Whilst supporting the policies and aims of the School, the Governing Body of Sladefield Infant School aims to ensure an all round education of the highest quality through the provision of a stimulating, happy and safe environment where each child can develop a love of learning.

The School Curriculum

The School follows the 2014 National Curriculum, which consists of the core areas – Spoken Language, Reading, Writing, Vocabulary development and Mathematics. These core areas run through and support learning in all subjects. These subjects include Science, Computing, PE, History, Geography, Design & Technology, Art, Music, PSHE/Citizenship. In addition the school provides Religious Education and Collective Worship. These subjects grow out of the core areas.

 

At Sladefield Infant School we aim to give children a happy and confident start by welcoming both children and parents to our Induction Programme; this includes a varied range of activities in the summer term, to prepare the children for the big and exciting event of starting school. In September, the Reception children begin school on a part-time basis initially, to settle them quickly and to develop good relationships.

The curriculum comprises of 17 Early Learning Goals, as described below. Reception teachers are required to assess each child against these goals. Teachers are only required to judge whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS (expected) or not yet reaching this level (emerging). I

 

• Listening, Attention and Understanding

• Speaking

 Personal, Social and Emotional Development

• Self-Regulation

• Managing Self

• Building Relationships

Physical Development

• Gross Motor Skills 

• Fine Motor Skills 

 Literacy

• Comprehension

• Word Reading 

• Writing

 Mathematics

• Number

• Numerical Patterns 

• Past and Present 

• People, Culture and Communities 

• The Natural World 

 Expressive Arts and Design

• Creating with Materials

• Being Imaginative and Expressive

 

Each of these areas is implemented through planned and purposeful play, a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activities. The children experience this exciting curriculum, both indoors and outdoors, and it is designed to meet the needs of young children. This is fun, creative and play based and challenges each child to achieve his/her individual potential. Whilst in reception the children are encouraged to become independent and active learners through effective teaching and learning opportunities, this is delivered through play and exploration. Active learning and creative thinking are critical to each child’s development. We ensure that there is a balance of creative adult initiated activities, opportunities and resources for your child to initiate their own learning both indoors and outdoors. This inspires them to gain a curiosity of the world around them, develop their social skills and be motivated to try new activities.

A great emphasis is placed on the notion of play as it is through this means that children find stimulation, well-being and happiness. To ensure that children are continually stimulated and interested we plan and provide suitably challenging and motivating activities, responding to children’s individual interests and support them in these through careful and sensitive adult interactions.

Assessment is an integral part of the learning and development process at our school. It supports our understanding of level of achievement, interests and learning styles of children. It is an ongoing daily process and is used to plan future learning opportunities. Children in reception are assessed continually throughout the year and their progress in each area of learning and ‘next steps’ are shared with parents termly. At the end of the Reception year the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) will be completed for every child and will assess levels of development against the 17 Early Learning Goals and will indicate whether children are meeting expected levels, or have not yet reached the expected levels (emerging).

Parents are regularly welcomed into school and their contribution to their child’s experiences is highly valued. Throughout the year a range of activities are planned to support parents to help their children’s learning development. 

KEY STAGE 1

English is taught daily in Literacy lessons. During these sessions the important skills of reading, writing and speaking & listening are taught.

Reading/Phonics

Phonics is taught in a highly structured programme of daily lessons across the whole school. In EYFS and Year 1 children work in groups differentiated according to children’s phonic awareness and development. The Letters and Sound programme is followed, providing a synthetic approach to the teaching of phonics.

Each session gives an opportunity for children to revisit their previous experience, be taught new skills, practise together and apply what they have learned.

We strongly believe that reading is the key to accessing most other subjects within the curriculum and is a basis for having a sound education. We strive to teach the children the key skills to be able to read, as well as a passion and love for books and reading. We provide an environment conducive to this by ensuring children are exposed to a rich variety of texts, opportunities to share and enjoy books and the role models they need to experience why reading is so great!

Guided Reading is a dedicated, accurately planned session during which children are taught the skills to become confident, independent and motivated readers. Skills we teach include; application of phonics to decode words, self-correction, self-monitoring, omission to work out unknown words, reading for meaning and inference.

 

Whole class reading is taught in Ks1 and the sessions are planned using Reading Vipers.

VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum.  They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.

 

VIPERS stands for...

Vocabulary

Inference

Prediction

Explanation

Retrieval

Sequence or Summarise

 

These 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc.  As such, VIPERS is not a reading scheme but rather a method of ensuring that teachers ask, and students are familiar with, a range of questions.  They allow the teacher to track the type of questions asked and the children’s responses to these which allows for targeted questioning afterwards

Maths is taught in a fun and practical way at Sladefield in daily maths lessons using the principle of Maths Mastery.  This focuses on giving children confidence with numbers and measures. Children will be given an understanding of the number system and will be taught the skills to enable them to solve problems in a variety of contexts. They will also learn how to gather information by counting and measuring and how to present this in the form of graphs, diagrams and charts etc. In Reception children will learn mathematical skills through focused group activities.

Science

Science is taught by a cross-curricular topic approach. We aim to encourage the children to become inquisitive and curious and to ask questions. A great deal of emphasis is put on investigative work using first hand experience. The children are encouraged to use scientific vocabulary and practical equipment safely to carry out these investigations.

ICT

It is Sladefield School’s vision that the children’s learning is enhanced with the use of ICT. As a result children have access to a wide range of ICT and audio-visual resources, which are used as a cross-curricular approach to develop their ICT skills. Some of the key skills involve handling data, communicating using text and pictures, modelling, controlling programmable toys and using media software.

Design & Technology

Children will learn how to think imaginatively and talk about what they like and dislike when designing and making. They will build on their early experience of investigating objects around them by exploring how familiar things work, and talk about, draw and model their ideas. They will learn how to design and make things safely using appropriate tools.

History and Geography

These two subjects are taught mainly through creative project work. In Geography the children’s studies include – the local area in comparison to other localities, some aspects of the environment of the wider world and the relationship between people and their environment. In History, the children will be helped to develop a sense of the passage of time and an understanding of the past. They will study local and family history and look back at events in their own lives and the lives of important people.

Music

Children are taught music using the Charanga scheme of work. This scheme combines music appraisal, listening and attention skills, singing lots of traditional songs and rhymes, co-ordination and control skills and musical exploration in theme based lessons. Music is taught as a discrete lesson each week, and elements of lesson is repeated and built upon, giving children ample opportunity to develop their music skills as well as their confidence in exploring different ways to play instruments.

Art

Most Art lessons are cross-curricular. Children will be provided with opportunities to learn how to handle a wide range of tools and materials skilfully and creatively. They will be encouraged to observe, imagine and evaluate their work and the work of others. Children will be given the chance to see, talk about, and appreciate the work of great artists from many cultures.

P.E.

Children will be able to develop co-ordination, agility, confidence, fitness and enjoyment in P.E. They will use the large apparatus facilities which we have available as well as the small apparatus like balls, bats and skipping ropes to develop these skills. They will also develop simple game skills. In Year 2 the children go swimming at the local swimming pool for just over half a term. In the Summer Term the whole school participates in a Sports day, and, whenever possible Year 1 & Year 2 enter multi-skills sports events with other schools.

R.E.

R.E. is taught through the Birmingham Agreed syllabus. Teaching is focused on what we can learn from different religions and cultures. In particular, the children learn and respect other people’s lives. Much of our teaching is based on the moral and social aspects of our lives, how we can appreciate each other and be tolerant of each other, regardless of what our own beliefs are. We hope that this will build a firm foundation for the future of our children to become good citizens.

PSHE & Citizenship

PSHE and Citizenship encompasses all aspects of the school’s planned provision to promote children’s personal and social development, including health and well-being. At Sladefield this is addressed through our Circle time and School Council programmes, Collective Workshop assemblies, Health Week, Community and fund-raising events. We also explore and celebrate differences and diversity through our 'No Outsiders' approach. This ensures that everybody feels welcome and valued in line with the 2010 Equality Act, whatever their race, gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation and gender. This is further supported by our Unicef Rights Respecting work, where we are currently holding a bronze award, working hard towards the silver award. Using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to give us a framework to ensure all pupils receive a good education, are safe, confident and happy in our care and have a strong moral compass. Our Learning Mentor supports children’s well being in school.