
Y1	What is in the wonderful city of Nottingham? Geography/History	How is my childhood different from the olden days? History	What is the best of British? Geography/DT	What are the strongest bridges in Nottingham? DT/ History	How do plants and flowers grow? Science	Where in the world is it the hottest?  Geography
Y2	Where did the fire start? History / Geography	Why do different people celebrate different things? RE / Music / DT	What do plants and animals need to survive? Science / Geography	Was the Titanic prepared for the voyage? History / Geography /	Who can we learn important lessons from? History / Geography / Science /	What does the African culture look like? Geography / Art
Y3	How did our Human History all begin? History/DT	What is the view like from the  top of the world? Geography	Why is the Nile at the center of Egyptian life? History/Geography	What did the Ancient Egyptians leave behind? History/ Art	How do we look after our local wildlife? PSHE/Geography/Science	What is life like around the Mediterranean? Geography
Y4	Who were the Ancient Greeks? History	What are natural disasters? Science/ Geography	Who were the Romans? History/Geography	What was Roman Britain like? History/ Arts	Where does food go? Science/Geography	What gives us power? Science/PSHE
Y5	Who occupied Britain after the Romans? History	Are the Vikings that vicious? History	How unique is our planet? Geography/ Science/History	What is out there, beyond Earth? Science /DT	What is life all about? Science/PSHE/RE	How has power changed throughout history? History/RE
Y6	What makes me human? Science	Why were the Victorians Victorious? History	Where did  the war  begin? History	How did the British prevail? History	How does life survive? Geography / Science	How can we become a citizen of the world? Science

 

 

Knowledge Organisers

2021-22

Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
Nursery	Nursery	Nursery	Nursery	Nursery
Reception	Reception	Reception	Reception	Reception
Year 1	Year 1	Year 1	Year 1	Year 1
Year 2	Year 2	Year 2	Year 2	Year 2
Year 3	Year 3	Year 3	Year 3	Year 3
Year 4	Year 4	Year 4	Year 4	Year 4
Year 5	Year 5	Year 5	Year 5	Year 5
Year 6	Year 6	Year 6	Year 6	Year 6

 

2020-21

Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
Nursery	Nursery	Nursery	Nursery	Nursery	Nursery
Reception	Reception	Reception	Reception	Reception	Reception
Year 1	Year 1	Year 1	Year 1	Year 1	Year 1
Year 2	Year 2	Year 2	Year 2	Year 2	Year 2
Year 3	Year 3	Year 3	Year 3	Year 3	Year 3
Year 4	Year 4	Year 4	Year 4	Year 4	Year 4
Year 5	Year 5	Year 5	Year 5	Year 5	Year 5
Year 6	Year 6	Year 6	Year 6	Year 6	Year 6

 

Why we do it…

In recent decades, cognitive scientists have confirmed the need for a knowledge-engaged  curriculum for two reasons:

 

Knowledge frees up your brain’s capacity for thinking

Cognitive scientists have found that our brain works at different speeds, depending on whether we have learned something already, or whether we are relying on “working memory”. Working memory is new information you can keep in your head and is very limited (holding between three and seven pieces of new information). That is why learning your times tables by heart is useful. Completing more complex calculations is made more simple if knowledge of tables is already ‘locked in’. For this reason, we have daily fluency lessons and all lessons begin with a ‘connect back’ to active prior knowledge and free up the brain’s capacity for thinking.

 

We learn new things by connecting them to old things

The way in which the brain stores new information, and makes inferences and discoveries, is by connecting to existing stored knowledge (schema). You cannot have skills without knowledge, because you cannot evaluate something you do not know anything about. You also cannot come up with new ideas without jumping off existing ones.At Portland, to help children make connections to prior learning we have ‘connect backs’ at the start of every lesson, regular retrieval practice and learning journeys with ribbons to make connections to previous learning explicit to our children.