OUR
CLASSES
Each Year Group has its own pop-up page which will be updated throughout the year with relevant information for parents.
Please click a link below to visit each Year Group:
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Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6
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Year 3
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LOWRY – Miss Payne (Lower School Phase Leader)
MORISOT – Miss Johnson
PICASSO – Mr Hart/Mrs Mason
HUNTER – Mr Astle
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TEACHING PARTNERS
Mrs Dadson, Mrs England, Mr Athanaze, Mrs Ansell and Mrs Smitherman
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Year 4
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O’KEEFFE – Mrs McNeil
BOWLING – Miss Green
HOPPER – Miss McLellan
TANNER – Mrs Kirkpatrick/Mrs Barge
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TEACHING PARTNERS
Miss Murphy, Miss Orpin, Mrs Wood, Mrs Chambers, Miss Bowman and Mrs Sozveren
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Year 5
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HOCKNEY – Mrs Gandon/Mrs Tyler
CASSATT – Mrs Constable
KAPOOR – Mr Farmer
ROUSSEAU – Mrs Atkins
TEACHING PARTNERS
Miss Jackson, Mrs Gucwa, Mrs Fuller and Mrs Riley
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Year 6
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KANDINSKY – Mr Williams (Upper School Phase Leader)
MARC – Mrs Hagan-Guest
DE LEMPICKA – Mr Baldwin
MONDRIAN – Miss Webb
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TEACHING PARTNERS
Mrs Miller, Mrs Czyz, Mrs Bayliss and Mr Tierney
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Other Teachers
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SEND & Support: Miss Kember and Mrs Denny
French: Madame Baldwin
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ELSA: Mr Tutt and Mrs Misra
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Cover: Mrs Barr
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OUR
CURRICULUM
Intent
Our curriculum is focused on the development of children’s knowledge and skills across all primary subjects, with the aim of ensuring pupils are ready for the next stage of their learning and beyond. It is rooted in our school values of resilience, kindness, integrity, respect, personal responsibility and gratitude . Our curriculum provides opportunities for all children to develop as independent, confident and successful learners with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their diverse community and wider society. We encompass not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also go beyond the classroom to ensure knowledge is gained through enriching experiences that pupils may not have the opportunity to access outside of school.
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We believe that a good education is essential in order for our pupils to achieve the following goals:
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Personal empowerment to take greater control of their own lives.
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Preparation for citizenship, so they can make informed decisions about their contributions to society.
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Developing a love of learning and a curiosity of the world, becoming lifelong readers.
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Preparation for the world of work, in order to lead happy and fulfilling lives well into the future.
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The transmission of knowledge, skills and values from one generation to the next.
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WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW IS THE KEY TO LEARNING NEW THINGS
Our curriculum is knowledge-rich and covers a breadth of knowledge in many forms as we believe that the more children know, the more they can learn. There is an emphasis on the basic skills of reading, writing and maths, as well as creativity, physical and mental wellbeing and problem solving. We sequence the knowledge we teach to ensure a coherent flow that allows children to accumulate it over time and build upon what they already know.
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Deliberate planning of what pupils need to learn is essential in order for them to develop rich and extensive schema. Links are made to prior learning, both within and across different subjects. As humans, we integrate new incoming information in relation to our pre-existing knowledge about the world. It is therefore essential to teach new concepts, ideas and skills in context because pupils need to flexibly adapt their knowledge and skills to all manner of new problems and settings.
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To learn a new piece of information (orange triangles) effectively, it should be learned on the basis of existing prior knowledge (grey triangles).
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Without prior knowledge, as seen in the top panel, the new information cannot be integrated meaningfully and will most likely not survive over time.
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(Image and text used with kind permission from)
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Implementation
Balfour Junior School strives to reach the highest standards of achievement for all pupils, regardless of ability, ethnic origin, gender or social background. In order to achieve these aims, we work in collaboration with pupils, parents and the wider community.
Knowing that every child learns differently, our teachers use a range of teaching styles to ensure that our pupils are engaged and motivated. We recognise the importance of a calm and open environment, in which the children are willing to take risks, are independent and take responsibility for their own learning.
Retrieval, feedback and assessment are prioritised to ensure fluency, understanding and application of new knowledge as skills. Assessment is used to highlight gaps for planning, identify misconceptions, remove barriers and enhance learning priorities for rich dialogue with pupils.
Teacher’s present knowledge clearly through discussion, checking understanding, addressing misconceptions, feedback and making links to previous learning. Teaching is appropriate to the ages and abilities of pupils, ensuring pupils understand what is expected of them, giving them the opportunity to achieve success. We value the importance of using the outside environment in order to promote a love of learning and foster respect for the local environment and the wider world.
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Impact
At Balfour Juniors, we value the importance of achieving academic excellence through the development of pupils' knowledge. As a result of this our pupils achieve well, gaining excellent results which will prepare them for the future in a rapidly changing world. Progress means knowing more and remembering more and we strive to promote this through our curriculum.
The outcome of the Balfour curriculum is inextricably linked to the school's values, which will enable everyone to work towards fulfilling their potential and improving their life chances. Our pupils love the challenge of learning and are resilient to failure, they are continuously curious, and the teachers are equally determined that their children will be holistically successful, in lessons and in their participation in extra-curricular opportunities. Leaders have a clear vision and timeline in this journey as they are determined to continually close the gap for these pupils so that the educational disadvantage within the community is removed.
Curriculum overviews for each year group can be found on the individual year group pages.
Please contact the school or talk to your child’s teacher if you would like to find out more about the school’s curriculum.
OUR CURRICULUM
​Please click on the links below to see the curriculum overview for each subject:
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“A child who reads will be an adult who thinks”
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At Balfour Juniors we want our children to become enthusiastic, engaged readers and to develop a life-long love of books.
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We appreciate that, without reading, children are without access to many other areas of learning. To promote engagement in reading, we aim to develop a passion for reading across the school through a range of texts which are both challenging and inspiring. Children’s skills are developed from the early stages through to more detailed comprehension skills taught via a range of methods which includes individual, group and whole class reading sessions.
We use Accelerated Reader (AR) book levels to ensure pupils read books if an appropriate level of challenge. Book levels and checking if a book is on the AR scheme can be checked on the AR Bookfinder website: www.arbookfind.co.uk/
Please see our Reading at home guide for more information about how to support your child’s reading outside of school.
Recommended reading lists
Below is a link to a list of 100 books that are recommended for each year group. The lists are full of great texts: classic novels, and new releases as well as some debuts by brilliant authors. Lots of the books are the first in a series so pupils can get hooked on a certain character or setting and read sequel after sequel.
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Recommended reading lists Year 3&4
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Recommended reading lists Year 5&6
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EXTRA-
CURRICULAR
At Balfour, we believe that learning should go beyond the classroom and offer an extensive range of extra-curricular activities and clubs for pupils to extend their learning and interests.
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We have a mixture of clubs that run at lunchtime and after school, some of which are run by staff and some by external providers for a small charge.
HOME
LEARNING
There is a link between homework and academic achievement. The time that children spend doing homework will encourage them to use their time wisely, work independently and improve their memory and critical thinking skills.
We also understand that all families are different and may have differing needs and amounts of time to spend on completing tasks at home.
This is why we have two types of homework: tasks which are compulsory for all pupils and optional activities that you may complete if you would like to.
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COMPULSORY HOMEWORK
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Every child should read with an adult for at least 20 minutes per day and record their reading in their planner. More confident readers may read on their own and then discuss their reading with an adult.
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All children should also play Times Tables Rockstars and/or Numbots for at least 20 minutes per week.
OPTIONAL HOMEWORK
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Project work or research linked to the year group’s current or upcoming topic, or a topic your child has an interest in. Please see the school website for details of the topics covered each term.
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Playing games on learning websites, such as www.topmarks.co.uk, www.nrich.maths.org and www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize. All pupils also have their own login to access www.mymaths.co.uk/
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Fun, practical activities that reinforce maths and English skills such as writing letters or diaries after a day out, weighing and measuring when baking or helping to add up totals and find change when you’re shopping.
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Taking part in school, local or national events and competitions for example the winter photography competition.
ASSESSMENT
Balfour Junior School endeavours to support all children in making better than expected progress and raise confidence and self-esteem. Assessment is a part of this and will include:
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Teacher / TA feedback
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Observations and group work
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Formal summative assessments (including KS2 National Assessments)
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Informal assessments e.g. spelling, multiplication tables
Assessment at Balfour Junior School will offer all children an opportunity to show what they know, understand and develop as well as identifying next steps. It enables teachers to plan more effectively and allow parents to take an active part in their children’s progress. Assessments undertaken will provide the school with information to evaluate learning and support vulnerable groups as well as identify strengths and therefore allow us to celebrate their successes.
AIMS
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To gather information about the performance of individual children, groups and cohorts which will inform planning
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To allow teachers to swiftly adapt teaching and learning to ensure good outcomes for all our pupils
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To track individual, group and cohort achievement
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To identify barriers to learning quickly and give appropriate help
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The overall achievements of the child will be recorded systematically
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To ensure data is robust and accurate
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To ensure integrity of data through a consistent school wide assessment system
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To inform the Governing Body of the school’s standards and achievement and provide information to inform the school’s strategic planning
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The legal requirement for record keeping, assessing and reporting can be met