Our Approach to Teaching

In Early Years we teach children to read using the Read Write Inc. system of phonics teaching, providing them with the ability and confidence to sound out both familiar and new words. Children are regularly assessed to ensure they are in the right group for their stage of reading development. When needed, our children are also supported with phonics teaching in Key Stage 1.

In addition to phonics, all children are given the opportunity to learn about literature and poetry; our curriculum is focused on high quality literary texts. We have carefully planned our sequence of core texts to ensure children encounter a range of themes, narrative perspectives and structures, cultures and historical contexts. Texts range from Shakespeare and to Greek myths, to modern classics such as ‘The Railway Children’ or ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’.

Children are directly taught grammar, handwriting and spelling and have regular opportunities for extended writing.

Specific English expertise

Our school is supported in its English curriculum and teaching by our Inspiration Trust English leads, who provide expert advice and guidance to our teachers.

Our maths curriculum is based on a mastery approach to teaching using highly developed scheme, ‘Maths Mastery’. This evidence-based curriculum has been developed from the highly successful approach used in Singapore.

‘Maths Mastery’ is a spiralised curriculum, where pupils frequently revisit and develop further understanding of key mathematical concepts and strands, building upon their knowledge throughout their time with us at Stradbroke.

Features of teaching include:

Access and challenge for all - Tasks and activities are designed to be  accessible for all children, while still containing challenging components. Children are encouraged to share their thoughts and findings to help scaffold understanding and develop approaches to reasoning and fluency.

Problem solving - Lessons and activities are designed to be taught using problem-solving approaches to encourage children’s higher-level thinking.

Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach - Children learn new concepts initially using concrete examples, such as counters, then progress to drawing pictorial representations before finally using more abstract symbols, such as mathematical signs.

Variation - The questions and examples are carefully varied by expert authors to encourage pupils to think about the maths. Rather than provide mechanical repetition, the examples are designed to deepen pupils’ understanding and reveal misconceptions.

Our maths expertise

Our school is supported in its maths curriculum and teaching by our Inspiration Trust maths lead, who provides expert advice and guidance to our teachers. We are also fortunate to have the support of the Norfolk and Suffolk Maths Hub (Angles Maths Hub) which is led by Inspiration Trust.

History, geography, religious education and science subjects are taught as individual, weekly lessons. Children benefit from a knowledge-rich curriculum which has been designed by specialist subject leaders and implemented in a thoughtful, coherent way with plenty of embedded opportunities for challenge and creativity.

In order to further enrich children’s learning, staff regularly organise interesting, informative and exciting trips and experiences based on what the children have been learning in class. Further, we regularly invite speakers and experts to share their knowledge with children.