Our
Key Stage One
Key Stage 1 is a very important step in a child’s primary school experience: during this time your child will be encouraged to work more independently. At this age, most children will have improved their ability to coordinate movement and their language/speech will be increasingly complex and grammatically correct, so it’s an exciting year for children, parents and teachers. Their learning will culminate in their Key Stage 1 SATs tests at the end of Year 2. We advocate that your child aim for as close to 100% attendance throughout all terms in Key Stage 1 to ensure that they can learn to their full potential.
At Bentley New Village the children’s experiences are happy, active, exciting, fun and secure. Every child deserves the best from their education to ensure that their future successes and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. The warmth, sensitivity and pleasure that the teachers and other professionals at Bentley New Village display towards the children, ensures that they learn in a positive and enjoyable atmosphere.
The National Curriculum is divided into four Key Stages that children are taken through during their school life. Key Stage 1 is taught during Years 1 and 2 of primary school, to children aged 5 to 7 years. Throughout school, we regularly have mixed age classes, therefore to ensure full coverage of the National Curriculum, we work on a two-year rolling programme. The teachers plan with their parallel colleagues so that children in the same year group classes are accessing the same lessons and learning with the same resources.
In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 we deliver discrete English, Maths and Science lessons to ensure coverage of all aspects of the National Curriculum. We are continually developing our curriculum to meet the needs of our children. We have incorporated Thrive into our practices to support children with their social and emotional wellbeing, we are lucky to have a dedicated Thrive practitioner working within the phase.
English
English lessons follow a reading through to writing approach; children analyse a text type and identify key features of the text type before developing the skills to be able to write in the style.
In order to meet the requirements of the new National Curriculum for English, children are taught a weekly sequence for writing which is built on foundations of SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) each week and culminates in an opportunity to independently apply the features that they have been learning about. Children also learn about a weekly spelling rule and each half-term finishes with a week learning about a group of statutory words for their year group.
In every class there is a daily reading session following a one-week structure. Children are exposed to high quality texts and work on development of vocabulary, retrieval skills and inference skills.
Phonics
Children in Year 1 (and some Year 2) have a daily phonics lesson to develop skills to support their reading and writing. To support us in planning and delivering phonics lessons we use Read Write Inc. Some children are also supported with additional 1:1 sessions.
Phonics related links are provided below to help with your child’s learning.
Maths
Our main aim is to achieve a positive attitude to maths. We want the children to love maths! So at New Village we strive to deliver maths lessons that are both fun and enjoyable. We feel if a child enjoys maths then s/he is more likely to want to learn.
We believe that a child’s understanding and confidence in maths can be improved with the use of apparatus, models and images. We aim to make maths ‘less abstract’ and provide children with apparatus, models and images that make concepts easier to understand.
Other Curriculum Areas
In Key Stage 1, much of the children’s learning is organised into themes. The following topics are being taught at Bentley New Village. For the first 2 weeks of the Autumn term (September), we are supporting children with extra PSHCE lessons – focussing on the book ‘Here we are’ by Oliver Jeffers to settle the children back into learning.
Our Curriculum
We offer full coverage of the National Curriculum and make links between areas where possible. Our curriculum is knowledge rich and aims to build up skills and knowledge to prepare our children for the next stages of their education.
Our Wider Curriculum lessons with reading and literacy elements to further highlight the priority of these within our BNVP curriculum.
We teach a broad and balanced curriculum including Geography, History, Music, Art and Design Technology (DT). Furthermore, in the afternoons the children are taught Physical Education (PE), Science, Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Religious Education(RE). These are taught in discrete lessons so we can concentrate on the knowledge and skills of each subject area.
In addition to this curriculum offer, learning at BNVP is further enhanced and enriched by prescriptive days – for example, we have RE days focussing on different religions, Science weeks containing many different scientific investigations for the children to explore, an active Sports Week allows the children to work with coaches in school and take part in many different activities, some of which the children may not have experienced previously. We support Anti bullying day, Online Safety day, World Book Day, World Music Day, World Democracy Day, Black History Week, Diversity Week on an annual basis.
Further information can be gained from your child’s class teacher, should you require it. Please be aware that these are working documents and may be subject to change at little notice. We are a school, who revise our curriculum to meet the needs of the children and the key drivers for our community.
Our Learning Attitudes
In Key Stage One, the children are aware of the learning attitudes we expect from them and the children demonstrating these learning attitudes will be rewarded with dojo points in class.
Dojo’s are awarded for the following;
© Class Dojo
These dojos add together to make a team total for the class and then feed into the whole school teams for England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. As a reward, the teams winning the half term, get to enjoy a non-uniform day at the end of each term and are really competitive to know if their team is in the lead for the most dojos throughout the year.
Dojos are added up on a weekly basis and the children are able to see their achievements on the board in the classroom – the dojo’s are then used to decide the child which will be the Bentley New Village Citizen of the Week. In each class, one child is awarded the Citizen award and are presented with this in Friday Assembly or in class, their parents are usually invited and the children really take pride in receiving these awards. With the current guidelines with Covid-19, the face to face assemblies will not be taking place. Alongside this, when a child is awarded the Citizen status, they also receive a wristband, with the intention being that they collect all 6 by the time they complete Key Stage 2.
The learning attitudes that the children can receive are;
- Determination
- Resilience
- Cooperation
- Tolerance
- Creativity
- Curiosity
Parents as Partners
Our partnership with you as parents means that you have the opportunity to work closely with our team to support children’s education and wellbeing. We would like parents to feel secure in the knowledge that their child is well cared for and happy at school.
Our parents are welcome to be actively involved in their children’s learning in school and are able to approach teachers to discuss anything they feel may impact on education and wellbeing. We recognise that parents are the first educators in children’s lives and value contributions towards their education.
Should you wish to speak to your child’s class teacher, please try to ask at the door in a morning, but be aware that the teacher may be preparing for lessons in this time and may be unavailable. If this is the case, please make an appointment to speak to them at another point. We are aware that you, as parents, need to communicate with us, but sometimes have to prioritise the education and lessons of the entire class. We will however, always be happy to meet at an alternative time.
Assessments at Key Stage 1
Each year, your child will be assessed throughout each school term on 2 levels:
- Day to day assessments that the class teacher will use to adapt future planning
- Tests at the end of each term to ensure progress measures.
You will be informed of your child’s progress throughout the year on 3 occasions – there is a parents evening in October, followed by another in March/April and then a report will follow at the end of the school year. The assessments for your child will be explained as;
Should you feel the need to question any assessment or report provided, please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Expectations of Home Learning
In Key Stage One we believe it is important to prepare your child for learning beyond Primary School. Your child will receive homework at Secondary school and are likely to have work to do outside of working hours when they are employed.
Therefore, we expect children to complete home learning every week. Specifically, this includes
- Reading is expected from the children 4 times per week – this is an important and life-long skill so we ask that you make the time to listen to your child read and sign their reading record at least 4 times per week. When reading with your child, you could follow the following tips to question how much they have really understood from their reading;
- Practising Key Number facts – times tables and number bonds. These are the essential building blocks of most aspects of maths. It is essential that children are fluent in these facts as early as possible.
- Any work the teachers feel necessary to support the learning of the child.