Whole School Curriculum
The curriculum is what is taught in schools. The National Curriculum is an entitlement for all children and all children take part in all subjects.
Along with all other maintained schools in England we are required by government to teach the revised National Curriculum, which began September 2014.
The curriculum is ‘what’ will be taught. The government has slimmed these requirements down to enable schools to add areas they feel children need for their development.
The curriculum does not dictate ‘how’ things are taught. That is down to us! We will mix a rich cross curricular approach to make learning fun, with discrete teaching of specialist subjects such as computing, music and physical education. We believe in using research to inform our teaching practice and pedagogy.
There is summative testing with national comparisons at the beginning and end of Reception year, phonics testing in Year One, and revised statutory tests at the end of Year 2.
At Christchurch Infant School pupils in our Reception Classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.
This curriculum is play based, and involves children self-selecting activities, whole class activities and small adult led activities by the teachers and support staff. Adults very carefully observe the children and plan progress for each of them by intervening in play and also planning targeted teaching to move learning forward.
At Christchurch Infant School we use a very systematic approach to phonics called 'Read Write Inc' to help teachers plan progression in phonic skills. It aims to build children’s speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven.