In January 2020, we launched a fantastic resource at The Bishops' called Power Maths.

Please read the parent letter and presentation below which will give you some information about what Power Maths is and how it supports your child's Mathematical learning using a mastery approach whilst developing their growth mindset and confidence.

If you want to understand the approaches we use in school to support your child at home, please have a look at our calculation policies below. These help to outline the key methods and vocabulary that we use; ensuring consistency both at home and throughout the school from EY's to Y6.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to your child's class teacher or Miss Burnett, our Maths Lead.

Parent information about Power Maths

Key Vocabulary

Overview by year group below.

For visual representations to help explain what these terms mean, see the Vocabulary Posters below which are arranged by year group.

 

Our Calculation Policies

How does Power Maths ensure we cover all aspects of the National Curriculum?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At The Bishops’ we aim to provide a rich and engaging PSHE curriculum that meets the needs of the children in our community. Our PSHE curriculum is designed to deepen knowledge and develop skills, ensuring effective progression within the subject and across all year groups.

The PSHE curriculum is delivered through highly effective 'quality first teaching' which aims to broaden our pupil’s understanding of themselves and the wider world around them.  This is done through open discussion, engaging in difficult conversations and enabling our pupil’s to feel safe and supported to ask questions.

Our PSHE curriculum includes the new statutory guidance for Relationships, Sex and Health Education and the non-statutory guidance for promoting British Values within SMSC and citizenship.   The PSHE curriculum is split into three core themes:  

 Health and wellbeing: physical health and mental wellbeing, growing and changing, keeping safe  

 Relationships: families and friendships, safe relationships, respecting ourselves and others  

 Living in the wider world: belonging to a community, media literacy and digital resilience, money and work    

As a church school, our core values underpin all we do, especially within our PSHE curriculum. We persevere, we learn how to be compassionate, we respect each other, we learn how to forgive, we trust each other and we learn courage. Our PSHE curriculum enables our pupils to explore our values whilst learning about themselves and the wider world around them.  Our PSHE curriculum is tightly linked to our social, moral, spiritual and cultural development plan in order to enable our pupils to truly flourish within our communities and the wider world around them. We want our pupil’s to develop self-confidence through our delivery of PSHE in order to live out our mantra: faith to belong, believe, aspire and achieve.  

Our PSHE curriculum addresses both pupil’s current experiences and prepares them for the future. We provide a spiral curriculum to develop knowledge, skills and attributes, where prior learning is revisited, reinforced and extended yearly. As a Trauma Informed School, it is also important that our PSHE curriculum be flexible in order to react to events which may impact our children, as they happen around the world.  

We believe that our PSHE curriculum will support our pupils to become resourceful members of the community, who aspire to help and support others, be mindful and respectful of difference, with an understanding of their own health and wellbeing which will remain with them as they grow.

 

 

Relationships and Sex Education

As a part of your child’s education at The Bishops’ C of E School, we promote their personal wellbeing and development through a comprehensive personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum. This subject area gives young people the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and practical skills to live safe, healthy, productive lives and achieve their full potential and 'life in all it's fullness' John 10:10.

A key element of the PSHE curriculum, relates to relationships and sex education (RSE). The Department for Education (DfE) released updated guidance on the delivery of Relationships and Education in 2021.  As always, all our teaching will take place in a safe learning environment and will be underpinned by our school Christian ethos and values. 

As a school community, we are committed to working in partnership with parents, in all aspects of children’s schooling and we held a parent consultation which closed on the Friday 28th May 2021.

As part of this, we invited you to:

1. Read through our draft RSE policy. 
2. Watch the teacher information PowerPoint/video. 
3. Give your thoughts and opinions, by answering questions in the online questionnaire.

Please see the below document outlining our response to the parent consultation.

Other resources: 

DfE Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education Guidance 

Understanding Relationships and Health Education: a Guide for Parents 

 

 

Bishops’ PE Vision: To create endless possibilities for every child to flourish physically, emotionally and socially through encouraging healthy active lifestyles, participating in competitive sports and developing our Christian Values to excel in a wide range of PE.

 Our Christian values: Respect, Trust, Perseverance, Forgiveness, Courage and Compassion.

At The Bishops’ C of E school, we believe that all our pupils can flourish and reach their full potential in PE. We realise that PE and physical activity plays a vital role in a child’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development and therefore, we believe it is essential to always celebrate our pupils’ successes and physically active lifestyles inside and outside of school. We aim through the teaching of high-quality, PE and providing endless sporting opportunities in school, for all pupils to be physically active through the development of their agility, balance and physical co-ordination. We aim to do this through a progressive curriculum and extra-curricular activities, utilising schemes such as Arena PE from EYFS through to Year 6, which enables them to develop the knowledge, skills and competence to excel in a broad range of sports, physical activities and outdoor learning.  Furthermore, we adopt the approach of implementing our Christian values within our PE curriculum: children will learn how to respect and be compassionate to one another; to trust their peers and work collaboratively, to persevere and be courageous when learning outside of their comfort zone; and to be able to understand when to forgive in a sporting event. Ultimately, our pupils will carry these Christian values into their higher education and make a positive contribution to society.  

 

At The Bishops' we enjoy taking part in lots of different sports in and out of school. We have recently had the Cornish Pirates in to teach some of our KS2 children the rules and skills of rugby and have competed in tournaments following on from our training. We also have our amazing netball, football and cross country teams alongside our competitive swimmers who take part in events across the county and inter-school events with local schools. 

 

 

Reading at The Bishops'

"The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." Dr Seuss

At The Bishops' we love reading and believe it is the most important part of our primary school; it is our intention to provide children with the necessary, life-long skills that they need, to ensure that they can read confidently and also with a secure understanding.  We know reading helps children to achieve across all areas of the curriculum and it positively impacts all aspects of their lives. We celebrate, promote and foster a love of reading, by providing children with the opportunity to listen to and interact with a range of literature, including fiction and non-fiction texts, as well as poetry.

Teaching early reading

Every day at school, children are provided with the opportunity to practise reading at length. To teach early reading skills, we use a systematic approach towards early reading, called Read Write Inc (RWI), developed by Ruth Miskin. Children have daily, forty-five minute phonics sessions, where they participate in speaking, listening, reading and spelling activities, that are tailored to their needs - you can find more information about this, below.

Reading sessions

After children have progressed from the Read Write Inc programme, they begin to access daily, high quality reading sessions. The aim is to provide children with access to high quality texts where, through a variety of reading strategies (ECHO reading, Partner Reading as examples) needed to fully understand a text. These novels link, not only to the Year groups wider topic but also feeds into their Writing.  We believe that children need to be given the opportunity and encouragement to read independently, to build confidence, stamina and fluency, as well as develop their experience and enjoyment of a range of books and authors.

Reading for pleasure

We believe that children need to be given the opportunity and encouragement to read independently, in order to build confidence, stamina. Our older children act as ‘reading buddies’ to the younger children and share their love of stories and books, at carefully planned times. Individual children are presented with reading awards in our celebration worship assembly. As well as this, ‘Head Teacher’s Reading Tea and Cake Parties’ take place, to celebrate children’s reading efforts. Children who will benefit, also read with our therapy dog, at specific times throughout the week.

In each classroom, there is a well-stocked library area, consisting of a range of fiction and non-fiction books. We also have a carefully organised library area that is used by pupils across the school. Early Years visit the library weekly and Key Stage One choose books at least half-termly to take home and enjoy with their families. We subscribe to the Education Library Service and select new books, each term. Children’s reading interests are taken into account when new books are chosen, allowing them to take ownership of the books available to them in their class.  

The children who have progressed from Read Write Inc, begin to access books on the Accelerated Reader Programme and are provided with the opportunity to read independently, each day. The digitally based reading software provides children with a reading level and suggests books that match their reading age and interest. However, we do not limit children to choosing books from a specific level, but instead have individual conversations with them about their choice of book and help them to select an appropriately challenging and engaging read. Children read their book and then complete quizzes, to gauge their understanding.

Daily story time

In addition to this, teachers read to the children daily - story time is a key part of the day and a poem a day is also shared! Classes also have library time and children are able to borrow books from our school library. We encourage children across the whole school to read at home daily and use reading records, to communicate with parents about children's progress in reading.

 

 

At the Bishops’ C of E Learning Academy, we use the ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics programme designed by Ruth Miskin to teach early reading. The structured programme helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. At the core of the programme is the lively and vigorous teaching of synthetic phonics. Children learn the 44 common sounds in the English language and how to sound-blend words for reading (decoding) at the same time as developing handwriting skills and spelling (encoding).

 

We have found that by using the Read Write Inc. programme, children experience success from the very beginning of their reading journey. Lively phonic books are then closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and as children re-read stories their fluency increases. The stories include prompts to support thinking out loud and discussions, helping children develop the skills they need to be successful storytellers.

 

Read Write Inc. lessons are fun and engaging and all staff who deliver the reading sessions are fully trained. The lessons are taught daily and pupils are regularly assessed and grouped to enable appropriate challenge and pace throughout the programme.

 

There are five key principles that underpin the teaching and learning in all Read Write Inc. lessons:  

1. PACE – Our children are active and involved in every session. We ensure that no time is wasted and that every minute of learning is maximised.
2. PRAISE – Our teachers constantly praise the children for their efforts. The children are also encouraged to praise each other and as a school we have developed a number of ‘praise actions’.
3. PURPOSE – Each activity has a clear purpose. The teacher will share the purpose of each activity with the children so that they know exactly what they will be learning.
4. PARTICIPATION – All children are supported to be involved in each part of the lesson.
5. PASSION – Our staff are extremely passionate about the teaching of Read Write Inc. We love teaching the sessions and watching our children become confident readers.

 

How will Read Write Inc be taught?

At the Bishops’, reading skills are developed early. In our Nursery, children are supported to develop vital listening and speaking skills through games, songs and rhymes. Children are also introduced to our Read Write Inc mascot/friend, Fred the frog and where appropriate taught how to say initial sounds.

From the very first week in Reception, children learn phonemes (segments of sound) and the corresponding grapheme (the letter/s that represent the sound) during daily ‘speed sound’ sessions. The sounds are divided into 3 sets and have handwriting phrases to support letter formation. In reception children will learn set 1 sounds and the majority of set 2 sounds; in Years 1 and 2, children will be secure with set 2 sounds and learn new set 3 sounds. These sounds are shown below.

 

Word Time

When children have learnt the first few sounds they are also taught to read words by blending the sounds together. This is called blending or ‘Fred Talk’. The children are introduced to our Read Write Inc mascot ‘Fred the Frog’ who can only talk in pure sounds. Fred can only say the sounds in a word and needs help from the children to read the word. Fred will say the sounds and children will work out the word. For example, Fred will say the sounds s-a-t, and children will say the word sat.

Click on the below links for more information.

Green Words

Once our children are able to sound blend, they have lots of opportunities to apply this new knowledge to reading words. 'Green' words are phonetically decodable words that the children learn to read. These are learnt in accordance with the sounds that they are learning at that time and support children to become fluent readers. Regular reading of these words ensures children are able to recognise/read them quickly.

Red Words

As well as 'green words,' children will also come across 'red words'. These are also known as 'tricky words' and they are the words that children will need to learn to sight-read because they contain parts that are not decodable. They might only be red words until a specific sound is learnt. 

Nonsense Words 

Nonsense words (also known as Alien words) are made-up words using a combination of sounds the children have learnt. Research has shown that incorporating nonsense words into teaching reading can be an effective way to establish blending and segmenting skills. However, it is important to ensure that children understand that they are reading nonsense words (and why) so that they are not confused by trying to read the words for meaning. By reading nonsense words children develop their ability to decode individual sounds and then blend them together to read. These nonsense words feature on the Year 1 phonics screening check.

 

Read Write Inc Books

After children have learned enough sounds they will begin to read 'Ditty' books in their Read, Write Inc. lessons, as well as continuing Speedy Sounds and Word Time sessions. Ditty books contain 3 short stories that the children read and these stories are made up from green and red words.

 

 

Following Ditty books children continue to read groups of books that have been specially written to support progress through the scheme. Each colour band contains 10 main books, with extra books to support non-fiction reading as well. Children are taught to read the 'green' and 'red' words at the beginning of each book, before checking understanding using the 'vocab check' page. The children also talk about the upcoming story to make links to their own experiences before reading the book with their reading partner, usually 3 times. The first time is to practise decoding the words, the second time is to practise expression and the third time is to read for comprehension. Children develop their comprehension by answering 'find it' and 'prove it' questions about the text. Each book focusses on a particular sound or set of sounds, allowing the children to practise the sounds that they have been learning most recently. 

 

We also send home carefully matched books to practise reading at home.

 

 

How can I support my child at home?

At the Bishops’ C of E Learning Academy, we will always keep you up to date with your child’s progress in their reading and give you information about how you can best support your child at home. Throughout the year, we hold a number of parent workshops where you will be given information about the different stages of reading, alongside our popular ‘Reading Stay and Play’ sessions where you are invited into the classroom for a morning of reading activities with your child.

 

• Practise saying and reading ‘pure’ sounds using the pronunciation guide. Avoid using the letter names or capital letters as these will be introduced later.

 

• When your child is ready they will bring home a reading book that matches the level that they are working at within the Read Write Inc scheme. Listen to your child read as often as you can and use the prompts at the back of the book to support your child's comprehension of the story.

 

• Each time your child moves to a new colour band of book, they will bring home a list of 'tricky red words' to be practised. Encourage your child to practise reading and writing these sight words from memory to support fluency. 

 

• Read and read some more – teachers read aloud to children every day to help support listening and comprehension skills and to help foster a love of reading. You can help with this by reading high quality texts to your child each day and talking about the stories you have read. 

Here are some tips for reading at home with your child:

Please help us to give every child the very best opportunities during their primary years of school.

•  Read with your child every day – and that is all children of all ages. 
• Ask them questions about their book.
• Ensure they can decode fluently as well as understand and enjoy the story/text. 
• Join your local library to access a whole range of books to read at home.
• Read for enjoyment. This includes fiction, non-fiction, comics, novels, magazines, leaflets etc
• Don’t forget rhyme, repetition and poetry. These can really engage children of all ages. 

Above all, make it fun!

Reading challenge.

Listed below are the top fifty books that are recommended that your child reads. Have a look and see how many of these you can read this year. If you click on the link you can also download a checklist too. Happy reading! 

Reception	Year 2	Year 4	Year 6
Year 1	Year 3	Year 5

Accelerated Reader - Bishops' CofE Learning Academy

 Useful Websites

•  Ruth Miskin RWI Website- for more information and ideas for supporting your child visit the RWI website.
• Cornwall Library Service - visit the Cornwall Library website to sign up for free to library services such as online e-book access and a click and collect borrowing service.
• Oxford Owl - visit the Oxford Owl website which has over 100 free eBooks for to enjoy with your child.
•  RWI Pronunciation guide- a video clip, demonstrating how we produce our pure sounds to help during our Read Write Inc lessons.
• Family Learning: Phonics Games - Phonics games will help your child to practise sounding out words, which will help them to read.

 

RE at The Bishops’

RE is looked upon as a core subject at Bishops’ and the standard of work that the children produce is the same as we would expect in English. We follow the 2020 Cornwall agreed syllabus. It is taught every week for a minimum of an hour and in most cases, significantly longer than this. Christianity is the predominant faith that is taught with the school following the scheme, ‘Understanding Christianity’. This scheme is highly challenging and encourages the children to think very deeply and ask questions; it is very much an enquiry based teach programme. In addition to this, each year group learn about another world religion, outlined in the long term planning. The children also learn about Cornwall as a spiritual place through the ‘Curriculum Kernewek’ units that are taught each academic year. Opportunities for spiritual development are planned for in each unit using the concept of ‘windows’, ‘mirrors’ and ‘doors’. This ensures that the children are given new knowledge, chance to reflect on that knowledge and then consider how it has an impact of people’s lives. RE is assessed through teacher assessment at the end of each unit taught, where the children are considered to be ‘working towards’ the standards, achieved the standards or are ‘digging deeper’.

Christian distinctiveness at The Bishops’

As a Church of England School, we place God at the heart of what we do and this is made evident throughout the school building. Each classroom contains a reflection area which shows the current Christian value being taught, corresponding Bible verse as well as a cross, bible and examples of children’s current work which supports the value for the term. The main hall is also used as a ‘Church’ during our collective worship times and contains displays showing our core values and school Vision.

Prayer is strongly encouraged and there is opportunity for this through the school prayer box and our collective worship. We follow the liturgical seasons and colours and have close links with St Michael's Church in Newquay, where we have regular services. The children are regularly encouraged to think spiritually and are given opportunities to begin to consider their own personal beliefs and values. This is done across the curriculum with especially attention to this in RE and PSHE lessons.

Collective worship at The Bishops’

Worship is integral to who we are. The children participate in a wide range of differing collective worships. These include: whole school collective worship which takes the form of a mini church service, Bible stories (open the book), singing collective worship, Key stage collective worship which focuses specifically on the Christian value for the term and a celebration/sharing assembly at the end of each week. Key elements to all of our worship include, biblical text and teaching, prayer, times of quietness and reflection and sharing the peace. Some of our older children form a worship group. These children sometimes lead collective worship or assist the adult leader. Our special link with St Michael's means that we have regular ‘services’ led by local church leaders, especially for specific times in the church year such as lent, harvest and Pentecost. The children themselves have a say in how we run this important part of our school life through conferencing. The children are also taught the importance of taking communion for Christians. Children in Year 5 are given lessons and ultimately, the chance to take communion for the first time at a very special service in St Michael's. We ensure that this part of the children’s school life is both memorable and meaningful.

Curriculum Components

At The Bishops' Church of England Learning Academy we use the excellent Understanding Christianity resource as the basis for our RE teaching about Christianity. It uses scripture as a starting point for discussions about God, the Bible, Jesus and how Christians live. It encourages children to consider life from a Christian point of view, yet also allows for children with other opinions to air their views. It is a creative approach that includes art, music and poetry. We use discussion and debate as a vehicle for critical thinking, and our values are the basis of our learning.  Understanding Christianity covers most of Curriculum Kernewek (2014 Cornwall Agreed Syllabus)- the remaining areas can be seen on our long term plan. 

As a C of E Academy 60% of our curriculum coverage is Christianity, with the remaining 40% spent finding out about other world religions. We aim to enable children to live together well with those of all other religions and cultures. 

Understanding Christianity Website

 

 

 

As Science is a core subject, it is taught on a weekly basis and linked to the National Curriculum scheme of work. This year, we have started using 'Developing Experts' which is a library of over 700 interactive science lessons, fun activities and assessment opportunities, which allow the children to develop their science knowledge, including vocabulary, and working scientifically skills. Within our curriculum mapping, we have tried to link the science topic to the current class topic in the hope that children see science within a context. As with our foundation subjects, each science topic has a 'Big Question' and each lesson starts with its own question that the children work towards answering. 

 

In addition to this, we take part in an annual 'Science week' and make links with the local secondary schools as well as building on our links with the Ogden Trust partnership schools, taking part in collaborative projects and events. 

SCIENCE AMBASSADORS

At The Bishops, each class has 2 Science Ambassadors.

The aim is to raise the profile of science within the school and allow children to have a voice within a core curriculum subject. They are involved in class experiments and investigations as well as taking part in whole school events. They are currently creating a quiz for the whole school to use as part of the Science Day on 16^th March.

Today, to raise their profile more, they were presented with their very own LAB coats which they will wear during science lessons and events. I’m sure you will all agree how smart they look. It certainly makes them look and feel like ‘scientists’.

 

Lego League competition

This year, after a successful bid to the Institute of Engineering, budding scientists from The Bishops' will be taking part in the LEGO League competition for the first time. 

There are two sections involved in the Lego League:-

• Robot Games- students programme the robot to do different tasks on a mat (there are 30+ challenges to try but the children will be focusing on just two or three).
• Innovation Project -students come up with an idea around this year’s theme Cargo Connect. Students can also design their robot and will need to show how they have met Lego’s Core Values. 

At the Regional Finals at RNAS Culdrose the students will be scored on the Robot Games and students will give a presentation to the judges on their Innovation project, Robot Design and Lego Core Values.

We will keep you updated on our progress.