Clifton Hampden Church of England Primary School

Topic Webs

In primary schools we have three core subjects, maths, science and English. Currently children are tested on English and maths in Y2 and English, maths and science at the end of Y6. We also teach history, geography, R.E., music, art, design technology, Information and communication technology as well as PHSE and citizenship. A lot to fit into 25 hours!

To be effective we like to link subjects together under broad topic headings. This allows us to teach subjects with a purpose e.g. writing letters to the council expressing our opinions on the development of the Old Gaol in Abingdon. Children are taught research skills through history and geography. We use the Internet for research as well as our library. When studying the village we found some interesting photographs taken by Mr Taunt at the beginning of the 20th century. A pupil was able to recognise her cottage in one of the photographs.

There are often links between our maths work and our science. When we looked at forces we threw different types of balls and measured the distances they travelled. Our findings were recorded on a computer. We used a probe linked to a computer to measure the change in temperature of water.

Obviously we also teach aspects of maths, English and science as discrete subjects. But it does seem logical to make links whenever possible.

As a staff we work together to produce the topic webs.