Our Nursery class and Reception class are collectively known as the Early Years Foundation Stage, working towards the EYFS curriculum which leads into Key Stage 1.
The areas of the curriculum are:
Sports Day Winner – Lockdown Sports day at Home
The infant classrooms are spacious, attractive and well resourced. The family atmosphere within the school is created by friendly, welcoming staff and lively, happy children. Parents are encouraged to become involved in the life of the school and work in partnership with teachers and support staff.
Teaching and Learning
In the Infants strong emphasis is placed on acquiring new skills in an enjoyable and absorbing way. Literacy and numeracy are given high priority but a broad and balanced curriculum is vital for the development of the whole child and physical, creative and artistic work of all kinds is encouraged.
Children learn through exploration and enquiry; the creative curriculum enables all children to fulfil their potential, academically, creatively, physically and socially. As the children work both independently and collaboratively, they develop a real love of learning and the skills to make them life-long learners.
Children are taught in small classes. They benefit from specialist teachers for Dance, Swimming and Singing. All infants are members of the Lower School Choir.
KS1 follow the same timetables as KS2.
At Kingswood School we have an enviable staff to pupil ratio that most schools can only dream of! We have an average of 15 pupils in each class; each class typically employs one teacher and learning support assistant.
At Key Stage 2, for children aged between 7 and 11, we largely follow the Primary National Curriculum for English, Maths, Science, Geography and History. The planning and delivery of our lessons is based around the resources provided by the “Hamilton Trust”, an Oxford based charity which provides educational resources to state and private schools for children aged 5 to 11.
The Hamilton Trust provides us with long, medium and short term plans which we invariably modify to cater for the needs of our (frequently higher achieving!) pupils
This educational charity gives us ideas for teaching inspirational lessons to all our year groups. It also helps us plan the delivery of differentiated lessons- an absolute necessity in a small school in which classes have mixed abilities and mixed age groups.
Morning teaching focuses on English and Mathematics with afternoons devoted to Geography, History, French, Drama, Religious Education, Physical Education, Games, Dance and Swimming.
On Wednesday afternoons we teach a variety of outdoor games on a sports pitch adjoining the main school building. Competitive football, netball and rounders matches are played against other local schools and the children compete in a local cross-country tournament. During the Winter months, P.E lessons are held in the main hall of the nearby Shirley Institute. Children visit a local leisure centre for swimming lessons.
Our extra-curricular provision at Key Stage 2 currently includes after-school Football, Dance and Art clubs.
Instrumental lessons, more specifically the Piano, Guitar and Ukulele, are available for pupils who wish them.
All children at Key Stage 2 participate in our school choir and give concerts at Christmas and Easter and at the Leavers’ Concert in the Summer term. Concerts are held in the beautiful setting of St. James’s Church (with its exquisite stained glass windows) which is adjacent to our School.
Kingswood is a multi-faith school which educates children of all faiths, creeds and denominations. Whilst the major Christian festivals are central to our school life, we also celebrate religious festivals of other faiths.
Our special educational needs co-ordinator and our specialist teachers work tirelessly to ensure all our children overcome barriers to learning and access the full curriculum.
DfEE Registered No: 334/6009
Member of the National Association for Gifted Children