Our school intent

How we apply this in Language and Literacy

Empower children of all abilities, interests and backgrounds to work diligently and explore a range of future career opportunities across the curriculum through our ‘purposeful learning’ approach.

The English curriculum enables children with the opportunity to read and look in depth at a wide range of genre books linking to the foundation curriculum. For example: Revolt against the Romans linking to the Year 4 History Romans unit; James and the Giant Peach linking to the Year 3 PSHE unit ‘celebrating differences’; Hidden Figures linking to the Year 5 space unit in science and Street Child in Year 6 supporting their history unit on The Victorians. English lessons provide children with opportunities for written and spoken outcomes of lessons. Across units of work, there is coverage of drama, role play debates across the curriculum. Each unit of work builds towards the children creating an end piece of writing for a range of different purposes and genres. Lessons are recorded in a variety of ways, having written outcomes and oral work being presented through photographs and videos displayed using QR codes. In a Year 5 unit, guest speakers from the Stand by Me charity are invited to speak to the children about their work and how their role contributes to the wider community.  

Engage through our 11 activities which enrich the curriculum and the pupils’ school experience, ensuring pupils’ adopt a healthy lifestyle and make a difference to the community in which they live through acting generously.

We provide children with a residential trip to France; this opportunity enables children to experience a new culture and apply practise their oracy skills in speaking with locals. As part of the Year 5 curriculum, children visit the West End show Matilda. This enables children with the opportunity to see a story brought to life on stage and see first-hand other roles and responsibilities linked with theatre and production. The Year 3 and 4 curriculum sees children explore instructional writing; building on skills and following their own instructions to create products for the school community.

Ensure our support is effective for all pupils, providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed academically and emotionally whilst being prepared to benefit society.

The English curriculum overviews outline learning objectives and success criteria; providing a structure and outcome to each lesson. Knowledge and skills are consolidated throughout Key Stage 2 applying grammatical terms and writing skills to a range of writing purposes. Children are encouraged and supported to develop their vocabulary and language in both written and spoken tasks; this is prompted through the online resource ‘Widgit’. This enables children to have visual support through symbols, giving visual meaning to words. Curriculum overviews are adapted and personalised for children to assist them in working parallel to their peers. Shared reading enables discussions and book talk through adapted questioning, allowing all children to develop the love for reading.  

Enable the exploration and expression of opinions, beliefs, differences and attitudes through opportunities such as The Big Question, Spirituality Day, School Vision and Values days. These allow the pupils to disagree well in order to promote peace, consideration and connection

Our school intent

How we apply this in STEM

Empower children of all abilities, interests and backgrounds to work diligently and explore a range of future career opportunities across the curriculum through our ‘purposeful learning’ approach.

In maths, children are aware of how the skills they are learning today can help them later on in life. The STEM curriculum areas promote future career prospects enabling children to think about what they want to achieve in life and the importance of particular subjects. In Year 5, children become ‘Paratroopers’ applying their scientific knowledge from their forces unit to design and construct a successful parachute. In DT, our year 6 children have the opportunity to cook a three-course meal and produce a ‘Come Dine With Me’ style show promoting the role of a chef and a producer.

Engage through our 11 activities which enrich the curriculum and the pupils’ school experience, ensuring pupils’ adopt a healthy lifestyle and make a difference to the community in which they live through acting generously.

Throughout their time at William Ford, children are exposed to many different experiences that they may not experience at home - one of these is cooking a meal. Every child in every year group have the opportunity to cook or bake whether this be constructing fruit kebabs or baking scones. In Year 6, children cook a three-course meal which they serve to their parents. Our Year 3’s have the opportunity to visit Pizza Express and prepare their very own pizza which they eat for lunch. Children at William Ford have the opportunity to represent their school. Some of our Year 5 and 6 children have the chance to represent the school in ‘Moneywise’ - a maths challenge. The children also get the opportunity to represent their school at the boroughs Science Fair – highlighting their great work across the year. Science gives our Year 4’s the opportunity to visit London’s greatest Science Museum.

Ensure our support is effective for all pupils, providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed academically and emotionally whilst being prepared to benefit society.

Consistent interventions take place across the school providing those children - who require additional support - with the knowledge they need to succeed. Planning ensures that work is adapted for all to access. Where appropriate, some planning is adapted to suit individual learning needs. The curriculum overviews and outcomes outline learning objects which provides a structure and outcomes to each lesson. In maths, children are encouraged to use a range of manipulatives to help consolidate their learning.

Enable the exploration and expression of opinions, beliefs, differences and attitudes through opportunities such as The Big Question, Spirituality Day, School Vision and Values days. These allow the pupils to disagree well in order to promote peace, consideration and connection

Children are able to discuss and debate well the scientific views of a range of scientists. They are encouraged to form their own opinions. When working scientifically, children use knowledge learnt from previous lessons to form their own ideas and to collaborative discuss these with others.

Our school intent

How we apply this in Humanities

Empower children of all abilities, interests and backgrounds to work diligently and explore a range of future career opportunities across the curriculum through our ‘purposeful learning’ approach.

In history, we utilise the role of historian in all aspects of our enquiries. In year three, we specifically act as Egyptologists when completing tasks and refer to the work of archaeologists and historians, with reference being made to specific people taking on this role (Howard Carter, Herodotus etc.). Year four complete tasks as archaeologists, enquiring into the William Ford Bronze Age Hoard. These roles are continued throughout enquiries in the upper school. In geography, year three take on the role of geologists whilst exploring Volcanoes. Tourism is specifically focussed on in year six through the work on South America.

Engage through our 11 activities which enrich the curriculum and the pupils’ school experience, ensuring pupils adopt a healthy lifestyle and make a difference to the community in which they live through acting generously.

History gives opportunities to visit castles and museums. Year four visit Colchester Castle with links to their work on the Iron Age and the Romans. RE gives opportunities to interact with people of other faiths and to view religious buildings with year three recently completing a virtual tour of Bevis Marks Synagogue in the City of London. This event was run by the Jewish Museum. Further connections are being pursued to make visits to other religious buildings. RE gives opportunities for courageous advocacy, encouraging children to think about how we can be useful in the local community (litter picking, singing in Parkview Care Home). Geography will see year three this year visiting a coastal area (Walton) and visiting both a town beach and the Naze beach.

Ensure our support is effective for all pupils, providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed academically and emotionally whilst being prepared to benefit society.

All three subjects take on the form of enquiries with children answering and posing their own questions. They encourage critical thinking (should be dig up people who have been buried or what does this artefact tell me about the past / other people’s beliefs etc.?) Mapwork in geography is a useful skill for later life and future studies. Studies on climate change (geography) and stewardship (RE) ensure that children are thinking about how humans need to have a positive impact on and in the world.

Enable the exploration and expression of opinions, beliefs, differences and attitudes through opportunities such as The Big Question, Spirituality Day, School Vision and Values days. These allow the pupils to disagree well in order to promote peace, consideration and connection

Debate and discussion of belief in a religious and worldview context underpins all RE lessons in all year groups. Children are encouraged to form their own opinions and to learn to disagree in a constructive way. History lessons encourage children to think about the past and how it is interpreted and to consider the implications of aspects of historical enquiry (e.g., year three debate whether it is appropriate to study the past by digging up people who have been buried and laid to rest). Geography regularly looks at the impact that humans have on the world. An example being the impact humans have had on the River Ganges in India (Year 4).

Our school intent

How we apply this in Creative and Wellbeing

Empower children of all abilities, interests and backgrounds to work diligently and explore a range of future career opportunities across the curriculum through our ‘purposeful learning’ approach.

In creative and well-being, we promote healthy lifestyles by exposing children to a range of physical activities, including alternative and paralympic sports in PE, trips and visits including climbing, kayaking and archery, as well as various purposeful clubs, such as our ‘Get fit, get healthy’ club, run twice a week and our girls only multisport to inspire girls to engage with sport and feel empowered. This empowers pupils and enables all pupils to experience sport in a variety of ways that in turn has generated aspirational influences, with many of our children wanted to pursue a career in the sport and health industries.

Engage through our 11 activities which enrich the curriculum and the pupils’ school experience, ensuring pupils’ adopt a healthy lifestyle and make a difference to the community in which they live through acting generously.

In creative and well-being, we provide engaging, enriching activities and experiences which allow our pupils to make purposeful choices, as well as adopting a healthy lifestyle and contributing to the community. In PSHE, we have a carefully thought-out curriculum which covers topics, such as Health and Well-being, Hopes and Dreams, as well as Being me in this world. Through the units mentioned, as well as the multiple well-being initiatives that we run, such as our recent whole school project, supported by the Institute of Imagination, where the pupils learned to look inward, looking at ways to better themselves, pupils are able to make decisions to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Through our pupil-created collective worship topics, as well as multiple community events, including community breakfasts, ‘William Ford presents’ and our iSingPop Christmas concert, pupils are able to understand and contribute to making a difference to the community in which they live, through acting generously.

Ensure our support is effective for all pupils, providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed academically and emotionally whilst being prepared to benefit society.

Through creative subjects and topics, such as Art, Music and PE, pupils are able to express themselves and we pride ourselves at William Ford, in the support in which we provide for our pupils, enabling every pupil to reach their potential and beyond, academically and emotionally. Through our Mini Marathon scheme, our WOW travelling to school initiative, our alternative sport provision, as well as our ‘Get fit, get healthy’ club, run twice a week and our girls only multisport, we are addressing the statistics related to the borough of Barking and Dagenham and providing our pupils who may be reluctant to participate in team games and competitive clubs to participate and experience other ways to exercise and to succeed academically and emotionally. Through the Art club, run every lunch time, as well as our Art specialist and specific Art room, we offer effective support to all pupils, ensuring they have the space and time to express themselves and pursue their artistic goals and aspirations.

Enable the exploration and expression of opinions, beliefs, differences and attitudes through opportunities such as The Big Question, Spirituality Day, School Vision and Values days. These allow the pupils to disagree well in order to promote peace, consideration and connection

In creating and well-being, we enable all pupils to explore their creative traits, as well as expressing their opinions, beliefs and differences. Through our music curriculum pupils are able to discuss and explore their favourite genres of music, learning how to agree and disagree in a pleasant manor, as well as expressing themselves through units such as: Looping and remixing, where Year 5 pupils collaborate with Dagenham Park School’s music department, learning once a week in Dagenham Park’s music facilities, through their state of the art music resources and software, how to create their own piece of music, using looping and remixing techniques. This enables pupils to explore and express themselves in groups, disagreeing and compromising, whilst working towards their end outcome. Our big questions and values feed into every unit and pupils discuss these and make links to faith, beliefs and attitudes towards learning and life.

Our school intent

How we apply this in SEND and inclusion

Empower children of all abilities, interests and backgrounds to work diligently and explore a range of future career opportunities across the curriculum through our ‘purposeful learning’ approach.

William Ford is an inclusive school.  We are ambitious for all pupils and every classroom allows children, regardless of ability, to be creative, collaborate with peers, think critically and communicate their ideas confidently.  We recognise that not all children can express their learning in the same way.  Therefore, some children are empowered to work diligently and demonstrate gains in knowledge through written work where appropriate to their need but also through carefully planned support, interventions and opportunities such as artwork, videos, model building and even the use of QR codes!

Engage through our 11 activities which enrich the curriculum and the pupils’ school experience, ensuring pupils adopt a healthy lifestyle and make a difference to the community in which they live through acting generously.

Engagement in the curriculum is for everyone whether participating in events such as the penathalon, providing competitive sporting opportunities to children with disabilities and special educational needs, or ensuring that the experiences, and after school clubs offered are accessible to every child.  This is achieved through pupil premium subsidising where needed.  Making a difference within our local community and the wider world is demonstrated through engagement with Stand by Me and our children’s’ contributions to a mural to be enjoyed at Heathway Station.  In every experience, a child’s ability is no barrier to engagement and inclusion.

Ensure our support is effective for all pupils, providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed academically and emotionally whilst being prepared to benefit society.

We have a range of interventions aimed to support academic progress here at William Ford. Children who are identified as needing additional support are given access to interventions for reading, writing and maths. We use the cycle of assess- plan- do- review to ensure the correct provision is in place for every pupil that requires it.

As well as academic interventions, we recognise that the whole child needs to be nurtured and we need to ensure children have a regulated mind set in order to learn and make the best choices. We have a full time learning mentor delivering emotional and behavioural support for pupils across the school. She will support children with any barriers to their learning and guide to be successful in society.

Our large cohort of SEND pupils have some form of social and communication need. Therefore, we have developed a range of individualised strategies to allow pupils to express their gains in knowledge as well as having their needs and wants understood by others. One of the successful tools we use is Widget symbols used to help aide communication and understanding of language.

The Brilliant Club is another example of the way in which the school ensures effective support for pupils. Children who are identified in the upper school who are less advantaged, work with universities across the UK to experience life beyond school age and to widen their horizons, encouraging them to be successful in their future careers. 

Enable the exploration and expression of opinions, beliefs, differences and attitudes through opportunities such as The Big Question, Spirituality Day, School Vision and Values days. These allow the pupils to disagree well to promote peace, consideration and connection

Zones of regulation is a school wide tool used to help children understand and regulate their own emotions. Children sometimes do not understand how they are feeling or why and this tool enables them to share their thoughts and feelings with staff in a pictorial manner. Staff, including the learning mentor, will then be able to support the children in developing strategies to manage their emotions independently.  

At William Ford, we follow the Jigsaw PSHE curriculum to connect the pieces of Personal, Social, Health and Well-Being Education. The lessons teach children and young people emotional literacy, social- and lifelong skills, RSE/RSHE and resilience in an age-appropriate manner. In the unit “Celebrating Differences” children look at and celebrate what makes us all unique and why it is important to respect each other and promote peace.

We also celebrate diversities during Awareness weeks e.g., children mental health, autism awareness to raise the profile and understanding of pupils and staff with in our school and wider community.