Curriculum
Our Mixed-Age Learning Approach
As a small school with dedicated Early Years, Key Stage 1, and Key Stage 2 learning environments, we embrace mixed-age learning as a unique strength. This approach nurtures collaboration, independence, and a genuine love of learning. We carefully link learning to all areas of the National Curriculum, ensuring every child enjoys a broad and balanced education. To provide structure and continuity, we follow a two-year rolling programme for Early Years and Key Stage 1, and a four-year rolling programme for Key Stage 2. We are currently in Year C of our rolling programme. Please see below for information about the curriculum and topics that will be covered during Year C.
Read Write Inc.
At Shirwell Community Primary school, we use Read Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics as the foundation of every child’s reading journey. This proven programme provides a structured and systematic approach to early literacy, ensuring that children develop the essential skills to read confidently and fluently. Through engaging lessons and carefully sequenced activities, RWI helps children build strong phonics knowledge, blending and segmenting skills, and a love of reading from the very start.
Reading
After mastering phonics, children move on to our comprehensive reading programme, designed to nurture a lifelong love of books and develop confident, fluent readers. Our approach focuses on three key priorities: fostering enjoyment, encouraging children to read widely across a range of genres, and building deep comprehension skills.
Every day, children take part in a dedicated reading lesson where they explore a rich variety of texts, including timeless classics, modern literature, and high-quality non-fiction. These sessions develop vocabulary, strengthen understanding, and teach analytical skills. The texts we select follow a carefully planned progression, increasing in complexity of language, structure, and literary techniques. This progression is guided by our ‘Plagues of Reading’ framework, inspired by Doug Lemov’s work.
To further promote a love of reading, we incorporate daily story time and use Accelerated Reader to support independent reading. Teachers model fluent, expressive reading during story sessions, inspiring children to read with confidence and enthusiasm. Accelerated Reader helps personalise each child’s reading journey: after a short online assessment, pupils are matched to an appropriate book band, ensuring their chosen texts are both accessible and challenging. Once a book is completed, children take a fun online quiz to check understanding—something they always look forward to!
Mathematics
We want every child to develop a love of mathematics and the confidence to succeed. Maths is taught daily from Early Years through to Year 6, with lessons designed to build fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. Teachers use the National Curriculum and White Rose Maths as the foundation for planning, adapting it to create a bespoke curriculum that meets the needs of our children and ensures full coverage.
Our approach combines structured progression with opportunities for revisit and retention, helping children secure key concepts over time. In Key Stage 1 and 2, pupils enjoy mathematics each day, while Early Years children learn through a mix of adult-led and play-based activities. We also use engaging resources such as Times Table Rock Stars and maths.co.uk to make learning fun and interactive.
While maths is usually taught discretely, we make cross-curricular links where appropriate, particularly through subjects like computing. Differentiated learning, targeted interventions, and high-quality teaching ensure that every child is supported and challenged to achieve their best.
Writing
Our aim is to equip children with key, transferable writing skills that build progressively year on year. These skills can be applied across all subjects, preparing children for success in secondary school and beyond. We teach children to write for a wide range of purposes and audiences, making writing exciting and meaningful through engaging hooks that spark imagination. By providing varied reasons for writing, we not only inspire creativity but also enable learners to apply their skills in different contexts, producing high-quality outcomes.
Across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, we use Literacy Tree as the foundation for our English curriculum. Literacy Tree carefully maps high-quality texts to a range of writing outcomes, ensuring children experience rich literature while developing essential skills. This approach immerses children in stories and themes that encourage deep thinking, creativity, and purposeful writing.
Class 1 - Year A
Welcome to Cycle A, an exciting year filled with stories, exploration and hands-on learning. Throughout the year, children will learn about the Great Fire of London, discover what makes Britain great, explore hot and cold climates, and learn about Two Great Queens and their impact on Britain. In Science, we will learn about the changing seasons, our five senses, the properties of everyday materials, and how to keep our bodies healthy.
Reading and storytelling are at the heart of our curriculum. Children will enjoy a wide range of high-quality texts including Lost and Found, The Great Fire of London, The Snail and the Whale, The Rainbow Fish and many well-loved traditional tales. Our English lessons will be inspired by engaging books such as Cave Baby, Astro Girl, Lost and Found, Ocean Meets Sky, The Bear and the Piano, Toys in Space and We Are Water Protectors. Through these texts, children will develop their skills in storytelling, letter writing, instructions, fact files, poems, reports and descriptions while building a love of reading and writing.
Children will also have opportunities to develop their creativity through art, explore healthy eating and design through DT projects, learn about Christianity and Islam in RE, and take part in gymnastics, dance and team games in PE. Our continuous provision and outdoor learning opportunities will encourage curiosity, imagination and independence, allowing children to learn through play, investigation and discovery. We look forward to a wonderful year of learning, where every child is supported to grow in confidence, develop new skills and become an enthusiastic and successful learner.
Class 2 - Year C
Welcome to Cycle C, a year packed with exciting opportunities to learn, explore and grow. Throughout the year, we will journey through the fascinating world of the Tudors, investigate the causes and effects of climate change, and discover the diverse geography, cultures and environments of North and South America. These topics will help children develop a deeper understanding of history, geography and the wider world around them.
Our English lessons are closely linked to our wider curriculum, enabling children to immerse themselves in a range of high-quality texts, including Riddle of the Runes, The Lost Thing, Friendleswylde, Varmints, and Can We Save the Tiger? Through these engaging texts, children will develop their writing skills across a variety of genres, such as narratives, newspaper reports, persuasive writing, explanation texts, discussions and letters.
In Science, children will explore states of matter, properties of materials and reversible and irreversible changes. They will learn about teeth and digestion before moving on to study life cycles and changes in reproduction. These investigations will encourage curiosity, questioning and scientific thinking.
Across the wider curriculum, children will develop their creativity through art inspired by Sonia Delaunay and Frida Kahlo. In Design and Technology, they will explore seasonal cooking, Chinese inventions and the work of programming pioneers. Computing lessons will develop understanding of online safety, computer systems and networking, programming, computational thinking, data handling and stop-motion animation. In RE, children will explore a range of beliefs and big questions, including the nature of God, the significance of Good Friday, the importance of the Torah, the meaning of Resurrection, and themes of freedom, justice and festivals.
We are looking forward to a fantastic year of learning, where children will be encouraged to be curious, resilient and ambitious while developing the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to become successful lifelong learners.