At Millbrook Primary School we aim to be inclusive, diverse, and tolerant. We are situated in Kirkby Town and work within a family of local schools. Our curriculum celebrates the local area and enables all children at Millbrook to show the qualities of a Kirkby child. Collaborating with our family of schools, the children of Kirkby have decided they wish to embody the following qualities: Respect, honesty and truthfulness, resilience, positivity, excellent communication, commitment, hard work, confidence, politeness, ambition, and aspirations.
We aim to teach a broad and balanced curriculum with clear progression through the key stages. Our curriculum identifies threshold concepts and key knowledge which enable children to develop expertise and proficiency across and within all subjects. These concepts drive our curriculum knowledge and progression maps which detail the breadth of study plus significant milestones along the way. Our skilled and dedicated subject leaders and teachers build a sequence of lessons to facilitate the curriculum and progression. Our teachers are supported by subject leaders who aid the planning process with high quality resources, clear expectations, thorough subject knowledge, and pedagogy expertise.
Our classes each have tree names and are a mixture of regular or mixed-age classes. In September 2022 we admitted a ‘bulge year’ to support the local authority to offer each child a primary school place in Kirkby. This is currently our Year 2. In Summer 2023, the local authority indicated that the number of children on roll would be increasing in the future and a comprehensive building programme began to accommodate this in April 2024. Our success and growth have required some year-on-year adjustments to our two-year rolling programme to ensure all the children a full and ambitious curriculum offer whatever path they take through Millbrook Community Primary School.
How do we secure excellent progress at Millbrook?
During the morning, we focus on the key knowledge and skills of English and Mathematics. Our main whole school programmes such as Power of Reading (currently under review), White Rose Mathematics, Spelling Mastery, Nelson Grammar and Read, Write Inc take place at this time. These programmes create the backbone of our curriculum but when adapted and fine-tuned to our local needs have been proven effective. More information can be found on the English and Mathematics pages. There are set assessment points within these programmes which enable us to assess children’s progress and adapt our teaching and provision to match the needs of our pupils.
How do we ensure we maintain a broad and balanced curriculum?
Our wider curriculum is organised into subject specific topics which enable key concepts to be developed as children progress throughout the school. This breadth and balance is enhanced by our English lessons using high-quality children’s literature with purposeful links to other curriculum areas. A well-resourced, ambitious curriculum alongside excellent teaching leads to good and better attainment across our school which is enhanced by our local environment. Our Art and Design curriculum is delivered in partnership with Kirkby Gallery. We enjoy bespoke activities inspired by the items on display, with creative writing, art and analytical challenges linking to the curriculum wherever possible. From Edgar Degas to Quentin Blake, we have seen it all! Knowsley CLC and Teach Computing lesson plans support the teaching of Computing throughout school with face-to-face lessons, tech support and knowledge. History teaching is enlivened through the Keystage History resources which promotes children talking and thinking historically about events and why decisions were made that affect us and our world to this day. Odizzi.com and Digimaps geography teaching resources help our pupils to build a solid understanding of the people, places, and cultures of the world. Our children can broaden their horizons as they view the world through the eyes of people who are passionate about the places they are sharing. Jigsaw The Mindful Approach to PSHE online portal provides us with an excellent and thorough programme for teaching well-being and personal development to our pupils. Spanish teaching is supported using the Primary Language Network which provides a comprehensive ‘primary’ focused foreign languages programme. Charanga music school and Knowsley online music services support our staff to confidently deliver high quality music lessons.
More information can be found on our subject pages on the curriculum tab of the website. These pages are currently being updated by our subject leaders and teachers.
Some highlights we are looking forward to in 2024 -2025 as I write this in the first weeks of Autumn 2024.
We will be trialling Literacy Counts Ready Steady Write for autumn term one. Throughout the first half term our staff will use the planning and texts from Ready Steady Write, as well as the lesson structure. We will be constantly reviewing the impact through, pupil voice, staff feedback, learning walks and book scrutiny.
We have new pupil workbooks for our mathematics lessons to ensure the children always have high quality models and images to support their mathematics work.
Science lessons will be improved using the new white rose science lessons and resources.
We will be visiting the Anthony Ratcliffe: Of time and tide exhibition at Kirkby Gallery followed by the Julia Midgely: Drawing a record exhibition in the new year.
Our partnerships with Beth Tweddle Gymnastics, St Helen’s Rugby and LFC foundation will continue throughout the year. Our Key Stage Two pupils will engage in a comprehensive range of lessons at Kirkby High School starting with Chestnut Class who will visit for PE this term.
If you require any further information about our curriculum then please contact us.
