Kettering Park Junior Academy

At Kettering Park Junior Academy, reading is placed at the heart of the school. It is our aim to engender a love of reading whilst teaching the vital comprehension skills which enable children to unlock learning for life.

The children receive reading and writing lessons daily, covering all National Curriculum requirements for their age group. Whole class guided reading is  focussed around our expert tips to develop knowledge of fundamental reading skills. This is reinforced through weekly reciprocal reading sessions in small, adult led groups and the use of coaching books and quizzes on our online platform - Oxford Reading Buddy. Children also receive regular opportunities to apply their understanding to comprehension exercises.

Writing lessons are planned around the four main purposes of writing: to entertain, inform, persuade and discuss. We draw upon a range of approaches, including Jane Considine’s ‘sentence stacking’ to ensure children have high quality models and engaging experiences upon which to base their writing. Emphasis is placed on the writing process, with regular planning, writing and editing sequences. In addition, lessons with a specific grammar focus are taught within the context of writing units. Our discrete spelling lessons, taught weekly, investigate rules and patterns and shorter sessions to practise spellings are timetabled.

We consider parental support to be vital and encourage parents to take an active role in their child's learning journey.  Homework is set on a weekly basis and it is expected that children will read regularly at home as well as learn spelling patterns.  In school, children will be rewarded for their reading at home with house dojo points. Their reading is recorded by their teacher and contributes to their class total in the reading race, with the winning class winning a trophy weekly and a book of their choice each term. 

• Year 3 Spelling and Grammar Booklet
• Year 5 Spelling and Grammar Booklet
• Cued Spelling - How to do it
• Reading for pleasure booklet
• Glossary of Terms Used in Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Teaching in Primary Schools
• Year 4 Spelling and Grammar Booklet
• Year 6 Spelling and Grammar Booklet
• Spell Well strategies

We have adopted the Power Maths scheme to support our teaching of maths.

Power Maths is a resource that has been designed for UK schools based on research and extensive experience of teaching and learning around the world and here in the UK. It has been designed to support and challenge all pupils, and is built on the belief that EVERYONE can learn maths successfully. In lessons concepts are broken down so that your child can master one idea without feeling overwhelmed. Students access a range of fluency, reasoning and problem solving questions which are designed to support  different needs and confidence levels. Whilst also fostering a spirit of working and learning together. Each lesson includes a challenge question for children to delve deeper into a concept.

Times Tables:

Children are taught a range of strategies to learn and apply key times-tables knowledge in class.

To support your child, please download Times table Rockstars app, where practice aligned to your child’s needs is available.

• Helping your child at home with maths - A Parent's guide

Each class has two PE lessons each week. Teachers are supported in these lessons  by a PE specialist and also receive one term per year of coaching from an external provider.

Year 4  receive swimming lessons in a 6 week block during the academic year to teach them to: 

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

We follow the Northamptonshire School Swimming Scheme and children are awarded certificates to celebrate their achievements.

Each class has a weekly Science lesson covering all National Curriculum requirements throughout the year.  Our approach to Science is to make it as cross-curricular, real-life and practical as possible.   We use knowledge organisers in Science to support our students in their learning and link key concepts to previous lessons.

At KPJA we provide a creative curriculum designed around our ethos of creating curious learners for life. We teach cross-curricular units that support children in learning about their local area, and give them powerful knowledge about the wider world. Throughout our topics children learn and apply knowledge and skills from the National Curriculum for history, geography, art, DT and music. Music is also taught through our weekly singing assemblies and school performances.

Computing lessons are delivered explicitly following schemes from 'Rising Stars' and 'Espresso Coding'. In addition, computing opportunities are interwoven across our topics to enrich learning. The children have the opportunity to use laptops and iPads in class and are able to visit the computer suite at other times in the week.

All students recieve e-safety lessons at the beginning of each academic year, focussing on staying safe online, sharing information and preventing cyberbullying. Additional information on keeping children safe online can be found here.

RE is taught each week and follows the County’s Agreed Syllabus using the Discovery RE scheme of work.

At Kettering Park Junior Academy, we strive to ensure children leave us as well-rounded individuals. As a whole-school community, we embed Zones of Regulation to ensure children can articulate their emotions and utilise tools to regulate them. Our Jigsaw scheme follows on from this, which is delivered through a weekly PSHE lesson. Jigsaw is a unique, progressive and effective scheme of work which aims to connect the pieces of Personal, Social and Health education, Emotional Literacy, Social Skills and Spiritual Development. Children learn to relate to and value those around them and learn who they are as individuals.

 At Kettering Park Junior Academy we learn Spanish, which is taught fortnightly by an external specialist.

Each week, the children have a whole school, singing and celebration assembly. Assemblies are varied in topic and promote British Values, spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues and own PARK Values. National events are also celebrated and the children raise money to support different charities. The children are encouraged to hold positions of responsibility in class and some children are elected to hold school positions, such as being a member of our school council or becoming house captains.