The Subjects we Teach

Below is a list of the subjects we teach and a brief description of how we approach them.

Learning to Learn and The Drayton Park Way

Running throughout our curriculum is the Drayton Park Way. It is a group of skills and attitudes that underpin all successful learning. It has been developed with pupils across the school and is embedded into our ways of thinking about teaching and learning. We even have a great logo for it, designed by our pupils, with support from a professional graphic designer...

The Drayton Park Way is:

• Independence: We want our pupils to be active and engaged learners, who solve problems for themselves. Learning at Drayton Park is not about sitting around and waiting to be told what to do.
• Effort: All learning takes effort. We expect our pupils to try their best, all the time.
• Ambition: At Drayton Park, we talk about reaching for the stars. We believe all our pupils can succeed. We want our pupils to believe that too.
• Teamwork: Collaborating with and learning from others is crucial throughout life. We develop and celebrate pupils' teamwork skills.
• Resilience: Learning is a risky business. It involves stepping outside one's comfort zone, into the unknown. Mistakes are both inevitable and a crucial part of the learning process. We teach children to respond well to mistakes, to keep on trying, to never give up and above all learn from their mistakes.

English

Reading and writing every day is very important to us at Drayton Park. We teach both reading and writing in many engaging ways. Reading is taught through one to one reading, guided group reading and whole class books. Exploring a variety of high quality texts is at the centre of our teaching. We teach English through our topic based learning which allows us to ensure our lessons are creative and exciting for our children. We teach writing through our 'Write for All' fortnightly cycle. This includes the teaching of grammar and punctuation, art/drama or speaking and listening activities, short writing tasks, planning for writing, creating extended pieces of writing leading to taking part in the editing process. Spelling is taught throughout the week through a number of  fun activities to make learning spellings accessible to all. ​We aim to establish a love of reading and writing for life. 

Maths

At Drayton Park, we teach mathematics in many creative and exciting ways - through written and spoken activities, game playing and technology, real-life, practical application and engaging problem solving. We aim for the children to be competent and independent mathematicians who can use and apply their skills in all areas of life. Maths teaching is enjoyable, challenging and purposeful across all year groups. We promote a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards learning so that children can achieve and feel successful. We teach resilience and perseverance so that children can approach a maths problem with confidence and flexible thinking.

Science

Content coming soon!

Personal, Social, Emotional and Health Education

PSHE education at Drayton Park involves learning about the Drayton park Way (Team Work, Effort, Resilience, Motivation and Independence). These themes are explored in all the Key areas taught in PHSE:

• sex and relationship education

• drug, alcohol and tobacco education

• physical health, including healthy eating and physical activity (fun, food and fitness)

• mental health

• behaviour and safety

• financial capability

• < >PHSE supports the development of personal, social and life skills; the identification of and dealing with emotions and feelings, exploring health-related issues, understanding about oneself, relationships with others and one’s place in the world, learning about managing finances, the world of work and planning for the future.  It supports pupils to lead healthy, safe, fulfilled and responsible lives.

   

  Citizenship education prepares pupils for the social and moral responsibilities of community involvement: the understanding of democracy and justice, rights and responsibilities and exploring identities and diversity.  It helps them develop political literacy and to become informed, critical, active citizens who have the skills, confidence and conviction to advocate, take action and try to make a difference in their local, national and global communities.

Physical Education

A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities. We provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. We offer opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect. Twice a day every day, pupils engage in a dance and fitness programme called '5-a-day'. Each pupil participates in two hours sports and games coaching every three weeks. They also get two hours dance tuition every three weeks. We employ specialist teachers to deliver these programmes. On other weeks, class teachers deliver a PE lesson that focuses on athletics or gymnastics. For one term every year, pupils in Years 3-6 go swimming for an afternoon at Highbury Pool, where lessons are taught by specialist instructors.

A structured sports game, led by an adult, is available to children every lunchtime. We also run a large variety of PE clubs that your child could join. These take place before school, after school and during lunchtimes.

Please note that we never accept a lack of PE kit as an excuse for not participating in PE lessons. If your child does not have a PE kit, they will take part in their school uniform. We will provide them with appropriate footwear if necessary.

Between 2015 and 2017, we received £18,000 additional funding for Sports and PE from the government. You can view a report on how we used the money and its impact below.

Computing

At Drayton Park we are committed to equipping our children with the skills they need to be safe, confident and independent computer users. Where possible, computing is embedded across the curriculum to ensure that teaching is contextualised and meaningful. There are sets of networked laptops in all our Key Stage 2 classes to facilitate this.

Technology is advancing rapidly and we are focused on giving our children the skills they need to communicate their ideas. This includes learning about coding, creative technology use, digital literacy and gaining confidence in using a wide range of computer programs. In our curriculum, we focus on three key areas of computing: 

• programming and coding 
• communicating, handling data and using multi-media
• learning to be safe online 

We have a computer suite, which children access for an in-depth lesson, once a fortnight.

​Children are encouraged to use computing to aid their learning both in school and at home. All children are provided with individual log-in details to access programs, for instance, the specialist maths website, Mathletics. There are lots of educational games on this website! Go to the Kids' Zone to find out what's there.

Humanities

Content coming soon!

Art and Design Technology

Design and technology (DT) is an exciting practical subject that enables children to develop their creativity and imagination by solving real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, and to create products with due consideration of their own and others' needs, wants and values.  Through DT, children learn skills in designing and making, they learn to evaluate their own work and that of their peers, and they build and develop their technical knowledge. 

Cooking and nutrition also falls under the subject area of DT.  During their time at Drayton Park, children will learn about the importance of eating a healthy and balanced diet, as well as the practical life skill of preparing and cooking food that is affordable and good for them.  They will learn where the food they eat comes from, how it is grown, reared, caught or processed, and understand the seasonality of it.

Religious Education

At Drayton Park we believe that Religious Education (RE) contributes to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and supports wider community cohesion.

We follow the Islington Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education which states that young people in Islington should have the opportunity to:

• Learn about the beliefs and values of the individuals, families and communities who live in Great Britain.
• Learn about Christianity; it has been of central importance to the history of our country and is one of the many strands involved in shaping its future,
• Learn about other religious as well as non-theistic ethical life stances.
• Explore, develop and share their own responses to the fundamental questions of life.  

As well as learning about the major world faiths, children will also have the opportunity to visit places of worship and meet visitors from different faiths.   

Spanish

Spanish is taught by a specialist teacher. Each child from Years 1-6 gets an hour of Spanish, every fortnight. We teach Spanish as our modern foreign language, because most of our local Secondary schools also offer it. Our aim through teaching Spanish is to give our pupils a firm grounding in the language and culture of Spain, as well as experience of learning another language.

Music

Content coming soon!