We believe that children should receive a broad, deep and balanced curriculum. At Edmund Waller we have developed a bespoke curriculum that is inspiring and creative for all our learners as well as taking into account National Curriculum requirements. As a result, we teach all the foundation subjects in a context (where possible) and each topic is rich in experiences, opportunities for educational visits, drama, art, music and P.E.

Every term, or sometimes half-term, there is a new topic for the children to learn about. The topic always begins with an educational visit. The reason for this is to excite and inspire the children, whilst providing a real experience where children can see, make, handle artefacts, gather information and take part in role-play, in order to learn and understand as much as possible. These visits also help the child with their understanding and will deepen and broaden their learning across the curriculum. Click here for the Curriculum Overview

 

Every topic reaches its conclusion with a memorable event. This can take many forms including setting up a museum, holding a banquet, supporting younger children in fitness activities, and even staging a carnival, all designed to showcase the learning that has taken place and the curriculum skills they have learned. Where possible, we invite parent and carers to join in the celebration.

English and Maths

English and Maths are at the core of our curriculum in order to help our learners to understand the skills they need and then use and apply these in a variety of situations. This is embedded throughout our school’s curriculum. Undoubtedly, these skills need to be worked on throughout the academic career of our pupils, and it builds successful and confident lifelong learners.

At Edmund Waller Primary School we follow the White Rose maths curriculum, which ensures that enthusiasm for the subject is matched with clear progression and challenge, as well as meeting the demands of the statutory Maths curriculum.

You can read about our NCETM led maths curriculum here

You can see the areas of maths covered in Years 1 – 6 here: National Curriculum Progression Primary

Reading

English is at the heart of our learning and teaching and essential to every area of the curriculum. It is usually through English that concepts are formed, and we make sense of the world and our place in it.

Children are taught to read in a variety of ways. Children read individually, with an adult, in groups during guided reading lessons and in whole class sessions; they are also given regular opportunities to share a book with others. Reading at Edmund Waller focuses on the skills of comprehension and critical appreciation and above all enjoyment. We have a huge variety of written material and teachers use these regularly with the children such as fiction and non-fiction, stories, reports, diaries, poems etc. We believe in the importance of exposing children to whole texts at all ages. We have a home-school reading system which asks that children read aloud for at least ten minutes each day, with an adult with whom they can discuss their book.

Phonics

We place an emphasis on phonics in the early stages of learning to read because we believe phonics can lay the foundations for successful reading and writing. At Edmund Waller, we use the Sounds Write to teach phonics. We always aim to make these lessons interactive and fun. Children remain with their class teacher for phonics learning and they provide the appropriate level of challenge for each attainment group. Children do not learn phonics in streamed groups but all children are given the opportunity to acquire new learning at an age-expected level or above. There is an emphasis on teaching sight words through interactive games and repetition of a text.
The teaching of phonics is systematic and begins in Reception (or Nursery for those children who attend our nursery) where sounds are introduced and consolidated throughout the year. This knowledge is built upon in Year 1 and the more complex sounds are introduced and reinforced throughout Year 2.

Parents can find out more about our Phonics Scheme here

Phonics Screening

During the summer term in Year 1, children nationwide are tested on their phonic knowledge. This test helps us to identify children who have any gaps in their phonic knowledge and may need support in Year 2 to develop reading and writing skills. The test is very low-key, and we ensure that the children are not aware that they are being tested. Parents are informed whether their child has achieved the national expectation within the child’s end-of-year report.

Additional individual and group tuition in phonics will be given to those children in year 1 and Year 2 who find reading difficult. Year 2 children who do not reach the required standard at the end of Year 1 are tested again in the summer term.