We value that all children are unique, and our curriculum promotes respect for the views of each individual child, as well as for people of all cultures.

Aims and Objectives

Organisation and Planning

Children with special needs

The curriculum is underpinned by the values that we hold dear at our school. It is the means by which the school achieves its objective of educating children in the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need in order to lead fulfilling lives.

These are the main values of our school, upon which we have based our curriculum:

• We value that all children are unique, and our curriculum promotes respect for the views of each individual child, as well as for people of all cultures. We value the spiritual and moral development of each person, as well as their intellectual and physical growth.
• We value the importance of each person in our community. We organise our curriculum so that we promote co-operation and understanding between all members of our community.
• We value the rights enjoyed by each person in our society. We respect each child in our school for who they are, and we treat them with fairness and honesty. We aim to enable each person to be successful, and we provide equal opportunities for all the children in our school.
• We value our environment, and we aim, through our curriculum, to teach respect for our world, and how we should care for it for future generations, as well as our own.

Aims and Objectives

• The aims of our school curriculum are:
• To enable all children to learn and develop their skills to the best of their ability;
• To promote a positive attitude towards learning, so that children enjoy coming to school, and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning;
• To teach children the basic skills of literacy and numeracy;
• To enable children to be creative and to develop their own thinking;
• To teach children about their developing world, including how their environment and society have changed over time;
• To enable children to be positive citizens in society;
• To teach children to have an awareness of their own spiritual development, and to understand right from wrong;
• To help children understand the importance of truth and fairness, so that they grow up committed to equal opportunities for all;
• To enable children to have respect for themselves and high self-esteem, and to be able to live and work co-operatively with others.

Organisation and Planning

We plan our curriculum in two phases.

Our long-term planning sets out what is to be taught over the course of a full academic year, broken down into terms and half-terms. We use a departmental planning sheet. The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies are used for guidance when planning these core subjects but we use our coordinators’ advice and schemes of work for these, plus other curriculum subjects.

Our weekly plans are those that teachers write on a weekly or daily basis. These are completed electronically and put on our SSD (Staff Shared Drive) for all teaching staff to access and monitor.In these plans, staff set out the learning objectives for each session and identify what resources and activities are to be used in the lesson. There is also a section for comments and lesson evaluation along with a note of any absentees. These are monitored by the Head and Deputy Head of Prep on a weekly basis.

In the Foundation Stage, the curriculum is planned carefully so that there is coherence and full coverage of all aspects of the National Curriculum and early learning goals, and there is planned progression in all curriculum areas.

In Key Stages 1 and 2, the curriculum places a greater emphasis on the core and foundation subjects, and we teach these subjects separately. In the upper KS2 classes, however, teachers may concentrate on a history topic for one term, and then switch to a geography topic the following term. This still means that over the three terms of the academic year, each child has the opportunity to experience the full range of National Curriculum subjects.

Children with special needs

The curriculum in the Preparatory Department is designed to provide access and opportunity for all children who attend the school. If we think it necessary to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of individual children, then we do so after meetings have taken place with the Head of Department, the SENCO, the class and support teachers and the parents of the child concerned.

If a child has a special need, teachers in the Prep do all they can to meet these individual needs. We comply with the requirements set out in the SEN Policy in providing for children with special needs. If a child displays signs of having special needs, his/her teacher makes an assessment of this need. In most instances the teacher is able to provide resources and educational opportunities which meet the child’s needs within the normal class organisation. If a child’s need is more severe, we may consider involving the appropriate external agencies when making this assessment. We always provide additional resources and support for children with special needs.

The Preparatory Department provides an Individual Educational Plan (IEP) for each of the children who have special needs. This sets out the nature of the special need, and outlines how the school will aim to address the need. It also sets out targets for improvement, so that we can review and monitor the progress of each child at regular intervals. This is discussed with parents.