Following on from a solid practical base in the Foundation Stage, a greater emphasis is placed from Year 1 on literacy and numeracy.  Learning through play is still important and valuable in the classroom until Year 2 and the end of Key Stage 1.  French continues with an oral emphasis – lots of fun games and songs, until Year 4 where written French is added to the programme of learning.

Children are regularly assessed as a matter of course in the classroom, but their first experience of more formal testing is at the end of Year 2 with SATs in English and Maths.  This continues in Year 3 and 4 with interim key stage tests which act as a benchmark and indicate progress.

As an incentive and to give the children a sense of ownership of their own learning, individual targets are set in literacy and numeracy at the start of each term and regularly reviewed by staff and pupils.  Targets are also set by staff on the termly report.

We are proud of our broad-based curriculum and are able to deliver cross-curricular projects at all levels.  For example, a project on the Victorians in Year 2 would involve a museum visit, a Victorian day in costume, handling and discussing artefacts, making comparisons between Victorian life and our own lives and undertaking basic research in the library.

School was no laughing matter for children in Victorian England

Whilst we embrace modern teaching methods through the Primary Strategy and daily literacy and numeracy hours, we also value some of the long-established methods which work, such as learning tables, spellings and dictations, and establishing good handwriting habits.  Furthermore, we have a non-selective entry policy and are able to support children who are experiencing difficulty in a subject, but we also challenge those who excel in a specific area so that they can realise their potential.

By the end of Year 4, children have the skills and confidence to ensure a smooth transition to our senior school in Year 5, having already experienced specialist teaching in Science, French, Music, P.E. and Design Technology.  They are used to the discipline of prep and look forward to new challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

Year 3 children pay a visit to @Bristol for a scientific day out