Curriculum Enhancement
At Christleton Primary School, our curriculum is designed to go beyond the National Curriculum, offering a diverse range of enriching experiences and opportunities both within and outside of the regular school day.
Our approach includes a wide after-school club programme that not only supports the core curriculum but also provides avenues for developing specialist skills like computing, performing or French, thereby enriching children's cultural capital.
A primary focus of our curriculum is to elevate aspirations, instil a sense of personal pride in accomplishments, and establish a clear purpose and relevance for learning. We believe in nurturing well-rounded individuals who are not only academically successful but also socially and culturally aware.
Promoting Positive Health and Wellbeing
At Christleton Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing of every member of our school community and recognise how important mental health and wellbeing is to our lives, as is physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health and overall wellbeing can affect their learning and achievement.
A key aspect of our role in school is to ensure that children can manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that children learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and where they can go if they need help and support.
Positive wellbeing is promoted through the wider curriculum and all school activities. Through a carefully planned approach to PSHE, RSE and Citizenship our pupils are helped to acquire the knowledge and develop the skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, and to become resilient, informed and responsible citizens.
Whole school events are held including World Mental Health Day in October, and Anti-bullying Week in November. During these events, the focus is on mindfulness and resilience; teaching strategies for dealing with anxiety; and coping with change and transition.
PSHE & RSE
These subjects assist pupils to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world, manage transitions and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities. The concepts covered in PSHE include identity, managing feelings and emotions, relationships, change, resilience and being healthy, which includes physical, emotional, and social well-being.
Nurture Support and ELSA Support
Children who experience domestic violence, bereavement, anxiety, and any other life experiences that may affect their emotional well-being are identified and supported by a fully trained ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) teacher who will offer regular 1:1 or small group nurture support. The school supports the child in their specific needs, meaning the pupil is at the heart of the school focus and their learning is understood developmentally.
Physical Education
At least two hours weekly. Pupils have the opportunity to attend at sport-related after-school clubs throughout the year, and many take part in inter-school sporting competitions.
Extensive range of After-School Clubs
A range of after school clubs support children’s social and emotional development, and their well-being all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life. Activities are designed to be fun and cater for a wide variety of interests.
Healthy eating
Healthy eating is promoted throughout the school. We have a kitchen garden, orchard and raised growing beds. Parent volunteers support children working in the garden. The children grow a variety of fruit, vegetables and herbs and when harvested use these in cooking activities.
Disadvantaged and vulnerable children
These children are closely monitored to ensure barriers to learning are removed and enrichment opportunities are encouraged and supported.
Health Week
Health week is celebrated across the school and has a clear focus on health and well-being.
Whole School Theme Days / Weeks
Throughout the year, themed days/weeks are woven into the curriculum to extend and enhance the breadth and balance of opportunities we offer our pupils. These include, Anti-Bullying Week, Health Week, Online Safety Day, Creative Arts Week, World Book Day, European Day of Languages, RE Days and much more.
Forest School & Outdoor Learning
Forest Schools is a Scandinavian initiative designed to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through an innovative, long term, educational approach to outdoor play and learning in a woodland environment. As a school we are very fortunate in having our own woodland to deliver the Forest Schools programme.
Forest Schools is offered to all of our children. Sessions are designed around the needs of the group to ensure that they are learner-led. Many areas of the National Curriculum are intrinsically covered, in the Forest Schools experience without the programmes needing to be curriculum led. Teamwork skills are developed through games and activities. Individual skills and self-esteem are heightened throughout activities such as hide and seek, shelter building, tool skills, lighting fires or environmental art, the list is endless. Each activity develops intra and inter-personal skills as well as practical and intellectual skills.
We value the benefits of outdoor learning. Children are stimulated by the outdoors where they can undertake a range of practical activities to support and enhance learning across the curriculum.
Educational Visits and Residential Trips
School trips and visits are an integral part of the education of children at Christleton Primary School. We value the opportunities such visits offer our pupils and the commitment of staff and adults undertaking them. Trips include class visits aimed at bringing learning alive and providing first-hand experience; extra-curricular outings such as activities with the school choir or sporting events; and attending or taking part in performances or competitions.
Children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 take part in residential visits. These are planned to provide new and exciting experiences. Children in Year 3 have an overnight stay at the school; pupils in Years 4 & 5 have residential experiences at Nant and Pentre Outdoor Centres; and our Year 6 children take part in a challenging few days at the Conway centre where they experience climbing, abseiling, raft building, archery and lots more.
Visitors into School & Workshops
Visitors have a valuable role to play and can contribute to many aspects of the life and work of the school. They deliver talks, workshops and full day activities across a wide range of subjects, giving pupils access to outside experiences and expertise. Visitors provide a link with the wider community – children have the opportunity to work alongside artists, musicians, authors, health professions and others.
After-School Clubs
We endeavour to provide a wide range of opportunities both within and beyond the curriculum. We offer extra-curricular opportunities through various types of provision delivered by school staff, external providers, and independent clubs – all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life. Activities are designed to be fun and cater for a wide variety of interests.
We want to offer the scope for each child to find a passion, develop a talent, spark an interest, or simply find pleasure in doing an activity with others. After-school clubs are a fantastic way of achieving this, and we are excited to offer a wide range of clubs, including sport, art and craft, choir and French club etc.
Music, Art & Drama
Christleton Primary School provides opportunities for children to take part in a range of musical activities and performances where they are encouraged to sing, compose, and work creatively with sound. Through the Music for Life scheme, our Year 4 children have a range of opportunities within and beyond the curriculum to showcase their musical skills and talents.
School Council & Voice of the Child (Roles and Responsibilities)
Volunteering is an activity that everyone can get involved in and benefit from. At Christleton Primary School we promote and encourage pupils’ active citizenship and positive contribution to the school and wider community. We offer lots of opportunities for pupils to take on new responsibilities and be involved in successfully supporting the life and work of the school. These include elected representatives on our School Council where children are responsible for some of the following key areas of the school: Environmental Eco work, Rights Respecting etc. Older pupils can also apply and be interviewed for positions such as Sports leads, Playground Leaders and Librarians, and within classes children can volunteer to take on various responsibilities ranging from lunch duties, to helping with the organisation of equipment.
Involving children as volunteers is very empowering:
It helps them to develop self-confidence.
It promotes self-esteem.
It develops their skills as leaders.
It involves them in making their own decisions.
It gives them a voice in the life and work of the school.
It offers them opportunity to take responsibility
It enables them to make a positive contribution to the work of the school and wider community.
It helps to prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of adult and working life.
Pupils tell us that they enjoy the opportunity to volunteer to help make their school an even better place to be and rising to the challenge that additional responsibility brings.
Eco & Environmental Work
We are fortunate to have fantastic grounds, which we are very proud of. The children take part in managing this environment and learning about it in their forest school sessions. We also have an orienteering course within the grounds which enables active use throughout the year.
Charity & International Aid Support
Children at Christleton Primary School are actively involved in charity work and fundraising for various local, national and international charities.
We hold annual events such as the sponsored run were we raise funds for nominated charities. This year our children chose the Dogs Trust.
Often children will approach teachers with ideas to further raise money for different causes, in particular responding to an international issue.
Please have a look at our website and X feed (Twitter) which showcases many of the things we do.
