English

English is taught through the cross curricular themes, where possible, and is rooted in ‘real

life’ contexts so the children gain a real sense of purpose to their reading and

writing. There is a dedicated English lesson each day. Speaking and listening, oral story telling and drama is used throughout the school to allow children to experiment with ideas and language prior to actually writing, giving them confidence to put their thoughts onto paper.

Phonics and Reading

Every child has a daily phonics session and the children are grouped according to their level of understanding across each year group. We follow the principles of Read, Write, Inc. and use a range of resources including flash cards of sounds, words, interactive ICT resources and puppets. Children practice reading and spelling all the sounds in real and nonsense words to embed their knowledge of phonics. During these session and within whole class work children are taught spelling patterns which are monitored and assessed carefully.

Phonics sessions help children to acquire the early reading skills they need to start to read independently but at our school, we aim to foster a life-long love of reading. We ensure that children read many different styles of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry whilst developing the full range of skills needed to learn to decode and understand text. We believe children learn to read best when school and home work together in partnership and written communication is directed through the Reading Record Book. In learning to read children follow a structured programme of carefully selected books organised into coloured book bands. We use a benchmarking assessment to assess if children are ready to move to the next book band. This assessment looks at word accuracy and comprehension.

Maths

There is a daily dedicated maths session which is taught discretely, although it is linked to the topic wherever possible. There is a strong emphasis on real-life examples and applying the skills they are learning in meaningful contexts. We follow the rationale of 'say it, build it, draw it, write it' to give children a range of strategies to fully understand each mathematical concept.

Here is the powerpoint from the maths cafe which shows how we solve the four basic operations of add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Extra-Curricular Activities

We like to enrich the curriculum through providing a range of lunchtime and after school activities. Clubs include football, dance, gardening, board games, craft, sewing, multi-skills, athletics and choir.

Religious Education

Religious Education is an integral part of our curriculum provision at Linton CE Infant School. We have recently started using a new resource 'Understanding Christianity' which forms the largest part of our RE curriculum provision. Alongside this we follow the Cambridgeshire Scheme of Work with a focus on Sikhism in Year 1 and 2. Children in EYFS tend to explore a range of faiths and cultures through festivals and children's personal experiences.

Throughout the year we also have RE focus days around key festivals such as harvest, Christmas and Easter as well as other days which focus around exploring different themes and values. We are very lucky to be supported by the St Mary's Church team who will come in and lead sessions. This allows us to explore RE through a cross curricular approach which allows children to express their own thoughts and beliefs through art, music and drama.

Our RE leads are David Waite and Alice Armstrong and our key link Foundation Governor is Nicola Collard who visits the school regularly to run clubs, talk to staff and children.