An Aspirational Curriculum:

We believe that each child at Rickleton has the potential to be successful in any area of curricular or extra-curricular life now and for their future. The curriculum they access must be the driver of this in offering them deep learning and inspirational experiences in a broad range of areas. Working out where their talents lie and the things they enjoy are a huge factor in this and we expect that all children give their all in all lessons.

In September 2023, we introduced our 'aspirational concepts' to support children and staff to understand the key skills and knowledge which they are building when studying a subject and where this could lead them in their future. We want our children to be driven by their future possibilities and see each lesson as a stepping stone towards this.

A Clear and Well planned Curriculum:

Subject leaders have worked hard to ensure that our curriculum fulfills not only national expectations but also the learning necessary to allow a child in Rickleton, in the North East of England, to be successful.

By carefully considering how knowledge and skills progress, ensuring that learning carefully builds on and consolidates prior knowledge, children have the best chance to feel confident and successful in their studies and to retain their learning as they move forward in their education.

The documents below show what we want children to achieve via the subject and how we plan to make this happen (commonly known as Intent, Implementation and Impact). They also show how topics and and skills are planned to give pupils a deep knowledge and hopefully a passion for the subject to support their future aspirations.

Sharing our worries

Our PSHCE curriculum supports children to understand what to do and who to speak to if they have worries and concerns. The poster below is displayed across school to remind children who they can go to in school if they are worried or need help.

Sunderland Mental Health Charter Mark school

We are delighted that Rickleton has successfully gained the 'Sunderland Mental Health Charter Mark'!

This award recognises all of the work the school does to promote healthy minds and support our children, staff and parents with any mental health concerns.  The award also acknowledges the huge range of strategies and activities we have in school to help, such as the sensory room, 5 Ways to Wellbeing, Mini Medics and access to mental health professionals.  It also recognises how the curriculum the children learn through is underpinned by the understanding children need to be ready to learn before they can.  

A huge thank you to the whole staff for all they do to support our children to have healthy minds and especially Mrs K O'Connor who is our fantastic mental health and PSHCE lead.

Mental Health Medics

At Rickleton we value the mental health of all of our children, staff and parents. We are delighted to have had Liliana and Kate from CATS therapy into school to train a group of children to become Mental Health Mini Medics.

The children furthered their understanding about mental health; how it can change throughout the day; what we can do ourselves to improve our mental health; signs when mental health isn’t good; and how we could support others.

The children took part in a range of activities to develop their understanding. They were able to make the links to the '5 ways to wellbeing'. They developed a toolkit of ideas to take notice of others then support them. The children will be supporting other children, guided by our Mental Health Lead Mrs. K. O’Connor.

World Mental Health day #Helloyellow

As a school we continued our work on the 5 ways to wellbeing during World Mental Health Day.

Year 1 took time to connect with each other, they were active with games outside, donated some clothes to our clothes bank to give, learned a new song and took notice with our grounding 5,4,3,2 strategy.

Peer Mentors

Each year we are inundated with children who have apply to be Peer Mentors! All children have to bring references from an adult outside of school describing the qualities and skills that they have to be a great Peer Mentor.

Our army of Peer Mentors undergo an intense 3 afternoons of training with Ms Reid and the previous Peer Mentors. They learn how to listen and support children who are having difficulties. They take part in role place and many different activities to develop strategies to use when working with children. They also know when they need to involve an adult or pass the concern over ensuring safety at all times.

The Peer mentors receive their badges so they are easily identified by other pupils. They work on each of our yards at break times and lunchtime.

Congratulations to the Peer Mentor Team!

We were delighted in 2022 that the fantastic hard work our Peer Mentors do within school to support children with friendship issues and concerns was recognised by Sunderland Together for Children. They were highly commended at the prestigious awards night at the Stadium of Light and were presented with an award by the Mayoress of Sunderland.

Anti Bullying Conference 2023

Our Peer Mentors visited an anti-bullying conference at Washington Academy. They spent time with pupils from other primary and secondary schools sharing their ideas and experiences from their schools. Several speakers then worked with the children to review anti-bullying understanding and ways peer mentors can support children in their schools to prevent bullying. We were so proud of the types of questions our peers mentors asked and how well they talked and worked with many other children and adults.

Sunderland 'PREVENT' Bus

Our Y6 children enjoyed a visit from the Sunderland 'PREVENT' bus. This ex-SAFC team bus has been set up by the local authority to allow children to find out about, and discuss, some of the things which may worry them or they may need to know about in order to keep safe. The children moved in a carousel around the bus, talking to various professionals about areas such as on-line safety, anti social behaviour, substance abuse and other topics.

The bus organisers were very complimentary about both the behaviour and manners of the children, but also the high level of knowledge which they brought to the conversations about how we can keep ourselves safe.