The teaching has a positive impact on pupils’ learning in literacy and numeracy. In addition, teachers are good at giving pupils opportunities to use and practise these skills in other subjects such as geography or science. A major focus is the development of pupils’ language skills.
Ofsted 2015
The Curriculum is all the planned activities that are organised in order to promote learning and personal growth and development. It includes the formal requirements of the National Curriculum as well as the range of extra- curricular activities that the school organises in order to enrich the experience of the children.
We aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people who can work and cooperate with others while developing a wide knowledge and skills base, so that they can achieve their full potential. At the heart of our curriculum is the Emotional Health and Well being of our whole community.
All the children at Short Wood are offered a rich and varied curriculum. We endeavour to create practical and language rich opportunities both on and off site. The curriculum is planned around a topic rolling programme. This a two yearly cycle which is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of our pupils and to ensure the teaching and learning remains relevant.
During their seven years at Short Wood all the children will experience:
Off Site Visits to:
On site
Visits from:
Literacy
We aim to provide a wealth of opportunities and experiences for all of our pupils, this provides the context for much of our writing. The curriculum is planned around a topic rolling programme. This a two yearly cycle which is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of our pupils and to ensure the teaching and learning remains relevant.
We use the Ruth Miskin – Read, Write Inc phonics programme throughout school, starting in Nursery, our children call it ‘Speed Sounds.’ The phonics programme supports both reading and writing development. It is taught to all children across Foundation Stage and Key Stage One. In Key Stage 2 we continue to embed the early phonics skills, children who need additional work on the basic phonic programme will receive that in small groups, Fresh Start. We also use ‘Get Spelling’, to develop skills further. For children who need additional support to make progress we may use other approaches to complement our core teaching.
Reading is taught through a range of reading opportunities, from whole class comprehension skills to focused guided group sessions. We use the reading books from the Read, Write Inc and the Oxford Reading Tree schemes as our early teaching materials, these are supplemented by a whole range of books which are banded to meet reading needs of our children at different stages of their reading development. Reading for enjoyment is at the heart of all of our teaching and we try to provide additional opportunities for shared reading times, either with peers, other adults or with parents and family. We are well supported by a group of volunteer reading helpers who provide invaluable additional reading support.
Mathematics
In order to teach our children to be confident and capable mathematicians, we use a range of teaching strategies. We follow guidance from the Government and teach our children a wide range of written and mental strategies to solve calculations and real life problems. Our aim is for them to be able to confidently choose the most efficient method when solving problems or calculating the answer to a question. We make maths contextual and help our children to see that maths is all around us, in everyday life. Enrichment and extension lies at the heart of our teaching and we use opportunities such as maths mornings to build bridges with home learning. This year we have also introduced a set of maths targets to ensure that children know what they need to do to make progress and achieve their next steps in Maths.
New School Curriculum 2014
Since September 2014 Short Wood has been following the new school curriculum for maintained schools in England. Parents wishing to find out more about the changes may find this outline of background information useful.
An overview of our curriculum offer is available to download, along with with Guidance for learning and development in the Early Years Foundation Stage [EYFS].
National Curriculum
Below are links to the 2014 National Curriculum
Overall School: 95%