The Early Years Foundation Stage is a national framework for 0-5 year olds and forms the basis for all teaching and learning within our reception group.
There are seven areas of learning and development within this stage of early years education. At Curbar Primary School we strive to ensure that early years experiences are happy, active, exciting, fun and secure. We provide playful learning opportunities with staff that support their development, care and learning needs to ensure every child reaches their potential.
The Early Years Curriculum develops the 3 prime areas first. These are:
Communication and Language – Children will learn to express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs; to use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences in play situations. Listen attentively in a range of situations. Give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately.
Physical Development – Children will develop coordination and control over their bodies enabling them to become active and interactive within their environment. They will develop mastery over large and small movements becoming confident in using a range of equipment and tools effectively. They will be encouraged to make healthy choices and develop independence in their self care skills.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Through sensitive, nurturing support children are helped to develop a positive self image and have confidence in their own abilities. They will learn important life skills of resilience and perseverance to reach a goal or acquire new skills; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in different situations and have the confidence to make the right choices.
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, the prime area will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
Literacy – Children will develop a love of literature in both the spoken and written form: linking letters and sounds to read and write simple words becoming early readers and writers; engage and play with language, stories, characters extending their vocabulary and imagination through drama, story telling and role play.
Mathematics – Through practical and real life play opportunities children will develop and improve their counting, use of numbers, addition and subtraction, shape, space and measures. They will develop an understanding of maths through stories, songs, games and imaginative play, creating resilient mathematicians.
Understanding the world – Children will have the opportunity through a variety of exciting themes and topics to make sense of the world in which they live and how they can influence it. Learning about their own lives and how they have changed in their own lifetime; making sense of the physical world, the local community, finding out about people, places, technology and the environment.
Expressive Arts and Design – Enables children to express feelings, emotions and extend their imaginations and ideas through exploration with a wide range of media and materials through art, music, dance, movement, role-play, design and technology.
Please click on our Early Years and Foundation Stage Policy for further information:
EYFS and KS1 Reading and Phonics
Children are taught Phases 2, 3, 4 and elements of Phase 5 during the Reception year primarily using ‘Letters and Sounds’ scheme produced by the Dfe. Other resources are used to support learning within the Reception year.
Year One and Two
The majority of teaching is delivered using the ‘Letters and Sounds’ scheme. Within Year One Phase 4 is consolidated and built on with Phase 5a – d being taught. Within Year Two, Phase 5 is consolidated and built on with Phase 6 being taught across Year Two.
Phonic intervention is delivered as appropriate to children who need support and consolidation.
We primarily use the ‘Oxford Reading Tree’ scheme supplemented by some other schemes to allow children access to a wide range of genres. Our books provide phonically decodable texts. There are also whole word and sight word list texts to support the range of learning styles in children.
Our curriculum will provide fun and exciting opportunities that will stimulate children’s imagination. This will include opportunities for problem solving, developing self-esteem and exploring and developing the children’s own interests. By encouraging collaborative learning, we will ensure that children are both self-motivated, and challenged by others.
Our curriculum will allow children the freedom to take risks, to know that failure is a part of their learning journey, and that their mistakes can be utilized to achieve success. Children will be given the skills to be independent learners who can reflect on their learning, and be able to improve upon it. Our curriculum will teach children to do this by using the skills of critical thinking and using tools of analysis and reasoning.
Through an engaging curriculum with hooks into learning, linked with the children’s own interests, children will not be ‘spoon-fed’, but will instead take ownership of it. They will care about their learning and will be proud of every end product.
The world we live in is ever changing and our curriculum will allow children to grow to be adaptable, with transferrable skills that will equip them to thrive. Through our curriculum, children will increase their awareness of British values, and the values of others.
Our Curriculum, despite following the National Curriculum, is bespoke to Curbar and is designed with a Curbar child in mind. As a consequence it will grow and change. For this reason we only publish the plan for the term. This enables us to ‘tweak’ our plans to ensure they respond to the needs of our children and the community we serve. We make no apologies for this, we plan for our children and nobody else!
Please find a copy of the National Curriculum below:
KEY STAGES 1 AND 2
The school’s curriculum is based on the subjects outlined in the National Curriculum. These are: Maths, English, Science, Art and Design, Computing, Design and Technology, Languages (KS2 only) History, Geography, Music, Physical Education and Religious Education.
Although, it is non-statutory, we also teach PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes our pupils need to keep themselves healthy and safe, and prepare for life and work in modern Britain. We also place a strong emphasis on developing children’s understanding of their own and others’ needs and feelings citizenship learning. PSHE is taught as discrete lessons, and also promoted through assemblies and day-to-day events in our school life. Evidence shows that well-delivered PSHE programmes have an impact on both academic and non-academic outcomes for pupils, particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.
We have developed a creative approach to our curriculum where we aim to challenge children’s learning. Whenever possible, we try to make links across subjects, so that learning in one area enhances learning in another subject. Some subjects such as Maths and English are taught daily and links are made to the topic whenever possible. Others are studied for short blocks, so as to enable children to make links and follow up/extend their ideas. We encourage children to ask and try to answer their own questions and explain their thinking. We aim to include trips and real experiences in our curriculum whenever we can. You will also notice that for some units the plan is spread over a whole term, whilst others are split into a shorter half termly block.
Different teaching methods are used at different times in the school. During a week a mixture of whole class, group and individual teaching and learning will be used, depending on which is most appropriate.
We place a very high emphasis on developing children’s literacy and communication skills, not only in specific English lessons but through all areas of the curriculum. Through our teaching we aim to help children express themselves creatively and to communicate with others effectively.
Speaking and Listening
Children learn to speak effectively, clearly and confidently for different purposes and audiences. They are taught how to listen, understand and respond to others, including how to take part in group discussions and drama activities.
Reading and Phonics
Initially children learn to enjoy reading and books. Through a structured programme of phonics teaching (Synthetic Phonics), they are taught how to sound out letters, and develop other strategies to help them to read new words. They develop the skills to read a range of fiction and non-fiction material fluently, critically and with understanding. They reflect on the meanings of texts and evaluate how effective they are. Books in school are ‘book banded’ which means they are colour coded in order of difficulty. We have books from a variety of ‘schemes’ including the Oxford Reading Tree.
When they first come to school, our children learn to experiment with writing and to understand the value of it. We then use a programme of phonics, combined with teaching the spelling of common words, to enable our learners to write independently. They learn to punctuate and improve their handwriting. As they become more confident, children are taught to write in different contexts, for different purposes and to apply language rules and traditions for effect.
Maths is taught daily and across the curriculum where appropriate.
The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
– become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
– reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
– can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Key Stage 2 children are taught French every week as part of their curriculum entitlement.
Learning to Learn: children develop the skills of reflection and evaluation. They identify the strategies they have used in their learning and help the teacher plan their next steps. By the time they leave in Year 6, our children are expected to be experts at analysing their own learning and also helping other improve their learning.
Please click on our Teaching and Learning Policy for further information:
Please find our English and Maths policies below:
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