The Curriculum

The curriculum is the planned allocation of teaching and learning opportunities and the designated content for each subject to each age group throughout the Junior School. Throughout the Junior School, social, emotional development, positive behaviour and respect for Fundamental British Values are promoted across the curriculum and explicitly through the teaching of PSHE, Religious Education and the consistent implementation of our Junior School Behaviour Policy, as well as in assemblies.

In addition to the knowledge, skills and understanding planned in accordance with the National Curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage, pupils are encouraged to develop learning behaviours to maximise their educational opportunities and equip them with dispositions for lifelong learning and success in future workplaces. These learning behaviours and dispositions are known to staff and pupils as the seven Russell Powers (Initiative, Curiosity, Collaboration, Reasoning, Reflectiveness, Creativity and Resilience).

Our Early Years classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, which is a distinct phase of education for children aged from birth to five This guidance sets out seven areas of learning which form the basis of the Foundation Stage Curriculum. These areas are:

3 Prime Areas of Learning

• Communication and Language

• Physical Development

• Personal Social & Emotional Development

4 Specific Areas

• Literacy

• Mathematics

• Understanding of the World

• Expressive Arts and Design

Each area of learning has a set of related Early Learning Goals intended to help our staff plan to meet the diverse needs of all children. Most will have met or exceeded the Early Learning Goals by the end of the Foundation Stage. We use a range of current methods for teaching children phonics, the letters and sounds correspondences combined with high frequency words

In Key Stage 1 and 2 the largest proportion of the timetable is devoted to English and Mathematics. Science, French, Drama, Computing, History, Geography, Music, Art, PSHE, RE and PE are allocated appropriate teaching time. We use a number of Schemes (based on the National Curriculum) to ensure our pupils are experiencing a broad and balanced curriculum.

A curriculum newsletter is sent each term to outline the areas of learning. For more information on the Curriculum, please do not hesitate to ask your child’s Class Teacher or their Phase Leader.

We recognise that children all progress at varying rates. As a starting point to the academic year we assess children in Maths and English, to provide a gap analysis for teaching to then be targeted at specific areas for development. We will continue to use regular and on-going formative assessments to inform our planning and the delivery of the curriculum.