At the Firs we regularly monitor and try to improve our practice to engage as many children as possible in every lesson.

Mindset

As part of this process, over the past two years we have set about trying to 'grow our brains'. At the outset we asked the children and found that over 75% of them believed that you were born 'clever' or not: your intelligence was fixed and couldn't be changed.  All stakeholders have been involved in changing this, so that children see a point or purpose to trying hard.  

How does this impact teaching and learning?  Many children are already able to articulate how and why they learn and see mistakes (or 'oopses') as an important part in their learning journey. Teachers use these 'oopses' to help others learn and children feel able to take risks and are not afraid to get things wrong as a result.  They have begun to understand that if they want to be good at something, they have to work at it, persevere and 'wobble'.

Cooperative Learning

As well as the influence of 'growth mindsets', cooperative learning is visible in all of our classrooms.  Many of our lessons employ this device which provides a structure to allow children to support each other.  It also facilitates them sharing their views and opinions to enhance their learning.  Whilst children are expected to learn independently at times, they know they always have a 'shoulder partner' with whom to discuss strategies or sound out ideas.

Challenge by choice

From our Nursery classes, throughout the school, you will also see evidence in our classrooms of 'challenge by choice'.  Children are encouraged to take ownership of their own learning and choose a task that will stretch them rather than the difficulty of the task being determined for them.  We believe that with some guidance this enables children to become independent learners who love to challenge themselves.

Curriculum information Year 1 - Year 6

Click on the link below and you will find the National Curriculum statutory requirements, for each National Curriculum Year Group, mapped by core and non-core subject. The documents show the statutory areas that the children must be taught by year group for the core subjects (English, Maths and Science) and non-core. It may also be helpful for you to know that we use Read Write Inc phonics scheme throughout EYFS and Key Stage 1. If you have any further questions, please contact the main office and you will directed to the appropriate member of staff who can answer your queries.