Classes

We have 14 Classes from Foundation Stage to Year 6. This year the classes are organised into:

• Foundation Stage - two pure Foundation Stage classes within an FS bay and our FS SEND Resource-base

• Key Stage 1 - two Year 1 classes and two Year 2 classes

• Lower Key Stage - three Year 3/4 classes 

• Upper Key Stage 2 - four Year 5/6 classes 

All key stages have additional teaching staff/HLTA/Cover supervisors to support pure year group teaching for English and Maths each morning. In addition, all classes have teaching and learning support assistants to support individual pupils according to their specific needs.

Accommodation

As a result of moving to our amazing new premises, the children now travel on a journey through the rainforest, Arctic and savannah as they transition through the school. Each class name is linked to the habitat they are in.

We are fortunate in being 3 class ready in  Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 (although these won't all be needed for quite a few years!) and as such this creates a number of additional teaching, learning and play spaces.  In addition to this, we have a number of withdrawal rooms for additional small group work, a small and large hall, two amazing libraries, a nurture room, science room, music room, cookery room and sensory/soft play.Outside there are 2 full-size rugby pitches, 2 ball courts and a large playground. The possibilities are endless!

Having moved premises, we now have an official pupil limit in each year group of 60. This limit is set by the Local Authority. In recent years, the school had become increasingly popular with the number of requests for places far exceeding our previous limit. A number of Parents succeeded in their appeal to come here and this resulted in more than our previous 40 limit in most year groups.

As a result of the move, increasing our PAL to 60, has enabled additional places in most year groups. Luckily, the way we are able to utilise additional teaching staff and additonal teaching spaces means that for English and Maths in KS2, the children are taught in pure year group classes of around 20-25.

As the school size gradually increases, the intention is that pure year groups will become the norm throughout the school. 

Rationale

We have organised all classes to suit the needs of the children in the best way possible given the available space currently available to us:

Foundation Stage is a very play-based, flexible learning curriculum, requiring access to outdoor education at all times. As a result, the Foundation Stage are kept as a pure year group.

As the children enter Key Stage 1, some are ready to access a more structured learning environment while others continue to learn through a more play-based environment. In Year 1 we are able to provide a combination of both. Then as the children enter Year 2 and their final year of KS1, we work towards transition in to Lower KS2 and a more structured classroom environment is provided.

Year 3 and 4 are important years as children transfer from one Key Stage to another. Some children are ready for this transition, others find it a little harder. With this in mind we aim to ensure children are in the class that will best suit their needs and support them with this transition.

Year 5 and 6 are very important years as children are preparing to take their SATs and transfer from our school to the secondary phase of their education. During this phase, we see our role as that of increasing responsibility and preparation for lifelong learning. We work very closely with Iveshead School (and other local providers) to ensure a smooth transition in to Year 7.