‘Shaftesbury Park Primary School provides excellent opportunities for developing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through a rich and vibrant curriculum’ Ofsted

More about the topics that our classes are covering this term can be found in the ‘Pupils’ section of the website. In this section you will find general information about our curriculum.

Foundation Stage: Nursery and Reception (ages 3 – 5)

Children enjoy learning together through a play-based curriculum, which includes a significant emphasis on phonic awareness, learning to read and write, and learning to use number confidently. Classrooms are bright, well resourced and celebrate the children’s achievements. Learning takes place both inside and outside every day, throughout the year. All classes in the Foundation Stage benefit from exposure to the bilingual learning environment. Small group French lessons are provided and the children acquire some basic French through songs, stories and games. In the bilingual class, during the afternoon there is a French immersion curriculum where all teaching and modelling by the practitioners is in French. Children take part in both whole class and small group activities linked to the topic with an emphasis on oral language development.

Key Stage One: Years 1 – 2 (Ages 5 – 7)

Key Stage One builds on the learning which has taken place in the Foundation Stage, with staff working together to ensure smooth continuity from Reception to Year 1. Children begin more structured literacy and numeracy lessons linked with their topic learning in a broad range of activities. From year one onwards, pupils have two terms of swimming a year, travelling to our local swimming pool for these lessons. Children in the traditional classes learn French. Our bilingual class begin French phonic sessions in addition to their topic work in French, and this developing phonetic awareness helps with the introduction of French reading and writing.

Key Stage Two: Years 3 – 6 (Ages 7 – 11)

As the children move through Key Stage Two, there is more emphasis on independent learning in preparation for their transition to Key Stage Three. In addition to the focus on academic achievement, many opportunities are provided to develop children’s physical, moral, emotional, creative and social skills, which is a particular strength of our school. All children are offered the opportunity to go on two residential trips throughout their time in KS2, with one of these being in France. We expect our Year 5 and 6 pupils to take on positions of responsibility throughout the school and be willing to assist in the wider community. Our bilingual classes will continue dedicated sessions to develop their French reading and writing as well as learning about other areas of the curriculum in French.