High quality teaching, positive learning and accurate assessment are at the heart of our school ethos, and our inspiring, enthusiastic and dedicated staff are committing to providing this for every child.
We have a programme of weekly professional development for all teachers. This is delivered in-house, supplemented by occasional sessions drawing on wider educational expertise.
We have the highest expectations for every child, not just to achieve strong academic results, but also to become highly successful learners.
We aim to provide rich learning experiences that allow every child to master basic skills, discover and develop talents, deepen interests, learn to relate to others and succeed in ways they did not imagine possible.
EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE (NURSERY AND RECEPTION)
There are three prime areas of learning which are vitally important and underpin all future learning, which are:
* Communication and Language
* Physical Development
* Personal, Social and Emotional Development
There are also four specific areas of learning
* Literacy
* Mathematics
* Understanding the World
* Expressive Arts and Design
We use a form of play-based learning that allows for individual differences and provides first-hand real experiences. Adults working with children make regular, formal observations and record these in their foundation stage profiles.
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EARLY READING AND MATHEMATICS
For early reading, we follow a synthetic phonics programme called Letters and Sounds alongside a structured reading scheme. Which includes a range of recognised reading schemes, all of which are categorised by a book banding system. This is taught within a text rich environment where children are encouraged to read for pleasure. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have a daily phonics lesson, completing all the phases before engaging in with the complexities of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Early mathematics is taught through the use of ‘Mathematics Mastery’. Mathematics Mastery is an innovative maths teaching framework that focuses on using mathematics principles to problem-solve. We use objects, pictures and words to help pupils explore maths and understand the role it plays in their lives. The Mathematics Mastery framework is followed throughout the school.
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KEY STAGES 1 and 2
Our school provides a balanced and broad curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of the pupils in our school.
We aim to ensure that pupils at our school are given the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences to equip them for adult life.
All children will study the subjects of the National Curriculum. The core subjects are English, Mathematics and Science. Within each key stage there is a daily maths and literacy lesson.
Literacy learning comprises of speaking and listening, reading, writing and phonics and spelling.
English
In year 6 English is taught through the study of a key text through the development of various literacy skills towards a written outcome for example a recount , instructions or a story.
In years 1 -5 English is taught through Talk for Writing, which aims to improve writing ability by giving pupils an understanding of the structure and elements of written language. It enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version.
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Maths
We use the Maths Mastery framework that was developed by the Ark schools. It is a style of mathematics teaching, inspired by Singapore and Shanghai. Children are encouraged to physically represent mathematical concepts. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and visualise abstract ideas, alongside numbers and symbols. Mathematical concepts are explored in a variety of representations and problem-solving contexts to give pupils a richer and deeper learning experience.
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Science
We follow the topics as described for each year group in the National Curriculum. We use Switched on Science to support our teachers in planning a sequence of lessons for each unit taught with easy-to- use, flexible lesson ideas. It includes hands-on experiments and creative investigations
Religious Education
In RE we follow the Hillingdon agreed syllabus. This covers various features of major world religions with the focus being acceptance and tolerance. We hope to widen pupils’ understanding of the world around them, build a sense of respect and develop cohesion within the community.
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The Foundation Subjects
The Foundation Subjects are History, Geography, Design Technology, Information Technology, Art, Music, Modern Foreign Language (French) and Physical Education and we plan content and coverage for each year group from the relevant key stage expectations in the National Curriculum. We assign certain topics and skills to each year group to ensure the whole programme of study has been covered by the end of each key stage.
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Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is taught as a discrete subject in class, through half termly assembly themes and across the curriculum. Through PSHE pupils learn how to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, prepare for life and work in modern Britain. Empathy, understanding and positive relationships are highly valued and strongly promoted.
Our curriculum will, of course, emphasise knowledge and understanding but, of equal significance, will be the teaching of skills, including basic skills like communication and numeracy. Children find learning new skills exciting. They are motivated by applying them creatively and independently across their studies and in life beyond school. In addition, we will teach and develop key life skills (e.g. healthy eating, staying safe, positive lifestyles).
Classroom learning will be integrated with a planned programme of exciting and motivational school trips, school journeys and extra-curricular events, including before and after school, lunchtimes, weekends and holiday clubs. The curriculum will be further enriched by inspirational visits from special guests such as artists, poets, scientists, dancers, actors and musicians. We aim for each major thematic project to include a school trip or a visit from an expert guest. These special events will be stimulating catalysts accelerating immediate learning while simultaneously heightening expectation for learning yet to come.
Children’s achievements and successes are celebrated through class and school assemblies and curriculum weeks and days. We encourage children to become independent and confident in both their work and social development.
Year group curriculum coverage for each half term is listed in the long term plan found on each class page. Each half term the year groups will add a topic web which includes greater detail about curriculum coverage for that half term.