Early Years Foundation Stage
National Curriculum
Early Years Foundation Stage
National Curriculum
Memory Lane entails 3 mornings per year - one at the end of November (Autumn term), one at the end of Spring term and one at the end of Summer term. It involves a high school English teacher and a high school teacher from Science in term 1, RE term 2 and Geography / History in term 3. Also involved are 20 or 30 ex - Dial Park children in year 7 or 8 who return to our school for these sessions.
A learning walk is conducted with the high school teacher alongside our subject lead for the particular subject. Our children choose and display on their desk their best piece of writing and a “double page spread” of their other subject as their best work.The teachers moderate which learners work is secure or better for their age and award votes for the best books. This helps our staff to understand whether our secure or greater depth judgements are correct and forms valuable CPD between staff. It also supports the year 7 and 8 children to remember what they have learnt at Dial Park and allows them to be involved in choosing winners for the best learning outcomes.
Year 7 and 8 children also bring some of their books to support our year 6 children in seeing the level of expectation in year 7 and 8.
A similar process is repeated between the rest of the children in the other key stages.
Here we explain our curriculum intent. Our children go on to talk about its impact on their learning
We have worked with a number of consultants over the years to ensure enjoyment, coverage and challenge. Our co-produced curriculum overviews are used as a starting point to create our curriculum maps. They are used by the teachers to ensure that children's knowledge progresses through the year groups cumulatively. We utilise a range of knowledge retention techniques such as Learning By Questions and KAHOOT quizzes to ensure that what is learnt is remembered.
We utilise different teaching styles as and when they are appropriate. Mastery teaching styles are utilised when it suits to teach the whole class but we also utilise an integrated teaching style for some lessons when it is deemed appropriate. We utilise Education Endowment Fund research especially around Metacognition and self regulated learning to inform and continuously enhance our approaches to teaching and learning.
We reward through the class DOJO which is a secure site for parents and teachers to share rewards, personalised learning, homework, positive messages or information crucial to the smooth running of the school. We use class dojo to share the winners of the values trophies each Friday with our school community.
At Dial Park we use the DFE approved phonics scheme Supersonic Phonic Friends. Supersonic Phonic Friends created by Phonics’ and Early Reading expert Anna Lucas and illustrated by artist, Fiona Cameron. Supersonic Phonic Friends is a fully systematic synthetic phonic approach. Our scheme includes the Firm Foundations in Phonics, The Basics, The Higher Levels ~ Choose to Use Spellings and Switch it Spell Sounds, as well as Key Stage 1 spelling rules. The scheme ensures children develop passion for reading and the confidence to independently apply each skill when reading and writing. They will be highly motivated to ‘read with speed’ and ‘write with all their might!’
The children are streamed into ability groups depending on their progression through the six phases. Firm Foundations is taught throughout our Nursery and into Reception if the children need it. The basics 2 covers the majority of single letters of the alphabet. The basics 3 begins to focus on some of the sounds that need two (digraph) or three (tri-graph) letters in them. The basics 4 focuses on reading consonant clusters within words e.g. spring. As well as polysyllabic words such as lunchbox. Through choose to use spellings which is where the children learn all the different and alternative combinations of letters and the sounds they make. Switch it spell sounds focuses on alternative sounds such as 'ow' as in brown and 'ow' as in window.
Year 1 children have to complete a Phonics Screening test in June, this test checks the children’s letters and sounds knowledge by a word list containing 40 words. Included in the test are a mixture of real and pseudo (fake) words that the children have to decode. The children need to sound out and read the majority of the words correctly to pass the test. Children who fail the test in Year 1 have to take the test again in Year 2.
Children who do not yet reach the level needed to complete the test, they will and another go in year 2. The children are given further support in year 3 and beyond through identifying specific needs in pupil progress meetings and then bridging the gap through phonics intervention, 1:1 phonics counts, toe by toe or other interventions..
