QUEENSWOOD SCHOOL

Years 1 - 2 (for ages 5-7yrs)

 

Children at Queenswood School leave their Reception year as increasingly confident and independent individuals; excited, curious and well-prepared to move on to the next stage of school life in Infants. The Infants' curriculum is based on an enhanced version of the National Curriculum: with our small class sizes and excellent teacher-pupil ratio our pupils thrive and gain confidence.

 

Children take part in more extended formal teaching for in their curriculum subject areas and then take part in directed independent learning. They also have the opportunity to access continuous provision and additional learning resources throughout the day. Numeracy and Literacy are taught daily through group teaching and independent activities. Numeracy tasks are adapted to support all children: the topics cover everything from place value, addition and subtraction, fractions, multiplication and division and shape. In Literacy, a wide variety of texts are introduced: fiction, non- fiction and poetry. The children enjoy a wide variety of written activities; including writing letters and postcards, instructions, explanations and stories - all building experience of using nouns, verbs, adjectives and conjunctions to compose and write sentences. Children continue to take part in daily phonics lessons to build on phonological awareness, decoding and fluency in reading. They will be introduced to more graphemes for previously learnt phonemes, alternative pronunciation of previously learnt graphemes, prefixes at the beginning and suffixes at the end of words.

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​The children enjoy a wide range of History and Geography topics such as 'The Great Fire of London', 'Seaside Holidays', 'Hot and Cold Climates' 'Toys from the Past' and 'The Titanic'. In Geography, they take part in mapping and fieldwork activities by exploring the local area, discovering the many amenities right on our doorstep!

 

Children explore a number of Science topics throughout the year including animal life cycles, properties of everyday materials biodiversity. Microhabitats and Planting are very popular topics in summer, where the children are able to use our wonderful outdoor garden to explore the biodiversity hidden away in hard to reach places. The enjoy observing caterpillars change and develop into butterflies and have plant seeds, carefully observing and documenting changes and development. Children take part in scientific experiments including comparative testing of material properties such as strength, transparency, absorbency and malleability. 

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The curriculum also includes RE and PSHE where the children learn about traditions and beliefs: this is very much a strength of our school provision and reflects our inclusive 'Rights Respecting' ethos. Children listen to stories from different world religions and explore places of worship, ceremonies and rituals. Children take part in weekly PSHE sessions, where they explore topics relating to making and maintaining friendships, keeping safe, understanding the law and well-being.

 

PE takes place twice a week, using the large hall space. Topics covered are gymnastics, dance, ball skills and games, athletics and team games. The children have opportunities to work individually and in groups throughout the lessons. The large playground is ideal for netball and football games. Children attend weekly swimming lessons at Morley Leisure Centre.

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Music is a weekly activity and the children learn basics of singing, rhythm, pitch and use percussion instruments. They enjoy sharing their performances with other children and wider audiences where these opportunities arise.

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Learning  is further supported by a range of educational trips and visits alongside a wide programme of extra-curricular activities.