Alongside our lessons, children access Independent Learning. This time allows children to build relationships, learn social skills and new vocabulary, consolidate and practise new learning.

We believe play is powerful for children and have developed our learning based on research. 

How we learn

The main focus of teaching and learning in KS1 is for all children to become successful independent learners.

We begin the day with a morning activity, either handwriting, reading or maths catch up. After register, we then teach maths. We adapt the White Rose scheme of learning to the needs of our pupils and teach in split inputs so all children get a chance to access a teacher input, hands on activities and written activities. After a short break, we have phonics which is taught in streamed groups using the bug club scheme, streaming ensures that the children are learning the phonics phase relevant to their needs. We then have English, where children have the opportunity to explore rich texts and use these texts to enhance their writing skills. 

After lunch, we have a daily guided reading session where the children are given the opportunity to talk about their understanding of stories and books while decoding texts independently.

In the afternoons, we follow a broader curriculum.  Our topic work is based on the national curriculum objectives but we aim to incorporate additional enrichment activities which are designed to inspire and extend the children’s learning experiences. We aim to immerse the children fully in their topics so they can engage with all areas of learning. We also follow the real PE scheme of learning and children work on different skills from the gym, dance or PE 'cogs'.