An Aspirational Curriculum:

We believe that each child at Rickleton has the potential to be successful in any area of curricular or extra-curricular life now and for their future. The curriculum they access must be the driver of this in offering them deep learning and inspirational experiences in a broad range of areas. Working out where their talents lie and the things they enjoy are a huge factor in this and we expect that all children give their all in all lessons.

The EYFS curriculum in particular is a key factor in this as the beginning of both a child's style and enjoyment of learning, whilst also introducing the building blocks of all learning, whether reading and writing or Art and PE.

In September 2023, we introduced our 'aspirational concepts' to support children and staff to understand the key skills and knowledge which they are building in the EYFS and where this could lead them in their future. We want our children to be driven by their future possibilities and see each lesson as a stepping stone towards this.

A Clear and Well planned Curriculum:

Subject leaders have worked hard to ensure that our curriculum fulfills not only national expectations but also the learning necessary to allow a child in Rickleton, in the North East of England, to be successful.

By carefully considering how knowledge and skills progress, ensuring that learning carefully builds on and consolidates prior knowledge, children have the best chance to feel confident and successful in their studies and to retain their learning as they move forward in their education.

The documents below show what we want children to achieve via the subject and how we plan to make this happen (commonly known as Intent, Implementation and Impact). They also show how topics and and skills are planned to give pupils a deep knowledge and hopefully a passion for the subject to support their future aspirations.

Parental Support

Involving parents in their child's learning is vital at this early stage of education. The document below provides a variety of websites and resources to support learning at home.

Parent information meeting - New Parent Induction

In preparation for the new year in Nursery and Reception, staff hold a Parent Meeting to talk them through the information they need to make the new year smooth and productive. The slides from this meeting can be viewed below.

Parent information meeting - Phonics

At the start of the school year, staff hold a Parent Meeting to talk them through the process of teaching phonics and how they can support this at home. The slides from this meeting can be viewed below.

Life in the Early Years

At Rickleton Primary School, opportunities are provided for practical activities that are interesting, enjoyable, challenging and based on first-hand experiences. These will be planned to take account of the child’s prior learning and provide opportunities for practice, consolidation or extension of skills, knowledge and understanding. The general ethos encourages the young child to explore, experiment, question, take risks, make and learn from mistakes and engage in purposeful play.

Parents Space event

As part of our Space topic, we invited our grown-ups in to school to help us make some space themed items using lots of junk modelling materials. We had some great ideas and made lots of great rockets, aliens, UFOs and even a space buggy! We used lots of recycled materials and some other craft items, such as tissue paper, foil, pompoms and lots of glue to decorate our items! We had great fun – and so did our grown-ups!

All about Me

At the start of the Autumn half term, we learn all about ourselves and each other. We enjoy drawing self-portraits, talking about who lives in our houses as well as sharing lots of information about our hobbies and interests. This helps us transition into Nursery and Reception.

Seasonal Changes

At the start of each year we learn about Autumn and the seasonal changes. We have learned about animals that hibernate and nocturnal animals. We have been on an Autumn walk to spot the signs of Autumn, we noticed that leaves changing colour and falling from the tree. We have taken part in lots of different craft activities too including collaging autumn leaves, using playdough to make autumn creatures and making leaf animals.

Forest School

In Nursery, we enjoy taking part in weekly ‘Forest School’ themed sessions. Our sessions begin with a story and then we complete follow up activities, linked to the story. So far, we have read ‘Stick Man’ and foraged for our own sticks and made our very own Stick Man. We have read ‘We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt’, where we explored the school grounds for different sized and coloured leaves and we have also enjoyed the story ‘The Very Helpful Hedgehog’, where we then made our very own hedgehog hotels.

MacMillan Coffee morning

In September, EYFS held a fundraising event for Macmillan. We enjoyed inviting our parents into school and sharing cakes and juice with them. Prior to the event, we enjoyed baking some of our own cakes in the Nursery kitchen. We also enjoyed designing our own cakes on paper too. We raised a grand total of £223.94

Ball Skills

In EYFS, we enjoyed developing our basic ball skills. We took part in our sports day event. Our grown-ups helped to run the stations and we enjoyed time at each. We learned to overarm throw, underarm throw, shoot into a goal, dribble around the cones, use a hockey stick to dribble a ball, throw a large ball through a hoop, take part in a relay and finally throw and catch a ball.

People Who Help Us Visitors

As part of our ‘Superhero’ topic, we have been learning about people in the community who help us in real life! We invited some of our grown-ups into school to explain their roles a little more. They brought props in to show us and explained their job. We were able to ask lots of questions to further our understanding of how they help us.

Superhero Academy

As part of our ‘Superhero’ topic, we learned that if we wanted to gain ‘Official Superhero Status’ then we had many tasks to complete, such as: designing a mask, cape and shield, learning how to balance and fly as well as showing our strength and agility on an obstacle course. We also took part in a Superhero story session. We finished the day by graduating as an official superhero with a certificate and special sticker.

Butterfly Release

As part of our Spring topic, we took delivery of some caterpillars. We learned about the life cycle and then watched the process of metamorphism. We watched the caterpillars form their own chrysalis and then grow bigger, before watching them slowly emerge from their cocoon into a butterfly. We then set them free into our willow garden to fly away.

The King’s Coronation

We have enjoyed learning all about King Charles III and his coronation. We learned about the history of King Charles and the traditions of the coronation ceremony. We all designed our own crown and sang a Coronation song in our celebration assembly. We also made some ‘keepsakes’ that will be placed in a special time capsule.

Under the Sea Parent Event

We liked inviting our parents into EYFS and completing an ‘Under the Sea’ craft with them. We used a paper plate and transformed this into a fabulous sea creature. We made turtles, sharks, jellyfish, dolphins and many more. We have thoroughly enjoyed learning about life in the ocean this half term and this was a nice way to end the topic.

Collaborative Learning Week in the Early Years

This week we have had great fun learning about the countries in our World Cup Groups. Nursery looked at countries in Group B (England, Iran, Wales and USA) and Reception studied countries in Group E (Germany, Spain, Japan and Costa Rica). Each day, we have learned about a different country. We have learned about the flags from each of the countries, including the similarities in colours. We have made flags for the display as well as making and decorating our own. We also looked at landmarks and located them on the world map. During our independent learning, we have enjoyed playing table football, making and designing our own football kits and ordering football objects according to their size. We have also had the opportunity to taste food from the different counties, talking about which food we liked the most. We’ve loved practising our football skills too, including ending the week taking part in our own penalty shoot out. In Reception, we also learned some different greetings from the country we studies, as well as learning some flamenco dance moves.

EYFS Music Parent Event

As part of our Music Curriculum, we enjoyed working alongside our adults to make our very own musical instrument. We used junk materials to and dried food to make them and then we decorated them. Some of us then made our own body percussion rhythms.