Vision Statement
At St. Nicholas Priory we endeavour for all children to become intrinsically motivated ambitious lifelong learners.
Through providing an enriched meaning and challenging curriculum through project based learning our termly projects provide learners with real world outcomes that engage with an authentic audience encouraging problem solving, self-reflection and a desire to innovate.
We believe that learners manifest deep learning when they van talk about it fluently and can apply it in new contexts without prompts.
Learners are encouraged to choose where and whom they work with in a collaborative and safe environment where self-discovery is encourages allowing children to fulfil their maximum potential.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (EYFS) sets out the learning and development stages for children as they grow from birth to five years. For those working in the early years – whether in a nursery, pre-school, a childminder or in a reception class in school – the EYFS outlines what they need to do to support your child. There are several key things to remember:
As you know, being a parent is very special and amazing as you watch your child grow up. It can also have challenges and so we, at St Nicholas Priory, want to be available to chat with you whenever you would appreciate talking things through. Also you may find the document “What to Expect When” useful in understanding your child’s development.
Our vision is to offer an environment where children’s natural desire to explore and learn is embraced. Our Year One setting offers children the opportunity to explore their own interests within a learning environment that promotes choice and independence both indoors and outdoors. The children will be supported in order to create learners that are curious, resilient and reflective. Giving children choice about their learning enables the children to follow their intrinsic motivation, which supports their ability to take pride in their work and have a strong sense of achievement.
Children will be a part of a unit where there is routine, structure and boundaries that are whole-heartedly supported by all adults that enter the learning environment. The children will have access to a mixture of continuous provision, adult-led activities, adult-directed activities and self-initiated learning time. All adults that enter our unit will help foster and develop the children’s problem-solving and social skills, encouraging independence. This in turn promotes adult-child interactions to be high quality and full of success.
All learners will have access to an adult in a variety of ways: on a 1:1 basis every week; in small groups during Discover and Explore time, in family groups and as a whole class. These encounters will enable the child to experience a variety of situations in which they can grow not only as learners but also as members of a classroom community. Each term the children will take part in a unit-wide enquiry. This enquiry will be the skeleton for the National Curriculum. As well as the stable resources in the continuous provision there will be changeable enhancements to further support the coverage of the National Curriculum in relation to our enquiry.
By the end of Year One we hope to have given the children an enjoyable and rigorous experience that has allowed children to progress as a whole child.
We believe reading is a vital skill to promote understanding of our world and the ability to participate as a citizen. Reading skills transfer across all curriculum areas. At St Nicholas Priory, reading is taught discretely and ensures children receive both decoding and comprehending skills. In Key Stage 1, pupils become confident readers by focusing on the Read Write Inc programme which is delivered comprehensively. In Key Stage 2, learners focus on the six comprehension skills of a good reader such as inferring and summarising and practise these skills in questions.
Writing is a personal, expressive and important skill which is promoted in our school in regular lessons. Children have access to a multitude of quality stories and texts which model the skills and styles of a good writer. We promote the use of a rubric to list the features of a good text so children are given the best opportunity to be successful. Writing is embedded in our termly projects. Children have the opportunity to publish or perform their work to a real audience at the end of a unit.
We believe mathematics is a fascinating and important subject which should develop a deeper understanding of our world.
At St. Nicholas Priory mathematics is taught discretely, with a focus on developing efficient calculation methods underpinned by a conceptual understanding using models and images.
The relationships between methods are explicit so that learners see mathematics as a set of connected ideas in order to develop their mathematical fluency. Learners are enabled to solve interesting and relevant problems that develop their reasoning in a collaborative setting.
We believe that a broad and balanced science education is the entitlement of all children and our aims in teaching science include encouraging open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance and developing the skills of investigation – including: observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating. Our pupils grow to understand that Science is a body of knowledge built up through experimental testing of ideas and also a practical way and important way of finding reliable answers to questions we may ask about the world around us.
As a church of England school Religious Education is at the centre of our schools beliefs and this is echoed not only in RE lessons but through assemblies, links with the Minster and through our pupils and teachers morals and values. We ensure that RE teaching is open and instils respect for different views and interpretations enabling all young people to become successful learners who enjoy learning, making progress and achieving. We teach this through varied and active ways of working which include art and drama, debating, visits, videos and interactive displays.
History and Geography is taught within out termly projects and allows pupils to think about people and contributes to a wider project. This holistic approach allows transferable skills such as researching, events from the past as well as knowledge of the world around them in a meaningful context that presenting and reasoning to be used to enhance learning in this and other subject areas.
At Priory, we strongly believe that high-quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world. (National Curriculum, 2013)
We provide children with a multitude of technologies and opportunities to develop their understanding of technology and computing. Computing is taught as a discreet subject in a dedicated ICT suite using the latest apps and systems. Computing skills are also transferred to classroom based learning giving pupils further opportunities develop their skills using laptops and tablet devices.
We believe that learning a foreign language provides valuable educational, social and cultural experiences for our pupils. It helps the pupils to develop their communication skills including the skills of speaking and listening and how language works. We aim to encourage curiosity about languages that are spoken around the world and learning another language helps to give the pupils a new perspective on this by encouraging them to understand their own culture and those of others.
PE lessons enable our pupils to learn communication skills, problem solving, resilience, collaboration and team work through exciting activities including swimming and events at local sports facilities.
These valuable skills enable students to become team players throughout their school lives and transfer skills learnt into the classroom.
The arts, including Design Technology, Music, Dance and art are incorporated into our termly projects. This enables a real life approach to learning through outcome focused projects to show the pupils how arts can impact communities and develop thinking.
School Partnerships: Sheringham Teaching School, GY7 cluster of schools.
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