Benthal Creative Curriculum

Curriculum

‘Creating Irresistible Learning’

At Benthal, we create a learning experience that is “irresistible”, inclusive and cross-curricular which inspires and captures curiosity, bringing learning to real life.

We want our pupils to become well-rounded, valuable contributors to society by applying their skills, knowledge and understanding to new contexts and being solution-focused. We want them to be able to make connections and links between areas of learning.

We acknowledge the wide range of abilities of our pupils and actively encourage teachers to take positive risks with their teaching. We encourage lessons to start with a hook to create irresistible and memorable learning with an emphasis on reading and widening children’s vocabulary.

Creativity and academic excellence is at the heart of our curriculum.

Benthal’s Creative Curriculum

We teach a wide and varied curriculum consisting of the National Curriculum core and foundation subjects. Benthal’s creative curriculum is organised into topic areas, where learning knowledge and skills in different subjects can be brought together. This approach allows teachers to deliver either cross-curricular lessons or stand-a-lone lessons such as Phonics and Mathematics.

Our topic curriculum overview and academic achievement drives our provision and ensures that all pupils are provided with a clear progression of knowledge and skills in each subject. In this way we can ensure that Benthal’s rich, varied and comprehensive curriculum reflects the interests and diversity of our school community and the wider national & global communities.

The Core Subjects are:

Literacy (Reading or Phonics & Writing), Mathematics, Science, Religious Education, PSHE and Computing

The Foundation Subjects are:

Art, Design & Technology, History, Geography, Music, Spanish and Physical Education

Most of the Core subjects are taught in the morning with the Foundation subjects in the afternoon. At the start of each term, the class teachers send out a curriculum newsletter explaining the work and topics to be covered and ways parents and carers can support their children’s learning.

Spanish

As an inclusive and diverse school, Benthal is committed to forging links with the international community.

Since 2016 we have been fortunate enough to develop a partnership with Raimundo Lulio Colegio in Madrid, Spain. We organise annual visits to Madrid in the Spring term for some of our year 5 pupils, where they have the opportunity to converse in Spanish, experience an alternative school culture and increase their knowledge of the Hispanic world and history of Madrid.

We are also fortunate in that some of the pupils and teachers from the Colegio , visit London in the Summer each year to maintain and renew friendships made from our previous visits. In June each year Benthal celebrate 'Cultura de Hispania' during our Spanish Week where all our children explore the many facets of Hispanic culture, through its art, dance, music, literature and food.

In 2021-22 academic year, we are proud to have secured the Turing Grant which will enable us to continue to visit our partner school in the future.

At Benthal High Quality Teaching & Learning takes place when:

There is a welcoming, nurturing, happy, attractive and purposeful learning environment.
There are high expectations of what pupils can achieve and many varied opportunities for them to express this.
The planned focus is on learning rather than the activity.
Objectives, aims and skills to be taught are shared explicitly and reviewed at the end of the session.
The contexts for learning are clear and relate to the wider world.
Pupils have a clear understanding of how they can reflect and improve their work and become better learners
It is child directed and where possible, stems from a child’s own experience and ideas.
Links are made between topic knowledge and taught skills.
There is an element of surprise or mystery.
Teachers feel valued and have opportunities for their own role as lead learners.
Parents and the community feel involved and part of the learning community

Skills Builder Partnership

The children are given opportunities to experience the ‘work place’ at different points in the year. We have linked our curriculum to the Skills Builder Partnership (Enabling Enterprise) where termly Task Days are undertaken by the children allowing them to follow a specific process to complete by the end of the day. Our children also have opportunities to visit large businesses & corporations in the city through the Partnership. The children find these days aspirational.

Music

Our music curriculum offer is one of our school strengths that we are immensely proud of. Every year group from Nursery to Year 6 has a weekly music lesson taught by qualified music teachers. In addition to this Year 3 children learn to play the recorder. Year 4 work with the ‘Apollo Music’ team with stringed instruments, this is a year-long project and we have been running this for a number of years.

We also offer our KS2 children the opportunity to learn to play the Ukulele, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, clarinet and flute; using peripatetic music tutors from Hackney Music Services.

We also offer lessons for Keyboards.

Singing and music is always going on at Benthal, either as vocal concerts, instrumental concerts, seasonal shows and end of year performances.

Children have access to laptops and iPads to support them in their lessons either learning a specific computing skill or to present work. We use Purple Mash to support the computing curriculum. We also have a number of Kindles that are used as part of a reading intervention.

Both halls have an interactive whiteboard as well as all the classrooms.

Trips and Visits in London and beyond!

We welcome visitors into the school and all classes have day trips linked to their topics. As a Hackney school we are privileged to have such close access to all art galleries and museums in central London. We use them frequently in order to enhance our creative curriculum and give our children wider opportunities and experiences.

In KS2 we also offer residential trips:

Year 4 children go to Kench Hill in Kent (3 nights), a Hackney Education owned property;
A Year 5 small group to Madrid, Spain (4 nights), where we have strong links with our partner school, Raimundo Lulio
Year 6 children go to Cuffley, in Hertfordshire (3 nights), an Active Learning Centre.

We ensure that all children are offered trips and residential experiences and heavily subsidize the cost for those families that are entitled to Free School Meals.

Benthal Curriculum Offer