Curriculum

We are committed to delivering a high quality Early Years Curriculum but we hold firm to our tradition of having a strong emphasis on developing each child’s communication, literacy, numeracy and social skills that they need to thrive in our Reception classes. We organise the day so that children can take part in a variety of child-chosen and more structured adult-led activities.

Each child will initially have an ‘abc sounds’ book which goes home every day to reinforce what has been learnt at school. Once letter sounds and initial words are mastered, the child will have a reading book sent home. The contact book also goes home which includes information on the current and future topics as well as phonics, reading, spellings, numeracy etc which we encourage parents to reinforce at home. We focus on two sounds a week and one number or a shape a week. The children also visit the Library Bus to borrow books to take home.

We cover a range of topics over the year such as: ‘Mini Beasts’, ‘Seasons’, ‘Weather’, ‘Day and Night’, Farm and Wild Animals’, ‘Growing Seeds’ and ‘Dinosaurs’. Experiences and interests of our children inspire many of our topics. For example, we have learnt about Diwali, the Island of Fiji and the Japanese Hanami (Cherry Blossom Festival).

Children have weekly music and singing lessons by a specialist teacher. We also have fun practising for the competitive races in the annual Bryony School Sports Day.

Diversity

We value diversity of our children and take an inclusive approach to their development. We enjoy learning about and appreciating a range of different cultures, religions and festivals. For example we celebrate and learn about Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter. We all particularly enjoy practising for the annual Christmas Nativity performance for parents.

Exploring the big outdoors

To enhance our rich and varied curriculum, children enjoy walking to the local woodlands and park in all weather conditions. Children also participate in school trips further afield which have recently included: Capstone Country Park and Farming World. We also have a range of visitors into our Pre-School and other Early Years classes to learn about the world around us including: our local policeman with his car, firemen with a fire engine and of course Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny!
Assemblies

Children attend the twice-weekly assemblies in the Infants and participate when it is their class’ turn to give Assembly. They are encouraged at any time to participate in ‘show and tell’ during Assembly time which is a way of telling the rest of the Infants school pupils and teachers about what they did on the weekend or during their holiday for example. This helps develop self-confidence and presentation skills from a very early age in a small and supportive environment.

Uniform

Uniform is not compulsory until children reach our Reception classes but children in the Pre-School are very welcome to wear school uniform. We have found that wearing uniform adds to the sense of belonging to the Bryony family and makes the transition to ‘big school’ (the adjoining classrooms) so much easier.

Pre-School Graduation

At the end of the Summer Term those completing our Pre-School will participate in a Graduation Ceremony. Parents/ guardians and siblings are invited to attend. It’s a time to get dressed up in special graduating gowns and mark the important transition to ‘big school’.