Home Page

Curriculum  

Statement of Aims

Our aim is to provide a warm, secure and happy working environment, where children can experience a wide range of educational experiences, which will help to develop, as much as possible, knowledge and awareness of themselves, their environment and the others around them. We hope that they can then proceed with confidence, enthusiasm and the ability and willingness to adapt to the many different challenges that lie before them. This must be achieved with the full realisation that the child is an individual with specific needs, aptitudes and interests.

More specifically, we can group these aims under a number of developmental headings: Social and Moral Development; Intellectual and Personal Development; Spiritual Development; Aesthetic Development and Physical Development. Implicit in our view of the curriculum is the fact that we believe everything that goes on within the school, whether inside or outside the classroom, forms part of that curriculum.

The main areas of knowledge and experience from which a child’s educational programme will be drawn are as follows:

Linguistic; Social and Cultural; Mathematical; Scientific and Technological; Spiritual and Moral; Aesthetic; Creative and Physical.

The school adopts a healthy eating policy. Children are encouraged to eat fruit and vegetables at break times in line with the National Guidance of ‘five a day’.

We fully endorse the policy document ‘Every Child Matters’ which encourages children to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution to school activities and to achieve economic well being.

Teaching Approach

In response to developments within the National Curriculum over a period of time, we believe that the most efficient way of delivering the National Core Curriculum subjects of Numeracy, Literacy and Science is through a subject-based approach. Other areas of the curriculum undertaken by the children may sometimes be taught in a cross curricular integrated approach involving careful consideration of national curriculum subjects.  Class termly plans are displayed in each classroom. Copies are also kept in the Headteacher’s room. An overview of each term’s planning is sent to parents at the beginning of each term. Language skills are taught to all children so that they develop the skills they will need to speak, listen, read and write with fluency and understanding. There is a well established and growing collection of books of all kinds and this plays a vital part in the work of the school. Children are encouraged to borrow books to read at home and a book club, serving the school, exists where children have the opportunity of obtaining new books for themselves.

The school sells book-bags with the school logo on to help encourage children to take reading books home and back to school. A reading club also promotes children’s opportunity to enjoy reading.

A clear, legible style of handwriting is taught. Children write on a wide variety of topics and develop the ability to spell and punctuate. They are encouraged to discuss ideas and to communicate clearly with others in both speech and writing. The “Letterland” teaching programme, used alongside the structured school reading programme, helps form the basis for development of competence in literacy skills. The Literacy Hour is fully implemented throughout K.S.1 & 2. Our new guided reading sessions have encouraged children to develop their confidence and understanding of their reading in a group situation.

A significant part of mathematical work in the early years is practical and this helps children to understand mathematical ideas. Number work is regarded as important and is linked with work in measurement, shape and graphical representation. The National Numeracy Framework forms the basis of the school’s scheme of work.

Information and Communication Technology is becoming increasingly important in schools. Children are taught the use of equipment and devices, word processing, data handling, software and Internet access – essential skills for our modern world. A new interactive whiteboard is giving children first hand opportunities to access and improve their understanding of new I.C.T. software.

Much of the work in Art and Craft arises naturally from topic and environmental work. Children learn to look at things carefully and develop an awareness of colour, pattern and shape. They use materials of all kinds, including paint, ink, dyes, fabrics, wood and clay.

The National Curriculum

The first section of the Education Reform Act 1988 establishes general principles that must be reflected in the curriculum of all pupils. It entitles every pupil in maintained schools to a curriculum that is balanced and broadly based. The subjects which have to be taught as part of the National Curriculum are:

            English, Mathematics and Science (also known as the Core subjects),

History, Geography, Information Technology, D.T., Music, Art, Physical  Education, Religious Education, P.S.H.C.E.(Cambridge Syllabus)

All pupils will have Programmes of Studies and Attainment Targets and will take Standard Assessment Tasks at the end of Key Stages 1 & 2. The Programmes of Studies for the Core subjects are available for viewing at the school. The school has developed, and is continuing to update, a long term curriculum plan which includes Curriculum 2000, the National literacy Strategy, the National Numeracy Strategy and the Early Years Curriculum (Foundation Stage).

Religious Education

The “Exeter” syllabus for Religious Education is followed by the school. The law requires the Religious Education curriculum in school to include a “daily act of collective worship.” Assemblies, sometimes separate Key Stages, sometimes joint and occasionally classroom based, are held to fulfil this requirement. Parents who wish their child to be withdrawn from Religious Education and Assemblies should consult with the Headteacher and alternative arrangements will be made