Curriculum Areas

Science stretches the imagination and creativity of young minds. It has changed our minds and is vital to the world’s future prosperity.

It develops a sense of excitement about natural phenomena and enables us to give rational explanations. Science can help us understand what is happening, predict how things will behave and lead us to conclusions, based on evidence. Children are prompted to ask ‘what if?’ and ‘why?’ and are guided to arrive at possible answers and solutions. It is a powerful discipline which allows us to interpret and sometimes control the world around is. Our children become Scientists to explore, discover and investigate, arrive at new knowledge and venture into unknown and unexplored territory.

As computing is continually developing and new technologies emerging, St Andrew’s aims to give all children the skills to prepare them for their future.

Computing is an essential part of everyday life and will continue to evolve in as yet unforeseen ways, so our children will need the confidence and ability to move with changes as they arrive. We are working towards an environment where technology is an integral part of school life and is used as naturally across the curriculum as any other classroom resource. We believe that the use of technology encourages children and adults to become active and independent learners, who collaborate, plan and communicate more effectively with each other and the wider local, national and global communities, of which we are a part. We understand the importance of technology safety and teach our children the importance of being safe in a digitally literate world. 

Through cross-curricular opportunities, children are encouraged to learn about the past and make informed judgements on the significance of past events and how they influence life today.

Children develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. Children study changes within living memory and events beyond living memory, such as the Great Fire of London, and study the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.  The local environment is used to support learning at every opportunity. Children make use of independent research both in school and as part of their homework in order to extend their knowledge.

Geography is taught as part of a theme in a cross curricular manner. Geography inspires a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Children are empowered to develop their geographical skills and knowledge about physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. As well as ICT and technological tools, we also encourage physical activities and experiences in both the school environment and local community. Children learn to use maps, develop field work techniques and begin to build up a knowledge and understanding of places near and far.

During humanities, the children have access to artefacts, pictures, photographs, computer based materials and other resources to build up historical and geographical skills.

Art and Design engages, inspires and challenges children, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design.

Children learn to express themselves using a variety of media. They paint, draw, construct models, do collage work and pottery. They also develop skills in close observational drawing. We encourage them to take pride in their work and to aim for high standards in presentation. Using artists in residence, pictures and artefacts, children develop an understanding of the work of artists and crafts people and apply that knowledge to their work.

The purpose of Design and Technology is to enable the children to be inventive in designing practical solutions to problems and to learn to use appropriate tools and materials with increasing skill.

Pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and resilient learners. They develop a critical understanding through evaluation and redesigning to further improve designs.  We aim to provide the foundations of a high quality design and technology education to support contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of the nation.

At St Andrew’s CE Infant School our vision is to promote a long term healthy lifestyle that is enjoyable and fulfilling.

Children are inspired to engage in lifelong activity, raise their attainment and build self-esteem. Physical education is an important and unique part of the curriculum that contributes to the development and maintenance of fitness, motor skills, health and brain development.

Children learn social skills through activities involving co-operation and collaboration which enhances teamwork and leadership. Pupils will develop positive attitudes towards themselves and will gain a sense of fair play, understanding how to conduct themselves in competitive situations. Sport transcends cultural boundaries and children are given opportunities to experience other traditions through dance and games.

Pupils take part in an act of collective worship each school day. 

The Rector of St. Andrew’s, and other visitors are invited to take part in, or lead worships. The children are given the opportunity to reflect upon stories and themes which are led through eight Christian values: truth, friendship, love, forgiveness, respect, courage, perseverance and creativity. These values are embedded across all areas of school life and promote Christian distinctiveness through awe and wonder.

Religious Education provides opportunities to foster the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the child and plays an important part in children’s education. Religious ideas are introduced through everyday experience, exploration of the natural world and through stories, customs, celebrations and visits to St. Andrew’s Parish Church.

Religious Education develops a caring attitude and sensitivity to the feelings and needs of others. It promotes a positive attitude towards themselves and an awareness of a sense of mystery and wonder in life. This curriculum area provides an interest in and respect for their world and an awareness of the interdependence of the natural order and of people. Through teaching, children consider a sense of right and wrong and a sense of thankfulness and reverence.

We follow the County Agreed Syllabus. Teaching is non-denominational and predominantly of the Christian tradition. We encourage children to be aware of other faiths and traditions, and foster attitudes of respect and tolerance.  R.E. is taught mainly through cross-curricular topics and we cover the main Church festivals.

Parents have the right to withdraw their child from R.E. lessons and Acts of Worship.

Our Music curriculum fosters the enjoyment and appreciation of music at the same time as developing creativity and technical ability.

Essential skills of music are taught regularly to enable children to develop vocal, rhythmic and instrumental ability, as well as an understanding of musical traditions, styles and cultures. In Year 2 the children learn to play the recorder and this provides an opportunity to perform to an audience during their end of year performance.

Communication and language is one of the three prime areas within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

Click here to see the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework.

Each prime area is divided into early learning goals, for communication and language these are: Listening and Attention, Understanding and Speaking.

As children develop speaking and listening skills, they are building the foundations for literacy and learning. They are learning key skills such as how to express themselves and make friends. Reception children are provided with lots of opportunities to have conversations with staff and peers. They hear staff modelling language and introducing new words. They learn language better when they're engaged with things that fascinate, challenge and excite them. Children need to hear and say new words often to strengthen the connections in their brains and to keep building their vocabulary.

Reading is integral to our rich and diverse curriculum and begins as soon as children enter our school in Year R developing their use of language through role play, familiar stories, storytelling and child initiated play.

Phonics is key to successful reading. Our early readers will begin their reading journey through the structure of the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme. Initial sounds of the alphabet are taught and used in a variety of ways to enable children to blend sounds together to read individual words. As the children progress through the year they learn to recognise and read digraphs (/oo/ /ai/) and trigraphs (/igh/ /ear/) as they develop their fluency to read whole sentences. Running alongside the teaching of phonics children improve their visual memory skills and sight vocabulary by learning key words that cannot be read phonetically e.g. was, the, said.

As soon as children enter our school they are encouraged to write through the extensive and enriching role play opportunities within the Early Years environment.

Early writing is a powerful means of communication and may take the form of mark making through child initiated play.

Throughout the year children are taught to apply their phonic knowledge to write initial sounds in words, progressing on to CVC words (consonant vowel consonant words e.g. cat / hen) then rehearsing and recording simple sentences.

An important element of early writing at our school is to develop children’s fine motor skills. It is essential for them to develop an appropriate pencil grip that will enable them to write letters of the alphabet using the correct formation.

By the end of the year children will be able to construct and write simple sentences and phrases often extending the meaning by using conjunctions such as ‘and’.

Through our rich and varied curriculum, we offer our children a wide variety of experiences, so that they become familiar and confident in using mathematics in everyday life.

Counting is an essential part of early mathematical understanding and this is developed across the reception year through child initiated play and adult led learning. Children are taught to recite and recognise numerals zero to twenty in order to compare numbers and solve practical problems.

Through rich first hand experiences the children will also explore 2D and 3D shapes and compare measures in a variety of contexts. The children are taught the use of correct mathematical vocabulary in order to help them reason and explain their thinking.

Children enrich and enhance their love of reading by broadening and deepening their experiences through different genres, thus further developing their fluency and understanding.

The reading journey continues in Year 1, building on the phonics foundation taught in Year R, by learning alternative phonic patterns (e.g. play/plane/rain) and being a

le to apply this strategy to decode unfamiliar words. Children expand their knowledge of different word uses and how it affects the meaning and their understanding of the text; such as tenses being changed by suffixes e.g. jump – jumping – jumped.

Daily reading and re-reading of familiar texts improves children’s fluency enabling them to be confident readers who can discuss and share their opinions that are, wherever possible, integrated within the current project.

Further development of reading strategies continues to improve our children’s comprehension, sight vocabulary and expression enabling them to tackle more challenging texts.

Throughout Year 2 children continue to develop an increased independence of the application of reading strategies, as well as their ability to make sense of what they have read and, through the use of inference, gain knowledge and understanding of meaning beyond the text.

Building on their previous phonic knowledge children learn about the most frequently used rules that govern word construction, such as suffixes, plurals and word exceptions. Children extend their knowledge and understanding of how tenses are changed by word endings e.g. -ness / -ful / -less / -ly and that some words can be spelt in different ways, their/there/they’re, and begin to understand their use in different contexts.

Children are introduced to increasingly complex texts that create a sense of suspense, humour and interest which strengthens and sustains their stamina to read at length.

By the end of Year 2 children are increasingly using their reading skills to research, refine and present their findings to a range of audiences.

Building on the oral skills developed throughout Year R, children begin to write using different genre features, such as instructions, stories, recounts and reports, increasingly becoming more aware of their audience.

As their writing develops across Year 1, more sophisticated punctuation is taught and used to give shape, understanding and excitement to their writing. As their writing develops they show a creativity and fluency in engaging with the reader to communicate their ideas.

As early spellers children use their increasingly developed phonic knowledge to communicate effectively in writing, but as they are taught to apply spelling rules to words that are unable to be sounded out phonetically (was, they, have), they begin to understand when such rules apply.

As children enter year two they are able to sustain longer periods of writing as they begin to master the many writing conventions.

They use increasingly more sophisticated vocabulary, punctuation and humour to lead a reader through a series of developed ideas that move away from their own experience, and into more imaginative themes.

As children are taught more complex spelling rules they begin to understand and apply rules such as prefixes and suffixes (changing the meaning of the word happy/unhappy/happily/happiest), contractions (they’re, can’t, didn’t) and ‘silent’ letters (knee, write, little).

By the end of Year 2 children are able to evaluate their writing, often against their own generated ‘success criteria’. By using simple editing skills they are able to improve and enhance their original piece of writing, through alternative word choices, appropriate punctuation and correct tense.

Further development of reading strategies continue to improve our children’s comprehension, sight vocabulary and expression enabling them to tackle more challenging texts.

Throughout Year 2 children continue to develop an increased independence of the application of reading strategies, as well as their ability to make sense of what they have read and through the use of inference, gain knowledge and understanding of meaning beyond the text.

Building on their previous phonic knowledge children learn about the most frequently used rules that govern word construction, such as suffixes, plurals and word exceptions. Children extend their knowledge and understanding of how tenses are changed by endings in words e.g. -ness / -ful / -less / -ly, and that some words can be spelt in different ways, their/there/they’re, and begin to understand their use in different contexts.

Children are introduced to increasingly complex texts that create a sense of suspense, humour and interest which strengthens and sustains their stamina to read at length.

By the end of Year 2 children are increasingly using their reading skills to research, refine and present their findings to a range of audiences.

As the children enter Year 1 they start to explore numbers up to one hundred, how they fit into our number system and begin to understand the pattern and relationship between these numbers.

Throughout the year the children are taught how to partition and recombine numbers to enable them to understand addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and apply this knowledge in order to solve one step problems. Children are taught a variety of ways to represent their work.

Counting becomes more complex in Year 1 as the children learn to count in multiples of 2, 5 and 10. They then begin to apply this knowledge in different contexts, e.g. shopping and money exchange, counting pairs of socks and for grouping and sharing large amounts of objects.

Fraction, shape and measure are integrated into the Year 1 projects to give them a real context and purpose where children can apply their skills. Children are taught a half and quarter as fractions of a shape, a number and a quantity and how to apply this knowledge to solve a problem.

During Year 1 children will use and compare different types of quantities and measures using non-standard units and start to use common standard measures such as metres, litres and grams.

The understanding and use of mathematical vocabulary is taught and further developed to enable children to engage with others to explain their strategies and thinking.

As children become more confident with numbers up to 100, children are introduced to larger numbers to develop further recognition of patterns within the number system and represent them in different ways.

During the year, children learn how to partition numbers in different ways to support subtraction. They become more fluent and apply knowledge of numbers to reason with, discuss and solve problems that emphasise the value of each digit in two-digit numbers.

The children will extend their understanding of mathematical vocabulary in all four number operations, with the ability to recognise how to solve a calculation through understanding the vocabulary used. During multiplication and division, children will group and share, use arrays and repeated addition to solve questions.

In fraction, shape and measure, children continue to compare, sort and solve practical problems, using reasoning to explain confidently. Fractions also include recognising the equivalence of one half and two quarters.

Year 2 includes the addition of statistics in the maths curriculum. Children will use questioning to record, interpret, collate, organise and compare information.