🌿 Our Curriculum

📚 Reading and Writing

We use Talk Through Stories to explore story sequencing, inference, and language in a practical and fun way through role play, discussion, and games. 🎭📚

Our writing sequence follows a structured five-step approach:

Step One – Learn the frequently used words for the week. ✏️
Step Two – Write a dictated sentence provided by the teacher. 📝
Step Three – Innovate the sentence, making it your own. 💡
Step Four – Independently write a sentence, applying your skills. ✍️
Step Five – Use Talk for Writing to learn and internalise a piece of text, using actions to support sequencing a longer piece of writing. 🎬

🔢 Maths

Autumn Term:

We follow Maths No Problem, which uses a concrete–pictorial–abstract approach. Children embed new learning through discussion and practical tasks before applying skills in written form.

This term, we focus on:

• Numbers within 10 (value, sequencing, number bonds, addition, subtraction)

• Daily Flashback 4 sessions to practise and revisit prior learning

Spring Term:

In the Spring Term, our learning progresses to understanding numbers within 40. Children will use their prior knowledge to support addition and subtraction and begin to explore fact families. 🔢

We love a challenge in Year 1 and 2! 💪 Children will use a variety of maths resources to support their learning and apply their skills to solve word problems. ✏️📚

We will also continue with our FlashBack 4 daily sessions. 

🌍 Our Wider Curriculum

🧬 Science

Autumn Term – My Body
We will explore the parts of the body that we can see, learn their names, and understand what they do for us. 🌟 Children will link each body part to the correct sense and play fun games using their senses to discover how important they are. We will also discuss which sense might be the most important!

Additionally, we will learn how to keep both our mind and body healthy through good nutrition, exercise, and sleep. 🥦🏃💤

Spring Term – Animal Classification
Children will investigate different animals, group them by type, explore their features, and learn about what they eat. 🐶🦁🐢

📜 History

Autumn Term – Buildings in Peterlee
We will explore the mining village of Peterlee and how it has changed over time. 🏘️ Children will investigate old houses, streets, and neighboring villages, and begin to use a timeline to plot historical events.

Spring Term – Joseph Swan
We will learn about inventors and how they create new ideas, tools, or machines. 💡 Joseph Swan invented the electric light bulb, which changed the way people lived by making it safer and brighter at night. We will also explore museums to see real-life inventions and how they shaped everyday life.

🌍 Geography

Autumn Term – Peterlee
Children will locate Peterlee on a map and identify landforms including woodlands, forests, and the coastline. 🌲🏖️ They will also name local water bodies such as the Castle Eden Burn and the North Sea.

Spring Term – The United Kingdom
We will explore the four countries of the UK, learning about their mountains, rivers, and coastlines. 🏔️🌊

🎨 Art

Autumn Term – Portraits & Collages
In art lessons with Mrs Foster, children will create portrait collages of themselves using a variety of mediums. 🎨🖌️

✝️ RE (Religious Education)

Autumn Term – The Bible & Sources of Light
We will learn why the Bible is special to Christians and how it is used in worship. ✨ We will also explore the importance of light in Christianity, including its role in the nativity story.

Spring Term – Baptism and Easter
Children will learn about baptism as a promise to God to care for the planet, each other, and all living things.  They will consider the communities they belong to and the promises they might like to make.

We will also be exploring the Easter story, learning about its meaning and significance in the Christian faith. ✝️

💖 PSHE

Autumn Term – Safety First & VIPS
We will learn how to keep ourselves and others safe, and identify trusted adults who can help us. 🛡️

Spring Term – Money Matters & Aiming High
Children will explore the value of money and how to set goals for themselves. 💰🎯

🍽️ DT (Design & Technology)

Autumn Term – Fruit & Vegetables
Children will categorise foods and design a healthy smoothie to taste and evaluate. 🥕🍓

A Balanced Diet
We will explore food groups and create healthy wrap combinations. 🌯

Spring Term – Structures: Pencil Pots
Children will test different shapes and materials to build a pencil pot that is a solid structure, then design and build their very own one! 

💻 Computing

Autumn Term – Online Safety & PurpleMash
Children will practice logging in and out safely and learn how to use online tools responsibly. 🌐🔒

🤸 PE (Physical Education)

Autumn Term – Send & Return
Children will practice sending and returning objects using hands or bats, moving to retrieve balls, and working with a partner. ⚽🏐

Spring Term – Gymnastics
Children will use simple gymnastics actions and shapes, apply basic strength, carry apparatus safely, and create sequences with different levels. 🤸‍♀️🧘