At St Nicholas we understand that children experience just one childhood and we strive to work with our families and the community to provide a rich, values-based curriculum, full of creative and engaging learning opportunitties. We want children to feel excited about their learning and to understand the purpose of what they are doing. We are fortuante to have superb indoor and outdoor facilities and our curriculum continues to develop and utilise these spaces as they constantly improve. We are committed to using nature and the outdoors to support learning experiences.
Our unique and challenging curriculum is based on The National Curriculum and Statutory Framework for Early Years . There is a strong emphasis on The Arts, Humanities and Sport which, we believe provides a broader learning platform for children to achieve the best that they can in subjects such as English, Mathematics and Science.
Children’s learning centres around one big question each half-term leading towards greater expertise in a cross-curricular context. Through this approach, children develop more confidence in their use of vocabulary and writing with more purposeful learning taking place across the curriculum. The themes are brought to life through drama, trips, visitors and a wide range of resources.
Children enjoy taking time and care to produce high quality outcomes such as performances, books, displays, artwork, films, debates and musical compositions. As well as this, our curriculum prepares the children for their future as successful and confident young people who are able to express their own opinions whilst respecting those of others. With the invaluable support we receive from our parents and families, our children leave St Nicholas able to think for themselves and well prepared to contribute positively to their community and the world in which they live.
Through our curriculum we aim to create powerful and well-structured learning opportunities that hook children into learning for the rest of their lives. Our curriculum plans are in three main sections; long, medium and short term and are flexible to reflect the changing needs of our children. Much of this information can be accessed for parents and carers on our website or via the office. Curriculum newsletters are sent home each term.
Long Term Plans
Whole school curriculum overview
‘Curriculum Learning Journeys’ – half-termly ‘Big Questions’ and presentations
Medium Term Plans
Year group termly learning objectives for each subject
Year group weekly overview of learning for the term
Short Term Plans
Weekly plans for each class and subject including:-
target range of group
key learning vocabulary, objectives and questions
progress alerts
learning activities providing challenge for all
support for learning
Reading Schemes at St Nicholas include; Oxford Reading Tree, Cambridge, Rigby Star, Ginn, Treetops, PM Star, Treetops, Collins, Puffin, Heinneman, Discovery World, Walker, Wellington square and many more.
‘Letters and Sounds’ is a scheme of work which details the principles and practice of teaching high quality phonics and this is used to support learning. A link to the full programme is:-
Please see our Teaching and Learning Policy for details about how we implement the curriculum and our Assessment Policy to see how assessment informs future learning. Other key documentation is listed below.