Art and Design provides the children with the opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests, thoughts and ideas.
It engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment and create their own works of art, craft and design.
As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our communities, our nation and the wider world.
Throughout their time in our school, pupils will have the opportunity to extend and develop their skills and knowledge further through working with artists in school as well as experiencing visits to museums and galleries such as Tate, The National Gallery and The Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Design and Technology prepares pupils to deal with our rapidly changing world. It encourages them to become independent and creative problem solvers as both individuals and part of a team. It enables them to identify needs and opportunities and to respond to them by developing a range of ideas and by making products and systems.
Through the study of Design and Technology, pupils acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. Pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative and enterprising. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. 
Through the geography curriculum, pupils’ curiosity and fascination about the world and its people is developed. They investigate a range of places – both in Britain and abroad – to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes.
As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.
Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
Pupils are provided with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Brent and London so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special. They study communities across the world to gain an understanding of how countries and regions are different yet inter-connected.
Our key aims are for pupils to:
-investigate places
-investigate patterns
-communicate geographically
Through trips and visits, pupils are given the opportunity to put their learning into real life contexts.
History stimulates the pupil’s interests and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. Pupils develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. They learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern, multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better able to make their own life choices today.
History should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, evaluate evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. It helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups.
Our key aims are for pupils to:
-investigate and interpret the past
-understand chronology
-build an overview of British and World history
-communicate historically
In addition to the themes and topics taught in the classroom, pupils experience a wide range of trips and visits to develop their knowledge and understanding whilst giving them first hand experience of the topics taught.
We are a pioneering school utilising an exciting, child-friendly approach to children’s wellbeing education. The programme we use is iSpace Wellbeing.
The wellbeing curriculum offers a language and toolkit to help children, teachers and parents to start the conversation with the children about their wellbeing and mental health. This is in line with the new government requirements that primary schools must discuss children’s mental health and wellbeing.
iSpace Wellbeing values the importance of providing children with strategies and tools to help them to overcome challenges and to thrive despite failure. The framework and toolkit helps to prepare them to live life ready.
iSpace, which stands for ‘I stop, I pause, I calm everything’ is themed around a galaxy of planets and is built on three core beliefs about what an effective wellbeing curriculum needs to be – preventative, consistent and fun to teach and learn. This approach aims to enhance confidence, capability and creativity and to boost emotional intelligence, resilience and self-worth. Our children are taught that it is ‘okay’ not to feel okay, and that talking about our emotions can help us to become more resourceful and overcome challenges. ISpace is incorporated into the daily routine for all children from Reception to Year 6.
Every month the whole school focuses on a different “planet of emotions”. There are 12 planets in total: Planet wellbeing, planet happiness, planet physical, planet character building, planet Heads Up, planet diversity, planet resilience and planet problem solving.
Below are a list of some of the language that we encourage the children to use to talk about their feelings:
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Pop unimportant thoughts Let go things which you can do nothing about and which may not happen Accept challenges Calm and control thoughts in the face of difficulties. Enjoy all positive thoughts. |
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Has your rocket launched or is it on the ground? |
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How angry are you feeling? |
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How can you flip that around? What do you want to stick with and what do you want to flip? |
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What is in your toolbox to help you work this out? (confidence belt (I am… I can..), Ispace breathing, asking for help, talking to a friend or close adult, focusing on the positive things, PACE (let go of things that might not happen and which I cannot change.) |
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Check in with your backpack. How are you feeling? |
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Ask for help |
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I am, I can, I will… |
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niggle (something small). Can you squish it, flip it, squash it, stamp on it? |
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What do you want to grow (good aspects of your character) and what do you want to throw? Are you aiming to be good? |
For further information, please visit the iSpace website https://ispacewellbeing.com/
Mathematics Mastery
At Brentfield Primary School, we teach mathematics following the Mathematics Mastery Programme. This programme is a way of building in enjoyment, resilience and understanding of mathematics.
- By following Mathematics Mastery we aim to develop:
- An enjoyment and curiosity of mathematics and for children to feel confident to become successful.
- Positive attitudes, confidence and competence by matching the task to the child.
- A confidence to communicate ideas both in written form and orally.
- Independent and collaborative ways of working, encouraging children to share ideas and solve problems together.
- A wide range of mathematical vocabulary modelled and used in the classroom environment.
- The children’s ability to recall mental facts accurately and quickly and using effective written calculation methods.
- Children’s logical thinking, reasoning skills and ability to problem solve, as transferable life skills.
- Enjoyment and enthusiasm for learning through practical activity, exploration and discussion.
- The ability to solve problems through decision-making and reasoning in a range of contexts.
- Challenge through high expectations and focussed, differentiated learning.
- Achieve increased fluency with numbers.
- Gain a deeper understanding of mathematical skills.
- Solve problems in unfamiliar contexts.
- Develop their mathematical thinking.
- Strengthen their mathematical vocabulary, enabling them to explain and reason their thinking.
- Use and identify multiple representations-including objects, pictures, numbers and symbols.
What is Maths Mastery?
The ‘mastery approach’ to teaching maths is the underlying principle of Mathematics Mastery. Instead of learning mathematical procedures by rote, pupils are encouraged to build a deep conceptual understanding of concepts which will enable them to apply their learning in different situations.
The curriculum is designed to make sure that the requirements of the National Curriculum for England are fully met. Each year’s curriculum includes all of the National Curriculum objectives for that year. Mathematics Mastery uses three key principles to deepen pupils’ understanding:
- Pupils’ conceptual understanding is developed through the use of multiple concrete and pictorial representations. Indeed, a key part of a ‘deep understanding’ in maths is being able to represent ideas in lots of different ways.
- Depth of understanding is also developed through pupils’ communication about maths using the correct mathematical language. When pupils are asked to explain, justify and prove their ideas they are deepening their understanding of a concept.
- Another way of developing a depth of understanding is by encouraging pupils to think mathematically. This is done by providing lots of opportunities for pupils to investigate planned open questions that require them to sort and compare, seek patterns and look for rules.
Problem solving is at the heart of the mastery approach, sufficient time is dedicated to each new concept or skill, so every pupil can gain the reasoning they need to solve new problems in unfamiliar contexts. All pupils are expected to solve the same investigations by the end of the lesson, meaning the key concepts and objectives are met by all pupils. Instead of accelerating higher attainers onto new content, lessons are differentiated through depth, to develop pupils’ conceptual understanding.
The maths mastery approach is built upon 3 key concepts:
- Conceptual understanding.
- Language and communication.
- Mathematical thinking.
Progression of Skills
Curriculum Maps
Maths Meetings
An important aspect of Mathematics Mastery is the daily Maths Meeting, which is used to consolidate key areas of mathematics in the class. Maths Meetings provide an opportunity to teach and revise ‘general knowledge maths’ which may not explicitly be covered during the maths lesson, and also allows the daily integration of maths into the surrounding environment. This means that pupils are practising concepts and skills on a regular basis, meaning they are continually building on their mastery of these concepts.
Singing and chanting form an integral part of the Maths Meetings and each class has a Maths Meeting display to use as a visual structure for the pupils to become familiar with. The elements of maths covered in Maths Meetings is fun and enjoyable for pupils, so it is important that pupils appreciate, learn from and relish these experiences.
TTRockstars
Alongside Mathematics Mastery Brentfield Primary use TTRockstars. Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice. Each week concentrates on a different times table, with a recommended consolidation week for rehearsing the tables that have recently been practised every third week or so. Children play a timed game on the website, answering multiplication and division questions. At the end of the session, the children will see how many questions they answered and their average speed for answering.
TTRockstars Rewards
TTRockstars offers many rewards and certificates.
- After each game, the children will awarded a ‘Rock Status’ based on their speed.
- When children move on to the next ‘Rock Status’, they will be awarded with a certificate to recognise this.
- Pupils will often be set a ‘Rock Battle’ where children work in allocated teams to compete to answer the most questions correctly over a period of time. The three children who scored the highest amount of points in each team by the end of the ‘Battle’ will receive a certificate.
- At the end of each term the five pupils across the school who answer questions with the fastest speed will receive a certificate in assembly.
All children from Year 2-6 have logins and we encourage them to use the website at home every day for at least 10 minutes.
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Music plays an important role in increasing our pupils’ social and emotional well-being as well as their confidence and ability to express themselves. The pupils and staff love music as it provides opportunities to explore relevant issues in an engaging and inclusive manner.
All classes from nursery to Year 6 have weekly music lessons delivered by Brent Music Service as part of their Music’s Cool scheme of work.
The school comes together for weekly singing assemblies as well as sharing songs and performances through class assemblies, celebration events and choir and instrumental performances.
Pupils in Key Stage 2 also have the opportunity to learn an instrument: guitar, keyboard, violin and cello as instrumental lessons as well as recorder and ukulele, which is taught through the Music’s Cool programme.
If you are interested in your child learning a musical instrument, please contact the school office for further details.
Content coming soon
Religious Education forms part of the basic curriculum in accordance with the Education Reform Act of 1988 and is taught using the Brent Agreed Syllabus.
Religious Education allows the pupils to learn about the major religions of the world and reflects the wide range of religions that are found in our diverse school and local community, as well as society as a whole. It stresses the importance of religion in the lives of those who believe and teaches pupils to respect and value the beliefs of others. This knowledge and understanding helps our pupils to live, grow up and participate in our diverse society with an understanding, caring attitude towards others.
Through Religious Education lessons, we aim that pupils will:
-understand the beliefs and teachings of the major world religions
-understand how beliefs are conveyed
-understand values
-understand lifestyles and practices
-be able to reflect.
Learning is enhanced by visits to places of worship in our community and further afield.
At Brentfield, we put learning at the heart of everything we do. We support our children in gaining both the academic and the life skills to become effective communicators and successful global citizens. We believe that language and communication is at the root of all learning and is something to be fostered and developed at all stages.
The development of children’s reading is crucial to their success across the curriculum. To facilitate our children’s’ language and communication skills, we want all children to leave the school passionate about reading and develop a love of books.
Throughout their time at Brentfield, children are exposed to a carefully selected range of rich and challenging texts which expose them to a variety of genres.
Children and parents are encouraged to use our newly designed library and read together.
For more information about how we teach reading at the school please click on the link below.
Science is a body of knowledge built up through experimental testing of ideas and a practical way of finding answers to questions we may ask about the world around us.
In our school, it is about developing children’s ideas and ways of working that enable them to make sense of the world around them through practical tasks and investigation.
Science has changed our lives and it is vital to the world’s future prosperity. Therefore, all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science in order to prepare them for the unknown yet exciting future ahead of them.
We encourage curiosity in children so that they ask questions that fuel explorations and investigations about the world that we live in.
In line with the National Curriculum Science Programmes of Study for KS1 and KS2, the school aims to ensure that all pupils:
-develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
-develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world
-are equipped with the scientific knowledge they require to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.
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To support with the teaching of writing we use ‘The Art of Teaching Writing’. As part of this, all classes have a core text which they will study. There will be specific writing outcomes that will be expected of that text, with children being given the opportunity to write for a wide range of purposes.
The model begins with reading as a starting point. The purpose is to engage pupils with the text and allow them to explore the story, language, grammatical and linguistic devices. They then start to look at an exemplar text (a finished piece written by the teacher) and deconstruct it using a success criteria. The writing then follows a 3 step process, the end outcome being a piece of written work which the children feel proud of.
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