Coteford Infant School

Intent

Our intent is to give our pupils the best start in life, one that enables our children to do their best to be the very best citizens that they are able to become. Entry to nursery and infant school is an important transition that marks the start of a child’s learning journey through the education system. Our intent is to develop resilient and independent learners, who leave Coteford Infant School well-equipped academically, socially and emotionally, and fully prepared for their next phase of education. We believe that learning should be fun and that children should have opportunities to learn and develop skills in a range of contexts that are meaningful to them. We believe that it is important that children start from the practical and have lots of opportunities to talk, learn and practise using new vocabulary. We have designed a curriculum at Coteford Infant School that considers the different experiences children may have had before they join our school, different learning styles, different learning needs and a variety of interests.

Implementation

Whilst year group teachers plan collectively to deliver a curriculum that meets the needs of their year group in the context of national expectations, individual teachers adapt the curriculum so that it meets the needs of the pupils in each class. We identify memorable experiences to support learning and ask for children’s views about questions they want answered when planning a topic. Research indicates that learning equates to a change in long term memory. Therefore, throughout the academic year, we plan for the children to reflect upon what they have already learnt, and to retrieve information. We know children do best when learning is well planned and includes links to other curriculum areas, most especially when this provides opportunities for children to retrieve and consider information that they have learnt in previous lessons. We offer both challenge and support, and we encourage children to understand that mistakes and “being stuck” are chances and challenges to learn something new. Our curriculum enables the children to develop as critical thinkers and to problem solve, giving time to work individually and collaboratively with others, along with opportunities to be creative as well as time to practise skills within carefully structured lessons. Within the current climate, not knowing whether we are in the midst of or moving towards the end of a pandemic, we implement our curriculum with a focus on emotional well-being.

Impact

We want our pupils to leave Coteford Infant School with:

• a body of new knowledge stored securely in their minds that will serve as a solid foundation for their next phase of education;
• the capacity to be resilient in the face of new challenges;
• skills of independence that they did not possess when they arrived;
• a developing understanding of how important it is to be kind to others and to themselves.

Please click here for the National Curriculum 2014  Please see information about our current curriculum Progression of Skills documents.