Intent

The children in Reception and Key Stage 1 will learn through an engaging and ambitious curriculum which promotes individuality and diversity, a sense of community, curiosity and a love of learning. The curriculum is designed in line with children’s development and learning potential, to build on children’s interests and promote a wide range of first hand experiences. Play and child initiated learning is fostered and promoted so that children can develop their own learning styles and adopt positive approaches to challenge through a growth mindset. We recognise that children are able to understand and apply skills that they are not yet able to record so we value, scaffold and promote the role of verbal explanation and reasoning throughout children’s learning.

Children are valued and encouraged so that their aspirations remain high. Our curriculum aim is to introduce a wide range of experiences so that children can discover talents and passions, and be introduced to a variety of people (past and present) from whom they can draw inspirations to make informed decisions for their lives.

At Drake, we strive to develop the children holistically and with purpose. The Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum provide the foundations for learning and progression. We provide a strong emphasis on the arts, music and performance as well as ensuring that children are enabled to meet their full learning potential in the area of English, Mathematics, Science and other curriculum subjects. We aim to promote a love of reading for pleasure and nurture children’s creativity and style within their writing. We know that reading is key to all learning and as such, intend to develop all children as fluent and interested readers. Phonics is a strong aspect of all learning in EYFS and KS1 as children are taught to recognise letters as sounds and use these to blend and segment. This supports children's fluency in reading and writing which supports the basis of the English curriculum and the necessary comprehension and authorial intentionality required as their skills develop.