Our vision is that all children grow, achieve and behave well because the learning environment, curriculum and teaching is highly aspirational, personalised and exciting.

We have organised our school and curriculum to provide the best support we can to nurture, inspire, challenge and encourage children from our local community.

Curriculum Intent Statement – January 2023

Our children deserve an education that is full of experiences that enable them to learn and develop emotionally, socially and academically. Many of the children we work with face challenges and barriers to learning and therefore we are intentional about making our school a place of inclusivity; where all children, including those with SEND, can access learning and thrive, alongside others.

A Safe Place

We care deeply about the children in our school and want them to find it a haven; a safe and nurturing place where they know they will get their needs met and be able to settle to learn. Adults throughout the school are intentional about building excellent relationships with the children, as this helps a child feel safe and to learn effectively.

In our school you will see:

• warm, nurturing relationships between adults and children;
• consistent calm adult behaviour at all times;
• children who feel safe and behave safely;
• Zones of Regulation displays and Regulation Stations in each classroom;
• a Rainbow Breakfast Club providing a sheltered start to the school day;
• a lunchtime Cosy Club for children to enjoy craft activities in the library as an alternative to outside play;
• children taking “Brain Breaks” and “Movement Breaks”, using Sensory Circuits as appropriate;
• ‘Safe spaces’ in the classrooms and school (tents, sofas, cosy corners, Thrive Room).

Basic Needs Met

A child’s basic needs must first be met before they can learn effectively. We make sure we do this whether it is bagels, toast, water, a kind word, a warm smile, a FareShare food bag; we are responsive to individual need. We want to make sure children develop a good understanding of how to be healthy; the importance of sleep, fresh air, exercise, balanced diet and personal hygiene. We need parents to partner with us in this. Our staff help children develop the knowledge and skills needed in the early years in order to develop some independence in looking after self, knowing what they need and how to communicate and socialise positively with others.

In our school you will see:

• all children enjoying a fresh bagel every morning;
• free fruit and healthy meals;
• free Breakfast Club places for children;
• Bursaries for children to attend After-School Clubs;
• FareShare food bags provided for up to 20 families each week;
• daily tooth-brushing in the Nursery;
• spare clothes for inside and outside, and a busy washing machine;
• adults encouraging children to develop independence;
• children playing outside every day.

Healthy Mind & Personal Development

We teach children to name and understand emotions (knowing where we feel this in our bodies) and how to process feelings and impulses so they can develop their emotional literacy. We promote healthy minds and bodies. In order for a child to be able to learn they need a safe space to be able to explore and express feelings and learn how to respond when we have big feelings; through our Thrive Approach, which we are passionate about providing.
Since September 2022, we have used Jigsaw across the school to provide a framework to teach children about relationships, their health and their emotions. We work to ensure that there is consistency of adult behaviour and language throughout the school, with adults using the same strategies to help children manage their feelings, self-regulate and settle to learn.

We have three rules that are used across the school and known by all children: be Safe, be Respectful and be Ready to Learn.

We have identified 21 key character virtues that we explain and celebrate across the academic year. These are taught in assemblies and discussed in Circle Time.

In our school you will see:

• personalised learning for children in response to their needs;
• daily Sunshine Circle activities in the Reception classes;
• Individual Thrive sessions with a Thrive Intervention TA for some children;
• weekly play-based 1:1 counselling for 5 children each term;
• Teacher planned and led, weekly PSHE class sessions that respond directly to the development needs of their class identified through whole-class Thrive Screening;
• effective use of scripts to help children who are struggling with managing big emotions;
• active teaching of Behaviour for Learning skills (good sitting, good looking, good listening);
• daily Forest School interventions to promote self-esteem, well-being and develop resilience;
• Hot Chocolate with the Headteacher for children who have ‘gone over and above’.

Accelerated Vocabulary Development

With many children starting school with a limited understanding of language, we ensure our curriculum is language rich throughout. We recognise that a limited vocabulary can inhibit learning and children’s later life choices and opportunities. We do a lot to address this language deficit from the 2-year-old room upwards, using the Language for Life Programme  to assess all children. We support children with targeted activities from the Big Book of Ideas and we encourage parents to do the same. We build good relationships with the parents and offer opportunities for them to learn how to help their children in language and reading. In learning, both inside and outside, we ensure there is lots of focus and structured talk alongside teaching specific vocabulary. High quality reading and rich structured talk will help to close this vocabulary gap, allowing the child greater life choices. Language for Life is used across EYFS, including Reception.

In our school you will see:

• lots of stories being read throughout the day;
• focus language used and promoted in play and learning;
• Language for Life in Nursery and Reception;
• Story vocabulary being learnt and understood through story making;
• vocabulary mats and focus vocab teaching in Explore Time;
• Tots Talking programme in nursery;
• Vocabulary and SLIP groups.

A love of reading and confidence to read

We want children to love books and love reading. This promotes reading fluency and an enjoyment and confidence in reading. We use Read Write Inc. to teach children to learn and apply the phonic code with confidence. To support closing the vocabulary gap, and help develop fluent readers, we ensure that children are offered a wonderful range of texts to enjoy in classes, small groups and as individuals.

We use Read Write Inc. as our systematic synthetic phonics programme and we provide daily 1:1 Tutoring for children at risk of falling behind to enable them to catch up.

In our school you will see:

• Daily RWI Phoncis Teaching in discrete groups in YR and KS1 (13 groups);
• Daily 1:1 Tutoring provide by Reading HLTA and Reading TAs;
• lots of stories being read throughout the day;
• RWI Home Reader books that are fully decodable and matching eBooks;
• Staff reading to children every day;
• a library full of lovely books and being used by every class on a weekly basis;
• Year 2 children leading story times in other classes;
• children taking part in guided reading groups, where they read, explore and discuss different types of books;
• every child, in every class, reading to an adult at least once a week;
• a team of volunteers coming in to hear individual children read;
• Reading Eggs accounts for each child to practise phonics and early reading at home.

*For more information about what we do to support reading, please see our reading information booklet.

A child’s progress in reading will be hugely influenced by the reading that takes place in the home as well as in school. We expect parents to be reading with their children on a daily basis and to hear them read their school reading book at least three times a week.

Curriculum

Following a review fo the School’s Curriculum in 2021-22, from September 2022 we moved to discrete teaching of subjects within a termly theme (or topic). We use a balance of widely respected published schemes of work for specific subjects alongside our own planning and progression documents for others, based on the National Curriculum.

In our school you will see:

• White Rose Maths used across YR and KS1;
• Talk for Writing in YR and KS1;
• Rising Stars for Science, Computing, History and Geography;
• Charanga for Music;
• Awareness, Mystery and Awe for RE;
• Get Set 4 PE in YR and KS1;
• Jigsaw for PSHE;
• bespoke in-house planning for Art & Design and Design Technology;
• daily Forest School sessions each morning;
• Outdoor Play and Learning;
• Through partnership with Bath Recreation, children in KS1 receive excellent PE coaching each week, enabling teachers and TAs to work on focused learning with a small group of children;
• through partnership with Bath Rugby Club, two players visit the school each week to listen to children read and support their learning in class. The players also present awards to children for significant achievements;
• educaiton visits to experience learning in other places (including Baskervilles’ Gym, Bath City Farm, St Michael’s Church, trips in to Bath and Bristol).

Child Voice

Children have important, insightful and interesting things to say and as a school we ensure that the children in our care know that they are listened to and heard. We give children time and space to talk and opportunity to influence classroom decisions, learning and whole school approaches (through the Sunshine Team).

We want our children to have the opportunity to be able to make whatever choice they want as they progress through education without anything holding them back.

In our school you will see:

• adults listening respectfully;
• children feeling confident to speak and ask questions;
• time taken to hear and explain;
• children sharing ideas with each other;
• positive talk when managing behaviours;
• pupils’ opinions being sought and used to inform decision-making.

Parental Engagement

Parents need to be involved in their child’s learning to help them make better progress. We want all parents to be able to read with their children, sing with them, play with them and talk to them about their learning. We want to enable our parents to understand the importance of this and feel empowered to take up this role. We will continue to do what we can until all children are supported as much as is possible by adults at home.

In our school you will see:

• good relationships between parents/carers and school staff;
• teachers at the classroom door welcoming children and families every morning;
• members of SLT on the school gate greeting families on arrival to school;
• clear communication through regular newsletters, class letters, Facebook, SMS messages, Marvellous Me, phone calls and face to face chats;
• Parent Teacher meetings;
• an active Parent Support Advisor;
• School Nurse Coffee Mornings;
• Tuesday and Thursday Toddlers Club;
• podcasts and clips about learning;
• information and training sessions for parents;
• excellent transition with opportunity for parents as well as children to meet their new teacher prior to the new school year;
• information leaflets for parents about learning;
• Weekly Books and Bagels on a Wednesday;
• Assemblies and Sports Days.