“Together we grow from acorns to oaks”

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour’ Isaiah 61:3

We know that every child is a unique gift and is precious to God. Together, we create the Oakhill family where we are given the space and opportunities to learn, grow and flourish. Our learning and experiences are valued, purposeful and relevant for life now and in the future. We believe our journey together will equip us with the tools to unlock the ‘Best versions of ourselves’.

The National Curriculum underpins the varied learning experiences planned for our children. Due to our mixed class structure that are variable each year, all year group objectives have been mapped over a two-year learning cycle (Year ½, Year 3/4, Year 4/5, Year 5/6). This allows our school to be flexible with class structure to suit the needs of all children whilst ensuring our curriculum is progressive. In core subject areas (History, Geography, Science), topic areas are taught over this two-year cycle with learning objectives either being taught through discrete or integrated coverage to ensure variability within a spiral curriculum. Consequently, topics within this cycle have similar headline drivers but are taught with a different emphasis each year.

Curriculum Intent and Implementation

The curriculum at Oakhill Church School is underpinned by our vision for our children: “Together we Grow from Acorns to Oaks.”

Being Connected: using our local environment where appropriate to invest in children’s cultural understanding and capital.
Being Creative: using links and connections to establish purposeful learning experiences which is relevant now and for life in the future.
Being Curious: using quality first-hand experiences to help children unlock their curiosity

Long Term Planning

Our long term curriculum plan is currently under review.

Click on the PDF below to view our long term curriculum plan; this is split over our flexible 2 year teaching cycle. We aim to commence teaching in cycle B from September 2023.

Whole School Curriculum Map Cycle A

Whole School Curriculum Map Cycle B

Termly Overviews

Specific information about the learning that children will be doing in each class will be provided through a curriculum overview at the start of each term. These can be found on class pages.

Every term, teachers plan learning within a topic/enquiry question (normally underpinned by either History, Geography or Science subject knowledge and skills). Our long-term curriculum plan has linked complementary elements of learning from different subjects and these form a basis of enquiry. This is balanced alongside the teaching of other discrete curriculum areas.

Each subject has a long-term progression document that is monitored by subject leaders. These documents detail: the curriculum overview for each subjects area; knowledge and skills progression from EYFS to Year 6; and CUE assessment questioning that guide teachers and subject leaders towards assessing and celebrating children’s learning.

“Together we Grow from Acorns to Oaks”: Being Collaborative, Connected, Creative and Curious

• Being Connected: Teachers plan to use provide children with a solid sense of their community – locally, nationally and internationally (e.g. visiting local historical castles (YR/1); exploring historical sites in and around Oakhill (Y1/2); developing a cultural understanding of how Shepton Mallet has evolved over time (Y3/4); exploring historical movements slightly further afield – Roman Baths (Y4/5), Bristol Post-War Migration/Radstock Mining (Y5/6); comparing national and international cultures with our own identities – Sri Lanka/Artic/UK (Y1/2), Cumbria/Birmingham/Oakhill (Y3/4), Brazil/Congo/UK (Y4/5), California/Peru/UK (Y5/6)).

• Being Creative: Teachers plan to involve people and organisation from outside school to develop social skills through collaboration and effective communication (e.g. people with stories and experiences to share). Educational visits are planned to help bring children’s learning alive (e.g. visits to historical sites, performing arts concerts, animal centres).

• Being Curious: Teachers plan enquiries around the interests of children using effective questioning and adaptive teaching. Teachers plan to make learning real and relevant by linking activities to the children’s world.

Phonics and Early Reading

At Oakhill we follow Read Write Inc. for phonics.

What is Read, Write, Inc.?

Read Write Inc. (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.

Order of the programme

The programme is ordered through a series of colour-coded books, each progressively introducing new letters and sounds. Children are assessed every term to review whether they are ready to progress onto the next book colour. Below, you can find the progression of book colours and the typical age-range that children will be exposed to them. You can also find, below, documents to download which identify exactly which new learning is introduced in each book colour phase.

Books Year Group Expectations