Our curriculum is broad, balanced, engaging and accessible. By working with the Cornerstones Maestro online curriculum platform, we have broken down the composite national curriculum objectives into focussed, progressive granular steps which clearly define to children how to be successful in their learning. Churchfield Children therefore have a curriculum which enables them to build their knowledge and skills, consolidating and embedding their learning and enabling them to flourish through their years of education and beyond into later life

Reading and Phonics at Churchfield

Our Phonics Vision:

We use Unlocking Letters and Sounds which was validated by the DfE in December 2021.

We begin teaching phonics in the first few weeks of term 1 in Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. Children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘sight words’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4.

They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4.

In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional sight words. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check.

In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code and any child who does not meet age related expectations will continue to receive support to close identified gaps.

To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and supported to keep up through bespoke 1-1 interventions. These include GPC recognition and blending and segmenting interventions. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored to ensure these interventions have an impact.

Once children progress beyond decodable texts, they move onto our book scheme so that they can continue to progress in their decoding, fluency and comprehension skills to become avid, expert readers.

We follow Essential Spelling for Y2 – 6.

Writing at Churchfield

Religious Education

We have developed, in consultation with the Bath and Wells diocese, an RE curriculum which includes learning about our Christian heritage as well as about all other faiths in multi-cultural Britain.

Religious Education is taught as a standalone subject across the school, however in all subjects children are encouraged to develop a sense of awe and wonder about the world around them and to reflect about their experiences.

We aim for them to deepen their understanding of who they are and the part that they can and will play in the world, developing a sense of purpose and love, care and respect for each other.

Parents do have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of RE.

PE

We believe that children learn best if they are fit and healthy so encourage a love and participation in PE. It is taught both by the class teachers and the Deputy Head teacher.

Children can join a variety of after school clubs to develop their interest in PE and we participate in local competitions. Children are taught to swim in years 4 and 5.

Music

Children are encouraged to participate fully in the musical life of the school, as we believe that as well as developing their musical knowledge children can develop their self-esteem, social skills and confidence through music and the arts.

We encourage creativity and provide opportunities for the children to perform and present their learning throughout their time at Churchfield.

PSHE

In all aspects of school life we aim to promote the personal and social development of children. We aim to develop an understanding of basic life skills, interpersonal skills and how to look after ourselves.

Children are taught to know and follow our PRAISE values as these are at the core of our school community.

Information around Relationship and Sex Education can be found in our video or by asking at the school office: RSE meeting | Churchfield Church School (primarysite.media)

ASSESSMENT OF PROGRESS

In order for us to provide the right learning experiences for your children we need to know what they can do and what they have learned. We do this by making daily assessments about how well the children have learned during a lesson and planning the next steps of learning accordingly.

This enables the class teacher or teaching assistant to adjust the learning journey in order to target the needs of individual children through further challenge or individualised support. 

As well as this ongoing assessment we need to keep a track of how they are doing against national standards and have half termly assessments to monitor this. This also informs the teacher as to what your child needs to learn next.

Teachers meet each short term with SLT to ensure that any barriers to learning or challenges are identified to maximise the learning of all children.

We will share targets with you each term at parent teacher meetings or in end of year reports.

The school is measured externally by the results of assessments at the end of year 2 and SAT’s tests at the end of year 6.

Do you want to find out more about our curriculum?

If you would like to find out more about the curriculum provided for the children at Churchfield Church School then please contact the office who will put in touch with the most appropriate member of the school leadership team.