Our Learning Expeditions
At Lavendon School, we believe that art stimulates creativity, imagination, and inventiveness. Art provides pupils with the skills, concepts, and knowledge necessary to express their responses to ideas and experiences, while firing their imagination and encouraging individuality.
“Art is not just a subject to learn, but an activity that you can practise with your hands, your eyes, your whole personality.” – Quentin Blake
We want art to enable children to communicate what they see, feel, and think. Pupils are encouraged to experiment with colour, texture, form, and pattern, using a wide range of materials and processes. Self-evaluation is an important part of the learning journey, helping children to reflect on their work, build resilience, and develop the determination needed to achieve their goals.
We recognise the importance of linking art with ICT. Pupils use iPads, to explore and create artwork digitally. They are introduced to a range of drawing and design software, giving them opportunities to combine traditional techniques with modern technology and broaden their creative toolkit.
Enrichment
Art is celebrated across the school, with opportunities for pupils to showcase their creativity both in lessons and through special events. Each year, we hold an Art Day, where all pupils work on a whole-school project, immersing themselves in the creative process and producing work that reflects their imagination and individuality.
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At Lavendon School, computing is a vital part of our curriculum. We provide a wide range of high-quality equipment to deliver weekly computing lessons from Year 1 to Year 6. Our aim is for pupils to become digitally literate, confidently using technology across all areas of learning. We want children to apply their computing skills in mathematics, science, and design and technology, while also developing an understanding of new digital systems and advancing their computational thinking. Ultimately, our goal is to equip pupils with the skills they need for the future workplace in a world driven by technology.
We follow the NCCE Teach Computing scheme of work, ensuring lessons are grounded in the latest research and best practice. Each unit includes at least one lesson linked to our Dimensions thematic curriculum, allowing computing to connect meaningfully with wider learning. While we use NCCE materials as a foundation, we adapt them to suit our Dimensions curriculum, ensuring relevance and coherence across subjects.
How We Achieve an Outstanding Computing Curriculum
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Seamless use of 1:1 iPads: Every child has access to their own iPad, which is used across all subjects. iPads provide instant access to a wide range of tools, apps, and platforms, enabling pupils to research, create, collaborate, and present their learning. They are used for coding, multimedia projects, interactive simulations, and digital portfolios, ensuring technology is embedded naturally into everyday learning.
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Technology across all phases: From Early Years through KS1 and KS2, children use technology to develop computational skills in varied contexts.
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High-quality equipment: Alongside iPads, pupils use laptops, programmable devices, and interactive smart boards to enhance engagement and motivation.
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Digital tools for creativity and productivity: Pupils regularly use Microsoft Office, J2E, and Google tools to edit, publish, and share work, building transferable skills for the future.
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Up-to-date apps and platforms: We continually seek out the latest technologies to keep learning fresh, engaging, and relevant.
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Cross-curricular integration: Computing skills are applied across subjects, reinforcing learning and demonstrating real-world relevance.
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Teacher support: High-quality learning packages guide pedagogy, ensuring staff deliver lessons that are both ambitious and accessible.
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E-safety education: Pupils receive consistent, age-appropriate online safety teaching across all year groups, empowering them to explore technology independently and responsibly.
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Growth mindset: We encourage resilience and problem-solving, challenging pupils to achieve their best in computing and beyond.
Online Safety
Online safety is embedded into the NCCE scheme of work and aligned with the Education for a Connected World framework. It is also taught explicitly through PSHE lessons. Parents are kept informed of emerging risks through weekly online safety leaflets shared on our school Facebook page.
Enrichment Opportunities
At Lavendon, we provide pupils with exciting opportunities to explore and extend their digital literacy, including:
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Bee-Bot programmable robots
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1:1 iPad devices used seamlessly across all learning
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Programmable physical computing- Microbits
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Programmable Physical for hands-on coding
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Creative opportunities on laptops and iPads using styluses
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Design and Technology prepares children to thrive in tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. At Lavendon School, we encourage pupils to become independent, creative problem solvers and innovative thinkers, both as individuals and as part of a team. DT enables children to identify needs and opportunities and respond to them by developing ideas, designing solutions, and creating products and systems.
Through the study of DT, pupils combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social, and environmental issues, as well as functionality and industry. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate past and present technologies, their uses, and their impact. DT helps children to become astute, informed future consumers and potential innovators.
At Lavendon, we believe DT is an integral part of a child’s creative education. From the earliest stages, pupils learn about inventors and designers from history and the significance of their contributions to the modern world. We provide rich opportunities across all strands of DT, including:
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Mechanics and structures
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Food technology and nutrition
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Textiles
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Electronics (KS2)
Throughout the key stages, pupils build on prior learning to become increasingly advanced designers, tackling new projects each year. They are given extensive opportunities to design, make, and evaluate a variety of products. We encourage creativity, technical vocabulary, and communication skills, as children share ideas and explain their thinking.
At Lavendon, pupils build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding, and skills to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users.
Our DT Curriculum Enables Pupils To:
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Be creative and imaginative in their designs.
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Develop knowledge of famous inventors and designers.
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Critically evaluate prototypes and make improvements.
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Understand and use key technical vocabulary.
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Become effective problem solvers.
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Work both independently and collaboratively.
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Develop life skills such as cutting, joining, peeling, and food hygiene.
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Apply their DT skills across the wider curriculum.
Enrichment
At Lavendon, children have opportunities across all year groups to enrich their DT learning, including:
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Attending Cook Stars after-school club to develop cooking and nutrition skills.
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Taking part in cooking projects across the school, including Year 6 pupils preparing and serving a three-course meal for parents.
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Designing and making high-quality projects that develop creativity and technical skills, such as:
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Motorised cars
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Pop-up cards
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Four-wheeled vehicles
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Fish fingers (food technology)
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Sewing cushions and puppets
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Playground models
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At Lavendon School we value the importance of learning a foreign language. We feel it is an important part of being a member of a multi-cultural society as it provides children with an opening to other cultures and allows them to see, value and learn about other societies.
French is the key language taught from Year 3-6. These lessons focus on immersing them in the language and culture of France. In Lower Key Stage 2, the children learn through songs and familiar stories. They learn simple greetings and key phrases. The majority of their work is around building confidence around speaking and listening skills. In Upper Key Stage 2, this confidence is built upon and there is a greater focus on reading and writing in French too.
Where possible, we bring the learning back to the children and always endeavour to make it realistic and purposeful through reading familiar stories such as, La chenille qui fait des trous (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), or learning parts of the body, which also links to learning in science.
We see language teaching in our school as the foundation for learning further languages and hope that we provide the foundations for our children to go forward with their studies through secondary education.
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At Lavendon School, we are committed to delivering a curriculum that is both inspiring and ambitious. Through our Dimensions curriculum, pupils explore a wide range of geographical concepts taught within thematic units. These skills and knowledge build progressively on prior learning, ensuring clear development across both key stages. In addition, standalone geography topics are included to guarantee full coverage of the National Curriculum. Our aim is to provide high-quality geography lessons enriched with practical experiences and online resources.
We recognise that children are naturally curious about the world around them. Geography nurtures this curiosity by helping pupils make sense of their environment, understand the places they live in, learn about and visit, and appreciate why these places matter and how they connect to a globalised world. Through geography, children encounter diverse societies and cultures, developing respect for the richness of landscapes and people. The subject also challenges pupils to consider what it means to live sustainably in an interdependent world, fostering a sense of responsibility and care for the planet and all its inhabitants.
Our curriculum enables children to learn about their local community, the wider world, and its key human and physical features. Wherever possible, learning is taken outdoors, with fieldwork opportunities making use of our school grounds and local area. Ultimately, our geography curriculum equips pupils with the knowledge and skills to understand our ever-changing planet and inspires them to contribute responsibly to its care and sustainable development.
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At Lavendon School our mission is for all of our children to become responsible citizens of tomorrow. We know that an essential part of this mission is the effective study and reflective learning of History. Through following the Dimensions “Learning means the World” curriculum, our pupils will develop their own cultural capital and take part in discussions around what it is to be a good UK and global citizen. History introduces pupils to diversity within different societies and the relationships between different groups overtime, challenging them to view events from different time periods and perspectives. Leading eventually to greater empathy and understanding if events and situations. Our curriculum enables pupils to:
- Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of the history of Britain and the wider world
- Explore cause and consequence, identifying catalysts for change, the effects on society and reasons for developments
- Be inspired, be curious, ask questions and think critically
- Recognise similarities and differences between periods of time and to see how the past has shaped the present
- Analyse sources of evidence, developing their historical knowledge and skills and to piece together the information to understand the past.
- Develop an understanding of chronology, and to see the ‘big picture’, allowing them to make connections between different periods of the past and the present We will do this by: We aim to foster a strong sense of chronology within our children, teaching them how to place people, events or eras on to a historical timeline. Time related vocabulary is used within all of our history teaching from Reception to Year Six to enable our children to speak with confidence when comparing time periods, vocabulary increasing with complexity as children move up through the school.
- Ensure coverage is cross checked between the Dimensions “leaning means the world” curriculum against the National Curriculum. Gaps identified are taught through ‘competency units’, which are part of our long-term plans.
- Use Skills Ladders to demonstrate an incremental model for the acquisition of skills, providing a benchmark for each year group and modelling the progression throughout the school. The increasing complexity of the skills should ensure children make good progress.
- Use Knowledge Building Pillars as our robust model for the progression of knowledge and understanding in history. Children are supported and challenged to learn and compare knowledge across different historical contexts.
At Lavendon School our mission is for all of our children to become responsible citizens of tomorrow. We know that an essential part of this mission is the effective study and reflective learning of History.
Through following Dimensions’ “Learning means the World” curriculum, our pupils will develop their own cultural capital and take part in discussions around what it is to be a good UK and global citizen. History introduces pupils to diversity within different societies and the relationships between different groups overtime, challenging them to view events from different time periods and perspectives.
We aim to foster a strong sense of chronology within our children, teaching them how to place people, events or eras on to a historical timeline. Time related vocabulary is used within all of our history teaching from Reception to Year Six to enable our children to speak with confidence when comparing time periods, vocabulary increasing with complexity as children move up through the school.
Enrichment
We provide our children with first-hand experiences of history including:
- History off the page
- Wild West Day
- Bletchley Park Trip
- MK Museum
- Local Visitors
- Trips around our local area
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At Lavendon School, we are proud to use the Sing Up Music scheme to teach music across the school. This scheme is designed by subject specialists and is grounded in the latest research, ensuring that our pupils receive a curriculum that is both inspiring and ambitious.
Key features of Sing Up Music:
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Progressive curriculum from Reception to Year 6: Each year group is provided with carefully chosen songs and units that build musical skills step by step.
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Integrated approach: Children learn through singing, playing instruments, performing, composing, improvising, listening, and appraising.
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Diverse repertoire: Pupils experience music from different historical periods, genres, and cultures, helping them appreciate the richness of musical traditions.
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Practical and creative focus: Music is taught as a hands-on subject, encouraging children to think and act like musicians.
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High-quality resources: Detailed teaching notes, song banks, and digital materials support staff in delivering engaging lessons.
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Alignment with national guidance: The scheme meets the requirements of the National Curriculum for Music and reflects the approaches of the Model Music Curriculum.
Why Sing Up Works for Lavendon
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It ensures clear progression of skills across all key stages.
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It provides flexibility to link music learning with our Dimensions thematic curriculum.
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It supports confidence and creativity, giving children opportunities to perform regularly and compose their own music.
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It helps pupils develop a lifelong love of music, while equipping them with the knowledge and skills to take music further if they wish.
Enrichment and Performance
Alongside Sing Up lessons, children at Lavendon enjoy:
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Whole-school singing assemblies to celebrate music together.
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Opportunities to perform in concerts, nativities, and showcases.
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Instrumental tuition from Year 1 upwards, supported by MK Music Co-operative specialists.
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At Lavendon School, sport and physical exercise is integral to our children’s well-being and so is prominent in our curriculum. Our curriculum develops a range of skills and covers a variety of sports including football, hockey, basketball, handball, golf, cricket and tag rugby. We teach gymnastics, dance and swimming as well as providing daily opportunities for active play to enhance well-being and readiness for learning. At Lavendon we aims to inspire all pupils to develop a love of physical activity and sport.
Specialist teachers enhance our sports provision and we strive to provide numerous opportunities for our children to be involved in representing our school in events in the local community such as cross country and athletics. In addition to this, we offer children the chance to take part in residential visits and day visits providing a range of physical character building challenges and skills which they may not have access to or develop in school.
We promote positive attitudes towards sport and value achievements both within and outside the school day. We believe our children should have a competitive spirit but also recognise the importance of fair play and enjoyment of physical activity and knowledge of healthy living as a whole.
Our aim is to create children who are naturally active and enjoy taking part in sporting activity both in and out of school.
We have strong links with local clubs and partnerships within our community to ensure pupils receive opportunities to access physical activity and competition including cross country, football and athletics.
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At Lavendon School, PSHE enables children to become healthy, independent, and responsible members of society. We recognise that our pupils join us from a range of different settings and increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. From the earliest years, we encourage children to celebrate this diversity, building inclusive communities within each classroom and across the school.
We teach PSHE through discrete lessons, which also incorporate Protective Behaviours and Restorative Practice, ensuring pupils are supported in developing resilience, empathy, and positive relationships.
Promoting Personal Development
The promotion of pupils’ personal development — including their social development — is a fundamental aspect of education and underpins all other learning. Through our curriculum, school environment, and ethos, we:
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Promote pupils’ self-esteem and emotional well-being.
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Help children to form and maintain worthwhile and respectful relationships at home, at school, and in the wider community.
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Encourage pupils to reflect on their own experiences, feelings, beliefs, and values.
Rights, Responsibilities, and Diversity
We believe it is vital for children to understand how they are developing personally and socially. Pupils are given opportunities to learn about their rights and responsibilities and to appreciate what it means to be a member of the diverse society in which we live. This learning takes place through focused sessions and is also embedded across the wider curriculum.
Active Citizenship
We actively encourage children to play a positive role in contributing to the school and wider community. For example, we hold democratic elections for pupil voice groups such as the School Council, giving pupils real opportunities to influence school life and practise democracy in action.
Curriculum Integration
Clear, sequential progression in teaching ensures that skills and knowledge are built systematically. By merging our PSHE, SMSC (spiritual, moral, social, cultural) and RSE (relationships and sex education) curriculum, we actively promote and provide opportunities for children to understand the fundamental British Values:
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Democracy
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The Rule of Law
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Individual Liberty
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Mutual Respect and Tolerance
Outcomes by the End of Key Stage 2
By the end of KS2, PSHE lessons prepare children to be responsible citizens. Pupils will:
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Develop emotional intelligence and the ability to articulate their feelings.
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Understand the importance of maintaining good mental health and physical health.
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Become resilient, flexible learners through a whole-school supportive strategy.
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Religious Education (RE) makes a major contribution to the education of our pupils at Lavendon Primary School. It helps children develop knowledge and understanding of religion and of the differing religious and non-religious worldviews represented in Great Britain today. RE promotes respect, tolerance, and empathy — values that are essential in our diverse society.
Through RE, pupils are encouraged to ask and reflect on challenging questions, develop reasoning skills, and take part in debate. It provides significant opportunities for children to consider their own experiences, feelings, beliefs, and values. As a result, RE is intellectually challenging, academically rigorous, and personally enriching.
Statutory Requirements
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RE is provided for all pupils in line with the Education Act 1996.
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At Lavendon, RE is taught according to the Milton Keynes Agreed Syllabus for RE, which is the statutory order.
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RE at Lavendon is non-denominational and is not designed to promote or urge a particular religion or belief. It is open to all children, regardless of their religious background or non-religious worldview.
Contribution to School Aims and Values
RE makes a significant contribution to our wider school aims and values. Pupils learn about and encounter people from a wide variety of faiths and beliefs, helping them to develop respect, tolerance, and friendship.
Our RE curriculum is carefully planned to ensure pupils build a clear and detailed understanding of Christianity and other principal faiths represented in Great Britain.
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Early Years Foundation Stage: Pupils are introduced to aspects of religion through topics such as belonging, celebrations, and special objects, people, and books. Examples are drawn from Christianity and other religions, as appropriate.
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Key Stage 1: Pupils study Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
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Key Stage 2: Pupils study Christianity, Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism.
Religions are mainly taught in separate units to avoid confusion, though older pupils also explore thematic units across more than one faith (e.g. care for others, the importance of rituals, and how religions care for the environment).
Children in each year group also build their knowledge and understanding of Christmas and Easter in the Christian tradition, studying different aspects of these festivals each year.
Local Links
Our RE curriculum also enables pupils to develop knowledge and understanding of religion in the local area through:
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Visits to local places of worship.
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Visitors from local religious organisations.
Right of Withdrawal
In line with the Education Act 1996, parents have the right to withdraw their children from some or all RE lessons. The Headteacher will invite parents to discuss their concerns before withdrawal is actioned. The school has a duty to supervise children during this time, but is not required to provide alternative work or teaching.