Welcome to Dovecote Primary School and Nursery. Thank you for sending children to school, smartly dressed in their school uniform. It is INSET Day on Monday 15th April. We look forwards to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 16th April.
Curriculum
Curriculum Statement
Our curriculum is driven by the need to prepare our children for lifelong learning. At Dovecote, we offer a rich and vibrant curriculum, built on solid foundations, which is engaging and challenging while being accessible to all. Through delivery of our curriculum, we develop the essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life.
Our curriculum encompasses the requirements of the National Curriculum but also seeks to take children beyond the classroom to ensure that they are exposed to the richest and most varied opportunities that we can provide.
The curriculum is enhanced by our commitment to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and diversity. We provide meaningful learning experiences which promote confident, self-motivated pupils, eager for lifelong learning. The 4 key principles that underpin the Dovecote Curriculum are:
- Life Skills – providing real life experiences through a child’s journey from Reception to Year 6 that enables them to develop transferable life skills. Woven through our curriculum is RSHE and well-being. which ensure that pupils learn about the wonderfully diverse world in which they live and have an understanding of equality both in school and the wider world. The curriculum helps our pupils develop independence, resilience, perseverance, coping strategies and a strong growth mindset.
- Enrichment – providing opportunities to enhance classroom learning with purposeful and challenging experiences which provides children with a secure understanding of their local area, its features and history. In doing so, becoming more globally aware and knowing how they can contribute to society, positively impacting on their world.
- High-quality texts – providing fluency in all subjects, with reading at the heart through our thematic curriculum approach. This allows pupils to explore and make authentic links between subjects, enabling them to effectively evaluate and draw conclusions to deepen their thinking. This approach engages and immerses pupils in their learning, which enthuses children to read for enjoyment, thus improving language and literacy skills for all pupils.
- Ambition – providing pupils with high aspirations through a diverse range of inspiring guests and visitors and carefully planned educational visits. We harness our strong links with the local Universities and businesses to give our pupils aspirations beyond school. We help pupils to explore their personal talents and interests, take risks, celebrate successes, be proud of themselves and be the best that they can be!
PSHE – Jigsaw
At Dovecote we aim to teach pupils to stay safe and healthy, and build self-esteem, resilience and empathy. We want our children to value diversity and respect differences between themselves and others. We want our children to choose to lead healthy life-styles and be equipped to make these decisions. We have chosen to follow the PSHE Jigsaw programme as it is well-planned, evidence based and age appropriate. We are teaching our children to be prepared for life in modern Britain and become valuable citizens in the world. High quality PSHE delivery can tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations and improve the life chances of our most Vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils.
If you would like to see the Jigsaw curriculum, lessons and resources that we use please ask your class teacher to provide your unique log in code. This will expire each half term, as the units change.
Information on the 'Changing Me' unit can be found on these links. This unit contains lessons on how the body grows and changes, including puberty. There are also Sex Education lessons for children in Years 4, 5 and 6. As a school we have chosen to teach all Jigsaw lessons, including those classed as 'Sex Education'. You have the right to withdraw from these select few lessons. These are highlighted on the letter for families. We recommend that you read all information before making this decision.
We asked the children about their Jigsaw experiences, what they think Jigsaw is about and what they like about it.
"Its about race, feelings, kindness, respect, privacy."
"It’s about being different and what colour our skin and eyes are and it doesn’t matter."
"If someone talked about my hair it is my Protected Characteristic."
"I like the different activities, like the snakes and ladders feelings game."
"I like writing stories and coming up with solutions."
"It is fun. We play games like would you rather and do lots of acting out"
"I like having the right to pass. I don't always have to say something if I don't feel comfortable."
"We do breathing and the chime is calm and peaceful."
"I know there are laws about how people should be treated"
"We made a book about all the different types of bullying. I know to tell a trusted adult if it happens."