Our Curriculum
At Old Earth we pride ourselves on offering children a very wide ranging and inspiring curriculum.
Children in the Foundation Stage are exposed to an exciting learning environment and a broad curriculum which fulfils the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. All our Foundation Stage settings aim to provide age-appropriate experiences and where possible to engage and inspire children by basing their teaching around the interests of the children.
In Key Stages One and Two our eight-strand curriculum comprises four Core Strands of learning, which are, Communication, Language and Literacy; Mathematics; Science and Computing and four Non-Core Strands which are Creative Development; Physical Development; Knowledge and Understanding of the World and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. The individual subjects that we teach fit within these broader categories. Teachers plan to teach some subjects discretely and others come together as topics which may span several strands. PSED and SMSC opportunities thread through the entire curriculum. The latter help children to understand what it is that they must do to maximise their own learning potential.
This year we have reviewed the curriculum, which has been in place for four years, to incorporate the new requirements of the national curriculum. We agreed and used the following principles to guide us.
Our curriculum is such that it allows us to place a strong emphasis on the reading, writing and mathematics whilst still maintaining a very wide range of topic-based and discrete subject teaching. *The introduction of more topics based around texts and the opportunity to follow more child-initiated studies are started in September 2014.
In addition, to broaden our curriculum even further, during the year we are aiming to include ‘Enterprise’ at an age- appropriate level for all children. This will involve classes in investing money in a business project and finding ways to make the initial amount of money grow. If they are successful the children will look at different ways of using their profit. We believe that this will help children to learn many valuable life-skills in the process.
Teachers have also had some staff training on P4C (Philosophy for Children) and this is also an aspect of SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) development that we intend to include in the coming year.
In addition, to broaden our curriculum even further, during the year we are aiming to include ‘Enterprise’ at an age- appropriate level for all children. This will involve classes in investing money in a business project and finding ways to make the initial amount of money grow. If they are successful the children will look at different ways of using their profit. We believe that this will help children to learn many valuable life-skills in the process.
Teachers have also had some staff training on P4C (Philosophy for Children) and this is also an aspect of SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) development that we intend to include in the coming year.
The jigsaw grids give a brief overview of the curriculum in each year group from Year One to Year Six. To download the grids click here.