Curriculum Rationale
Curriculum Rationale
At Greasby Infant School, we celebrate our uniqueness of being an infant school, which gives us the privilege to provide nurture and the strong foundations that will allow all children to meet their potential and be positive members in the community.
Our broad, balanced and inclusive curriculum is rich with exciting learning opportunities and experiences that push children to be curious, intrinsically motivated learners that love a challenge and leave us with an adventure for learning in the next part of their journey.
Our foundations are built in the EYFS stage with an emphasis on child led, continual ‘in the moment’ learning. We follow the principles of developing the unique child, providing care and support in a safe environment and ensuring every child reaches his or her full potential. Positive relationships ensure that children feel secure, whilst a rich and varied learning environment allows children to discover the world around them and provides opportunities for challenge whilst remaining safe.
We develop independence and self-confidence in an environment where children feel valued, respected and cared for. Clear rules help each child feel safe, whilst high but realistic expectations encourage each child to strive to achieve their best. We understand children develop at different rates and learn in different ways and therefore, well planned experiences in all areas of learning and development are essential, with purposeful play underpinning the delivery of our Early Years education.
We lay the foundations for children, with a focus on developing the whole child, inclusive of those with additional needs. Our EYFS provides children with a broad range of learning opportunities with the aim to embed firm foundations in the knowledge and skills needed for good future progress. We aim to develop children’s cultural capital so that they are able to engage with society and understand the importance of being a good UK and global citizen.
From this our KS1 curriculum is planned to build on these prior skills and knowledge, as well as engage and expose all children to diverse, rich learning experiences, which will help broaden and challenge their thinking. We want to ensure that the essential building blocks of identified knowledge and skills are embedded in all children and that they can use and apply these independently in the future.
We have a strong local community identity as well as global learning opportunities through our Confucius classroom. Through this and other opportunities such as being an Eco school, we want to empower children with a strong sense of belonging and embedded pride and respect to the world around them.
Most importantly, we want to give every child fun, unique learning memories that will stay with them forever.
Aims
Our curriculum will:
1. Provide all children with equal access to a rich, broad and balanced curriculum that is matched to their ages, abilities and interests.
2. Allow children to retain the knowledge and skills that will allow them to succeed in the next part of their journey.
3. Develop a sense of curiosity and encourage children to form their own ideas about the world around them whilst making links between learning.
4. Provide rich, diverse opportunities to build on and expand children’s own life experiences and personal development so that their own cultural capital is increased.
5. Provide challenges that allow children to build their resilience and motivation as independent learners.
6. Ensure that children have a thirst for learning and make long-standing memories!