Curriculum

Although in some ways our curriculum is prescribed centrally, we still have a lot of freedom to choose what we teach and when we teach it. We are constantly reviewing our provision to meet the children’s needs more effectively.

We have to cover all the subjects laid out in the National Curriculum along with R.E.

We are free to choose our own learning and teaching philosophy as long as children make good progress and reach high standards.

We believe at Coughton that children should be involved in their learning and have an understanding not just of what they are learning but also of why they are learning. We want to teach them skills that they can transfer to any subject such as organisation, research and investigation. We spend time finding out, from latest research, the best ways to help children learn, as well as using tried and tested traditional methods. All children learn best if they are starting from what is familiar to them.

Since September 2013, we have been using a topic-based cross-curricular approach to learning which the children really enjoy. All topics involve activities to develop research and presentation skills.

Foundation Stage

Structured play is an essential aspect of the daily routine in our Reception class. Children work from the six areas of learning as laid out in the Early Learning Goals in the Foundation Stage curriculum.

Our children learn to make choices and plan some of their learning themselves as well as learning to co-operate with their peers.

We teach our children to read and write through a combination of ‘Jolly Phonics’ and an excellent handwriting scheme. We have a wide range of reading schemes including Oxford Reading Tree and Collins Big Cat Phonics. Children will bring a reading book and a reading diary home every day. They will change their books as they need. The emphasis is on enjoying the pleasure of sharing a book and appreciating the story.

Every Wednesday, our children put on some sturdy waterproof clothes and explore the great outdoors where they can safely get muddy and cover many areas of the curriculum through nature. We call it ‘Welly Wednesday’.

Through our curriculum we aim to:

• Develop each child to their full potential.
• Encourage children to develop enquiring minds; to question, reason and make decisions.
• Ensure that all children feel valued and have a sense of belonging to a family within the school.
• Provide an environment where children experience success and good self-esteem so they are resilient and not afraid to make mistakes.
• Foster in our children a caring, thoughtful nature that encourages them to take personal responsibility and develop purpose for their future lives.

All schools are required to teach the new National Curriculum from September 2014.
This is currently under construction, for more information please find the topic overview for each year group on the classes page.

Reading Schemes

From the start, we aim to provide a rich and stimulating environment where the children experience a variety of reading materials including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  For that reason we have a broad range of reading materials for the children to access such as Oxford Reading Tree, Rigby Stars, Collins. One Two Three and Away, Storyworlds, Treetops, Dandelion Readers and Big Reads.