Devonshire Primary Academy’s curriculum covers 31 hours and 40 minutes a week.
We open our gates to all pupils at 8:40; however, the day officially begins for everyone with registration at 8:50.
The school day ends at 15:00 for Reception and 15:10 for Years 1-6.
Breaktimes
All children in Years 1-6 receive 10 minutes for their break in the morning as follows:
KS1, 10:40 – 10:50
KS2, 10:55 – 11:05
Lunchtimes
Lunchtimes are staggered to ensure that all children are able to eat their dinner in a calm but timely fashion and that they have time to play before settling back into afternoon sessions. Lunchtimes run as follows:
Reception, 11:40 – 12:25
Year 1, 11:50 – 12:35
Year 2, 12:00 – 12:45
Years 3-6, 12:20 – 13:05
Timetabling
All the children in Years 1- 6 complete reading, writing and maths at the same time, this allows for streaming across the school if this is required. Years 3 to 6 stream for reading and maths, either within year groups or phases. This ensures that all children are being taught and challenged at their level and makes sure that they can make the best possible progress from their starting points.
All teachers have the autonomy to place the wider curriculum subjects into their timetable. This makes sure that teachers can tailor their timetables to meet the needs of the children.
A typical weekly timetable looks like this:
Timetables are worked on a fortnightly basis to ensure that all subjects have the time dedicated to them to be taught well. Some subjects are taught weekly for shorter sessions and others are given longer sessions and taught fortnightly. The research behind the ‘Science of Learning’ dictates that children should regularly revisit information that they are taught but that the more they must think to remember it, the more likely it is to ‘stick’. It is believed that the optimum amount of time between revisiting a subject is two weeks, which is largely why our timetable is designed in this way.
PPA and Subject Leader time is planned around this, allowing subject specialists to teach specific subjects that they are passionate about. This ensures that all children are always receiving a quality provision during the school day.
We have assigned subject time allocations to make sure that this is consistent across the school. These have been agreed with Subject Leaders. This ensures quality coverage, opportunity for deep learning and applying knowledge. Research tells us that a good understanding of a variety of contexts taught in the wider curriculum supports and strengthens core subjects.