At Abbots Hall, we designed our own curriculum to ensure that children have a positive sense of self-identity, are able to relate and interact well with others and have the skills and talents for now, for the future and to make the world an even better place.

Our aims:

• Provide equal opportunities for all children, regardless of their background and starting points, to gain knowledge, skills and character and make significant progress across the range of concepts taught in the School Curriculum.
• Encourage children to develop a sense of personal growth through character development, enabling them to become global citizens and socially responsible. They will develop key characteristics through the celebration of our values.
• Develop children’s application of knowledge through carefully planned, high-quality questioning and activities where a wide range of thinking skills are required. These skills are accessed by the Abbots Hall ‘Thinking Skills’.
• Prepare children for their own unique journey by encouraging them, through the curriculum, to become reflective, effective learners.

How do we implement this?

We know that children learn better when they are excited and engaged. At the Abbots Hall, we are constantly looking to provide stimulating and motivating learning opportunities which not only challenge our pupils but also inspire them to continue their learning beyond the classroom.

We also recognise that great learning needs to be the right balance in lots of areas and if there is too greater focus on one aspect, learning can be limited. It is for this reason that we have carefully designed our curriculum around four key areas: Character, Knowledge, Skills and Meta-Learning (or learning how to learn).

More information on what children learn in each subject and year group can be found on our Curriculum document below.

How do we teach children to read?
At Abbots Hall we use the Little Wandles Letter and Sounds Revised programme to teach phonics. Children in Reception and year 1 receive daily whole class phonics teaching. Little Wandles has now been extended to our nursery so that our youngest children receive the foundations they need to learn to read. The children also receive Little Wandle reading fluency sessions from Reception to Year 3. More information on the Little Wandles programme can be found below, along with a guide for parents about home reading books. For more information on the books children bring home to read, please visit the 'Homework' section under the 'Children' tab.

How do we adapt learning to meet the needs of children with SEND?
At Abbots Hall we utilise a range of strategies to adapt learning to meet the needs of all children, including those with SEND. Children move through the curriculum at broadly the same speed and teachers are skilled in making adaptations so that all children are able to access the learning.

Adaptations in lessons often include resources such as 'Widget' and 'Colourful Semantics' to help make learning more accessible. Some children benefit from individualised resources in class that are readily accessible to them. Some examples of these include Now and Next cards, modelled letter formations and communication cards.