Curriculum Detail

At Southey Green, we recognise the importance of children understanding key concepts, skills and knowledge, and how these support children’s learning. Here are key design and technology concepts, which are woven into our design and technology curriculum:

• Children are taught to design purposeful, functional and appealing products for themselves and others. They will explore, generate, develop and model ideas through talking, drawing, templates and mock-ups, as well as using computer-aided design.
• To ensure a product has a clear function and purpose, when designing and making, pupils should always think about what their products are for, how they will work and whether they will be liked by the intended users.
• Innovation is being original, imaginative and creative, and taking risks for a purpose.
• Children will evaluate their final products to test whether they work well and determine if they need to be corrected or improved.

We have high aspirations for our children to become the next engineers, designers, manufactures, chefs and inventors of the word and in KS2 we teach children about the work of famous creators. 

Year 3 - David Mellor 

Year 4 - Charles Lucien Bonaparte  

Year 5 - Jamie Oliver, Dame Barbara Hepworth 

Year 6 - Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld 

Reading sits at the heart of the curriculum at Southey Green Nursery & Primary School. Children are supported to become fluent readers who can read a wide range of texts, talk about what they have read with confidence and develop a genuine love of reading.

Throughout school, reading teaching builds accuracy, fluency and comprehension. Once children are fluent readers, lessons focus on developing specific reading skills, such as inference, using high‑quality class texts. Children read, explore vocabulary and practise skills in a variety of ways.

Children regularly read with adults in school. Early readers begin with Read Write Inc decodable texts that match their phonics knowledge before moving on to carefully selected books based on quality and personal interest. Reading at home is encouraged, with children provided with appropriate books and adults asked to record reading in the child’s reading log.

A strong reading culture is promoted through inviting classroom book corners, access to a wide range of texts and regular opportunities to read for pleasure. Children also benefit from timetabled visits to the Discovery Hub and, in Key Stage 2, visits to the local Southey Green Library.

At Southey Green we teach phonics using Read Write Inc.

Phonics is the systematic teaching of all the common sounds in the English language (RWI calls these the Speed Sounds). Children are taught to recognise the sounds and to put them together (‘sound blend’ them) into words for reading. 

Children are taught one way of representing the 44 main sounds of English first, and then go on to learn the alternative spellings later on. 

When teaching the letter sounds, it is important to remember to keep them very ‘pure’ and distinct, to help with sound-blending later on. To enable your child to gain confidence in reading, they should only be asked to read words containing letter sounds they know securely. 

Read Write Inc. introduces the simple Speed Sounds (one sound, one grapheme) with Speed Sounds Set 1 and Set 2. They then learn more ways of writing the same sounds with the complex Speed Sounds Set 3. Children are taught letter names before moving on to Speed Sounds Set 3. 

Once children know the first set of Speed Sounds, they are ready to read the first Storybooks.  

Speed Sounds

Handwriting at Southey Green is taught using the Martin Harvey scheme of work. Letters are grouped into families based on shared shapes and features, supporting correct letter formation from an early stage.

Handwriting is taught through at least four dedicated sessions each week, with a clear progression towards joined handwriting as children move through school. Consistent handwriting expectations are applied across all subjects to support fluency, legibility and pride in presentation.

Once children have a secure foundation in phonics, they move on to Read Write Inc Spelling. This is taught through daily sessions that focus on spelling patterns rather than isolated words, supporting children to apply their learning across all writing.

Children also learn common exception words from the National Curriculum, known as red and orange words. Spelling is regularly assessed and monitored to ensure progress.

In Upper Key Stage 2, spelling teaching includes a focus on etymology and morphology, helping children understand word origins and structure. This supports children to become more confident and flexible spellers, able to apply their knowledge effectively.

Geography at Southey Green is ever changing in order to keep up with world changes. As we know, a child’s understanding of their environment shapes how they interact with the world around them and therefore, we focus on developing and delivering a first class Geographical Curriculum, tailored to the needs of our learners. At Southey Green, we believe that Geography helps to provoke and provide answers to questions about the natural and human aspects of the world. Children are encouraged to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world, as well as their place in it. The geography curriculum at Southey Green helps children to develop their knowledge and skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas. We seek to inspire children’s curiosity of our fascinating world; promote our children’s interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments. Our curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable, throughout their time at Southey Green Primary and also to their further education and beyond.

Throughout our robust Geography curriculum, we have adapted it to teach children about the area we are fortunate enough to live in for example:  

• Year 1 – Where We Live 
• Year 2 – Sheffield 
• Year 3 – Our United Kingdom 
• Year 4 – Settlements 
• Year 5 – Fantastic Fieldwork 
• Year 6 – Climate Change 

At Southey Green, we aim for a high quality history curriculum which inspires pupils’ curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Topics are informed by the national curriculum and are sensitive to children’s interests, as well as the context of the local area. The history curriculum at Southey Green is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy. 

Our history lessons give children a broad and balanced view of the history of Britain and other societies and times. We ensure that pupils leave the end of key stage 2 with a secure set of skills that could make them a historian in the future. History at Southey Green is motivating, ambitious, relevant to the needs and awe-inspiring. Children at Southey Green enjoy a range of opportunities including attending educational visits, working with special visitors and developing historical skills using real life artefacts from our topic boxes.  Our history curriculum has been designed and sequenced to ensure each topic, where possible, begins with a Chronological Understanding objective. This allows children to identify and place key events so that they can relate them to themselves, previous and current learning as well as the wider world.

At Southey Green we understand the importance of teaching children about the diverse world around us. Our children learn about diversity which is woven into our history curriculum, through looking at the diversity within societies. They are able to study a range of significant individuals who have shaped and influenced our world in numerous ways, reminding them that sometimes significant individuals do not bring positive change. 

Significant Individuals: 

• Elizabeth I 
• Ole Kirk Christiansen 
• Christopher Columbus, Amelia Earhart 
• Henry VIII, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II 
• Edward the Confessor, Harald Hardrada, Harold Godwinson, William the Conqueror 
• Julius Caesar and Augustus 
• Alfred the Great 
• Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler 
• Noor Inayat Khan 

Educational visits and visitors play an important role in bringing history learning to life at Southey Green. Carefully chosen trips and workshops give children first‑hand experiences that deepen their understanding of significant events, periods and people. Pupils have opportunities to learn outside the classroom through visits linked to local and national history, as well as through visitors who share their expertise and help recreate life in the past.

Experiences such as learning about historical disasters through local visits, re‑enacting events from early British history with specialist visitors, and exploring life during World War 2 through immersive trip experiences help children make meaningful connections between classroom learning and real historical contexts. These opportunities develop curiosity, historical enquiry and understanding of how past events have shaped Britain and the wider world.

The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils: 
• Perform, listen to, review and evaluate music 
• Be taught to sing, create and compose music 
• Understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated. 

At Southey Green, we follow the Kapow Primary Music curriculum, which is designed to inspire a lifelong love of music and help every child feel that they are musical. The curriculum provides full coverage of the National Curriculum and introduces pupils to a wide range of musical styles, traditions, and cultures. Through engaging lessons, children develop key musical skills including singing, playing tuned and untuned instruments, composing, improvising, and listening with understanding. The scheme follows a spiral approach, revisiting and building on prior learning to ensure progression. It also supports the development of teamwork, creativity, and confidence through performance and collaborative activities, making music an enriching part of every child’s education. 

At Southey Green, we have chosen to follow the Kapow Primary music scheme. The scheme incorporates these strands of music in a spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon.

• Performing
• Listening
• Composing
• The history of music
• The inter-related dimensions of music

The intent of our PE curriculum is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all. It maximises the development of every child’s ability and achievement in PE. Our PE curriculum enables pupils to know more about physical activity, keeping healthy, remember and apply previously taught physical skills, builds confidence for children to participate and helps to encourage a healthy life style.  

We aim to deliver a PE curriculum which:

• Develops pupil’s confidence, self-esteem and self-belief. 
• Enables children to develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities. 
• Encourages and provides opportunities for all children to lead healthy and active lifestyles. 
• Supports pupils to know more, remember more and understand more about the positives involved in healthy lifestyle 

At Southey Green Nursery & Primary School we follow ‘Jigsaw RE’ in Years 1 - 6 which is compliant with the Sheffield Agreed Syllabus. This means we deliver a broad and balanced curriculum of RE for all of our children. The aim of Religious Education is that pupils will know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews and will express ideas and insights of their own into the significant human questions which religions address. 

Jigsaw RE is an enquiry-based approach for the teaching of RE. Each unit of work follows a theme which poses a key question to be explored by children. Children are engaged and they investigate, evaluate and express their own learning throughout the key theme. Religious education contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education in schools, provoking challenging questions about human life, beliefs, communities and ideas. 

In RE pupils learn from religions and world views about different ways of life in local, national and global contexts. They discover, explore and consider many different answers to questions about human identity, meaning and value. They learn to weigh up for themselves the value of wisdom from different communities, to disagree respectfully, to be reasonable in their responses to religions and world views and to respond by express insights into their own and others’ lives. They are encouraged to develop enquiring minds, and to think rigorously, creatively, imaginatively and respectfully about their ideas in relation to religions and world views. 

Religious Education is a key player in stimulating knowledge and understanding which can lead to tolerance and respect for others and their beliefs. It does not, however, teach children to passively accept, but rather encourages evaluation and critical thinking, equipping them to consider belief positions they encounter. Jigsaw RE contributes significantly to the British Values agenda. 

At Southey Green, we aim for every child to leave us with an inquisitive mind, rich full of scientific experiences and having the confidence to explain and discuss the weird and wonderful world that we live in. We prepare each child with a broad and balanced science curriculum. Our science education provides the foundations for understanding their world and ignites our pupil’s curiosity of the world around them. Science at Southey Green aims to be creative, motivating and enriching. We aim to develop the children’s working scientifically skills alongside their scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding. We ensure children learn from first hand scientific investigations to help them explore new and engaging opportunities. Our ambitious science curriculum drives to support children’s cultural capital, being mindful of the world around them and their own scientific understanding. 

At Southey Green Primary School, we have designed our science curriculum with the intent that our children will: 

• Build on their previous science learning to support a progressive science curriculum. 
• Experience quality scientific investigations and experiments to aid their learning- led by teachers and themselves. 
• Discover links and connections of their science learning and the wider community. 
• Have the confidence to demonstrate a greater understanding of the world around them. 
• Support and develop their speech and language skills by having the opportunity to discuss their science understanding using the correct scientific vocabulary. 

Science workshops at Southey Green provide children with exciting, hands‑on opportunities to explore scientific ideas beyond their day‑to‑day lessons. These whole‑school events and targeted workshops allow children to work practically, ask questions, make predictions and develop scientific vocabulary and observation skills through real investigations. Workshops are carefully planned to engage children of all ages and support progression in scientific thinking from Nursery through to Year 6.

Across the year, children take part in themed science days such as I Love Science Day and Colour Day, where the whole school focuses on key scientific skills including observing, predicting, testing and evaluating. Activities encourage children to use their senses, explore materials and changes, and notice patterns in the world around them. Experiences range from exploring colour mixing and absorbency in the early years, to investigating density, acidity and chemical reactions in upper key stage 2.

In addition to whole‑school events, science workshops are enhanced through partnership work with secondary science specialists. For example, children have worked alongside science teachers from Tapton School to investigate rocks, classify materials and grow crystals, developing careful measurement skills and using accurate scientific language. These workshops give children a real sense of what it means to be a scientist and help bring learning to life through practical enquiry.

Science workshops inspire curiosity, deepen understanding and build confidence, allowing children to experience the excitement of scientific discovery while applying skills they build in the classroom to meaningful, memorable investigations. Families can keep up to date with our Southey Science Workshops by visiting the school’s news section, where we regularly share updates and highlights.

At Southey Green Nursery & Primary School, we believe that the learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils. It helps them to develop communication skills, including the key skills of speaking and listening, and extends their knowledge of how language works. Learning another language gives children a new perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures, their own languages, and the culture and languages of others. 

Learning a new language is key to securing our positions in the global community we live in and by setting a starting point in our school, we can aim towards achieving this objective. At Key Stage 2, our objective is to build children’s curiosity and to develop a passion for French and other languages which may be looked at as part of our special days. 

National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all children:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
• Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied. 

Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) at Southey Green supports children to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to form healthy relationships, look after their wellbeing and keep themselves safe. RSHE is taught as part of our wider PSHE curriculum through the Jigsaw programme and is delivered in an age‑appropriate and sensitive way, meeting the needs of all pupils.

Teaching focuses on helping children understand relationships, respect themselves and others and learn about physical and mental wellbeing as they grow. Lessons consider children’s age, emotional maturity, cultural and religious backgrounds and any additional needs, ensuring learning is inclusive and supportive. RSHE also contributes to safeguarding by helping children recognise unsafe situations and know how to seek help.

RSHE is statutory in all primary schools and is made up of Relationships Education and Health Education. Alongside this, statutory Science teaching builds understanding of the human body, growth and reproduction in a factual and age‑appropriate way. Together, these elements support children to develop confidence, resilience and positive attitudes towards themselves and others.

At Southey Green Primary School, British Values are woven through our curriculum and daily school life. These values help children develop respect for others, understand the world around them and prepare for life in modern Britain. They are taught through lessons, assemblies, pupil voice opportunities and everyday interactions across the school.

In line with guidance from the Department for Education, we promote the following British Values:

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty
• Mutual respect
• Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs