CURRICULUM OVERVIEW – INFANTS
Cunningham Hill Infants have designed a curriculum around our belief that all children are unique and should be provided with opportunities to become happy, well-rounded and independent life-long learners, who are ready for the next step in their lives. Through identification of substantative and disciplinary knowledge, we are able to ensure that our children make positive progression as they move through the school.
We are proud of our diverse community and have integrated this as a fundamental element of our curriculum, whilst ensuring that Literacy remains the cornerstone of learning to support our multicultural school. By fostering this level of understanding and respect for all, our broad and varied curriculum offers our children the chance to thrive through topics whilst sharing in the rich experiences of others.
At Cunningham Hill Infants, we believe that reading is the foundation of all learning and that children should be provided with a wealth of opportunity to become fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully assess and understand a wide range of texts.
Reading is high profile subject throughout the school. Through phonics, guided reading sessions, English lessons designed around a motivating text, class readers, class and school libraries and child led displays that are focused on a range of texts, we promote a love a reading. This term, Spring 2022, we introduced the Essential Letters and Sounds programme which provides a systematic synthetic approach to enable all pupils to master their phonic knowledge. To encourage pupils in their reading journey, we introduce a range of texts and authors from the moment they walk through our doors that are as diverse and unique as they are. Our goal is to saturate our daily school life with reading and books that are engaging but also move children’s learning forward.
In the EYFS we have utilised the Development Matters guidance document and in Key Stage 1 we have used the National curriculum to all children based on the latest programmes of study through an interesting, relevant and balanced curriculum. We give them:
- Opportunities for speaking and listening
- An emphasis on questioning skills.
- A wide range of stimulating resources.
- A range of teaching styles.
- Visitors from a wide range of backgrounds and occupations.
- History off the page and other curriculum-linked trips.
- Focus curriculum weeks e.g. poetry, music, art, science PE.
- A mix of formal and practical activities.
We get satisfaction from providing an enriched, relevant curriculum for all children. We are proud of our children’s independence and learning skills. For more information about our curriculum and ways you can support at home, please contact your child’s teacher or use the links below to view our curriculum in more detail.
At Cunningham Hill Infant School, we aim to Be Safe, Be Ready, Be Respectful, to develop children who are both socially and academically ready to move on to the next stage in their lives. We want them to have the skills and confidence to progress (academically, professionally or personally) to fulfil personal potential and achieve success. We aim to provide them with the opportunities by delivering a skills based curriculum which is guided by our four drivers:
- Aspiration – Central to our curriculum is the belief that our children should be aspirational academically, professionally and personally. We strive to foster aspirational behaviour by immersing children in an environment rich with ample opportunities to meet a wide range of professionals, take on roles and responsibilities, have entrepreneurial experiences as well as sampling extra-curricular activities. By equipping children with these skills and confidence we want them to pursue their dreams and reach their full potential.
- Community & Beyond – We aim to develop a greater knowledge, understanding and awareness of the immediate locality and the wider world in which they live, engendering global respect and responsibilities. We wish to inspire a sense of intellectual curiosity and awe, encouraging children to fulfil their potential by exploring all possibilities open to them.
- Celebrating difference – Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our diverse school community and beyond. Our curriculum is carefully planned to ensure that children understand themselves and others by providing them with opportunities to engage in the culture they live in, and understand the cultures of others and diversity of the world around them.
- Personal Wellbeing – We believe an active healthy body and mind is essential for children’s learning. Through constant encouragement and opportunity, we aim to develop an ethos for a healthy life that will stay with them in the future.
Cultural Capital at Cunningham Hill
For our children to be fully ready for the next stage in their lives, we ned to think support the whole child. To develop this knowledge and understanding of the world, we offer an a highly varied curriculum to develop the children in all aspects of school life. We ensure that through their time at Cunningham Hill they have opportunites to try new activities, new roles and experience new places.
Phonics and Reading
At Cunningham Hill Infant School, children learn to read with confidence and enjoyment through a structured teaching approach which includes the use of phonics, whole word recognition and comprehension and discussion. Teaching children to read is of paramount importance at Cunningham Hill Infant School. We believe reading is a life enhancing skill that is the entitlement of every child. We have recently introduced Essential Letters and Sounds phonics scheme to offer a balanced and creative, yet systematic synthetic, approach to the teaching of reading throughout the school; one which provides children with a teaching and application of phonics, alongside a focus on exploring comprehension, meaning and reading enjoyment. We encourage children to love books, to love reading, to love finding out information and to love sharing stories together.
Reading is an important part of the curriculum and is approached in many different ways including 1:1 reading, shared reading, group and whole class story sharing. We have a well-stocked library which is used by all the children, both formally and informally. Our children are supported to become fluent, confident readers who understand and can explain what they have read, thinking about pace and tone. They are also encouraged to become critical readers who can express opinions and preferences. Reading at home is also exceptionally valuable and we would like you to continue to support in this way by reading everyday with your child using either Bug Club or the texts supplied by school.
If you are able to volunteer some time to come in to school to hear children read, please contact the school office and we can organise times and classes.
Yearly Long Term Plans
Curriculum Knowledge and Skills Documents
Each subject area has clear progression of knowledge and skills children will build up during their time in school. This ensures that children are offered teaching in line with their age and developmental stage, helping them to develop their learning in a coherent manner and supporting them to become increasingly independent in applying their skills.
At Cunningham Hill Infant School we know that children learn at different paces and some children will need additional support to acquire the key knowledge and skills and stated on our curriculum documents. Other children may meet these objectives before the end of the Key Stage and they will be challenged to apply their knowledge in different contexts.
Teachers use Tapestry and SEESAW online platforms to provide suggestions for how parents can support at home and information about songs, stories, concepts and key learning in the classroom.
We take into consideration the interests of the children and teachers and make as many links across the curriculum as possible, e.g. teaching maths skills for handling data through a science lesson or writing diaries as a character from history.
We always welcome your feedback so if there is anything we can do to make the information contained here easier to access and/or understand please let us know. Please speak to the Class Teacher if you need any further information regarding the content of the curriuclum