Our Curriculum
At Ryhope Infant School Academy, the Headteacher, staff and Governors believe that the provision of a secure, caring and stimulating environment in which to learn and develop, will enable children to acquire skills, knowledge, understanding and personal effectiveness, to become confident, independent learners.
Intent
At Ryhope Infant School Academy we believe that children can become lifelong learners through an inclusive curriculum that is inspiring, collaborative, challenging and progressive. We provide a curriculum that enables pupils to deepen knowledge and develop skills, which are transferrable both now and in the future. We want to allow our children to explore, investigate, and fully embed their learning ensuring they know more, remember more and do more!
We firmly believe in the importance of providing a meaningful learning experience to each individual child. Our curriculum is designed to be rich in first hand experiences and early language development. We recognise the varied starting points of our children so have designed a curriculum which is bespoke and built around the individual needs of each and every pupil.
We aim for all of our children to be; respectful, skilful and ambitious, with the motivation and passion to continue to learn and have a ‘can do’ attitude and approach to life.
We want our children to leave our school with the understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible; how to make positive contributions to the local area and how to aim to be the best that they can be.
Implementation
Our curriculum is creative, engaging, ambitious and fully accessible for all pupils. Most importantly, the curriculum reinforces prior learning and provides deeper learning opportunities for those children who are ready, through the use of a ‘mastery’ approach of a particular element or skill. Cross-curricular links allows our children to see the learning pathways and make connections enabling pupils to explore and develop new ways of thinking across different subjects.
Quality First Teaching gives children opportunities to be successful and take risks in a secure, creative, safe, calm environment where classrooms and other learning spaces promote creativity and high aspirations.
We provide a sequential curriculum from nursery to year 2 but have in mind the next steps our children take when moving into key stage 2. We value the importance of the power of early language and literacy skills and ensure our children have access to high quality texts to enhance the curriculum. Knowledge and skills are taught in a logical and progressive order through engaging and challenging lessons. We nurture a love of knowledge and natural curiosity by encouraging children to ask questions and delving deeper into the topic whilst maintaining high expectations of all pupils, both for work and behaviour.
We offer passionate teaching and stimulating and creative learning opportunities which equip our children to become inspired, excited and motivated learners.
Impact
Through our diverse and child centred approach it has enabled us to provide the essential skills and experiences for us to guide and nurture our children to reach their own potential.
Pupils leave our school as confident and independent learners who are aware of their own developing resilience. Pupils are able to work autonomously and collaboratively, drawing on their developed skills of cooperation, exploration and investigation. Pupils are reflective and are able to talk in an informed way about their learning behaviours and the impact of these; what they have learned and how. This is underpinned by pupils’ strong development of reading skills which then enables them to access all other areas of the curriculum. This sets them in good stead for their continued learning journey at Key Stage 2 and beyond.
