Learners at Lee Brigg come from a wide catchment area, a range of backgrounds and with a variety of experience and knowledge from outside of school. Through our curriculum we will equip children to further develop and deepen this knowledge and will ensure that all our children have equal access to the breadth and depth of our offer regardless of need or disadvantage.
It is a curriculum which is the vehicle for our passion, as early educators, that in order for all of our children to be successful readers, writers and mathematicians, they should first, be given the opportunities, be taught specific skills and be allowed to embed the areas of:
- Communication and Language,
- PSED (Personal, Social and Emotional Development) and
- Health and Well-being.
We believe as a school that these key prime areas do not just underpin learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), but are also essential to our children in Key Stage One (KS1).
Alongside these three prime areas, at Lee Brigg Infant & Nursery School, we have two additional key drivers that underpin our Curriculum Design. These are:
- Our offer of wider learning experiences and opportunities.
- An embedded ‘Challenge & Educate’ aspect across all of the subjects within our curriculum.
At Lee Brigg, our curriculum will:
- Provide opportunities for children to develop and acquire the knowledge and skills they need to be confident and independent learners
- Ensure that they are ready to move on and meet the challenges of high school
- Plant the seeds of knowledge and experience to help them develop as lifelong learners, build cultural capital and make positive, sustained contributions to society
All members of our school community have high expectations and ambitions for learning and work together to ensure maximum impact on the development and application of knowledge and skills
A strength of our curriculum is the provision of meaningful real-life experiences through trips, visitors or hands on experiences within each theme or topic to ensure that children are fully engaged, eager to learn and to broaden their experiences and horizons. We will also offer a broad and varied range of extracurricular opportunities.
How is our Curriculum delivered?
We have a clear teaching structure that underpins high quality teaching across all subject areas. This is based upon research, which evaluates effective teaching and learning practice. Class teachers follow a basic teaching sequence which includes:
- A recap and review of prior learning, this includes the reintroduction of key vocabulary so that children can start to make links in their learning and teachers can check children’s understanding before moving them on. Skilful questioning is used both at this stage and throughout the lesson, to check understanding and as well as provide further challenge.
- Modelling, which includes a clear demonstration for children, broken down into small manageable steps, thus allowing them time to understand what is being taught and what is expected of them.
- Guided Practice, where children are supported with some element of scaffold, to guide their learning before they become fully competent and are able to reinforce and embed their knowledge, skills and understanding through opportunities for independent practise.
Learning environments are carefully designed to support teaching and learning opportunities. Key vocabulary is displayed and reinforced and working walls are used to promote thinking and independence. Work is displayed and celebrated!
Character Building and Wider Opportunities
At Lee Brigg Infant and Nursery School we recognise the importance of our role in developing children’s character and well-being, alongside their academic achievements. Alongside the ‘One Life’ programme, we continually review the needs of our children, our community, as well as current global issues, so that we can plan careful learning opportunities and experiences that will prepare our children with values for life, in order for them to become conscious, active citizens of the future.
In addition to these aspects, we have designed a set of skills and challenges that children will undertake and achieve during their time in school from Nursery to Year 2. These have been carefully designed so that the children move through increasing levels of commitment, learning and challenge. At each step, skills and projects have been carefully chosen, not only to build upon previous experiences, but to allow the children the opportunity to take part in work that will benefit both the environment and the community, whether this be on a local or global stage.
The framework is inclusive for all of our children regardless of their individual need or background.
To recognise their achievements there will be different stages of rewards and celebrations. By working within this framework children will not only develop their confidence and self-esteem, they will become positive, independent and self-motivated learners of the future.