Our Curriculum Aims

At Carr Infant and Nursery School we aim to provide a curriculum that embraces creativity, confidence and communication in a whole host of different areas, and value our children being physically active throughout the school day.

Our curriculum is strongly underpinned by a focus on developing essential skills to support the development of strong, independent learners, who have a drive and ambition to succeed and follow their dream. Our teaching is based on the National Curriculum (the curriculum of 2014) and EYFS Curriculum.

The overarching aim of the curriculum at Carr Infants is to nurture confident, communicative, and creative learners.

• We strive to provide a broad and balanced education that ignites curiosity, fosters resilience, and equips children with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in Juniors. 
• Our whole curriculum values inclusivity and seeks to develop the whole child, preparing them for future success both academically and personally.

Our Foundation Subject Pedagogy

We follow a shared pedagogy for all foundation subjects which follows this structure:

1. Recap and Recall (Recall of prior learning)
2. Attention Grabber (I/We Do)
3. Main Event (You do)
4. Wrapping Up (summary/recall practice)

We also make use of Collaborative Structures. These are transferable tasks that can be applied to any lesson, and they encourage collaboration, rehearsal, and cooperation.

Supporting All Learners

We ensure that all children have the same ambitious end goals in our curriculum. However, we ‘go as quick as possible, yet as slow as necessary’ to meet the needs of all our children.

We have established the essential knowledge that all children must secure by the end of a unit. This is just like the ‘Ready to Progress’ objectives from the NCETM that help us progress in maths. Where children have not secured this essential knowledge in foundation subjects, we re-teach this before progressing.

We also have identified desirable knowledge which is part of the programme which we wish for all children who are on track to developing a secure knowledge of the curriculum. However, this is not re-taught if it has not been remembered from previous units.

We also use Knowledge Organisers to support children’s recall. We know that, in Infants, children find recall difficult over time. We use knowledge organisers to support children’s memory as we know that asking questions such as ‘what have you learnt in “Art and design”?' is too vague for children at this age.

Early Years (Nursery and Reception)

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum consists of Prime and Specific Areas of Learning:

Prime Areas: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Communication and Language

Specific areas: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding of the World, Expressive Arts and Design.

Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and Year 2)

In Key Stage 1, The National Curriculum sets out the knowledge, skills and understanding that every child has the right to learn. It is a framework given to teachers by the government to ensure that all school children are taught in a consistent way. It provides standards that measure how well children are doing in each area and subject. In Key Stage 1, each year group has curriculum guidelines which set out in detail the content for each subject.

The subjects include: English, Maths, Science, Computing, Geography, History, Physical Education, Art and Design and Technology and Music. Children are also taught Religious Education and PSHE.

Through the curriculum, children learn the basic skills necessary to succeed in each subject and we use the curriculum to help them to develop their personal and social skills.

In addition to the National Curriculum, the school provides a range of visits and extra–curricular opportunities in school, off-site, or is provided by additional experts.

Assessment

Assessment at Carr infants has three purposes:

• Assessment for Learning – Using pre-unit and end of unit assessments, and ongoing within-lesson assessments to adapt teaching.
• Assessment as learning – using low stakes quizzes and ‘cues’ as an opportunity for children to recall/reinforce learning.
• Assessment of learning – End of unit assessments which are used to ensure children have remembered the essential knowledge from the unit of work. This is also shared with subject leaders to maintain understanding of progress in their subject.

This data is then analysed and discussed in pupil progress meetings with the Headteacher to ensure every child makes good or better progress. These meetings allow teachers to meet with the Head to discuss each child and plan intervention programmes where necessary for children requiring additional support. It also allows us to identify Pupil Premium children, children at risk of ‘falling behind' along with children with special educational needs. Interventions are carefully planned to maximise learning and progress for a child’s starting point.

We regularly report to parents on how their child is doing at parents’ evenings and review meetings. We have an open door policy and encourage parents to talk to us whenever they need information or have a concern. We let parents know how they can help at home through parent consultations, meetings, dojo weekly learning summaries, the website, home tasks and newsletters.