Foundation Curriculum
Geography
Head of Geography - Mrs Keating
Year 3 Teacher
Geography is my specialism, and I am extremely passionate about the subject. I have taught Geography at Secondary Level and have a very good understanding of where the primary geography curriculum is leading for our children. Using my passion and knowledge, I will ensure that the quality of Geography remains at a high standard and inspires a new generation of geographers.
History
Head of History - Mrs Wall
Year 4 Teacher
Having taught in several schools in Cambridgeshire, I am very excited to become the History Lead at Buckden C of E Primary School. History is an intriguing subject due to its continuing impact on society today. I believe the History curriculum provides children with a strong understanding of the world around them and develops their knowledge of events and more importantly the reasoning behind these events.
My background is within IT project management; how to bridge the gap between users and developers, uses a similar skill set to that of understanding history. In both cases there is a need for comprehension, interpretation, analysis and communication.
As history is such an important part of modern life, I would like pupils at Buckden C of E School to learn about historical events that will help them gain a better perspective of the current and future world events.
Currently, I am fascinated by Greek mythology and I have challenged myself to create a mini ‘family tree’ of the Greek gods and goddesses.
Art
Head of Art - Mrs Schmidt
Year 5 teacher
In the words of Bob and Roberta Smith “Art Makes Children Powerful” and I truly believe that. It teaches them problem solving, critical thinking, resilience, creativity, and that’s before they learn the practical skills involved in sculpture, painting and drawing. At Buckden, they learn about the work of seasoned artists, how they’re influenced by the world of their time and how their work continues to influence the world. By the time they reach Upper Key Stage Two, they’re ready to elicit change themselves with their own artwork and will be refining those art skills as they develop their own style.
I’m passionate about the arts and the power it gives pupils to thrive, which is why I’m part of a team driving Buckden Academy towards the Arts Council’s Artsmark award and all the opportunities it opens up for us. We’ve started this year with a public art sculpture – The Standing Tall Project – and we’ve sent our own SDG-inspired giraffe out on its trail around Cambridge (see our Buckden Arts page for updates). I hope this will be the first of many collective art projects the children can be proud of, and we’ll continue to enter regional and international contests after such success in the prestigious Sky Arts competition last year.
Before becoming a teacher, I spent 13 years in the publishing and photography industry as an Editor. Preceding this, I completed a Visual Arts and English degree followed by a postgraduate degree in Magazine Publishing and Design. My experience as a working artist gives pupils a unique insight into career opportunities in the creative industries.
“The world is very, very beautiful if you look at it. But most people don’t look very much. They scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, but they don’t really look at things incredibly well, with intensity. I do.” (David Hockney). My aim is to help Buckden students do the same.
Design and Technology
Head of Design and Technology Mrs Jaynes
Year 1 Teacher 2023-24
My name is Stacey Jaynes. I attended Buckden School as a child, where my love of learning and the influence of the fantastic teachers who taught me inspired me to become a teacher myself.
I studied Primary Teaching with QTS at the University of Bedforshire (De Montfort University) from 2005-2009, graduating in 2009 with my teaching degree specialising in Maths.
I have teaching experience of both Keystage 1 and 2. I gained my NPQML qualification in 2017 whilst leading Science and being Head of Lower School. I find that being based in the classroom as a class teacher brings great rewards. Having the opportunity to give children the tools to find a love for learning and succeed is very rewarding for me, not only seeing this within my classroom but across the school.
I have led DT since 2019 which was when our current DT curriculum was created and have continued to improve and align the DT curriculum with our overarching Sustainable Development Goal curriculum. I have a keen interest in nurturing children's enquiry skills and thirst for knowledge. I love to see 'the lightbulb' moment when they realise how something works.
Modern Foreign Languages
Head of Modern Foreign Languages - Mrs Anderson
Year 5 teacher
I have been teaching here at Buckden for 10 years, both as a class teacher and language specialist. I have had the opportunity to teach from EYFS to Year 6 as a language teacher and in both Key stages as a class teacher. More recently, I have introduced a new scheme of work to the school, ensuring it aligns to the National Curriculum and, where possible, the UN Sustainable Goals.
Language learning is something I am proud and passionate to be involved with. As a bilingual speaker of Welsh (first language) and English, my enthusiasm for languages began at a very young age and has continued throughout my adult life. I am passionate that all pupils should have access to learning a second language and that they have the opportunity to develop and extend their cultural capital.
I have forged good links with the local Primary Language Hub – Association for Language learning (ALL), to ensure that language learning is current and in line with expectations and will continue to work hard to ensure our pupils have a positive experience of French whilst here at Buckden.
Some of the opportunities our pupils have had include: singing in Spanish at The Performing Arts Centre, Hinchingbrooke, learning French Christmas carols, experiencing the European Day of Languages, tasting food from around the world and tasting a typical French breakfast in our French club. Looking ahead, I will continue to promote my love and enthusiasm for languages and culture among all the school stakeholders and within Buckden as a community.
European Day of Languages
Thank you to everyone for celebrating all that is wonderful about language, tradition and culture. On 26th September, the whole school celebrated European Day of Languages. It began with a competition to find a menu we could taste at lunchtime. Thank you to Mrs Bigg and her team for choosing our winning meals. The pupils got to experience Spanish, French and Italian cuisine.
The pupils also dressed in European costume and spent the day trying a host of different activities to develop their cultural understanding, including tongue twisters, learning new languages, finding out about various countries - we even had a pupil playing the bagpipes.
Thank you very much to the parents and carers who supported us by providing dress/costumes to make the day a success.
Music
Head of Music: Mrs Walker
Evelyn Glennie, the world famous percussionist, describes music as ‘our daily medicine which aids far better communication with others and ourselves’. As the children progress through Buckden CE School they have many opportunities to experience this for themselves through singing, composing, listening, performing and appraising.
Our music curriculum often links with the theme for the term giving children a different way to respond to what they have learnt. We have a range of tuned and un-tuned percussion instruments which the children explore in whole class and small group lessons. Making recordings of the children’s compositions gives them the opportunity to comment on their own work and the work of others.
The school offers individual and small group instrumental lessons. There is the opportunity to learn the violin, guitar, drum kit, piano, clarinet, flute or saxophone. Parents pay for these lessons termly and there is often the opportunity to borrow an instrument from the school.
Buckden is a singing school with plenty of opportunities for children to take part in singing, drawing on a very wide repertoire. Weekly whole school choral worship gives regular opportunity for learning new songs with many children leading actions and parts.
Computing
Head of Computing - Miss Freeman
Year 1 Class Teacher 2022-23
I have been teaching for nine years, three of which have been here at Buckden School. I attended Buckden School as a child, where my love of learning and the influence of the creative, passionate teachers inspired me to become a teacher myself. Throughout my teaching career, I have had lots of opportunities to work across both key stages, but have spent most of my teaching practice working within EYFS and KS1 which I have absolutely loved!
I would describe myself as a hands on, creative person, having keen interests in Art and Music. I enjoy drawing, painting and colouring in my own time, as well as singing, dancing and playing the keyboard. I bring my love of these interests into the classroom as much as possible through the lessons I plan and in within my teaching practice.
Computing has been commonly known in schools over the last few years as ICT (Information and Communication Technology). The subject area itself has not changed, but has developed as a subject into three strands: Computer Science; Information Technology and Digital Literacy.
In the early stages of their computing journey, children will explore programming toys in order to understand that an algorithm is a set of instructions that must be followed in a particular order. Children explore what happens when the steps are out of order and learn to debug simple problems in order to fix them, as well as explore technology across the curriculum. As they continue their journey, children will design, write and debug algorithms and programmes using logical reasoning to achieve specific functions, such as games and animations, where they will be taught vital skills that they can apply at a higher level.
Children will learn how to operate basic equipment, understand how technology works and look at operating basic computer programmes. As the children get older they will start to use computing language and ideas in many subject areas, especially maths, where children will use technology purposefully to create, organise, manipulate and retrieve digital content.
All children will be taught to recognise common uses of information technology beyond school, learn about the internet and how they should keep safe online. Aspects of this include knowing when the internet is being used and that it isn’t just ‘google’, understanding what personal data is and knowing when they should or shouldn’t give out this information and being respectful to each other when using online services. Children learn what they should do if they come across something they are unsure of and learn how to make their internet searches specific.
Physical Education / Sport
Our sporting aims are to provide children with a balanced range of activities and the opportunity to develop these in more specialist clubs. Each week our children work on at least one area of the physical curriculum.
Dance, gymnastics and karate all take place in the school hall and involve all the children following various themes. Through dance and movement, they learn how to express themselves whilst being able to work at their own level. Whereas gymnastics involves learning how to use equipment safely and acquiring, developing and gaining new skills. Karate encourages children to explore different skills showing precision, control and fluency, as well as the art of self-discipline and self-belief.
Games, outdoor and adventurous activities take place outside and children learn a variety of skills that are developed into small games and team-building situations.
PSHE
Head of PSHE - Kate Woodward
My teaching career began when I graduated in 1999 from Northampton University. I initially taught in Key Stage 2 and moved down year groups until I found myself happiest teaching the youngest children. I taught in Australia for 4 years working in Kindergarten, preschool and prep year groups. When I returned to the UK, I have specialised in Early Years Reception teaching and have been Head of EYFS and PSHE here at Buckden Primary Academy since 2010.
I have regularly chosen to return to study and completed an Advanced Teaching degree whilst in Australia and became a Chartered Teacher in the pilot year of this scheme in 2019. To achieve this qualification, I had to be very reflective about my practice in the Reception classroom and within PSHE. I carried out my own action research project into adult led versus child initiated learning. I am now also recognised as a lead teacher for EYFS and support other teachers in the Eastern Region and have also mentored teachers in the Chartered Colleges Accelerate program. I am also PSHE lead across the school and facilitate the ‘Buckden Parliament’ which gives our pupils a voice and decision making opportunities.
Our Skills Builder, Christian Values, Rights Respecting Curriculum and Global Goals curriculum combine to provide a curriculum I am very proud of as I know we are helping to secure our children exceptional futures in the workplace and our communities.
Our Reception team spend a lot of time getting our transitions in Reception spot on for the children. Establishing strong relationships with our feeder settings and providing an extensive schedule to assure our new children and parents are well supported throughout their Reception year. Similarly, we have a comprehensive transition schedule to assist our Year 6 pupils in their journey into secondary school. Each year we also hold a transition week, with all pupils having the opportunity to meet their new teachers and TA’s and spend time in their new classroom environment.
