At Benhall we deliver our teaching and learning through a highly creative curriculum. Whole school themes are planned over a 3 year cycle with clear progression over all year groups and in all areas of learning. Our most recent Ofsted inspection report, March 2010, described our curriculum as “innovative, vibrant and stimulating” resulting in “… a dramatic and sustained rise in standards and achievement over the last three years.”
Our curriculum provides all children with exciting learning experiences which allow them to explore curriculum areas and make meaningful links between subjects. Our outstanding teachers are excellent at creating lessons which capture the children’s attention and interest and encourage motivation and perseverance; ultimately resulting in exceptional progress and achievement.
Aims
The curriculum should enable all young people to become:
This is achieved through a structured, well-balanced curriculum delivered in a happy, secure and disciplined environment, giving opportunities for each child to master the basic skills and develop the "whole" person intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Reception – Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
The Reception year marks the end of the children’s foundation stage education, before they move to Key Stage 1. There are seven areas of learning in the EYFS. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
These three areas, the prime areas, are:
• communication and language;
• physical development;
• personal, social and emotional development.
We also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.
The specific areas are:
literacy;
mathematics;
understanding the world;
expressive arts and design.
Our school fully supports the principle that young children learn through play, and by engaging in well-planned structured activities. Teaching in the reception year builds on the experiences of the children in their pre-school learning, and provides a balance between planned/structured activities and child initiated activities.
Year 1 and Year 2
We teach the National Curriculum to our Year 1 and Year 2 children according to the
Orders laid down by the Government in the 1988 Education Act and subsequent acts.
The National Curriculum comprises: -
The core subjects: English
Mathematics
Science
The foundation subjects: Art and Design
Computing
Design and Technology
Geography
History
Music
Physical Education
The Whole Curriculum
At Benhall we provide learning opportunities with an increasingly creative approach. This cross-curricular method of teaching and learning allows the children to develop their knowledge and understanding as a whole and not under separate compartments of learning as prescribed in the National Curriculum subjects. The whole school and pre-school work on the same theme over two terms (i.e. three themes over the year), with the themes running on a three year cycle to ensure that the children do not cover the same theme twice during their time at our school.
The curriculum is all the planned activities that we, at Benhall, organise in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. It includes not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also the range of extra-curricular activities that the school organises in order to enrich the experience of the children. It also includes what the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave. Through the whole curriculum we aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people, who can work and co-operate with others whilst developing knowledge and skills, so that they achieve their true potential.
Please see our Prospectus for further details.