The subjects included in our Core group are;

• English reading and Phonics
• English writing
• Mathematics

The subject leads work together as a team to support a joined up approach in the delivery of the core subjects. As part of our core offer to children we place a clear and continual focus on the development of language skills, early reading and reading for pleasure, and a focus on learners' understanding of number. 

The Core subject leads are;

• English reading and Phonics - Miss C. Wright
• English writing - Mrs H. Meehan 
• Mathematics - Mrs L. Plant

Each of the subjects in the Core Group have their own long term plans. These can be found below;

Reading and Phonics

Teaching children to read is prioritised in school as it is the key that unlocks all other aspects of learning. We ask that parents also support this by reading at home with their children as regularly as possible. Research shows that this will help your child to make increased progress.

At Stalyhill Infants we believe that children learn to read most effectively by using a variety of approaches. We celebrate the written word in all aspects of our curriculum and in our environment, where children are taught to read through the Read, Write Inc synthetic phonics programme, through a group Guided Reading approach and, where necessary on an individual basis. We have 3 main strands that underpin our teaching of reading, these are; word-level reading, reading for meaning and reading for pleasure. 

We follow the ‘Read, Write, Inc. Book Bag Book’s’ reading scheme. To create confident readers, it is important that children feel successful when reading. Therefore, we provide every child with a reading book that contains only the sounds that they know. By providing these books, children are able to access the text accurately and are therefore able to build on their fluency when reading. These skills combined will support the children in understanding what they have read and be able to answer a range of comprehension questions.

Reading for Pleasure

Reading for pleasure has a huge impact on children’s wellbeing, progress and their outcomes later in life. Once our children see the purpose and enjoyment that reading brings, their enthusiasm and thirst for reading will flourish. At Stalyhill Infant School, we promote a love of reading in many ways, including;

• Having inviting and accessible reading areas in every classroom that contain a variety of texts and story-telling props such as puppets
• Holding daily, protected story time
• Using our purpose built and well stocked school library, where children are encouraged to borrow books and phonic sacks to take home and share with their parents. 
• Using fiction and non-fiction books to support our learning across our curriculum
• By showcasing ourselves (adults) as readers
• Participating in reading events such as World Book Day and The Summer Reading Challenge

For more information on how you can support of love of reading at home, please see the PowerPoint below.

Phonics (Read, Write Inc.)

Phonics is one aspect of a range of methods employed to teach reading at Stalyhill Infant School. Phonics is taught on a daily basis in differentiated groups to allow children to develop at their own rate. Children are then encouraged to apply their reading and writing skills across the whole curriculum.

We are currently working towards becoming a Read, Write Inc. badge school.

Mathematics 

At Stalyhill Infant School, our teaching centres around fostering a confidence in maths knowledge through an engaging and progressive curriculum. We want our children to learn more and remember more.

We follow the White Rose Maths Scheme of Learning which through its mastery design, structure and sequence sets out the knowledge and skills that children will acquire as they progress through our school.

Pupil voice indicates that Maths is one of the most loved subjects in our school and our curriculum builds upon previous learning, embedded knowledge and the use of mathematical vocabulary. We want children to make rich connections across mathematical ideas and the wider curriculum so that they develop fluency, mathematical reasoning, and efficiency in solving problems.

We promote a culture of taking risks and embracing challenges; our children develop perseverance and resilience skills. They are motivated to work together and independently to tackle anything! Staff use assessment opportunities to address misconceptions and provide children with relevant and constructive feedback in order to support future learning. 

Manipulatives and mathematical representations are used to support children when engaging with mathematical concepts and structured interventions provide additional support to those children who need it.

Maths at Stalyhill Infant School encourages our pupils to have the confidence to apply their mathematical knowledge to other subjects and to know that maths is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy.

We aim that all pupils:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios.
• Can reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.

A central component in our intent, through our partnership with mastery specialists in the Turing NW maths hub, has been discussion of the NCETM’s five big ideas in mastery, drawn from research evidence, underpinning teaching for mastery. We draw upon the diagram below to help bind these ideas together and inform our professional practice.