Our school curriculum is the environment in which we operate – it encompasses the National Curriculum plus all the other things that are taught and experienced at Lythe School.  It serves our children and the communities from which they come and helps us live out our Vision Statement and Mission Statement.

Our planning started with extensive discussions about how our vision would be lived out through our curriculum and you can see our intent for each subject in the sections below – these lay out why these subjects are important for the children at our school and how we envisage the subjects helping children flourish in every way, being the best they can be and letting their lights shine.

As a small school with mixed year groups, we need to ensure that we have progression and continuity in all subjects.  We are therefore very pleased to be a member of the Esk Valley Alliance, an association of similar schools who have joined together to produce a collaborative four-year rolling programme of subject planning, specifically designed to meet the challenges of small classes and mixed age groups.  This way of working helps us to be outward-looking and benefit from collaboration and moderation between colleagues in different schools while also allowing us to make sure that we deliver our own school vision.

Year 1 – 2022-23  Key Stage 1       Key Stage 2

Year 2 – 2023-24  Key Stage 1       Key Stage 2

Year 3 – 2024-25  Key Stage 1       Key Stage 2

Year 4 – 2025-26  Key Stage 1       Key Stage 2 

 We depart from the Esk Valley Alliance curriculum for some subjects, which can be seen by clicking on the sections below.

 An important part of this curriculum planning is the professional development of teachers. We encourage and support teachers to be as free as possible to use their own experiences and professional skills – high quality teaching, and teacher professional development, is essential to this and part of the school development plan.

Curriculum Intent: Why is Art important at Lythe School?

Art gives children a means of expression of ideas and feelings and a provides a chance to celebrate similarities and differences while encouraging healthy debate. It gives an insight into other cultures and encourages  the ability to express educated opinions and discernment of likes and dislikes, and understand the opinions of others. It places a value on practical skills and high quality creative outcomes.

Subject concepts / threads:

• Creativity
• Technique
• Drawing
• Painting
• Sculpture
• Print
• Craft
• Textiles
• Digital
• Evaluating and analysing
• Historical and Cultural art
• Artists, craft makers and designers

Curriculum Intent: Why is DT important at Lythe School?

This subject helps children develop practical, useful skills and helps children to value practical skills, quality product design and making and creative problem-solving. It promotes protecting the environment through thinking about sustaiability and intelligent use of materials, and encourages children to consider the wants and needs of others.

Subject Concepts / Threads

• Market research
• Creative design
• Construction- making – prototypes and products
• Testing and evaluating
• Vocabulary

We follow the “In the Moment” approach to planning as we believe that children learn and flourish best when they have the opportunity to become fully engaged in their activities, with skilled adults supporting and enhancing learning through quality interactions.  You can read more about the approach in this article, or call us on 01947 893373 to talk to one of our Acorn Class team.

Children in Nursery and Reception follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework.

Curriculum Intent: Why is Writing important at Lythe School?

Writing helps children flourish through giving a means of expression and communication. Being able to clearly communicate what you mean, and inform and influence others is as important as writing for pleasure, and can contribute to wellbeing. Children see a wide variety of examples of quality writing and are build a toolkit of skills in handwriting, spelling, grammar and knowledge of text types and audiences that they can use to express themselves for a variety of purposes throughout the whole curriculum.

 Curriculum Intent: Why is Reading important at Lythe School?

We want all children to be readers and for reading to be a “first resort” when looking for information, understanding, entertainment, comfort, or for any of the other reasons why a person may read.  A robust early foundation of decoding and fluency leads to good comprehension of a rapidly increasing variety of texts, meaning that children can critically read and draw meaning from a wide range of written sources, both for learning in school and for their future lives.  Children learn to talk about their reading and articulate their thoughts and feelings about what they have read, making links and showing discernment in their personal tastes.

 Phonics teaching: Read, Write Inc.

Confident, automatic decoding is a firm basis for building fluency and comprehension. All  teachers have the highest expectation that children will become proficient readers by the end of Key Stage 1 through our systematic, consistent implementation of our chosen phonic programme Read, Write Inc. The intent of using this method is to:

• Deliver a high-quality systematic synthetic phonics programme of proven effectiveness, which is followed with rigour and fidelity so that children are taught consistently to use phonics as the route to reading unknown words.
• Ensure pace of the phonics programme is maintained so that children become fluent, independent readers by the end of year 1.
• Ensure children’s reading books show a cumulative progression in phonics knowledge that match the grapheme-phoneme correspondences they know to support decoding skills.

Children are regularly assessed and are taught in small groups at their “challenge level” so that they can make the most rapid progress.  If a child is not progressing quickly, they will be offered additional teaching to ensure that a gap does not open up between them and their peers. Our aim is that children complete the RWI scheme as quickly as possible and move on to guided reading lessons.

Click here to find out more information about how your child will be introduced to phonics and how you can help them at home.

Curriculum Intent: Why is Geography important at Lythe School?

This subject gives knowledge and understanding of our local area and the wider world.  It inspires curiosity about other places andraises awareness of local, national & global issues. It shows that the world is a diverse place and thow different cultures live in different ways but with commonality. It helps children understand why we are here and why we live the way we do

Subject concepts / threads

• Physical
• Human
• Locational
• Place knowledge
• Geographical skills
• Vocabulary

We depart from the Esk Valley Alliance curriculum for Coding, instead using the Espresso scheme of work on our class set of Chromebooks.

Curriculum Intent: Why is Computing important at Lythe School?

This subject develops transferrable skills to help move into a changing modern world. It helps children live well together by navigating relationships and using the internet safely. It builds critical thinking skills as children learn to evaluate and respond to information thoughfully.

Subject concepts / threads:

• Coding
• Information technology
• Data handling
• Vocabulary

Maths is taught using the White Rose Maths scheme of work and resources – this is a Mastery approach, which means that children have time to think deeply about maths concepts to develop a true understanding, rather than learning rote procedures.

• Curriculum Intent: Why is Maths important at Lythe School?
• We want children to have a confident understanding of the fundementals of maths that will help them to make sense of the world and manage their lives, as well as forming the basis of future learning in maths and other subjects.  Children will develop the skills needed to understand real life situations, interpret and analyse information, assess risk and make informed decisions. They learn to combine their knowledge with creativity to solve reasoning problems and are able to articulate their thinking and consider different ways of doing things. 
•  skills.

We depart from the Esk Valley Alliance curriculum here and use the North Yorkshire Scheme of work and resources. 

Curriculum Intent: Why are Modern Foreign Languages important at Lythe School?

Learning another language gives knowledge and understanding of the wider world. It promotes an understanding of different cultures and helps build children’s identity as a global citizen.

Subject concepts / threads:

• Speaking
• Writing
• Reading
• Culturual understanding
• Vocabulary

Curriculum Intent: Why is Music important at Lythe School?

Learning music builds confidence and self awareness, promotes mental and physical wellbeing and gives chidren a means of self-expression.  It gives an insight into other cultures and develops the ability to express educated opinions.

The carefully-constructed EVA curriculum ensures that children build on skills in listening, performing and composing in a coherent and progressive way throughout their years at school, with exposure to a rich diet of musical styles.

Subject Concepts / Threads

• Performance
• Composition
• Listening and appraising
• Singing
• Instrumental
• Vocabulary

Curriculum Intent: Why is PSHE important at Lythe School?

This subject is essential for helping children understand themselves and to develop safe, healthy relationships and personal wellbeing that will help them flourish in their present and future lives. 

We use the PHSE Association Scheme of work and teaching resources, taking a thematic approach to suit our mixed-age classes. Teaching and assessment take place as discrete lessons as well as through subjects such as science (topics such as puberty are covered in both PHSE and as part of the science curriculum). 

• Subject concepts / threads

• Families and Friendship

• Safe Relationships

• Respecting Ourselves and Others

• Belonging to a Community

• Media Literacy and Digital Resilience

• Money and Work

• Physical Health and Mental Wellbeing

• Growing and Changing

• Keeping Safe

We use the PSHE Association’s resources for Relationships and Sex Education and are very happy to share their parent version of the materials we use either in school or via email.  Please email the school office on admin@lythe.n-yorks.sch.uk to request a copy.

Click here for the Church of England statement on Relationships and Sex Education in church schools.

The new National Curriculum ensures that all children are taught phonics systematically and Lythe School uses the Read Write Inc. programme of study to introduce sounds and letter formation. This starts by teaching children just one way of reading and spelling the English sounds that make up words; they then move on to reading books that are carefully matched to the spelling sounds that they have just been taught. When children are confident with this, they then learn more ways to spell the different sounds. Children learn a good handwriting style and are encouraged to use their skills to have a go at spelling longer words.  There are some great videos for parents on the Read Write Inc. website which describe ways of helping your child at home.

All children undertake the national phonics screening check in Year 1. The purpose of this is to check whether pupils have learned phonic skills as above to an appropriate standard, and to identify any children who need extra help to improve their phonics skills. Read Write Inc. materials are used in Year 2 to help children make accelerated progress where needed.

Once children have completed the Read Write Inc programme they move into Guided Reading in their class – this may be a whole-class or small group approach.  Teaching focuses on developing really sound phonic decoding and fluency as an essential basis for good comprehension and teachers ensure that the children have good “reading mileage”  – this means that they spend as long as possible each day actively reading words, both in Reading lessons and across the curriculum. Knowledge of vocabulary and grammar are used to support both reading and writing.

Children select reading books to help them find books which will help them develop their reading skills. They are also encouraged to take any book from the library shelves to enjoy  – we do not restrict choices as being “too hard” or “too easy,” but encourage children to use their developing skills to tackle these, and families to share and enjoy these books with their children.

Curriculum Intent: Why is PE important at Lythe School?

This subject gives motivation to be fit and healthy, physically and mentally, and builds confidence. It promotes a willingness to participate, develops team spirit and being part of the community, and promotes sense of identity. It helps children learn how to win and lose well. It helps children appreciate and understand the natural environment.

Subject Concepts / Threads

• Competence
• Being active
• Being healthy
• Competitive Sports/Activities
• Outdoor and adventurous activities
• Vocabulary

Curriculum Intent: Why is RE important at Lythe School?

RE is an important part of helping every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness. (John 10:10). It gives children the tools and understanding to understand the way of life of others and to form their own beliefs and views. It provokes challenging questions about life, spirituality and ethics,  which children learn to answer in an informed and respectful way.  It links children to other cultures and helps develop empathy for other people, cultures and beliefs, helping them to understand and live well with others, wherever they find themselves in the world.

RE is determined locally rather than nationally and our school follows the North Yorkshire Agreed Syllabus. 

Subject Concepts / Threads

Believing (Religious beliefs, teachings, sources; questions about meaning, purpose and truth)

Expressing (Religious and spiritual forms of expression; questions about identity and diversity)

Living (Religious practices and ways of living; questions about values and commitments)

It is taught at Lythe using the North Yorkshire Agreed Syllabus and using a two-year rolling programme.

Curriculum Intent: Why is Science important at Lythe School?

This subject is essential for building a knowledge and understanding of the wider world and an understanding of how science can help or hinder.  Knowledge of the work of scientists over time promotes a wide cultural background for scientific ideas and genrates awe and wonder at every day life. Children learn how science can be used creatively to solve problems and develop the ability to assess the quality of scientific evidence, including in the news.

Subject Concepts / Threads

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Scientific Enquiry
• Science for the future
• Vocabulary

At Lythe, SMSC development is a cornerstone of our teaching and learning, and British values are promoted in much of what we do. You will see our SMSC opportunities across the curriculum in our Subject Knowledge Organisers for our EVA curriculum subjects. This includes work in Collective Worship, Religious Education lesson, our PHSE learning as well as different aspects which are embedded across the curriculum. British values are integral to behaviour expectations and the vision we have for all our pupils .

As a school, we value and celebrate being part of Britain. In general terms, this means that we celebrate traditions (such as customs in the course of the year) for example, Harvest festival during the autumn term, and Christmas events in December including a British Pantomime! We also value and celebrate national events, including welcoming professional athletes following the Olympic Games, and following the recent Tour de Yorkshire; our World Book Day celebrations this year encourage children to think about British authors and illustrators.

Democracy is an integral part of our provision: children vote for representatives for the Ethos Group and for other issues that affect them in school.  Pupil Voice surveys take note of children’s views and these are used to contribute to school improvement, for example when reviewing the Behaviour policy.

The rule of law is promoted through the application of our Behaviour policy and the implementation of our three Golden Rules (Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Respectful) – children are involved in deciding what this will look like in school, and are encouraged to take responsibility for making good choices. We have good links with our local community police officer and other authorities such as the beach lifeguards and the local construction company who visit to explain why we follow certain rules. E-Safety is taught discretely throughout the school and children learn about the some of the laws involved, for example copyright.

Individual liberty is promoted: children know that they have the right to feel safe and are able to report concerns. We use the language of choice when discussing learning or behaviour with children end encourage children to make their own choices about participating in activities and clubs with active encouragement to overcome stereotypes, for example surrounding gender or our rural location. Children are encouraged to take responsibility and make real decisions, for example for organising Collective Worship and leading their own clubs and activities.

Our whole school ethos embodies mutual respect and positive relationships are modelled and encouraged. Children’s achievements are celebrated in a weekly achievement assembly and our high level of participation in sports makes respectful behaviour towards other competitors a high priority. Our fund-raising activities, from supporting the local food bank to international refugees, show understanding and respect for the needs different groups in society, and Collective Worship actively encourage children to empathise with each other and understand that we are all different but all equally valuable. Our Forest Schools work builds respect for the natural environment and encourages children to share their strengths to support others.

Tolerance of others is promoted through our RE syllabus which gives a broad and balanced view of other faiths. Different cultures are celebrated through work in subjects such as art, history and geography, and children celebrate festivals such as Chinese New Year and Diwali. A link has been made with a muslim teacher which is being developed into a long-term relationship to help children gain real insight into the lives of muslim families.

British values are promoted in Early Years: children are taught the difference between right and wrong and are encouraged to make choices about activities and issues that affect them. Children learn about people who help us, including those who uphold rules and laws, and about festivals from other cultures. Their curriculum strives to ensure that children understand they are part of a much wider world.

As well as actively promoting British values, we would actively challenge pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British values, including ‘extremist’ views and have a clear procedure displayed for dealing with concerns. Any visitors to the school are investigated prior to their visit and their views discussed in line with our Visitors’ Policy.

 Years 1 -6: Parents’ consultation evenings are held three times a year and you will be informed of your child’s progress towards their targets.  At the end of Year 6 children will take part in national SATs tests in reading, writing and maths (writing is assessed internally by the teacher and may be moderated externally), which show their achievement compared to national expectations, along with the progress they have made during their time in school.

Early Years: Children in EYFS (Acorn Class) are continuously assessed, and progress in all aspects of your child’s development is reported regularly and frequently using the Tapestry online platform, which encourages parents and teachers to work in harmony to share information and celebrate achievement.  We use In The Moment Planning, which allows staff to put a strong focus on a selected number of children each week. Parents are invited to share additional information before their child’s focus week, and to attend a consultation meeting at the end of the week to discuss.

We keep you up to date with what is happening in classes via our weekly school newsletter, and further information about what is being taught in each year group each term can be obtained by contacting your child’s teacher.