Curriculum

Larklands Infant and Nursery School Curriculum

Intent

At Larklands Infant and Nursery School, we place a great level of importance on holistic development of each and every child. Through our core values (being happy and healthy, safe and secure, confident and resilient and ambitious and enthusiastic), we foster an environment where the emotional, social, moral, cultural, physical and academic development of each child is considered. 

Our core curriculum is mapped to cover all objectives of the National curriculum, it ensures the learning builds on prior learning creating ‘sticky’ knowledge and prepares children for life in their community as well as modern Britain. It is designed to challenge, engage and motivate children, inspiring their future learning and broadening their experiences to enable them to become confident individuals who achieve to the best of their ability.

Enhanced experiences aim to develop the life skills they require to give them knowledge of the world around them and to teach them about their place in it. Children will become global learners showing respect for cultural diversity and different beliefs and values. We aim for our children to become global learners.

The enquiry approach to learning provides opportunities for knowledge and skills to be taught across all curriculum subjects. Each topic will begin with recapping ‘sticky’ knowledge from prior learning and then developing further enquiry through a question approach. Lessons will be blocked together for some subjects to allow an in depth study over a period of time.

Implementation

Our core curriculum subjects follow different forms of planning bespoke to the learning needs of our children. Prior knowledge is always the starting point for planning and teaching future lessons which are required for all pupils to make progress.

We teach phonics and reading through "Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised" which is a government validated systematic synthetic phonics programme.  This programme is used to support children in reading and writing both inside and outside of the phonics lesson across the curriculum.  

Maths is taught through Power Maths and some White Rose resources with a focus on Maths Mastery which we are currently embedding at Larklands.  We have previously worked alongside the Maths Mastery Hubb to enable us to get to the embedding stage.

Science is taught as a discrete subject and, where possible, has some cross curricular links. A large emphasis is placed on key skills and enquiry.

Assessing the core subjects

For English, we assess the children in Phonics and Reading at the end of every 5 week Little Wandle unit to ensure progress is being made and to identify those children needing daily keep up and catch up sessions.  Writing is assessed formatively during each lesson, as well as summatively at the end of each half term or unit of work.  

For Maths, children are assessed formatively and through our Maths Mastery approach to learning at the end of a unit.

For Science, children are assessed each lesson on the learning that has taken place which will give an overall picture of understanding at the end of a unit.

Intervention in the core subjects

We offer interventions linked to Little Wandle for all pupils who are not making the required progress, as well as, writing and maths in small groups with a Teaching Assistant to close gaps in learning.

Both core and foundation subjects build on prior learning and a large emphasis is placed on pupil engagement throughout the lesson.

Developing Enquiry

Our Foundation curriculum is taught through subject blocks and topics and this links to the National Curriculum Objectives. The teaching of subject knowledge links clearly to the skills we are aiming to develop with the children to create ‘sticky’ knowledge. We think carefully about the knowledge and vocabulary we want the children to learn to ensure this represents the context and demographics of our school.  We teach all lessons in the same format so children have an understanding of the lesson structure and are continuously revisiting prior learning.

Assessing the enquiry this is done formatively and through day to day assessments and feedback throughout school.

The enhancement of the curriculum complements the core and enquiry based coverage and provides enrichment through first hand experiences that motivate children to learn. All children have the opportunity to celebrate their achievements and we hope children go on to explore their learning further in an independent way.

Impact

Pupils leave Larklands with a secure understanding of the curriculum; with the knowledge of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible and locally and globally aware. We aim for all of our children to be skilful, respectful, ambitious and have a thirst for what life has to offer. We want all children to leave Larklands, proud of who they are and equipped for the wider world and confident in the decisions they make. They will build on their Capital Culture from Nursery to Year 2 to ensure they have the building blocks for later life skills.

Curriculum Information