The school aims to provide high quality education for all children in line with the requirements of the National Curriculum and Local Authority policies.
Wherever possible, cross-curricular dimensions and skills have also been identified. These include citizenship, health education, careers, environmental education and financial capability, Equality of opportunity and multi-cultural education are also included as important elements of the school’s curriculum. It is intended that the National Curriculum will not be the whole curriculum and that the curriculum provided in school will be one that is broad and balanced in nature. The Government has stated that it will not specify time allocations for subjects, teaching methods to be used, or the resources required, nor will it specify the form of the curriculum organisation to be adopted. Curriculum maps or policies will be reviewed regularly and the documents below will be updated to reflect our developing school curriculum.
Learning is at the heart of the school and how we teach children to learn is of paramount importance. We use a range of teaching styles and methods to suit the needs of the lesson and the children. Children are taught in classes, groups and individually to maximise their learning and lessons are differentiated to address all levels of ability. Children learn in a variety of ways and we endeavour to cater for all learning styles by ensuring we use methods which support the child who learns by seeing, hearing or doing. We encourage children to take responsibility for their learning and increasingly to assess their learning and next steps.
The curriculum of the school is arranged to provide experiences and activities which will take account of each pupil’s cultural, linguistic and religious background and promote his/her continued growth through the acquisition of knowledge, concepts and skills. High priority is given to teaching pupils to listen and express themselves in coherent speech, to read, to write and to become conversant and fluent with mathematics.
If you would like further information on any aspect of the school curriculum, please contact the school office
by phone on 01582 748810
by email at .
They will be happy to find the right person to help you.
The school has adopted the Letters and Sounds document (2007) to teach phonics with some resources in the Foundation Stage from Jolly Phonics.
More information about letters and sounds can be found here.
In the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 phonics is taught daily at a discrete dedicated time. Children are grouped within year groups according to the phase they are working at.
Phonics Play – this is a subscription website. We have paid for in school use and the children are familiar with the games on it. Unfortunately, the subscription does not extend to home use, but individual subscriptions are available to purchase at £12 per year. Some games are free to play.
The statutory Year 1 Phonics Screening Check which will take place during the week 7th—11th June 2021 Please ensure that your child is in school during this week.
The check is a list of 40 words which children will read one-to-one with Mrs Jackson, deputy headteacher. It will assess phonics skills and knowledge learned through Reception and Year 1.
It will check that your child can:
Sound out and blend graphemes in order to read simple words e.g. n-igh-t
Read phonically decodable one-syllable and two-syllable words, e.g. cat, sand, windmill.
Read a selection of nonsense words which are referred to as ‘pseudo words’.
For the Department for Education Parents and Carers Information on the Year One phonics screening check click here.
Across Key 2, Read Write Inc is delivered as a phonic intervention for those children who have not passed the phonics screening test in Key Stage 1 or for children who have joined the school with gaps in their phonic knowledge and who are working below age related expectations for reading.
Reading schemes are developed in conjunction with literacy experts. Most schemes begin in the Foundation Stage and progressively become more difficult. For example, Key Stage 1 books are written with a mix of high-frequency and decodable words to develop a range of reading strategies, while Key Stage 2 books cover a wide range of genres and subjects, linking to the curriculum.
At Surrey Street, like many other primary schools we use a combination of reading schemes to complement our phonics programme and to reflect the different interests of our children. The schemes are organised by level (bands), with children having the option to read different books from different schemes at the same level.
See below for a list of the reading schemes:
Jelly and Bean
Project X
Songbird phonics
Tree Tops (Oxford Reading Project)
Guided Reading
Reading for enjoyment is encouraged and fostered at Surrey Street. To teach children specific reading and comprehension skills guided reading is taught explicitly 3 times a week from Year 1 onwards. In EYFS it is introduced formally in the summer term in preparation for the transition to Year 1. Prior to that, inference and comprehension skills are taught in small group shared reading activities. To support our guided reading programme, we use the Kings-Court reading books which complement our reading scheme in school and are banded accordingly.
Spelling is a high focus and parents are encouraged to support their child’s spelling by practising spellings at home using the rainbow spelling cards and the spelling activity booklet. These spelling cards focus on the end of year expectations for spelling rules and common exception words. Further information on spellings can be found on our website.
Red-
EYFS
Orange-
Year 1
Yellow-
Year 2
Green-
Year 3
Blue-
Year 4
Indigo-
Year 5
Violet-
Year 6
Literacy Curriculum Maps
Our curriculum maps are under review and will be updated shortly.
