Coteford Infant School

• Being kind to ourselves and others - reflects our focus on developing early awareness of self-care, both mental and physical, building those early friendships and healthy relationships and will link in with the new health and relationships part of the curriculum.
• Excel and enjoy - is about achieving, and this can be academic excellence or any aspect of personal development; enjoy is about the learning journey being fun. This links in with our celebrations of achievement and perseverance.
• Stay safe - safety is a golden thread that runs through the curriculum, and this links with our PSHE and Health and Relationships curriculum as well as internet safety.
• Together - this is about the celebration of diversity and the principle of inclusion.

We believe that all children can achieve well and we highly value working together in partnership with parents and carers from the Coteford family to set and achieve high expectations for our children. We are a mainstream school, with inclusivity at the heart of our ethos and approach to teaching and learning. Our children are active learners and we aim always to deliver high quality lessons that are stimulating, memorable and fun. Children are encouraged to “have a go” and become independent as well as motivated learners. We believe that mistakes and challenges are opportunities to learn and move forward.

Vision

Our aim is to nurture curiosity, resilience, independence, tolerance and respect. We are passionately committed to achievement, emotional well-being and to promoting learning in a way that leads to the fullest development of each child.

We believe that: 

• Learning should be exciting, fun and memorable.
• Every child is unique and should be enabled to find their talents and make good progress.
• Every day is important and each new day is a fresh start.
• Adults should be good role models: we smile, we never give up, we enjoy working together, we learn from mistakes and we are adaptable. Like the children we follow the Coteford Code.
• Everyone must be included.
• Every child should be and feel safe.

Intent

Our intent is to give our pupils the best start in life, one that enables our children to do their best to be the very best citizens that they are able to become. Entry to nursery and infant school is an important transition that marks the start of a child’s learning journey through the education system. Our intent is to develop resilient and independent learners, who leave Coteford Infant School well-equipped academically, socially and emotionally, and fully prepared for their next phase of education. We believe that learning should be fun and that children should have opportunities to learn and develop skills in a range of contexts that are meaningful to them. We believe that it is important that children start from the practical and have lots of opportunities to talk, learn and practise using new vocabulary. We have designed a curriculum at Coteford Infant School that considers the different experiences children may have had before they join our school, different learning styles, different learning needs and a variety of interests.

Implementation

Whilst year group teachers plan collectively to deliver a curriculum that meets the needs of their year group in the context of national expectations, individual teachers adapt the curriculum so that it meets the needs of the pupils in each class. We identify memorable experiences to support learning and ask for children’s views about questions they want answered when planning a topic. Research indicates that learning equates to a change in long term memory. Therefore, throughout the academic year, we plan for the children to reflect upon what they have already learnt, and to retrieve information. We know children do best when learning is well planned and includes links to other curriculum areas, most especially when this provides opportunities for children to retrieve and consider information that they have learnt in previous lessons. We offer both challenge and support, and we encourage children to understand that mistakes and “being stuck” are chances and challenges to learn something new. Our curriculum enables the children to develop as critical thinkers and to problem solve, giving time to work individually and collaboratively with others, along with opportunities to be creative as well as time to practise skills within carefully structured lessons. Within the current climate, not knowing whether we are in the midst of or moving towards the end of a pandemic, we implement our curriculum with a focus on emotional well-being.

Impact

We want our pupils to leave Coteford Infant School with:

• a body of new knowledge stored securely in their minds that will serve as a solid foundation for their next phase of education;
• the capacity to be resilient in the face of new challenges;
• skills of independence that they did not possess when they arrived;
• a developing understanding of how important it is to be kind to others and to themselves.

Coteford Infant School reflects the multi-cultural, multi-faith and ever-changing nature of the United Kingdom. We embrace the value of inclusion and understand the vital role we play in ensuring that differences and diversity are celebrated, and that opportunities are equal for all, so that there is no discrimination against any individual or group, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, political or financial status, or similar. We are committed to preparing the children for the next phase of their education and to ensuring that we promote and reinforce British values to all of our pupils.

The government set out its definition of British values in the Prevent Strategy 2015.

Democracy Our ethos embraces the principle of inclusion and being together, working together and playing together are essential elements of life at Coteford Infant School.  From entry into nursery we learn how to share and take turns with others and to play fairly. Listening to others is an important element of the Coteford Code and our children work on developing this skill as they progress through the school.  We have School Ambassadors who play an important part in gathering the views of their peers in order to effect change.

The Rule of Law We all follow the Coteford Code.

This means that we are polite and respectful and we have good manners. We look after ourselves, each other, our school and we care about the wider world. We learn about what is right and what is wrong in terms of the rules we follow every day and we learn how to make good choices. Our children begin to understand about British laws through assemblies and our curriculum.

Individual Liberty At Coteford Infant School we learn about making choices and we learn about freedom and rights through our curriculum and our assemblies. We are about to embark upon an exciting UNICEF journey, which will enhance our understanding of rights and the concept of freedom.

Mutual Respect As well as the Coteford Code we have an Anti-Bullying Policy and a positive Behaviour Policy that apply to the whole school, adults and children alike. We value kind words and kind deeds and treat others how we would like to be treated ourselves.

Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs We celebrate many British festivals such as Pancake Day, St George’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Remembrance Day and St David’s Day. We also celebrate and learn about festivals from different cultures such as Chinese New Year, along with learning about different religious celebrations such as Easter, Eid and Diwali. Through the curriculum, assemblies and trips to different places of worship we learn about different cultures and beliefs.