Our Curriculum Statement can be downloaded here.

 

Park Hill Infants School provides a learning environment where each child is helped and encouraged to develop his or her full potential in a happy, caring and stimulating environment.

We believe that the curriculum is more than just the development of subject-based skills, knowledge and understanding, it also makes a vital contribution to the development of the children's attitudes and beliefs.  Our statement for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development can be viewed here.

We ensure that through our school vision, values, rules, curriculum and teaching we promote the British Values of respect, tolerance, democracy, rule of law and individual liberty for all cultures, faiths and lifestyles.  Our document 'Preparation for Life in Modern Britain' can be viewed under our 'Policies' section.

The school complies with the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and The National Curriculum. The curriculum also includes the development of positive personal attitudes, a sense of responsibility, care for people and the environment and a mutual respect for the contribution of each individual within the school community. We try to provide the children with an ever widening range of experiences which include doing, discussing, taking part and sharing.

 

SUPERSKILLS FOR LEARNING 

Children are encouraged to be independent in their learning and develop and use the school’s ten “Superskills for Learning”.  An effective learner is someone who… makes connections; collaborates; communicates; perseveres; is reflective; is confident; is creative; is a risk taker; is resourceful; is curious.  Children are rewarded for using these skills in their learning and are able to recognise these skills both in their own and others’ learning.

 

GROWTH MINDSET

Children are encouraged to develop a growth mindset attitude towards their own learning. Children will learn:

• Talents can be developed and great abilities can be built over time
• To view mistakes as an opportunity to develop
• To be resilient (they never give up)
• To believe that effort creates success
• To think about how they learn

 

PHONICS AND EARLY READING AT OUR SCHOOL

Embedding a life-long love for reading is at the heart of our Curriculum. Across the school we have developed an engaging and stimulating environment for reading, containing a wide range of text types and genres so that all children experience and learn from different structures, styles and formats of literature. Our teaching staff immerse children in high quality literature, and read to our children every day, engaging them in stories and characters and delving deep into themes and morals, fostering a whole school reading culture with great enthusiasm and love for books, reading and story-telling. Every child engages with a broad range of texts which inspire their own interest in literature including factual books, newspapers, play scripts, poems and comics.

At Park Hill Infant School we believe that for all our children to become fluent readers and writers, phonics must be taught through a systematic and structured phonics programme.

We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme to  provide daily engaging phonics lessons. In Phonics, we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represent a different sound, that these can be used in a variety of combinations and are put together to make words. The children learn to recognise all of the different sounds and combinations that they might see when they are reading or writing. Phonics teaching begins at the start of Reception and follows a very specific sequence that allows our children to build on their previous Phonic knowledge and master specific Phonics strategies as they move through school. As a result, our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover. At Park Hill Infant School we also model these strategies in shared reading and writing both inside and outside of the Phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on the development of language skills for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

How we teach Phonics:

*In Reception and Year 1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme. Phonics is taught daily and with a review session on a Friday.

*Phonics teaching starts as soon as the children start in Reception to ensure the children make a strong start.

*By the end of Reception, children will have been taught up until the start of Phase 5.

*By the end of Year 1, children will have been taught the full Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme, including Phase 5.

*Reception Phonics lessons begin at 10–15 minutes in length. By Christmas, the Reception lessons are 20–25 minutes long

*Year 1 the lessons are 20–25 minutes and sometimes may take a bit longer when the class are learning a new routine, reviewing lots of words or exploring more complicated content in ‘Grow the code’ lessons.

*In Year 2 pupils are considered for the Rapid Catch-up programme, using the Assessments to identify any gaps in their Phonic knowledge. In Year 2 we ensure that all pupils' Phase 5 knowledge is secure and revise anything else that children have found tricky previously.  ​

*In Year 2, pupils who are assessed and require Phonics ‘Catch-up’ sessions will be taught an additional short, sharp Phonics session lasting 10/20 minutes in length  at least three times a week.

Reading Practice sessions:

*As soon as the children are able to blend sounds in a word, pupils in Reception and Year One become part of a 'Reading practice group' (6 children in each reading group) which happen daily during our timetabled Reading session known across the school as 'Book Club'. The reading sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Each group reads their book 3 times, focussing on three key reading skills: Decoding, Prosody (reading with meaning, stress and intonation) and Comprehension (understanding the text).

*These sessions are timetabled three times a week and are taught by a trained adult. The children practise reading using carefully selected reading books matched to their secure phonic knowledge from the Collins Big Cat for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Decodable books. Any child who cannot blend is given additional blending practice every day until they can blend in order to begin Reading practice sessions as soon as possible.​

* In Year Two the children continue to be a part of a daily 'Reading Practise Group', and move onto progressive reading books once they have completed Phase 5 of Little Wandle for Letters and Sounds Revised.

*All children read from a decodable reading book which is carefully matched to their Phoncis Phase and set with guidance from school staff, and take this home with their ‘Reading Diary’ for daily practise and home/school reading communication.

*Alongside these decodable reading books, we value opportunities for children to choose their own reading material following their own interest and to read for pleasure. We offer every child an additional free choice of ‘Sharing Reading Book’ from our well-stocked classroom book corners and school library each week.

How we assess Phonics and Early reading:

*During each session of Phonics or reading, teachers use 'Assessment for Learning' strategies to formatively assess pupils and address misconceptions immediately.

*During the 'Reading Practice' group sessions trained adults continually assess the children's fluency and ability to decode the appropriate book. This is noted and monitored in school as well as with parents/carers through the child's Reading Diary.

* Every pupil is given an individual 'Early reading target' which is stuck to the back cover of their Reading Diary, which they can continue to work on at home as well as in the classroom. These are updated regularly as the children move through the Phonics programme.

*In Reception and Year One, at the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks which address gaps identified by the class teacher’s on-going formative assessment).

*Any children identified in Reception and Year One as requiring additional support to keep up are immediately identified and begin daily ‘Keep-up’ sessions. These sessions follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.

*In Reception and Year One, the children are fully assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment formats and tracker.

*The children in Year One sit the Phonics Screening Check in the Summer term.

*Children who do not meet the benchmark in the Phonics Screening Check in Year One, re-sit this in Year Two.

*Children who are close to completing Phase 5 are assessed using the Little Wandle for Letters and Sounds Revised Fluency assessments in order to determine this, and children reading at 60 to 70+ words per minute are considered fluent enough to move onto the school's progressive Reading banded books.

*Children who are in Year Two and need ‘catch up’ sessions are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments and when secure are able to move onto the appropriate reading book.

PSHE - Personal, Social and Health Education

PSHE is a subject where children develop the knowledge, skills and attributes  they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, and prepared for life and work.

Our PSHE curriculum aims to help children understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.   It enables our children to be healthy, independent responsible members of society.

We develop pupil’s self-awareness, social skills, motivation, empathy and the ability to manage their feelings through our PSHE curriculum.  We encourage pupils to become reflective members of the school community and to have an understanding of what makes people different and equal.

Children will develop tolerance and understanding for a variety of different cultures as reflected by the multicultural environment of the school, preparing them for life in Modern Britain.

Children will be able to collaborate effectively, express themselves and reflect on their own decisions and actions, skills that will enable emotional intelligence and success in later life.

"We need to know how to be kind and respectful and to be good friends.  We use our values and everyone should treat other people how they want to be treated - so everyone needs our values"

 

As a school, we have chosen to follow the 'Jigsaw' scheme of work from Reception to Year Two as it connects  Personal, Social and Health Education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development together in an easy to understand format for our young pupils.

Jigsaw consists of half term units of work called 'Puzzles', each containing six lessons called 'Pieces'. Each of the 'Pieces' has a learning intentions linked to PSHE, and one linked to emotional literacy and social skills.

The content overview is shown below, from Reception to Year Two.

 

Our Early Years Curriculum covers seven broad areas of experience:

*Communication and language

*Physical development

*Personal, social and emotional development

*Literacy

*Mathematics

*Understanding the world

*Expressive arts and design

 

Our Key Stage One Curriculum covers:

 

ENGLISH

We equip all pupils with an effective command of the spoken and written word and use this to support them in learning across the rest of the curriculum by developing their independence in reading and writing. Our English curriculum intends to develop pupil’s creative thinking and their development of vocabulary at every stage of development from the start of early years to the end of Year Two.

We ensure that pupils from all backgrounds and with a wide range of spoken languages are able to communicate effectively using the KS1 expectations for English spelling and grammar in preparation for KS2 and that they can apply these skills across a range of genres. For all pupils to leave KS1 with the ability to write coherently, at length, with accurate grammar and to be able to adapt their style of writing across areas of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

We encourage all pupils to develop a genuine love of reading which will continue to develop through their future education. Our aim is for every pupil to be able to decode texts containing all Phonic phases and to read whole texts independently before leaving us at the end of KS1. To ensure that all pupils are exposed to the highest quality texts and examples of English language from a diverse range of authors, inclusive of all cultures and that they are presented with the best examples of what has been written.

Our English curriculum aims for all pupils to have regular opportunities to develop strong analytical skills which enable them to think and make the best decisions for themselves. To be able to comprehend what they read, see and hear and to develop their own voice to effectively and clearly communicate their ideas and opinions as thoughtful and empathetic members of society.

"We need to know how to read and write and how to explain things well - good communicators like our Superskills!"

 

MATHS

Our maths curriculum aims to equip pupils with the knowledge, understanding, skills and methods needed to solve mathematical problems, help them understand the importance of maths in the world; develop their ability to reason mathematically and to nurture a sense of enjoyment and curiosity in the subject.

Through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, our curriculum supports pupils to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, number sense, place value and the four operations, and allows pupils to make clear connections across the subject. This enables pupils to develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

Introducing and developing mathematical vocabulary is central in order to enhance children’s understanding of mathematical concepts and terminology.  This is especially important for us due to our high levels of pupils with English as an Additional Language.

We aim to ensure that by the time children leave us they have the knowledge and skills to confidently approach a range of mathematical problems and allow them to continue to grow in the subject through their education.

"We need Maths to help us solve problems. We need to make sure shops don't take all our money and we need to tell the time so we aren't late!"

 

SCIENCE

We want our pupils to develop a natural curiosity about the world around them, therefore our curriculum has been designed to foster a sense of wonder about natural phenomena.

Our curriculum enables children to develop the ability to work scientifically by progressively building on knowledge and understanding of nature, processes and methods of Science.

Linked to our school ‘Super Skills for Learning’, we encourage pupils to make connections across the curriculum, using the skills involved in ‘working scientifically’.

We ensure that by the time pupils leave us they have developed a broad and balanced understanding of Key Stage One Scientific Concepts.  Alongside this, we ensure that rich learning experiences have ensured development of language skills and the acquisition of scientific vocabulary for all our pupils.

We offer our pupils ‘hands on’, practical opportunities to investigative scientific learning inside and outside.  Through this approach, we aim to instil an excitement about science in all pupils, which they can then explore further in KS2 and beyond.

"We need to know about ourselves and also how to take care of our world and all living things"

 

HISTORY

Through our History curriculum, children will develop a knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past, as well as reinforcing Modern British Values and life in modern Britain today.  Pupils develop an understanding of the past and present with chronological awareness up to the present day.

Our History curriculum encourages children to understand changes in people’s lives over time and the significance of important people.

By the time they leave us, we aim for our children to have developed a knowledge and understanding of the wider world, with a curiosity to learn more about the past. Through evaluating the past, children will have opportunities to think of ways to improve the future.

"We need to learn about things from the past so we can learn from their mistakes"

 

GEOGRAPHY

Through our Geography curriculum, we aim to inspire a curiosity and fascination in pupils about the world and its people, linked to the multi-cultural nature of our school community.

Our geography curriculum is designed to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with the deep understanding of the earth’s key physical and human processes. We support and challenge children to develop skills in analysing, in order to compare and contrast localities using first hand experiences of different home lands. Our Geography curriculum ensure that pupils will have a strong contextual knowledge of countries and continents and the ability to utilise geographical skills. Alongside this, we ensure that rich learning experiences have ensured development of language skills and the acquisition of geographical vocabulary for all our pupils.

By the time children leave us, they will have developed a broad interest in the world and an interest and excitement for Geography that will remain with them in KS1/KS2 and beyond in their future lives.

"We learn about different places around the world so we know what it is like and then we can go there!"

 

COMPUTING

Technology is changing the lives of everyone. Computing skills are vital to accessing life-long learning and employment. Through teaching computing, we enable our children to participate effectively in a rapidly changing world where work and leisure activities are increasingly transformed by technology. We ensure that our pupils can apply the fundamental concepts of computer Science, using a range of programs. This will ensure a solid foundation on which to build as pupils move into KS2- the next phase of their education.

We equip our children with the skills necessary to become competent, responsible and creative users of information and communication technology.

With the digital world changing all the time, we ensure that our children will leave us with a thorough understanding of how they can stay safe and protected online.

"We learn how to stay safe online - things we should share and things we can't. If you know how to code you can make lots of money designing your own games!"

 

PE

Our PE curriculum provides pupils with a deep understanding of what it means to have a healthy, active lifestyle which will impact positively on them in their future.  We provide opportunities for pupils to develop their fundamental movement skills and physical confidence in a way which supports their health and fitness.

We ensure that our children have opportunities to compete in sport and other activities that build character and help to embed the values of sport such as courage, teamwork and respect.

Our curriculum offers many opportunities for pupils to work as team and learn to communicate and collaborate with others.  Pupils will develop their language and vocabulary skills within the subject as well as a growth mindset approach to take risks, have a go and not give up.

‘Obstacles don’t have to stop you.  If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.  Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it’. (Michael Jordan)

"We learn to stay healthy and to know what sports we like and we are good at"

 

ART AND DESIGN

Through our Art and Design curriculum, we begin to embed an understanding of how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture and creativity of our nation. Art and Design in our school, inspires and encourages children to develop and extend their creative skills and to express their individual interests, thought and ideas through appreciation and reflection of their own art work and that of others.

Our curriculum is designed to engage, inspire and challenge all pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.  We aim to instil a love of art and creativity in our pupils, which will enrich their lives through the next phase of their education and beyond.  This appreciation of human creativity and achievement will give children the knowledge, skills and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

Our Art curriculum engages children in high quality art experiences, equipping them with an excellent understanding of a range of art techniques and a good knowledge of a range of artist’s work, including work from a variety of different cultures (as reflected by our school community).  Children are also given every opportunity to increase and extend their vocabulary, developing language skills further.

Many art experiences are planned to foster an open-ended exploration of creativity. Our resources do not always follow prescriptive outcomes, instead we believe the role of the teacher is to introduce key skills, materials and ideas to the pupils in such a way that each pupil can then explore his or her own creativity. By creating a safe and nurturing environment, pupils are encouraged to take creative risks and to learn from the journey, rather than head towards a pre-defined end result.

"We can be creative and create something new by using our own ideas"

 

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

Through our Design and Technology teaching, we encourage children to learn to think and intervene creatively to solve problems, both as individuals and as members of a team. Pupils will develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to successfully participate in the ever increasing technological world.

Pupils will be confident to design, make and evaluate for a range of purposes.  They will be able to effectively innovate, find solutions and generate new ideas / thinking.  They will develop their knowledge and understanding of vocabulary related to Design Technology, further supporting English language acquisition.

"We can experiment with designing new things that might be able to help people"

 

MUSIC

Our music curriculum engages pupils in high quality musical learning opportunities that promote a love of, and interest in music.  This enjoyment of music will enrich their lives in the future.

We encourage all groups of children, including SEND and disadvantaged, to develop and explore their own creative skills in music.  This appreciation of human creativity and achievement in Music will give children the knowledge, skills and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

Pupils will appreciate a range of different music from different cultures, being mindful of the multi-cultural make up of our school and local community.

Highly effective teaching will develop pupil’s confidence and skills to use a broad range of musical instruments and to use their voices expressively and creatively.

Our music curriculum encourages children to develop descriptive skills as part of their language acquisition, when learning about how music can represent both feelings and emotions.

In Ks1 pupils follow the national curriculum which states pupils should be taught to:

• use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
• play tuned and untuned instruments musically
• listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
• experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

"We listen to different music so we can know what we like and make music of our own"

 

RE

We believe that it is vital that all our pupils learn from and about religion, so that they can understand the world around them.

Our RE curriculum enables pupils to understand and reflect upon the religious and spiritual beliefs, practices, insights and experiences that are expressed in humanity’s search for meaning in life.

We provide opportunities for pupils to explore and express their own responses and personal beliefs.

We encourage pupils to develop tolerance and respect for a range of different beliefs and cultures, reflecting our diverse, multi-cultural school community and preparing children for life in modern Britain.

We encourage our pupils to ask questions about the world and reflect on their own values, beliefs and experiences.

We use real books and artefacts of each religion and a persona doll of each religion to make the learning more relatable.

In KS1 pupils follow the Croydon Agree Syllabus for RE (2018) ((Click here to view)), and study four main world religions Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. They also study a challenge unit: Why are we thankful in year 1 and why are some things special in year 2.

"We learn about different religions so we can understand everyone"

 

For more information about our school curriculum, please visit the year groups pages on this website.  Alternatively, you can contact the school via email to enquiries@parkhill-inf.croydon.sch.uk.

A member of Headship Team will respond to your query within 5 school days.