“Play is the highest form of research.”

Albert Einstein

Our leaders construct a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give children, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge, self-belief and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. This is evidenced within our curriculum and teaching and learning guidance, which states the reasoning behind current curriculum decisions. We monitor and evaluate using a school improvement plan, supported by analysed data which evidences the impact our curriculum has on pupil attainment and progress. 

Our curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced. It builds on what children know and can do, towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for their future learning. Our curriculum overview has been mapped out to identify how the areas of learning are met and allows children to progress and develop throughout the year. Purposeful planning which is systematic, builds on prior skills learnt and becomes more challenging as the year progresses. 

There is an emphasis on ensuring that our children acquire a wide vocabulary, communicate effectively and, in Reception, secure a knowledge of phonics, which gives them the foundations for future learning, especially in preparation for them to become confident and fluent readers. This is evidenced in our daily phonics teaching in Reception.  We monitor and review the impact of our work using phonic assessment data.  Evidence of key vocabulary is written in planning and our teachers create ‘language rich’ learning environments. We place a strong emphasis on talk and stories, especially role play, to develop children's vocabulary and language. 

Our school’s approach to teaching early reading and synthetic phonics is systematic and ensures that all children learn to read words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Reception. Our phonic assessment data measures the impact of phonics teaching half termly and there is evidence of children’s learning through, books, pupils work and observations. 

We have the same academic ambitions for our cohort. For children with particular needs, such as those with SEN and/or disabilities, their curriculum is designed to be ambitious and to meet their needs.  Pupil progress data identifies evidence of progress made by children from all abilities. Teachers measure the impact of intervention support alongside the SENCo.