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At Air Balloon Hill Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that we give our pupils the best start in their education by offering them a wide ranging curriculum that puts them at the centre of their learning journey. The aim of the Air Balloon Curriculum is for children to understand why the world is like it is and explore how we can make it better. We do this through our selection of Inquiry Projects.
Inquiry Projects
Our curriculum is built around a series of interesting and stimulating inquiry projects. These projects have been carefully designed so that children build up their knowledge of the world around them enabling them to become successful lifelong learners.
Our inquiry approach provides a stimulating context through which the children will learn about the world. During these projects, children acquire both substantive and disciplinary knowledge and this enables them to respond to their inquiry in a meaningful way. Each inquiry has a lead subject (typically science, history or geography) with additional subjects contributing to the inquiry’s key themes.
Each inquiry concludes with the children producing a body of work – or a well-intentioned response to the inquiry – that is shared and celebrated with parents and carers.
There are three inquiry projects to be covered by each year group throughout the year. More details on the curriculum of each project can be found in the links below.
Inquiry Projects Overview:
Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | |
Project 1 | What a Wonderful World | Animal Park Rescue | Children of our Time | Environmental Action | Let’s be Friends | Adapt to Survive |
Project 2 | Expedition Adventure! | Fire! Fire! | Tomb Raiders | That’s Entertainment | Space Rover | No News is Good News |
Project 3 | Time Capsule | Food, Glorious Food | Stone Circles | I, Ruler | It’s a Boy! | Let there be Light! |
For more information about the curriculum coverage of our Inquiry Projects, please view the documents below:
Year 1 Curriculum Overview 2023-24
Year 2 Curriculum Overview 2023-24
Year 3 Curriculum Overview 2023-24
Year 4 Curriculum Overview 2023-24
Year 5 Curriculum Overview 2023-24
Year 6 Curriculum Overview 2023-24
Information on specific subjects can be found below.
Our 6 Archetypes
To help children understand why the world is like it is, we have developed our six archetypes. These are six examples of human behaviour that can be studied through the lives of significant people as part of our Inquiry Projects and our Diversity Case Studies. These six archetypes mean that throughout their time at Air Balloon, children will develop their understanding of how human behaviour can change the world. By critically reviewing these human behaviours, children will then have the opportunity to consider how they themselves might be able to make the world a better place.
The six archetypes are:
Archetype
Graces
Trappings
Examples
Citizen
Lawful, accepting, responsible…
Controlled, hidden, thoughtless…
Malala Yousafzai, Rosa Parks…
Leader
Inspiring, compassionate, brave…
Despotic, single-minded, cruel…
Nelson Mandela, Julius Caesar
Influencer
Innovative, specialist, foresight…
Manipulative, selfish, stubborn…
Greta Thunberg, Socrates…
Guardian
Moral, caring, empathetic…
Overbearing, martyr, reckless…
Mary Seacole, Kofi Annan…
Pioneer
Brave, inspiring, foresight…
Reckless, single-minded, short-sighted…
Captain Scott, Amelia Earhart…
Creator
Creative, thoughtful, passionate…
Single-minded, overbearing, selfish…
William Shakespeare, Frida Kahlo…
Core Subjects
Reading
At Air Balloon we believe that story telling should be at the heart of our English curriculum. Therefore, from September 2019, each year group will have a core of key books called ‘The Reading Spine’ which all the children will experience. The aim is for every child to experience the pleasure and challenge of great literature. Children are encouraged to read a wide range of books both at school and at home and are welcome to borrow books from our well-stocked library.
Reception – Reading skills are taught through daily phonic sessions and weekly 1:1 reading sessions with the children. Children start with learning their unit sounds and move onto learning tricky words (words which are not phonetic) and blending. By the end of the year, they will begin to blend vowels and syllables together to read longer, more complex words.
Year 1 – Reading skills are taught through daily phonics where children build on the phonic skills they developed during reception and widen their repertoire of tricky words. Reading time happens daily: some children will continue to have 1:1 reading sessions whilst others will be taught reading skills in larger groups.
Year 2-6 – We teach the whole class daily for at least 30 minutes instead of small groups once a week. In order to do this, teachers provide the children with a variety of challenging text extracts from books and teach them how to appreciate and understand these texts by focusing on the following skills:
For more information about our Reading curriculum and to find out more about our Reading Spine books, please visit our Reading page – www.abhps.com/reading
Writing
As a school we have adopted the talk for writing process for the teaching of writing. This involves a 3-stage learning cycle through the processes of:
Imitation – exploring the text’s language and structure so pupils are in a position to read it and identify key features.
Innovation – enabling the children to adapt an exemplar, critically reflecting on the effectiveness of key features.
Independent Application – independently applying their knowledge of the text type to create their own piece of writing.
Inspire – the opportunity to write for their own chosen purpose based on a class stimulus.
Our consistent teaching approach to writing aims to raise attainment by enabling children to become critically aware and independent writers. We follow the ‘Talk for Writing’ methodology, for both fiction and non-fiction which helps children to develop their writing creativity and gives them opportunities for more independent writing. Wherever possible links are made between the children’s writing and their learning across the curriculum – in particular to their Inquiry Projects.
Narrative texts
There are six key narrative types which are covered by each year:
Grammar is embedded within the Talk for Writing process and features in the imitation and innovation stages in particular
Phonics / Spelling. In EYFS and KS1 children have a daily Phonics lesson. From Year 2 onwards each year group follows the No Nonsense Spelling programme and children participate in the end of term Spelling Bee competitions. For more details on our Spelling Bee competitions and full details about the No Nonsense Spelling programme, please visit or Spelling Bee page: www.abhps.com/spelling-bee
Handwriting – In KS1 children have a 15-minute lesson every day and in KS2, lessons are three times a week as isolated 20 minute lessons. We follow the Pen Pals scheme of work.
Maths
At Air Balloon, we follow Maths No Problem and White Rose Maths to ensure the sequence of lessons is logical and coverage is complete. Maths is taught using the ‘CPA’ approach– children learn through concrete materials; followed by pictorial models; then finally abstract problems and calculations.
We want to help children to develop into resilient mathematicians who are fluent in the key maths skills, are able to reason and discuss their mathematical thinking and can solve a range of problems. This is our Maths mastery approach- teaching that gives pupils a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of mathematics. Teaching and learning is always planned to fit the needs of the individual child and is dictated by the needs of the class.
We encourage children to understand that making mistakes help us learn, and staff foster an inclusive and supportive problem solving environment. Staff consistently combat the “I’m no good at maths” stereotype as well as promoting greater depth learners to deepen their understanding.
All children in KS2 have a ‘Times Tables Rock Stars’ log-in and password and are encouraged to use this at school and at home to improve their fluency and speed in times tables.
Our Air Balloon Calculation Policies ensure a progression of key mental and written calculation skills across KS1 and KS2. This also includes our use of ‘Number Sense’ maths which promotes a range of strategies for children to accurately and speedily add and subtract within 20.
Science
The teaching of science is undertaken as part of the termly Inquiry Projects. Our science curriculum falls under 3 main areas of biology, chemistry and physics, we also teach children to work scientifically. Children will develop their scientific skills throughout their time at Air Balloon and will build on key knowledge and principles, often re-visiting areas of science that they have covered in earlier years. Example of some of our areas of scientific study include:
History
Through their Inquiry Project studies, children will develop a secure knowledge of key events in both British and International history. They will develop the skills required to be a historian, including choosing reliable sources of evidence. In Year 1, children will learn about the history of Air Balloon and how the school and locality has changed since the Victorian period. They look at both Victorian Britain and Britain in the 20th Century. In Year 2, children study the Great Fire of London and significant explorers in history – including John Cabot, Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong. In Key Stage 2, children study Prehistoric Britain, Ancient Egypt, Roman Britain and the Roman Empire, Anglo Saxons and Vikings, the Mayan Empire, World War 2 and Ancient Greece.
Geography
Our Geography curriculum equips children with knowledge and understanding of both physical and human geography, place knowledge and skills in field work. Children begin their study in Key Stage 1 with studies of the local area, characteristics of the United Kingdom, the seven continents and five oceans of the world. This is built upon in Key Stage 2 with more in-depth study of world maps (including the longest rivers, biggest deserts and highest mountains). Children will learn physical and human geographical vocabulary and be able to describe key aspects of human and physical geography.
RE
RE at Air Balloon focuses on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Reflecting one of our guiding principles that Everyone Belongs children learn about different faiths and cultures and the major world religions in a safe, kind and respectful environment.
The Air Balloon REspect curriculum has been designed in conjunction with the agreed Bristol RE syllabus. It covers all expectations of a primary school RE curriculum as well as supporting our school curriculum vision of enabling the children to understand why the world is like it is and exploring how they can make it a better place. We have called our RE curriculum REspect as we believe it reflects one of core values: be respectful.
The REspect curriculum is built around a series of questions that explore important aspects of faith and religions. The overarching themes, set by the question, are shared across the phase with each year group exploring it through a different religion.
The key themes explored throughout the RE curriculum are:
· Beliefs and teachings
· Religious practices
· Identity and belonging
· Seeking meaning
· Values
For an overview of our REspect curriculum, click here
For more information on the Bristol Syllabus for RE – Awareness Mystery Value – please visit their website – http://www.awarenessmysteryvalue.org/
PSHE
We use the 3D PSHE curriculum from Dimensions Curriculum Ltd. Through this curriculum, we will help pupils develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain. Pupils will also be taught through three underlying core themes, within which there will be broad overlap and flexibility:
PE
All children participate in PE and we are fortunate to have a range of specialist coaches come into school on a weekly basis to both facilitate and support our teaching of PE. Activities include boxing, gymnastics, football, fencing, archery, BMX biking and Bikeability. Children take part in both indoor and outdoor sporting activities and we hold regular sporting competitions against other local schools. From Years 3 upwards, children receive 2 terms of swimming lessons each year. In addition to weekly PE lessons, children have the opportunity to attend a number of extra-curricular sports clubs, including football, gymnastics, netball, dodgeball and dance.
Music
At Air Balloon, Music is taught through our Inquiry Projects as part of our cross-curricular approach to learning. We inspire pupils to develop a love and appreciation of music by giving them the opportunities to listen to, explore, create and perform music. Our curriculum ensures that pupils:
We have a wide range of extra-curricular music activities that children can participate in, including a school choir.
Computing
At Air Balloon we want our pupils to be literate in all aspects of our digital world and prepare them for using technology now and give them the skills they need to adapt as technology changes in the future. Our computing curriculum teaches children how to use technology responsibly and safely. Children learn how to use a range of computer programmes to create and edit their work, design multi-media presentations, create art work, program algorithms and solve problems. Children are taught how to explore the internet safely and through our term 3 Safe Kind and Respectful week, we do lots of work in conjunction with the national Safer Internet Day. We are fortunately to have 2 dedicated ICT suites where children have regular lessons and can also access at lunchtimes in KS2.
Art
Art is taught through our Inquiry Projects as part of our cross-curricular approach to learning. Children have the opportunity to create art through drawings, 3D designs, paintings, sculptures, prints, collages, textiles and digital media. Children will also learn about art and artists through the creators element of our 6 architypes
Design Technology
Through elements of their Inquiry Projects, children will design and create various items, they will learn how to use a range of materials and components to get the best outcome, learn how to evaluate their designs and make suggestions for improvements or changes. As part of DT, children will also study health diets, how to prepare and cook food safely and hygienically and how to use a range of cooking techniques (e.g. peeling, chopping, grating)
Modern Foreign Language (MFL)
At Air Balloon, children are taught French, in Early Years and Key Stage 1, this is mainly through songs and games while in Key Stage 2, children develop more detailed skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing.
For more information about any aspect of our curriculum, please email us – airballoonhillp@bristol-schools.uk