Our Curriculum at William Rhodes

Please note this page is currently under development

How our curriculum is designed for our context

Our Early Years Curriculum (Reception class) very much meets the children at their particular stage of development. For some children this can be developmentally within the expected 40-60 months,  for many at William Rhodes it's more typically around 30-50 months or 22-36 months.

How learning is organised in the Early Years

We immerse our youngest children in oral language. Language about the every day and language about the experiences we give them such as visiting the park, playing outside and working cooperatively with each other or visiting the woodland area. We explicitly provide opportunities for the children to experience and teach about the every day such as looking after pets, growing plants, cooking together & learning about and tasting foods. We also extend children's knowledge and understanding of the world through exploring the school grounds on the hunt for minibeasts; by visiting the park and learning about different trees and other plants or visiting a farm and learning about baby animals. We explicitly plan to sing nursery rhymes, play games and share well-loved stories.

How the approach and the environment supports children developmentally

Young children need to learn to self-regulate and manage impulses. We support them in this process by providing stability, strong routines and a consistent response. We reduce sensory distraction and coach children to help them develop perseverance and to build their stamina. We support them to evaluate what works through using a plan, do review cycle. Our children have regular group time with their key person. This is the time when individual and group targets are worked on.

Considering readiness to learn as children move into Y1

At William Rhodes, children make extraordinary levels of progress in the Early Years. Despite this, many have not achieved a 'good level of development' because their starting points are low. We know it's vital that children are ready to learn to enable them to access the curriculum being offered.  This doesn't just apply when they start school, but at every stage of their education. Readiness is a fundamental foundation that must be in place for successful learning to happen. 

We have identified that children at William Rhodes typically need to spend longer developing the Prime Areas of Learning. These are Personal,  Social & Emotional Development,  Communication & Language & Physical Development. We have therefore, designed our curriculum so that we have a strong focus on these throughout Key Stage One as well as in the Early Years. This ensures that by the time they leave  Y2 our children are completely ready to access the complexities of the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum. 

We use the Prime Areas Tracker throughout the Early Years and into Key Stage 1 to assess where children are and set individual and group targets to support their development.

Our curriculum is designed to enable all children to succeed in the Prime Areas of Learning

To ensure children are self-confident and self-aware our curriculum is designed so that all children are confident to try new activities, and say why they like some activities more than others. They are confident to speak in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for their chosen activities. They say when they do or don’t need help.

To enable children to manage their feelings and behaviour our curriculum is designed so that all children are able to talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride.

To allow children to make successful relationships our curriculum is designed so that all children can play cooperatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. They show sensitivity to others' needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children.

To encourage children to listen and attend well our curriculum is designed so that all children can listen attentively in a range of situations. They listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions. They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity.

To establish a firm understanding our curriculum is designed so that all children follow instructions involving several ideas or actions. They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events.

To ensure our children are fluent & coherent speakers our curriculum is designed so that all children express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

To enable children to move deftly and handle ably our curriculum is designed so that all children show good control and co‑ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.

So that children can manage their own self-care and become health aware, we have designed our curriculum so that all children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.

How learning is organised in Key Stage One (Infants)

Our main objective within the infants is to get the basics right and on a firm foundation. To this end we have a clear focus on early reading & writing, early mathematics, real life practical science about the world they can see, touch & feel and the Prime Areas of personal, social, emotional development; communication & language & physical development.

Early Reading

In the Infants we teach the children how to read using a systematic phonics approach (Letters & Sounds) and by using books they can fully decode themselves. Our key aims are do develop fluency, automacity and a love of reading in all children. We do this by lots of whole class reading of books they can learn off by heart and participate in e.g. We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. In Year 2 they have whole class readers appropriate to their age such as  George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl or The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine.

Early writing 

Early mathematics

Real life practical science

How our curriculum is developed

We know that children learn best when they are excited and enthused and fully engaged with their learning. This is why we make learning as meaningful as we can for our children, connecting it to their own experience and making links between subjects. We also try to offer our children as many real life experience as we can.  

English in Key Stage 2

In the mornings we tend to do most of our English and maths work.  In the Junior department we draw all our English work from a class reader which is always a high quality text such as The Iron Man by Ted Hughes or Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo.

To see the National Curriculum reading objectives year by year, please click here.

Reading in Key Stage Two (Juniors)

Writing in Key Stage Two (Juniors) 

 We fire children's imaginative ideas for writing by giving them reasons to write. It might be because they are inspired by an amazing photograph or that they want to write in the style of an author they've been reading. It could be because they want to write and tell the headteacher something such as 'How we could make school dinners better' or that they want to write a story for the younger children to read. Teachers model excellent writing and that way, children see exactly what they are aiming for.  

To see National Curriculum writing objectives year by year, click here

Mathematics in Key Stage Two (Juniors) 

For maths, we teach the National Curriculum using Power Maths. 

Maths is approached as an adventure for children to immerse themselves in, get creative with, make mistakes, and conquer! 

Power Maths is a whole-class mastery programme designed to spark curiosity and excitement and helps to nurture confidence in maths.

We spend extra time using maths jotters to really focus on developing children's fluency with number (number bonds and times tables) and their mastery of the four operations (add, subtract, multiply & divide).

To see the progression year by year in the maths National Curriculum, click here

The Foundation Subjects in Key Stage Two (Juniors)

Every afternoon we teach the foundation subjects and make our topics exciting, engaging and appealing to the children. Where possible, we always squeeze in a visit to support the children's learning. You can see from our timetable below how we schedule our teaching to ensure children experience a broad and balanced curriculum here at William Rhodes.

Special Days

On special days we collapse the curriculum and teach a whole day on a special theme such as Divali or Buddhism. We have diversity days where we learn about wider society. We're also learning about British values and have really enjoyed having a mock trial or making a new town to help us understand the rule of law.