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Ysgol Maes Y Mynydd Curriculum challenge, Inspire & achieve together

The curriculum at Ysgol Maes Y Mynydd has been carefully designed for the learners of Maes Y Mynydd. It is bespoke and reflects the needs of our children and our community. Practitioners, learners, parents, carers and the wider community have shaped the curriculum development through ongoing dialogue and consultation.

The ‘golden threads’ running throughout everything we do are the Curriculum for Wales’ four purposes:

Image created by @ImpactWales

Our curriculum supports the development of leaners’ sense of identity and belonging (locally, in Wales and as global citizens). Learning and experiences promote Wales, its cultural heritage and diversity, its languages and values, histories and traditions of its communities and people. The curriculum develops learners’ ‘cynefin’: children are grounded in an understanding of the identities, landscapes and histories that form them. They develop a strong sense of passion and pride in themselves, their school, their community, and their country.

We are an innovative and reflective school where the business of learning is at the heart of everything we do at all levels. The school places a high value on developing adults who receive high quality continuous professional development both internally and externally. We recognise that valuing adult professional learning will positively impact on the learning and experiences afforded to our children. The school strategically plans for adults at all levels to immerse in new approaches and research. Opportunities are given to observe and discuss different pedagogical approaches through coaching models (Maes Y Myndd Enquiry & Grango Cluster Enquiry) and adults frequently have opportunities to share and reflect upon best practice. The school recognises itself as an effective professional learning organisation.

Our curriculum, both what we teach and how we teach it, is rooted in a strong evidence base:

What we teach and why...

Our curriculum is broad and balanced where all Areas of Learning and Experiences are valued equally. This ensures that our curriculum equips our children with a breadth of knowledge and skills in all areas. The six Areas of Learning and Experiences in our curriculum (taught alongside the Literacy and Numeracy Framework and Digital Competencies Framework) are:

  • Maths and Numeracy
  • Literacy, Languages and Communication
  • Humanities
  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Creative Arts
  • Science and Technology

The curriculum encompass the concepts set out in the statements of what matters. It also includes: Welsh; English; Relationships and Sexuality Education; and Religion Values and Ethics.

In our curriculum, new learning is constructed on prior knowledge. Learning is semantic and the curriculum enables the children to build on firm foundations. We ensure that children develop and improve their knowledge and skills in all Areas of Learning and Experiences by following the progression steps in Curriculum for Wales descriptions of learning alongside the Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) and Digital Competency Framework (DCF). In some areas of Learning we use carefully selected schemes to support effective teaching and ensure a progressive approach. For example, Twt 360 (DCF), Read Write Inc (early phonics, reading and spelling), Jasmine (Physical Health).

Assessment of learning is carried out constantly to accelerate progress. Practioners track learner progress over time and share this information with learners, parents and carers. Where learner progress is limited, the school creates bespoke adjustments to provision using a rich and broad package of interventions.

The curriculum at Maes Y Mynydd is rooted in high quality children’s literature from Wales and beyond. We understand that for our children, developing effective literacy and communication skills unlocks all areas of the curriculum and enables the four purposes. The school has a close partnership with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and promotes a strong reading culture.

Our curriculum is designed to meet the changing needs of our children and our world. Our curriculum is constantly reviewed and evolves to ensure authenticity, relevance and freshness.

How we teach it...

Adults at Ysgol Maes Y Mynydd have high aspirations for themselves and learners. Leaders ensure high quality continuous professional development immerses adults into learning theory and provides challenge and opportunity for reflection and response to different pedagogical approaches and their impact on learning. Our decisions are evidence based. We recognise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ teaching approach and instead aim to develop teachers’ breadth of practice, empowering them to make effective decisions about teaching and learning based on the needs of learners at any given point. At Maes Y Mynydd the 12 pedagogical principles underpin teaching and learning:

Image created by @ImpactWales

Our curriculum is organised into half termly topics; classes in the same phase of the school explore the same topics on two-year cycle allowing collaboration between adults when planning learning and experiences. Our topics make strong connections within and across Areas of Learning and Experience and allow children to immerse into one context for their learning. Our topics are engaging and provide authentic purposes to learning. Topics start with an ‘ignition’, where we aim to ignite the children’s passion and enthusiasm for the topic they will be learning. Early in the topic, a class discussion allows teachers to gather pupil voice and for children to influence the direction of their own learning.

We believe in a ‘mastery’ approach to teaching and learning and celebrate depth of understanding built upon secure fundamental foundations. Teachers are empowered to spend enough time with learners mastering content before applying the skills in a range of situations, reasoning and justifying as they go.

At Ysgol Maes Y Mynydd we recognise the profound impact experiences have on children’s learning. Our topics are rich in authentic experiences. Following consultation with children, parents and wider stakeholders, the school has developed ‘11 before 11’; a promise of eleven seminal experiences all children will have before leaving us.

We place a high importance on outdoor learning and afford children an outstanding environment to explore, discover, imagine, and learn. We believe our children deserve a special place to learn and adults deserve a special place to teach; our environment reflects this.

Credits:

Created with images by benja79 - "mountains lake reflection" • markusspiske - "child play kindergarten" • Bru-nO - "book read literature"