In Key Stage One, we meet the requirements of the national curriculum through skills-focused whole-class teaching. We focus closely on age-related expectations, ensuring that children have all they need to progress to the next year group or key stage.  We encourage a close focus on skills and age group expectations through skilled teaching, assessments and termly moderations, both internal and with other local schools. We are reflective practitioners and use this information to identify gaps and adapt our teaching and curriculum accordingly.   Through this process we ensure that all children have a secure foundational knowledge on which to build from. 

We aim to meet these needs through carefully planned and purposeful teaching. Where appropriate, we stream pupils to ensure each year group is taught the specific knowledge and skills they need to learn. These skills are then deliberately incorporated into application lessons and revisited in the following weeks, so children do not experience them in isolation. Instead, they are given regular opportunities to apply their learning across lessons, helping them to make links, understand purpose, and embed skills securely.

We take our time and do not rush through content.  We recognise the importance of a strong foundation in communication and language, spelling and handwriting.  These are core skills that are in every lesson. We have high expectations and through effective oral and written feedback pupils know what they need to do to improve. We give our pupils many opportunities to apply their learning in different contexts. We know that learning has to become part of a child’s long-term memory for it to be effective; consequently, we know that intelligent repetition and skilled teaching is the key for this to be the case.

We use high-quality texts to engage and motivate children and to expose them to a wide range of stories, poems and non-fiction. These texts help develop children’s enjoyment of reading and support vocabulary development.

In Key Stage One, reading is closely linked to our phonics teaching. Children take part in Little Wandle reading practice groups, where they read fully decodable books matched to their phonics knowledge. These sessions focus on accurate decoding, fluency and understanding.

We are also fortunate to have some very dedicated reading volunteers who support children with additional practice. We actively encourage regular reading at home, which is further promoted in our year group workshops.

We give children many opportunities to relax with a good book – every classroom has a reading area, and we have a school library which is utilised for class and group enjoyment. We know that good readers are good writers, and our children are read to daily. We encourage them to ‘magpie’ words and phrases into their own writing and aim for our classrooms to be vocabulary-rich environments.

We aim to create independent writers who can apply the skills they have been taught to have a positive effect on a reader. It is vital, then, that children see their teachers write daily and know that effective writing takes time and effort. Through our “I, We, You” approach, we frequently model the writing and editing process in front of our classes and encourage pupil input through shared and guided writing. By teaching this way, we can scaffold and support our children’s writing and aim to make our expectations clear.

We encourage a close focus on skills and age group expectations through termly moderations, both internally and with other local schools. We are reflective and use this process to identify gaps in our own teaching and standardise our judgements.