Our curriculum has been co-created through engagement with all stakeholders and will meet the following requirements:
Our vision:
At Ysgol Griffith Jones, all learners have access to a curriculum that reflects Wales, its cultural heritage and diversity, its languages and values, its history and traditions.
- We originate our planning within our local environment laying the foundations for national and international citizenship.
- We encourage our pupils to appreciate the contribution they can make in their community and to develop and explore their responses to local, national and global issues.
- The four purposes are at the heart of our planning and in realizing them, we set high expectations for everyone, promote health and personal wellbeing and encourage learners to play their part as informed and responsible citizens.
- We give pupils opportunities to develop their skills within each Learning Area developing as independent, creative and enterprising learners who are able to apply their learning to new situations.
- We foster pupils’ literacy, numeracy and digital competence skills enabling learners to adapt and thrive in today’s world. We listen to the voice of our learners and respond to their needs, their experiences and their input.
- All our stakeholders share the aim of supporting our learners along the learning continuum ensuring the development of their knowledge and skills, while thriving as happy and confident individuals.
Our Values
- Respect and Trust
- Community and Local Environment
- Welfare and Care
- Happiness and Enjoyment
- Resilience and Confidence
- Wales and Welshness
- Venture and Innovation
- Support and Collaboration
Our Inclusive Curriculum
Our curriculum will raise the aspirations of all learners. As a school we have considered how each learner will be supported to realize the four purposes and to move forward. We have considered our ALN provision and how we will meet the needs of different groups of learners.
The Four Purposes
The four purposes are the starting point and the aspiration for our school curriculum plan. Our school aims to support our learners to become:
- are ambitious, capable learners, who are ready to learn throughout their lives
- are enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work
- principled, knowledgeable citizens of Wales and the world
- healthy, confident individuals, who are ready to live fulfilling lives as valued members of society
The statements of what is important
Our curriculum will provide opportunities and experiences to develop the key concepts, knowledge and skills as described in the Statements of Importance and in accordance with the Statements of Importance Code .
Areas of Learning and Experience
Our curriculum will provide learning experiences through the 6 Learning and Experience Areas of:
- Languages, Literacy and Communication
- Expressive Arts
- Science and Technology
- Humanities
- Maths and Numeracy
- Health and Wellbeing
Learning, Progress and Assessment
Our curriculum will support learning by designing learning opportunities that draw on the pedagogical principles.
Our curriculum, supported by effective teaching and learning, enables learners to make meaningful progress. Over time our learners will develop and improve their skills and knowledge. Our curriculum focuses on understanding what it means to progress in a particular Field or discipline and how learners should deepen and widen their knowledge and understanding, their skills and abilities, and their attributes and trends, and is informed by the Code of Progress. This in turn supports our approach to assessment, the purpose of which is to inform planning for future learning. Assessment will be embedded as an inherent part of learning and teaching. All learners will be assessed on entry to the school.
Language
The Foundation Phase provides Welsh-medium education and uses the Welsh language to present the curriculum. English lessons are introduced in Year 3.
Cross-curricular skills
Our curriculum will develop compulsory cross-curricular skills of literacy, numeracy and digital competence. Our curriculum will enable learners to develop competence and ability in these skills and extend and apply them across all Areas. Learners will have opportunities across the curriculum to:
- develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills
- be able to use numbers and solve problems in real situations
- be confident users of a range of technologies to help them operate and communicate effectively and make sense of the world
UNCRC – Children’s Rights
Our school will promote knowledge and understanding of Part 1 of the UNCRC, and of the UNCRC, among those who provide teaching and learning.
CWRE : experiences related to careers and work
Our curriculum will incorporate careers and work-related experiences for all our learners.
Relationship and Sexuality Education RSE
Our school curriculum embraces the guidance in the ASR Code. Our Relationship and Sexuality Education provision will have a positive and empowering role in the education of our learners and will play a vital role in supporting them to realize the four purposes as part of a whole school approach. The foundation of RSE is to help learners form and maintain a range of relationships, all based on mutual trust and respect. These relationships are essential to the development of emotional well-being, resilience and empathy.
RVE: Religion, Values and Ethics
Religion, values and ethics (RVE) is a statutory requirement of the Curriculum for Wales and is compulsory for all learners between the ages of 3 and 16.
A parent does not have the right to apply to withdraw a child from RVE lessons in the Curriculum for Wales
As RVE is a locally determined subject, the agreed syllabus sets out what should be taught in RVE within the local authority and our curriculum will reflect these guidelines.
Review and Refine
Our school curriculum will be continuously reviewed in order to respond to the outputs of professional inquiry, the changing needs of learners and social contexts and needs. The reviews will take into account the views of stakeholders and be approved by the Governing Body. We will publish a summary of our curriculum and revise the summary if changes are made to the curriculum during the review process.
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DEVELOPING THINKING AND ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING
In 2009 Ysgol Griffith Jones was invited by DCELLS to take part in the Welsh programme. This confirmed the school to be a “Sector leading School” as it has already received training in “Dewch i Feddwl” and “Came” programmes.
DCELLS (The Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills) started the Development of Thinking and Assessment for Learning program in 2005. The program focused on developing, implementing and disseminating good practice, in the learning of developing thinking and assessment for strategies learn.
The main aim of the program is to:
- improve performance
- that the learner plays a larger part in their learning
- changing the practice of the class therefore improving the teaching
- increase the number of creative lessons.
The whole process of developing thinking can be considered a circular process so that what is learned from reflection can feed back into the next task.
Developing the learner’s circular thinking.
It should be noted that “thinking about thinking” (metacognition) is at the heart of all types of learning; learners have to unpack their thinking in order to appreciate the strategies they have used to learn, assimilate the learning that has taken place and connect the learning with a new context. This is the essential ingredient that makes the learning method circular.
At Ysgol Griffith Jones, in order to implement the thinking principles reasonably, we use a range of thinking strategies with thinking tools. An example of the constant equipment is:
- 2 Stars and a Wish
- The Question Tree
- Hot Seating
- Whiteboards
As part of the strategies we will – increase time to think and no hands up,
An example of the tools used are concept map, fortune lines, KWL chart, live graphs and diamond ranking.
Developing assessment for learning can be placed in three areas namely:- questioning, providing feedback to learners with peer assessment and self-assessment. Again a range of tools were used for assessment.
The benefits of the program are obvious as the pupils take more part in their education, promote their learning and thinking to be more active and create opportunities for them to reflect, thus creating them as independent learners. Griffith Jones School learners are more assertive when offering opinions, better communicators and self-confident individuals.