At ‘The Federation of Thomas Wall Nursery and Robin Hood Infants' we follow a creative curriculum in both the Early Years Foundation Stage and KS1. Children enjoy learning through an exciting and engaging curriculum that is enriched through school trips, extra-curricular activities, themed weeks and special days.

How to find our more about the curriculum we are following

The information below is intended to give you an overview of the curriculum. To find out more, there are workshops on offer throughout the year and curriculum maps are given out each half term. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage

Children in our Nursery and Reception classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. The EYFS curriculum consists of 7 areas of learning.

A love for learning is developed through an exciting play based curriculum that children access through both independent play and focus activities with adults.

Children are encouraged to make connections in their learning through a creative topic based approach led by the children’s interests. Children are able to engage with their learning through an imaginatively resourced free -flow learning environment that enables exploratory and child-initiated play both indoors and outdoors.

The three prime areas are:

Personal Social and Emotional Development

Physical Development

Communication and Language

The four specific areas are:

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the World

Expressive Arts and Design

Key Stage 1

We believe it is important that children develop as lively, independent and inquisitive thinkers. Children learn through a topic based creative curriculum that encourages independent learning, critical thinking skills and a healthy lifestyle.

Children are taught a rich, broad and balanced curriculum largely through the Cornerstones curriculum program that follows the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum in years 1 and 2. Each class follows a structured timetable that ensures the core subjects of Maths and English are taught on a daily basis and Science is taught weekly. The remaining foundation subjects: Art and Design; Computing; Geography; History; PSHE (Relationship Health Education); RE; Physical Education and Music are covered throughout the week.

Teachers consistently observe and assess children’s learning to ensure all children make progress across the curriculum.

We develop children’s skills, knowledge and understanding through four stages of learning that are integral to all the topics taught using the Cornerstones Curriculum philosophy of ‘Embed, Engage, Excite, Express’.

Engage

At the ‘Engage’ stage, children:

• gain memorable first-hand experiences, such as going on a visit or inviting a special visitor into school
• enjoy ‘WOW’ experiences
• get an exciting introduction to a topic or theme
• begin researching and setting enquiry questions
• get lots of opportunities to make observations
• develop spoken language skills
• take part in sensory activities
• have lots of fun to fully 'engage' with their new topic.

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Develop

At the ‘Develop’ stage, children:

• improve their knowledge and understanding of the topic
• develop and practice their new skills
• compose, make, do, build, investigate, explore, write for different purposes and read across the curriculum
• research their own questions and those set by others
• follow new pathways of enquiry based on their interests
• complete homework activities that support their learning. 

Innovate

At the ‘Innovate’ stage, children:

• apply skills, knowledge and understanding in real-life contexts
• solve real or imagined problems using everything they’ve learnt
• get inspired by imaginative and creative opportunities
• re-visit anything not fully grasped at the ‘Develop’ stage.

Express

At the ‘Express’ stage, children:

• become the performers, experts and informers
• share their achievements with parents, classmates and the community
• evaluate finished products and processes
• link what they have learnt to where they started
• celebrate their achievement

Year One Cornerstones Topic Map