Curriculum

When teaching Mathematics, our pupils are taught through whole-class interactive teaching, enabling all to master the concepts necessary for the next part of the curriculum sequence.

At Montreal C of E Primary School, we strongly believe that every child can learn and enjoy Maths. We strive to spark curiosity and excitement and nurture confidence in Maths. We aim to develop deep and lasting understanding of mathematical procedures and concepts, through the use of small steps learning and exposing children to a range of resources and representations. 

We promote the use of precise mathematical language throughout school to enable children to communicate their reasoning effectively. This is also displayed on our working walls to support mathematical discussion and learning. 

The CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach underpins our love of bringing Maths to life and learning practically, giving learning a purpose and supporting children in exploring their ideas further. 

At Montreal C of E Primary School, our Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children study Mathematics daily following the Power Maths Scheme of Learning. Power Maths is built around a child‑centred lesson design that models and embeds a growth mindset approach to maths and focuses on helping all children to build a deep understanding of maths concepts.

Our EYFS children develop firm mathematical foundations in a way that is engaging, and appropriate for their age. We plan and deliver maths dependent on our cohort's interests and abilities, delivering adult led sessions planned carefully using Power Maths, White Rose and the NCETM. We use the small steps way of learning to build upon what the children already know, using manipulatives and representations to develop understanding. 

We also integrate maths into different activities throughout the day – for example, at registration and snack time – to familiarise children with maths language and make the most of the school day. On top of this, we believe that the use of stories and songs/rhymes can be a powerful tool for engaging children with maths concepts. We also use games to support children in developing a firm understanding of numbers. 

Power Maths Parent Letter

Mathematics Curriculum Overviews

The long-term plans below, which are taken from the Power Maths guidance, show which areas of Mathematics the children will be covering throughout the year. 

Maths Calculation Policies

Our Vision

At Montreal C of E Primary School, we recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing and write clearly and accurately whilst selecting and adapting their language and style to suit a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. The overarching aim of English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word and to develop a love of literature through widespread reading for pleasure.

We plan engaging units of work in order to enthuse, inspire and motivate our children. Our chosen core texts are from a carefully developed reading spine. English equips pupils with a uniquely powerful set of tools to understand and engage with the world.  These tools include the ability and confidence to communicate clearly and effectively using both spoken, and written words, to listen with understanding and to be responsive, knowledgeable readers. English is integral to all aspects of life and, with this in mind, we endeavour to ensure that children develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards all areas of English that will remain with them in order to achieve their full potential in life and make a valuable contribution to society.

Our Aims

By the end of KS2, we aim for our pupils to:

• Read with confidence, fluency and understanding.
• Love to read for information and for pleasure and read a wide range of books by different authors, including classic texts from our literary heritage, and to challenge themselves within their choices.
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
• Understand a range of text types and genres – be able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the purpose.
• Understand how grammar and punctuation is used and applying this knowledge when reading and writing.
• Have an interest in words and their spelling and meanings, developing a growing vocabulary in spoken and written forms.
• Refine their writing with the use of a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct by being able to identify areas for improvements in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.
• Present their written work in a clear, organised way, appropriate to the genre.
• Take pride in the presentation of their writing, including developing a neat, legible and fluent cursive handwriting style.
• Have a suitable, age appropriate technical vocabulary to articulate their responses.
• Be able to listen attentively with understanding and be able to express their views clearly in a range of situations such as discussions, presentations and debates.
• Develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
• Practise, consolidate and develop English skills across the curriculum.

Our Curriculum

Reading and writing are closely linked and taught through a selection of rich, core texts.

Reading

At the heart of our curriculum, we aim to foster a deep love of reading and a passion to explore a wide range of vocabulary and stories. Through enjoying literature, our children develop efficient skills, which equip them for the next stage of their lives. At Montreal CofE Primary School, we use the CUSP curriculum. The CUSP literature spine is broad, rich and agile. Its core purpose is to expose pupils to a range of high-quality literature that gives every child a mirror in which to see themselves and offers a window to children to see a world beyond their own. This has also been reflected within the supporting texts and the thematic mapping is designed to communicate where specific moral, social and ethical issues are indicated or addressed.

Reading in Key Stage One and Two:

All classes take part in regular reading activities. All children are involved in whole class reading to ensure that everyone in the class has exposure to age appropriate texts, including contemporary picture books, contemporary novels, heritage texts, seminal authors/poets, modern and classic poetry and non-narrative texts covering a wide range of topical themes. Teachers carefully choose a variety of medium to teach reading, including newspaper articles, video clips, extracts from novels etc., covering a breadth of topics. The texts are carefully selected to ensure children will be appropriately challenged with the level of vocabulary and to ensure that they are relevant to topics, current world events and the interests of the children. Teaching and learning is centred on developing the core skills of retrieval, vocabulary, inference, prediction, sequence and summary.

Children are encouraged to choose reading books from their classroom library to read independently for pleasure at a level appropriate to their reading ability and to further develop their knowledge of different authors. The school use Accelerated Reader to assess reading ability and to quiz children on the books they have read. Once children become confident and fluent readers, they are able to have free choice from the classroom library and are encouraged to read a wide range of books by different authors. Children will also take part in a session of guided reading focusing on non-fiction and encourage the development of spoken language. All classes have daily story time with a class text at the end of each day.

 Writing

The aim of CUSP Writing is to provide teachers with the tools to explicitly teach pupils the knowledge and competencies that they need about the different facets of writing and the writing process. Through a foundation of reading, children develop into competent, skilful writers who can write for a variety of purposes and audiences, sparking interest and engaging the reader. Writing is taught discreetly in daily English lessons but many opportunities to put these skills into practice are provided across the curriculum. For example, children may write a diary entry from the point of view of a Biblical character in an R.E. lesson, a non-chronological report about a country in a geography lesson, an explanation text in science etc.

Composition

 Composition refers to writing for a specific purpose and audience. From KS1, children are taught to master the writing style of differing text types – beginning with Narrative and Instructional writing and progressing throughout KS2 to include Explanatory texts, News Reports, Biography, Autobiography Playscripts (including an introduction to Shakespeare), Poetry (including an introduction to Shakespeare’s sonnets) and onto more complex genres e.g. persuasive and discursive writing. Examples of model texts are used to display effective features and techniques to the children.

 Cross-curricular writing opportunities provide an engaging and purposeful stimulus for children. They are encouraged to develop resilience throughout the writing process. Within a writing sequence, the children learn to embed language and form. They learn about the structure and organisation of a variety of text types. Extended opportunities for discussion of writing, e.g. role play, pair talk and oral rehearsal are used to prepare children for the writing process. Shared writing provides an opportunity for the teacher to demonstrate and model writing including the thought processes that are required. The editing and redrafting process, which all writers require, is an integral part of the sequence. Teachers are explicit when teaching genre features as well as grammar and punctuation rules within the context of writing. Children are given opportunities to discuss, verbalise and refine ideas. The success criteria is developed through the teaching sequence as the children explore the effect they want their writing to have on the reader.

Grammar and Punctuation

Grammar and punctuation is taught and put into practice through the genres of writing. Teaching and learning is linked to the specific features of the text type being studied to make it purposeful with the intended writing outcome. Specific knowledge and skills are explicitly taught in standalone lessons to embed and develop children’s understanding or to consolidate skills. Teachers use their knowledge of the children to identify areas that need more study. These will be completed as connect tasks at the start of the literacy sessions.

Spelling

Each year group is taught a specific set of spelling concepts which have been mapped out in accordance to the National Curriculum and designed to ensure progression of knowledge and skills. Spellings are explicitly taught in discreet spelling lessons, reinforced throughout the week and assessed on an ongoing basis so that any gaps can be quickly identified and addressed. Children regularly use a dictionary and thesaurus to support their understanding of spelling concepts and to extend their repertoire of vocabulary. Children will regularly study the common exception words for their year group and these will feed into their weekly adapted spellings. Children that take part in phonics sessions will focus on spellings based on what they have been learning that week.

Handwriting

At Montreal, children are taught to develop a neat, legible style of handwriting using a cursive script. In Reception, the children will use Moving to Write where the focus is on correct pencil grip, letter formation and size. In Years 1-6, handwriting lessons are delivered through Letter Join. At Montreal, we aim to instil the children with a sense of pride and ownership over their work and as such using a neat, legible handwriting style is reinforced across the curriculum.

Spoken Language

Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding for reading and writing. Our teaching will ensure that out pupils continually develop their confidence and competence in spoken language and listening skills.  We will encourage them to develop their ability to explain their understanding of what they have read and to prepare their ideas before writing.

Enrichment

English at Montreal C of E Primary School, is enriched through a wide range of opportunities both in and out of school. The Library Van visits once a term, giving children the opportunity to exchange library books to refresh the range of books in their class library. Each class receives a termly ‘Topic Box’ from the library to provide additional reading to support other curriculum areas. The children are able to access up to 1000 online books using MyOn. Every year, we take part in World Book day, fun and varied activities are planned to develop a love of reading and to celebrate our rich literary heritage. Year 6 take part in ‘Play-in-Day’ each year where they familiarise themselves with a Shakespeare Play then rehearse and perform it to the whole school at the end of the day. Once a year, the whole school will have an extended writing morning when something exciting that has happened in school will be the main focus of their writing. The children also learn a poem by heart and perform it to the class the winner from each class will then go on to perform it to the rest of the school. To promote reading at Montreal, children are encouraged to ‘Strive for Five’ each week where reading with an adult out of school for a minimum of five times a week is recognised and celebrated.