Supporting your child's learning
Knowing what your child is learning
The National Curriculum sets out the expected attainment standards for the end of each year group in the core subjects. You can find details of all the subjects in the National Curriculum here. Visit the Curriculum section to find detailed information on what is taught in each subject, including how to help your child at home. There is an expectation that children should not rush through the curriculum objectives but instead embed and master them, so that they can apply them to other problems, questions or topics.
Understanding how your child is progressing
During the autumn and spring terms, we hold Parent Consultation Meetings where you are able to come and talk to your child's teacher about how they are getting on and what their next steps will be. Teachers will share with you what they are focusing on in class and what you may also be able to support with at home.
At the end of the summer term, we will send out a full report on all subjects, relating your child’s progress towards the expected standards of their year group's curriculum. If your child is working significantly above or below the expectations of their year group we will explain the standard at which he/she is currently working.
Children in Nursery and Reception follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. We provide a detailed written report on all the areas of learning in this curriculum at the end of the academic year, and keep parents informed as to how children are progressing in our Parent Consultation Meetings.
When children need extra support:
We recognise the uniqueness of each child.
We know that we don't live in a world where all children begin their learning at the exact same starting point.
We understand that children may learn at different rates, have specific barriers, or be influenced by life events.
We do not accept that this is a reason for any of our children to achieve less than their personal best.
This is why we have a 'No Child Left Behind' approach to teaching and learning.
Our 'No Child Left Behind' approach is rooted in the highest expectations of what children can achieve and is the relentless determination that no child will fall behind. There are two key elements to this approach at Send CofE; Keep Up and Catch Up.
Keep Up
Teachers design their lessons so that children are given every opportunity to ensure that they ‘keep up’ with the curriculum. We belive that almost all pupils are capable of attaining the national expectations for their age. We use a variety of strategies to make that happen, including:
- Corrective teaching – trying to plug gaps of knowledge on which to build pupils’ learning using a solid foundation of knowledge
- Pre-teaching – teaching a concept to pupils that would benefit from it prior to whole class teaching
- Same day intervention where possible to revisit and correct misconceptions– during morning time or in the afternoon and/or during lessons
- Effective marking and feedback – for pupils to self-assess or peer-assess their work so that they have instant feedback of their understanding
- Making good use of working or learning walls – encouraging our pupils to use displays within their learning environments
Catch Up
Sometimes, children are at a different starting point in their curriculum journey and will need extra support to close any gaps in knowledge so that they Catch Up with the expectations for their year group.
Our Catch Up program is carefully designed to meet the different needs of children and uses well recognised schemes with a strong evidence base of their impact in schools. You can see our Catch Up Pathways for Reading & Maths below.
Each program, while targetting specific skills has elements in common including:
- Providing ‘targeted help’ for individual children in addition to their normal lessons
- Is delivered on a 1:1 or in a very small group
- Regularly assess pupils to ensure that they are in the group where they will make the most progress