Curriculum Maps
At Old Bank Academy, we deliver a broad and balanced curriculum that is exciting, creative and meaningful. We believe our exciting and innovative curriculum, which is underpinned by our building blocks of teamwork, relationships and confidence, enables all learners, irrespective of their starting points, to succeed academically, spiritually and emotionally. We believe that children should be skilled and articulate. We teach this through insisting our GROW values underpin everything we do, the values are Growth, Respect, Opportunity and Wellbeing. Our aim is for every child to grow and thrive to be the best they can be, we want our academy to be a place ‘Where Every Pupil Grows.’ Children are taught to know the importance of reading and spotting progress in what they do. We want our children to be proud of their achievements and we, as a school, recognise their successes in the widest possible sense.
For further information on our curriculum, please contact us.
English
At Old Bank Academy, we recognise that English skills underpin all elements of the school curriculum and are an essential life-skill. Considering the fundamental importance of speaking, listening, reading and writing in everyday life, we strive to develop a broad and balanced curriculum that meets each learner’s needs. We know that children arrive at school with broad and diverse language experiences. Through a vocabulary rich, broad and balanced curriculum, we aim to provide our children with the very best opportunities to become fluent, confident and skilled communicators in both written and spoken English.
At the bottom of this page you will find our English Curriculum Plans.
Maths
At Old Bank Academy we strive for all our children to become successful problem solvers and resilient mathematicians. We want the children to have a strong and secure mathematical knowledge that will give them the foundations for later life. To do this we use the Concrete Pictorial Abstract (CPA) approach to teach mathematical concepts. This enables children to solve problems in a variety of ways. By following the stages of CPA the children develop a deep understanding that they can reason with and explain.
You can support your children’s learning in Maths using the following links below!
Science
At Old Bank Academy, we teach science in a way that ensures children have a concrete understanding of chemistry, biology, physics and geology. We believe science is not about having the right answer but instead is about a set of processes and skills which allow us to better understand, question and reason with the world around us. Our science curriculum follows the national curriculum and is progressive throughout the school so that each topic and skill can be built upon one year after another. In each year group there are a variety of investigations which involve tangible experiences that teach the children a range of scientific enquiry skills. We have constructed our curriculum, not only for the children to have a breadth of knowledge, but to have the depth also.
i-Challenge
Through the ‘i-challenge’ curriculum we provide access to a wide range of opportunities that promote pupils’ emotional, physical and intellectual development. Activities provide pupils with opportunities to develop the ‘building blocks’ of successful life skills, such as teamwork, resilience, responsibility and friendship. Through ‘i-challenge’ we focus on how children learn and this is underpinned by building relationships, building teamwork and building confidence.
Geography
Our geography curriculum aims to provide our children with quality first hand experiences whenever possible, creating excitement and wonder through studying the world beyond the classroom. Initially, our focus is on their immediate environment and the local landscape including hills, moors, crags and rivers. During our residentials, children are able to explore the wider environment, in a contrasting locality, to provide them with an opportunity to compare and contrast their understanding of geographical areas, both urban and rural. Through our carefully tailored curriculum, children will develop into explorers. We aim to enthuse children about the possibilities that their world has in store for them to explore. Our children will leave school with a sense of their place in the world, both culturally and physically, and a desire to enquire into the world around them.
History
Our history curriculum aims to provide our children with a sense of time through an understanding of people, places and objects. The children will learn about the experiences of others and of significant events from the past through quality first hand experiences, artefacts, historical texts and other primary and secondary sources. Our children will practise the building blocks of teamwork, relationships and confidence in order to gain a broad and balanced understanding of their local, national and world history. Our children will leave school with a chronological awareness of historical periods, an understanding of people and their impact on the world as we know it today.
Music
Music at Old Bank Academy is taught using a specialist music teacher. Our curriculum aims to engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. We’re passionate about children’s music learning and its potential to help them grow up as kind, curious, and open-minded young people, who are sensitive and knowledgeable about music and the arts.
Children at Old Bank also have the opportunity to access music Lessons through Kirklees Musica- please contact the school office for more details about opportunities and costings.
Computing
Through our computing curriculum we aim to give our pupils the life-skills that will enable them to embrace and utilise new technology in a responsible and safe way to ensure that pupils become digitally literate and digitally resilient. At Old Bank Academy the safety of our pupils is paramount. We take online safety very seriously and we aim to give children the necessary skills to keep themselves safe online. Children have a right to enjoy childhood online, to access safe online spaces and to benefit from all the opportunities that a connected world can bring them, appropriate to their age and stage. As a school we have Smoothwall Filter that protects students with real-time filtering and blocks harmful content without restricting their freedom to explore and learn. Smoothwall Monitor works in real-time to alert safeguarding teams to risks as they happen.
Art / Design Technology
At Old Bank Academy our Art curriculum has been designed to expose children to a rich and varied diet of creativity and Art history. We believe that high-quality Art lessons will inspire children to think innovatively and develop creative understanding. The Art curriculum provides children with opportunities to develop their skills using a range of media and materials. Children learn the skills of drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles and 3D work.
Through a variety of creative and practical activities, pupils will have the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making.
PSHE
Our responsive PSHE programme is at the centre of the school curriculum, providing opportunities to teach concepts, knowledge, language, strategies and skills that enrich the wider curriculum. Here at Old Bank Academy, we are preparing our pupils to be able to flourish and thrive with the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in modern day Britain. We use the SCARF programme from CORAM life education. Our adaptive and inclusive curriculum meets the needs of all our pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by adapting teaching and learning to suit all children and all abilities. We ensure that our curriculum fosters gender equality and LGBT+ equality by ensuring the quality of an inclusive and diverse curriculum. External visitors are used within our PSHE programme. They are carefully selected and enrich learning, provide expert input and act as role models throughout our PSHE provision. Our i-challenge curriculum further enhances our children’s PSHE learning by giving them access to a wide range of opportunities that promote their emotional, physical and intellectual development.
RE
The Old Bank Academy R.E curriculum recognises the importance of developing our pupil’s as individuals so they can grow up to be responsible citizens. It develops our values, behaviours, knowledge and understanding of religions and beliefs. The Old Bank Academy RE curriculum is based on the Local Agreed Syllabus for Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds produced by SACRE for teaching from September 2024.
Physical Education
Old Bank aims to inspire all children to develop a love of physical activity and sport. Through quality physical education, whole school values and a whole child approach, we aim to nurture confident, resilient children who will strive for their personal best. We listen to our children’s wants and needs and provide them with a broad range of active experiences and clubs. We want to aid our children in obtaining the values and skills to celebrate and respect the success of others, as well as celebrating their own successes. We aim to ensure that our delivery of physical education allows all children to have skills and mindset to leave primary school with the capabilities to be successful in their sporting challenges and active lifestyles at secondary school and beyond. We strive to educate both our children and families to develop a greater understanding of how to live healthy lifestyles and make healthy choices. We are dedicated to ensuring healthy minds, as well as bodies and will continue to support our children’s well-being
Phonics
For the teaching of phonics we use the DfE accredited Essential Letters and Sounds programme. This programme is followed with rigour and fidelity by all teachers and teaching assistants. Discrete whole-class phonics lessons are taught to all children, daily in Reception and Year One. To ensure that learning is embedded, flashcards and reading opportunities continue throughout the day and additional phonics teaching is given to identified children. Phonics remains the main strategy that we use to approach/decode unfamiliar words and spelling across the school.
Essential Letters and Sounds
Essential Letters & Sounds information for parents
Essential Letters & Sounds progression table
Reading
“If pupils cannot read, they will not be able to access the curriculum, and will be disadvantaged for life”
Reading
Through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. Within Old Bank Academy, we highly value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers with a love of reading. We believe reading is the bedrock of success in education. Encouraging and enhancing children’s motivation to read for pleasure is a key driver in our academy through our Love of Reading provision which is included in our ‘Reading Diet’.
Love for Reading
Reading is a main driver of our academy and children are taught to know the importance of reading. At Old Bank, we promote a love of reading in many ways such as: library visits; reading rockets café; reading records; challenge booklets; author visits and more. At Old Bank, we believe story time is an integral part of the children’s day. Story time is a huge part of developing our children’s love for reading, that is why we have carefully selected the books we read to our classes. We believe that all children should have the opportunity to imagine themselves as the main protagonist in a story. We have made sure this is possible by creating a story-time reading journey. We have selected a range of books that link to these criteria: cultural, diverse, world and current issues, current, topical and books that show our children’s demographic and socioeconomic background.
Reading at Home
Reading at home is essential to enable all children to succeed in their learning. Each child is provided with a reading record. Reading is the cornerstone to your child’s learning, and, as such, we encourage children to read at home for 15 minutes every night. We celebrate your child’s reading through ‘Reading Rockets’, which is our reading café that enables all pupils to voice their opinions about books and their reading lessons. Reading for 15 minutes each day will build your child’s reading stamina and wider vocabulary. Please support your child to enable them to become a confident reader.
Old Bank Reading Journey
At Old Bank Academy, we strive for all our children to become successful problem solvers and resilient mathematicians. We want the children to have a strong and secure mathematical knowledge that will give them the foundations for later life. To do this we use the Concrete Pictorial Abstract (CPA) approach to teach mathematical concepts. This enables children to solve problems in a variety of ways. By following the stages of CPA the children develop a deep understanding that they can reason with and explain.
