Forest school

At Duston Eldean primary school we operate our own forest school sessions from within our school grounds. We have our own mature woodland, orchards and pond, which the children can access within a Forest School outdoor learning experience.

Our forest school Level 3 leaders are:

Miss Gizzi – Foundation Stage            Mrs York – Year 1       Mrs Holt – SEND

Our Vision

Our vision at Duston Eldean Primary School is to create a passion for the natural world around us. We help children to develop an understanding and respect for wildlife, plants and the woodland and hope to ignite a lifelong passion for preserving and protecting nature.

The forest school sessions are a long-term, nature-based learning programme which promotes holistic development and inspires each child to connect with themselves and the world around them. Forest School ignites the intrinsic motivation of wanting to achieve results for each child's own individual happiness through a child centred learning approach. It enriches and builds children's confidence self-esteem independence and social emotional well-being, supporting the children's curriculum through all key stages.

Forest school sessions run throughout the year in all seasons and weather conditions.

A typical session could include:

• Den building
• Team building games
• Problem solving
• Natural weaving
• Mud sculpting
• Natural art
• Treasure hunts
• Whittling
• Making fire
• Cooking on a fire
• Environmental games

The Six Principles

1. Forest School is a long-term process of regular sessions, and follows the cycle of planning, observation, adaptation and review linking each session.

2. Forest School takes place in a woodland or natural environment to support the development of a lifelong relationship between the learner and the natural world.

3. Forest School uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for development and learning.

4. Forest School aims to promote the holistic development of all involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners.

5. Forest School offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.

6. Forest school is run by qualified forest school practitioners.

Personal Development

Our bespoke curriculum has two core strands: the academic curriculum and our ‘Skills for Life’ curriculum. As a result of this second strand, personal development is evident on a daily basis across our school. When children leave our school, they are thoroughly prepared for their secondary education and have a good understanding of how to be successful in the wider world.

Today’s children are growing up in an increasingly complex world. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also brings challenges and risks. Our pupils need to know how to stay safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way. Our aim is to develop in our children, skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, team-working and critical thinking.

Below are some examples of how our curriculum and opportunities support personal development.

Manners and Respect: Our pupils are taught the importance of being polite and having good manners and this is evident with how they speak and interact with each other and adults. The first HUGG focus for each school year is to show great greetings.

Online Safety: Our whole school programme enables pupils to recognise online risks. We also welcome Simon Aston (Northants Online Safety Officer) to speak to our Key Stage 2 pupils.

Prefects: In their role as prefects, Year 6 pupils have whole school responsibilities and additional opportunities to develop their personal skills e.g. leading tours for prospective parents.

Off-site Experiences: Trips are planned to support pupils’ learning and provide opportunities to develop resilience, cooperation and responsibility. These include overnight stays in Year 4 and Year 6.

Visitors: Visitors are chosen to support learning and also to help children’s understanding of how to keep safe. The police, fire service, Life Education, History off the Page and Hope charity are amongst many welcomed visitors to Duston Eldean.

Musical Opportunities: Pupils have a range of opportunities to develop their musical interests from weekly singing to being part of the school choir and every child learns a tuned instrument as part of their curriculum.

Performances: Throughout the year, pupils have opportunities to develop confidence, speaking and listening skills and performance skills through concerts, plays and productions.

Philosophy for Children: All pupils engage in termly philosophy sessions developing their speaking and listening skills and ability to debate respectfully.

Reflection Time: All pupils engage in weekly discussions about their learning, reflecting on their successes, how they were achieved and how they can develop further.

Peer Mentoring: Year 6 pupils are trained to mentor Year 3 pupils.

Sporting opportunities: Pupils have a wide range of clubs to choose from. These include girls’ football, dodgeball, archery and netball. All children represent the school in sporting tournaments before they leave Duston Eldean.

Pupil Voice: Key Stage Two pupils are elected onto pupil voice groups: Eco Team, School Learning Council, HUGG Club, Health & Safety Ambassadors and Wellbeing Club. They make decisions in their respective areas and keep the school informed.

Core Learning Skills: Termly challenges for pupils develop their inter and intrapersonal skills as they engage with team tasks.

Assemblies: Assemblies are planned to ensure pupils learn about the world, different cultures, protected characteristics and British values.

Transitions: New pupils to our school have an allocated ‘buddy’ to give advice, guidance and to support a smooth transition. As children leave our school, a personalised approach is taken to aid the process.

British Values

We promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs. This ensures our pupils understand the importance of respect and leave school fully prepared for life in modern Britain.

Found on every classroom door is our British values poster which links these values to everyday practice in our school.

 
Democracy
Pupils are always listened to by adults and are taught to listen carefully and with concern to each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard.  Pupils also have the opportunity to air their opinions and ideas through our range of pupil voice groups. Elections take place which reflect our British electoral system and demonstrate democracy in action.

Evidence of democracy:

• Democratic process for electing pupil leadership roles.
• Voting takes places across curriculum subjects e.g. when deciding on how to carry out investigations or in English when selecting story ideas or character actions.

The Rule of Law

Our school follows our ‘FISH’ values as our code of conduct and clear expectations of behaviour are evident. Children respectfully follow these expectations ensuring our classrooms are calm, orderly and are positive learning environments. Our pupils are taught the reasons behind our rules, how they protect us, their responsibility and the natural consequences when rules are broken.

Evidence of the rule of law:

• The school’s Teaching & Learning Document gives explicit teacher instruction to ensure the climate for learning is respected by all.
• The school’ s Behaviour Policy ensures consistency and understanding of our rules and processes.
• Teaching the rules in cooking, DT, and Forest School reinforce the importance to follow a set of rules.
• Visits from the police, Simon Aston, HOPE charity provide clear information for pupils on rules in society.
• Planned and incidental teaching of respect for protected characteristics mirrors the attitudes expected in British society.

Individual Liberty

Within school, pupils are actively encouraged to use their initiative and make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment.  

Evidence of individual liberty:

• Teaching children to take responsibility for their own behaviour and attitude to learning
• Children select learning aids to support their focus and attention.
• Varied extra-curricular opportunities enable children to follow their individual interests.
• The use of restorative conversation to resolve conflicts.

Mutual Respect

Mutual respect is demonstrated by adults and children.

Evidence of mutual respect:

• The child-friendly Friendship & Anti-bullying Policy is accessible in every classroom and designed to support conversations and understanding of respect.
• Pupils participate in a variety of charitable events e.g. Children in Need, Comic Relief.
• The termly HUGG target sets an area of focus linked to mutual respect e.g. sharing is caring.
• The school’s ethos statement – Together We Grow – emphasises the importance of mutual respect and working together.

Tolerance of Those with Different Faiths and Beliefs

Duston Eldean enhances pupils’ understanding of different faiths and beliefs through religious education studies and PSHE work. In addition, diversity is a key thread which permeates all curriculum areas.  Our pupils gain an understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and an understanding of the importance of identifying and combatting discrimination.

Evidence of tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs

• Holding discussions in RE, English, Philosophy for Children and other subjects, which allow children to develop respect for the opinions, values and beliefs of others.
• Celebrating festivals and special events e.g. Remembrance Day, Christmas, Divali.

INTENT

Vision

We believe that in providing a high-quality mathematics education children can develop the ability to reason mathematically, develop real understanding and gain a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Culture of learning:

• Every child can be a mathematician.
• The ability to succeed is not fixed and this is clear in both lesson design and class teaching.
• A Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract (CPA) approach enables children to see the maths to understand it.
• Depth of understanding before breadth.
• Use of pre and post teach to enable pupils to consolidate understanding and close the gap.
• High expectations for all learners to succeed.

 Aims

• Instil a positive mind-set that everyone can do maths and that maths is for everyone and a belief that they can achieve.
• Deliver an inspiring and engaging mathematics curriculum, taught by highly-enthusiastic staff, which sparks curiosity and excitement and which nurtures confidence in maths.
• Develop children’s ability to articulate, discuss and explain their thinking using appropriate mathematical vocabulary.
• Build a deep conceptual understanding of maths and its interrelated content so that children can apply their learning in different situations.
• Provide ‘Mistake friendly’ classrooms where children embrace the value of learning from mistakes.
• Encourage children to look for patterns and make connections within mathematics.
• Develop a fluent knowledge and recall of number facts and the number system.
• Develop the ability to think independently and to persevere when faced with challenges.
• Develop the ability to reason, generalise and make sense of solutions.
• Create fluency in performing written and mental calculations and mathematical techniques.
• Build the ability to use and apply mathematics across the maths and wider curriculum.
• Develop an understanding of the of maths skills in everyday life.
• Create confident, competent and independent mathematicians.

 Key threads in Maths

IMPLEMENTATION

Our Maths Curriculum

We follow a Teaching for Mastery Approach across the school where all children are encouraged to become mathematically observant and to think mathematically. We believe that every child can be a mathematician and have high expectations for all.

Whole class teaching, through carefully structured, coherent, small steps, help all children to build self-confidence and be successful in their learning. We aim for depth of understanding so that skills and knowledge can be applied fluently therefore teachers ensure children master the content before moving on.

An ‘I do’, We do’, ‘You do’ approach is used to model and scaffold the learning. Continuous AfL is used to identify children requiring support who are kept with the teacher or TA for further guided practice enabling children to keep up.

Questions are planned to challenge thinking and to develop understanding. Common misconceptions are addressed and planned for in order to draw attention to the key learning. Choral and rehearing of key points help pupils to internalise learning. 

Carefully planned use of representations are used to expose mathematical structures. A Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract (CPA) approach enables children to see the maths to understand it. Carefully scaffolded learning enables connections to be made and relational understanding to be mastered by all.

Paired talk is an essential part of all lessons as children are encouraged to develop their thinking and reasoning using appropriate mathematical vocabulary. STEM sentences are used to support learning and expose connections. Children are actively encouraged to seek for patterns and share what they notice within their learning and answer in full sentences. ‘The answer is only the beginning’ is used to encourage children to prove and explain their thinking.

Independent learning enables children to apply their new skills and knowledge. Children self-mark so that they can identify errors and self-correct or seek support within the lesson to avoid misconceptions being reinforced.

Problem solving is integrated into lessons through real life word problems and open investigations which encourage children to reason about the skills and knowledge needed and the methods of working they will apply.

Retrieval is also a key part of our learning and time is given to revisit previously taught topics to help strengthen the connections in the brain. Additional practice helps to develop fluency

 Planning:

Long Term Plans plot the sequence of learning throughout the year.
• Priorities for learning (from the Mathematics Guidance document) are identified for each term.

Medium Term Plans identify the sequence of learning for each unit of work:
• picking out the small coherent step.
• identifying and planning for misconceptions.
• identifying key mathematical vocabulary.
• planning in specific representations and structures.

Daily lessons:
• build on from what has previously been taught.
• focus on one small step.
• identify the key questions to develop understanding

 IMPACT

What is the impact of our curriculum?

Our approach leads to happy, well-rounded Mathematicians, who enjoy learning, are confident mathematicians and ready for the next step in their educational journey.

• Children are happy learners who talk enthusiastically about their learning and have a positive view of maths.
• Children are confident to ‘have a go’ and know that it is reasonable to make mistakes and this can strengthen their learning and deepen understanding.
• Children are able to spot patterns and see connections.
• Children are able to articulate their understanding clearly using appropriate mathematical language.
• Teachers are able to pick up on misconceptions and support learners enabling children to keep up.
• Children are able to think flexibly to select appropriate methods and strategies that are efficient.
• Children are fluent mathematicians who can recall and apply knowledge independently.
• Children can reason and solve problems by using prior learning.

These factors ensure that we are able to achieve high standards:

Year 4 Multiplication Check:  33% of pupils achieving full marks, mean average score 22.2

Key stage 2 attainment of the expected standard in mathematics 97%

Key stage 2 attainment of greater depth in mathematics 43%

Maths Policies

Fluency

In addition to the daily maths lesson, we also provide additional practice of key number skills through fluency sessions. These sessions help to secure with the fundamental workings of the number system, so that they are able to flexibly and efficiently apply their number skills to other areas of maths. 

Rapid recall of times table facts is a key skill that children need to access a large proportion of the Year 5 and 6 curriculum. In order to develop recall of facts, a number of strategies are used including rolling numbers, where children learn to count fluently in steps of a given number. We aim for all children to have instant recall of all facts up to 12 x 12 by the end of Year 4.

Partnership with parents/carers

We welcome the opportunity to work in partnership with parents/careers to provide a supportive and encouraging experience for our pupils.

Maths Buzz Bingo

There are many essential life skills that are developed though our maths curriculum. We provide further time and opportunity to develop and practice these skills through our Maths Buzz Bingo challenges that are set 3 times a year. Children have up to 6 challenges to complete at home, with the support of an adult, to develop proficiency in these skills that will be essential in later life.

Fluency workshops

Annual KS1 parent workshops invite parents into school to complete a range of fun games and challenges with their child to develop an understanding of the mastering number skills that are being developed in school. A five-week homework challenge is then set up for parent/carers to play games at home to support the work in school aimed at developing fluency of number sense.

Our own experiences of maths may not have been positive in school but the way we now teach maths is to enable all children to be successful. We therefore need to be careful how we speak about maths to ensure that we develop positive attitudes in maths for our children.

Useful Websites for Parents

There are many great websites that can support children with their maths. We subscribe to Numbots for Key Stage 1 and TT Rockstars for Key Stage 2 pupils as we believe developing these number skills are essential in providing firm foundations for other maths. Each pupil has their own log in details so please ask the class teacher if you do not have these to hand.