Carlton Colville Primary School

At Carlton Colville Primary School, the entire planned curriculum and learning experience of our children is encapsulated in our knowledge and skills-based curriculum, underpinned by our school mission statement:

“Be the best you can be”

Our curriculum vision focuses on providing the best education and learning journey for all the children that attend our school.

We aim to:

• Ensure equality of opportunity enabling everyone to make the most of their abilities and to develop and widen their individual interests and talents.
• Provide quality learning and teaching through a rich and stimulating curriculum.
• Provide a sensitive and caring environment, which promotes respect towards others.
• Encourage and celebrate achievement, promoting high expectations and developing self-esteem.
• Foster a pure interest and enjoyment of learning and knowledge.

Our children undertake a learning “journey” beginning in the Early Years Foundation Stage and build on those early experiences; celebrating arrivals; taking detours; stopping to think and reflect; and having lots of fun along the way! We strive to equip our children with the skills, knowledge and understanding to continue this journey in the future, using their broadened horizons and raised aspirations to make informed choices about the important things in their lives.

Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We value all children and celebrate their diversity and embrace differences including: culture, ethnicity, religion, language, special educational needs, disability, gender and/or ability, providing the best learning opportunities for every child to succeed. In our Early Years environment children learn to be resilient, capable, confident, independent, self-assured, secure and to feel valued.

In order to be successful children will have the opportunity to learn and develop the characterisitics of effective learning as described in Early Years Foundation Stage 2021.

• Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’; 
• Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and 
• Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things. 

​Our EYFS currriculum is underpinned by our three ‘curriculum drivers’. We aim to provide many opportunities for the children to develop their knowledge around these drivers throughought their time at our school. Our three curriculum drivers are:

• Knowledge of the World- Who am I? What is my locality? How do I fit into the wider world?
• Possibilities- How can I “Be the Best I Can Be”? How can I make the most of my opportunities?
• Community- How can I take responsibility for my school and local community? How does my community compare with others?

​Ensuring the children have the right attitude to learning is extremely important to help them 'be the best they can be'. Our Learning Aliens (skills) support the children with this specifically highlighting the learning behaviours we feel are essential for them to being a life long learner. Our 8 earning Aliens are: Aspiration Angel, Communication Chief, Captain Confidence, Curiosity Crusader,  Determination Dude,  Fabulous Focus Friend, Doctor Independence, Teamwork Champ.

The EYFS curriculum at Carlton Colville Primary School is holistic, broad and balanced. It is accessible for every child and encompasses the three prime areas of learning and four specific areas through varied, fun and exciting learning contexts and opportunities. In the Autumn term when Reception children need time to settle in and transition from Nursery, children actively learn through purposeful play in which they are given opportunities to play and explore. 

Then they are given challenging activities in all areas of learning. Very quickly we begin to teach fun daily discreet phonics sessions through “Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised” and lots of interactive games in which children can practise their blending and segmenting skills. Phonics is our prime approach to reading and writing. 

We have a mastery approach to maths using the White Rose curriculum in which we teach mathematical concepts and key skills through a Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract approach. We embed characteristics of a mathematician using the NCETM Early Years programme.

Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences are tailored to their individual needs. Activities over time are consistently and coherently arranged to build cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for their future learning. There is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers. Parents and carers are invited in regularly to share work together with their child. Parents are actively encouraged to share achievements from home with Early Years staff through Tapestry. This gives a holistic picture of each and every child.

Through providing a rich variety of opportunities in each area of learning, both the teachers and the pupils assess their learning continuously throughout the year. Their knowledge, skills and understanding are continually observed, celebrated and assessed to identify next steps. Our assessment systems enable teachers to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress they have made over time, this is discussed at our termly Pupil Progress Meetings and reported to parents at the end of the Year.

Our children are highly effective at demonstrating what they know, can remember and can do. This is evident through the children being deeply engaged in their work and play and sustaining high levels of concentration. Children, including those children from disadvantaged backgrounds, do well. Children with SEND achieve the best possible outcomes.

Our children consistently use new vocabulary that enables them to communicate effectively. They speak with increasing confidence and fluency, which means that they secure strong foundations for future learning.

Havana - "I like playing with the bikes and the house".

Tyrese - "I love to learn new letters".

Lottie - "I like to play in the sandpit; I like building sandcastles".

Finnlee - "I like to write new letters and play the grapheme game".

EYFS Pupil -“We’re and doing really well have learnt all our sounds.”

EYFS Pupil - “I can read books now that I couldn’t before.”

EYFS Pupil - “It’s nice to be able to read books. I like all the lovely pictures.”

EYFS Pupil - “Phonics is fun. I like it when we write on whiteboards.”

EYFS Pupil - “We were learning ‘oi’ today, like in ‘join’.