At Eaton Park Academy, providing pupils with stimulating and wide-ranging learning experiences across all subject areas is at the heart of our aims. Our curriculum places great importance on the development of the whole child, supported by our purpose statement:

‘Carving pathways to success for all regardless of social and academic background’

Curriculum Intent: What are we trying to achieve?

Underpinned by the objectives of the National Curriculum, all pupils are provided with a broad and ambitious curriculum in each subject that will enable them to know more, remember more and do more whilst developing a life-long love of learning and preparing them for life now and in the future.  Objectives are mapped out in a progressive manner to ensure that knowledge and skills are developed and built upon as pupils move through the school, ensuring they are equipped and ready for the next stages in their learning journey. The needs of our curriculum are supported by the key drivers that are specific to the needs of our pupils and the community we serve; these are strengthened further by our core MASTER values, which are embedded into what we do on a daily basis and underpin our ethos.

Within our curriculum, the large majority of subjects are delivered on a weekly basis as discrete subjects although, where possible, relevant cross-curricular links will be made. Art and DT are delivered for one-half term during each term.  All subjects have a bespoke curriculum written and adapted by leaders in the academy which have been mapped out to clearly allow knowledge and skills to build across outlined units of learning, with clear end points.  Content, objectives and vocabulary are mapped out within long and medium term plans to ensure coherent coverage and progression.  Recall opportunities are provided throughout each and every lesson to monitor and assess pupil knowledge and understanding as well as giving ample opportunity to embed key concepts.  Within subjects, there are also highlighted recap weeks to revisit learning taught previously within a unit of learning.

Our curriculum provides opportunities within and outside of school, through extensive enrichment opportunities, to support our delivery of the curriculum, including a wide ranging extra-curricular activity offer during and after school hours to nurture and develop pupils’ talents, skills and interests.

Subject Leadership:

A subject leader, who is skilled and passionate in the identified curriculum subject, leads each subject within our curriculum. Curriculum subjects have been well matched to leads areas of expertise and interest, meaning curriculum subjects are well led across the academy. We take a collaborative approach to subject leadership, ensuring there is equal importance and emphasis on each curriculum subject.

Each subject lead has a subject coach – a trusted college whose role is to offer support and appropriate challenge to ensure high standards of subject leadership.  We also make best use of our collaboration with other Trust primaries through termly subject network meetings, enabling subject leaders to collaborate regularly, sharing and supporting best practice.

All subject leaders have been central to the design of our curriculum and the design of individual subjects, playing a key role in identifying and designing the content, progression and coverage of their subject. They carefully organise the curriculum to ensure children have opportunities to revisit, practise and repeat learning, which is essential to deep learning by monitoring key progression and skills.

Curriculum Implementation: How are we delivering our curriculum?

Our ambitious curriculum is implemented through high quality teaching and learning for all, well-equipped and skilful staff with secure subject knowledge, successful subject leadership and clear rationale.

We implement a curriculum which is pupil learning aligned and staff learning aligned; we ensure our curriculum is implemented high effectively because our staff receive quality continued professional development at whole school level, phase level and individual level to ensure they are equipped to expertly implement our curriculum.

Our curriculum is progressive throughout the whole school, so year on year pupils are developing and deepening their knowledge and skills across all curriculum subjects, making relevant interrelated connections across units of learning and having opportunity to recall and revisit previous learning concepts.

A consistent lesson structure in subjects incorporate the following stages to ensure consistency, learning for all and to deepen knowledge and skills:

  • revisiting the definition of each subject (e.g. What is history?)
  • knowledge recall grids (covering key pieces of information previously taught in current and past units)
  • review of learning from the previous lesson
  • new learning for today (underpinned by learning objective or key question)
  • key vocabulary for each lesson (presented on each slide and on vocabulary boards in classrooms)
  • independent learning tasks
  • what has been learnt during the lesson

Lessons are adapted by teachers to the learning needs and requirements of all of their pupils to ensure that they are all able to access and maximise their learning within each individual lesson.2

Retrieval practice, blocked practice and interleaved learning are all prominent features within our curriculum implementation to support our children’s understanding and their ability to know more and remember more.

Where appropriate, enrichment opportunities are provided to further supplement and enhance delivery through additional memorable learning experiences beyond the realms of everyday classroom teaching.

Music and PE are delivered by high-quality specialists while additional opportunities to work with secondary subjects specialists with the Alpha Academies Trust are available throughout the academic year. In addition, our curriculum is well-resourced in terms of learning materials, technology, books, physical apparatus, learning spaces and texts.

Curriculum Impact: What are we achieving through our curriculum?

Through our curriculum, we are achieving our overarching purpose statement: pupils who secure and experience success regardless their social and academic background and pupils who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, character and experiences to support the next stages in their education and personal development. This is reflected in our outcomes at the end of each phase, with the large majority of pupils meeting and exceeding National expectations. It is also reflected in our pupils’ personal development, through their character.

EPA Reading Statement 

“Our aim is to provide children with plentiful opportunities to become fluent, confident pupils that enjoy opening a book, ensuring that children read widely and often across the whole curriculum which in turn helps them to acquire new knowledge and gain the necessary skills to read and understand texts for the rest of their education and beyond.” 

Reading and reading for pleasure underpins our curriculum: 

At the heart of our curriculum is the teaching, promotion and encouragement of regular reading. Reading is key to accessing the whole curriculum, and through a variety of teaching strategies and techniques, children are given plentiful opportunities to become fluent, confident pupils that choose to pick up a book to both learn new things and read for pleasure.  

Reading for pleasure is promoted and encouraged in many ways: 

During the English session where a range of genres, different texts and authors are explored 

Book talk within English sequence of sessions  

Regular one to one reading with the class teacher or TA in FS and in KS1/KS2 where appropriate 

Daily story time – class novel 

DEAR time 

Use of library – school library/reading buddies and links with local libraries 

Recommendation boards in each classroom/displays outside of the library  

Celebrations of World Book Day 

Regular readathons 

Mystery readers in FS/KS1 

Reading buddies  

Each classroom has a reading area 

Access to reading for pleasure books at playtimes 

Reading across the curriculum  

Comprehension activities 

Questioning techinques 

Whole class guided reading – in isolation and also as part of the English session.  

Focus on understanding of language  

Use of word banks 

Golden lines  

Early reading and phonics: 

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides a language rich and stimulating environment that promotes our love of language and literacy. From the start of Nursery, we develop the children’s attention and listening skills through shared group time and activities such as listening to stories or listening for sounds in the environment. Opportunities for speaking and the development of the children’s vocabulary is also at the heart of our curriculum. Bright and vibrant role play areas, which the children enjoy accessing, are in all the Early Years classrooms. Initiatives such as ‘Winston Wizard’ develop our children’s vocabulary. Twice a week, Winston Wizard will deliver a new word in the class register for the children to discuss and define and then use both in their speech and eventually writing.  

Quality stories and nursery rhymes are celebrated in school, and the children quickly develop a love of reading and books. The children enjoy spending time in their own class reading areas, and also visiting to the school library. Shared story time is an important part of each day and we also provide opportunities for the parents to join their children for story time sessions. All children will start their reading journey in the Nursery, taking home books to share and eventually read with their families. Children in the Early Years also have access to the Bug Club online reading resource. Letter sounds and common exception words are provided so that parents can support their child at home.  

Early reading is explicitly taught in both English and Phonics sessions in Reception class. The school follows a systematic synthetic phonics program that enables and supports the children to begin to blend sounds to read. Our reading sessions are taught through quality texts that motivate, inspire and challenge the children.  

Texts we use 

Demonstrating that reading is a priority across the academy, high quality texts have been carefully selected to ensure engagement of all pupils. Where applicable, these texts are linked directly to the foundation subjects. Using texts which link to our topics ensures our children are fully immersed in their topic and this in turn moves children towards a deep level of understanding where they use and apply skills and knowledge in different areas. We carefully choose texts throughout the course of the year which cover a range of genres: our long term and medium term planning and guided reading journeys ensure that every genre is covered, covering classic fiction, historical fiction and science fiction to name a few, poetry and many non-fiction text types. As an academy, we also place high value on picture books and the opportunities they bring right through to Year 6.  

As an academy, wefollow a whole school reading programme called Bug Club whichis a powerful guided and independentscheme that supports reading. It combines a library of stunning books with an incredible online reading world that help to develop confident young readers. Every child has their own log in details to access Bug Club at any time.This programme is used throughout the academy, fromFoundation Stagethrough to Year 6 and forms part of the delivery of reading across the academy and guided reading sessions, as well as supporting home reading – teachersallocate books for children to read into virtual reading bags.  

Reading across the curriculum: 

Reading is central to every subject taught across the academy. Reading is prioritised again throughout the teaching of foundation subjects – for example, when teaching history, we provide the children with opportunities to use essential reading skills alongside encouraging the learning of new knowledge such as ‘life as an evacuee in WWII.’ These opportunities are consistently provided across all of the foundation subjects. As part of the children’s reading journey, children are provided with knowledge organisers to begin each new topic – here, children use many reading skills to acquire new knowledge in all subjects. We also have our ‘weekly news’ sessions which provide the children with opportunities to read about what is happening currently all around the world. In addition, we have book lists for each topic to promote reading across the curriculum and rotate these books within reading areas in the classroom.   

English and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development 

Our children thoroughly enjoy their reading experiences in school and show a real fascination when learning about characters and the different settings the stories take them to. Children display extremely positive attitudes towards reading and are motivated to use stories and texts to help them when writing for a range of purposes and audiences. Within reading sessions, children are exposed to many moral questions which arise in the stories and texts we provide them with. Children explore moral questions through discussion, role play and debate activities which lead to children being able to empathise with characters and also make decisions themselves. Furthermore, our children lead their own learning within the classroom and consistently take part in self and peer assessment activities which give them the opportunity to reflect upon their own progress and achievements. Relationships are strong across the academy, demonstrating that we value the relationships that we have with the children and also the importance of the positive relationships which children have with each other – collaborative work within English provides the children with excellent learning experiences which teach them the importance of listening, sharing, appreciating other viewpoints and being respectful towards others. During guided reading, children’s understanding and appreciation of a range of texts brings them into contact with their own literary heritage and also texts from other cultures.  

Home reading and the Bookworm: 

Home reading 

It is the belief of every member of staff at the academy that reading progress and attainment is supported heavily by reading at home. Because of this belief, we set ambitious reading expectations at home as well as in school. High on our agenda is also developing readers that read for pleasure and possess a passion for reading. It is the expectation, as part of our homework policy, that the children read at least three times per week (this includes the use of Bug Club online). Reading diaries are in important part of the school day – teaching staff regularly check consistency of reading at home and liaise with parents/carers as necessary through these.  

Home reading books in Reception are phonic based and the books are closely matched to the children’s ongoing phonics ability. The children will practice and apply at home the sounds that are taught in school.   

Book Worm

Book worm is an aspirational challenge that we set the children involving home reading. To promote consistent, positive attitudes towards reading for pleasure and to help children develop the habit of reading widely and often, we encourage our children to read 5 times per week (3 is set as the minimum). The children who read 5 times per week consistently over a half term all receive a prize and a congratulatory letter sent home. All children are then entered into a prize draw which is drawn in a celebration assembly at the end of each half term. We have a winner from EYFS/KS1 and a winner from KS2 – a prize that children vote for themselves.  

Library: 

Children have opportunities to visit the school Library on a weekly basis.Children are encouraged to read for pleasure at home and at school. We have reading ambassadors in school who are Year 6 librarians who open the library up to children every lunchtime. Furthermore, Eaton Park collaborates with the local library and invites them in to speak to both children and parents. The sessions begin as early as Nursery where reading for enjoyment is promoted through the use of the library and the many events that it runs. An initiative that is welcomed by children from the EYFS is the ‘Little Library Van’ that pays the children an annual visit to encourage positive reading habits; and again parents are invited to share this experience also. As an academy, we are always involved in the ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ – library staff come into school to encourage children to read over the summer, and we celebrate this at the start of the new academic year. At different points throughout the year, we are invited to attend a variety of workshops which are both reading and writing based; an example being a fantasy writing workshop led by an author.  

Enrichment: 

As well as our library links, the children have many other things on offer to them at our academy. After school, we have our Bug Club and Storytelling clubs which provide our children with further stimulating and purposeful experiences across the reading curriculum. Over the course of the academic year, we invite parents/carers into school for workshops based on phonics, Bug Club and how to help your child with reading at home. These are always well received by our families at home. Moreover, family learning workshops often have a reading focus which enables our children to embed their skills at in the home environment. Every year, each year band visits the theatre, and we also plan for companies to come into school and perform particular productions which link to the children’s learning in foundation subjects. Reading is celebrated at every opportunity: our World Book Day celebrations are enjoyed by children and staff, we hold readathons to raise money for children in hospital and invite authors in throughout the year to provide inspiration to our children and share a love of reading.  

Whole class guided reading: 

As reading is a priority, we deliver further reading sessions outside of the English lesson. Whole class guided reading takes place three times per week. Our guided reading sessions are designed and taught so that pupils read at an age-related expectation; the majority of children read a story, text or poem at the standard appropriate for their year band. A range of genres are covered throughout the year – our guided reading journeys showcase the texts we use each term. Questions are differentiated to challenge our more able children. Regarding our children with SEND, we provide reading material which is suitable to meeting their immediate needs. During guided reading, the following sequence is adhered to in each year band: 

  • Becoming familiar with the text – reading together with teacher modelling first, then children reading aloud, paired reading and individual reading.  
  • The teaching of new vocabulary – children working out in context and also using dictionaries to support.  
  • Questions – guided/independent (based on a range of reading skills from across the reading curriculum).  

As part of our enrichment offer here at Eaton Park and across Alpha Academies Trust, every year band will have at least nine amazing experiences across the year, which will link to their learning and provide experiences to enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding. This programme has been carefully selected by staff to ensure that children get the very best from their learning, and each experience will be planned in for Autumn, Spring or Summer term, depending on when it is most appropriate. We are fortunate enough that The Trust have ensured that no child will miss out on any enrichment experience by donating £100 per child towards this programme.

As well as their experiences across the year, the children will have the opportunity to join in with ‘Alpha Days’ in various activities with other schools from The Trust, which may be focused around storytelling, teambuilding or survival skills to name just a few!

Please see on the link below our Enrichment Programme for 2023/24 along with the brochures for each year band to outline their experiences.

The Learning and Teaching of Safeguarding and Personal Safety

At Eaton Park Academy, we actively teach the children about safeguarding and personal safety. This takes many different forms, for example:

  • Cycling proficiency
  • Safe travel
  • The development of healthy minds
  • How to be safe on line
  • Stanger Danger
  • Fire and water safety

In the Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception), we teach the children such this as personal hygiene, how to be safe in the sun and near water. We also work continually with the children to ensure that equipment they have access to is used carefully and safely.

Throughout Year 1, the children are taught such things as being safe when crossing roads, we develop their awareness of ‘stranger danger’, how to be safe when near and in the sea, safety in the community and safety in the home.

In Year 2, we work with the children to develop their understanding of such things as online safety, the safety requirements when going on school trips. They also develop children’s understanding of the ‘Underwear Rule’. The road safety officer also comes into school to work with the children and talk about wearing a seatbelt when travelling.

During Year 3, the children are taught about safeguarding and safety through such things as fire safety, basic first aid and when, why and how they would call 999. They are also taught about how to talk to different people, safety in the playground and about managing risks in the environment. They also engage in road safety tasks including a road safety walk and assessment with a road safety officer.

Year 4 spend time during the year learning about such things as friendships, peer pressure and online bullying. Along with this, they develop their understanding of road safety and how to be safe when taking the bus as well as learning about having healthy minds and mental health. The children also start to engage with Bikeability.

As part of their learning in Year 5, the children learn about personal safety and safeguarding through such things as making positive choices and the impact of not making the right choices as you get older. They also spend time thinking about the effects of peer pressure, online safety particularly linked to mobile safety and safe travel on public transport.

Throughout Year 6, the children learn such things as the impact of air pollution on themselves and the environment, how to be safe on a beach and more complex road safety. They learn about relationships and how to be safe, along with gangs and gang culture and how this can impact on their safety. Time is spent preparing the children for secondary school and how to be safe whilst there as well as safe travel. The children also attend a safety workshop called Crucial Crew at the local fire station.

The above descriptions for each year group are by no means exhaustive and the curriculum builds year on year. We use a range of teaching techniques form class teacher input, workshops and visitors into school and trips out. Alongside the curriculum, all classes have worries boxes where children can place their worries and staff respond accordingly to these. We also have an online worry box for the children to access outside of school.

Our curriculum and particularly our RSHE curriculum ensures that the children are taught how to react to and deal with different situations and thus keep themselves safe. As well as  this, we work to develop children’s self-esteem and self-worth.

As a school, we work continually to equip the children with the skills they need to be safe for life in modern Britain.

Safeguarding and personal safety experiences for our pupils:

  • Fire safety officer – fire safety talk
  • Crucial crew at the local fire station
  • School nurse talk
  • Road safety walk and assessment
  • Road safety officer – travel safety and crossing roads
  • PSHE lessons
  • Online safety including workshops
  • PCSO visits
  • Relationships education
  • Career-related learning
  • Challenging stereotypes
  • Bikeability
  • The Big Question
  • Personal, one to one support and intervention
  • Swimming safety

Here at Eaton Park Academy, our vision for our Early Years Foundation Stage is to ‘Lay secure foundations in the Early Years’.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework is a government document that all schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers in England must follow. It sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old. The standards ensure your child will learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.

The EYFS framework outlines seven areas of learning and development and educational programmes. There are three prime areas of learning, which are particularly important for your child’s development and future learning:

There are four specific areas of learning, through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied:

The EYFS framework identifies the essential role of play in your child’s development. It is through both child-led play and play guided by an adult that your child will develop confidence and relationships with others. Through play, EYFS practitioners will help your child to extend their vocabulary and develop their communication skills. The EYFS framework identifies three characteristics of effective teaching and learning:

A greater focus on teaching specific skills will occur as your child progresses through their reception year, which will help them to prepare for year one.

Our approaches to learning at Eaton Park

In the nursery, the children are placed into a key worker group of up to 20 children. This gives the children the opportunity to form close bonds with both their key worker and also their peers. The three key worker groups are then over seen by a qualified teacher who is responsible planning and assessing the needs of the children with the support of the key workers. The nursery day consists of short 20 minute adult led inputs which are phonics, maths, English and Topic. The rest of the time is spent immersed in the continuous provision with adults working alongside the children to scaffold and challenge the children as needed. There are also dedicated times for stories, rhymes and singing throughout the day.

In reception, the children are placed into two classes which each have a class teacher and member of support staff. The approaches in reception are slightly more formal than in nursery, with the children mostly engaging in whole class learning. The children engage in daily phonics, maths, English and handwriting lessons with topic discussions and story times threaded throughout the day. Throughout the reception year, there is big emphasis on the children developing their independence skills in preparation for their transition into Year One.

Early Intervention

Across EYFS, we take part in the Stoke Speaks Out communication screen which is carried out at both the beginning and end of each academic year. This screening tool allows us to quickly identify children which are not working at an expected level within their communication and language skills and we are able to put necessary interventions into place to develop the children’s communication skills. As a department, we are also fortunate to have an Early Years SEND specialist who is able to offer tailored support for those children who may have additional needs.

Parents as Partners

Here at Eaton Park Academy, we know how important it is to work in partnership with our parents to help each child achieve their full potential. We build this partnership through our use of school Dojo, which provides a constant link between home and school allowing learning to be shared and communication between school and parents to be fluid. We also use an electronic learning journey system across the department (Learning Book), so that parents can become involved with sharing their child’s achievements and also see achievements from their child’s time at school. Throughout the school year, parents are given the opportunity to come into school and get involved with their child’s learning through parent workshops, interactive lessons, shared story times and craft sessions. Information is also shared termly with parents, detailing their child’s level of attainment and targets for their child to develop even further.

At Eaton Park Academy, we want our pupils to learn as many skills as possible and to have as many different experiences during their time at Eaton Park.

We have therefore created…

We will promise to provide you with the opportunity to develop and experience the above. These skills and experiences will contribute towards your Values Passports.

Curriculum Design

At Eaton Park Academy, providing pupils with stimulating and wide-ranging learning experiences across all subject areas is at the heart of our aims. Our curriculum places great importance on the development of the whole child, supported by our purpose statement:

‘Carving pathways to success for all regardless of social and academic background’

Curriculum Intent: What are we trying to achieve?

Underpinned by the objectives of the National Curriculum, all pupils are provided with a broad and ambitious curriculum in each subject that will enable them to know more, remember more and do more whilst developing a life-long love of learning and preparing them for life now and in the future.  Objectives are mapped out in a progressive manner to ensure that knowledge and skills are developed and built upon as pupils move through the school, ensuring they are equipped and ready for the next stages in their learning journey. The needs of our curriculum are supported by the key drivers that are specific to the needs of our pupils and the community we serve; these are strengthened further by our core MASTER values, which are embedded into what we do on a daily basis and underpin our ethos.

Within our curriculum, the large majority of subjects are delivered on a weekly basis as discrete subjects although, where possible, relevant cross-curricular links will be made. Art and DT are delivered for one-half term during each term.  All subjects have a bespoke curriculum written and adapted by leaders in the academy which have been mapped out to clearly allow knowledge and skills to build across outlined units of learning, with clear end points.  Content, objectives and vocabulary are mapped out within long and medium term plans to ensure coherent coverage and progression.  Recall opportunities are provided throughout each and every lesson to monitor and assess pupil knowledge and understanding as well as giving ample opportunity to embed key concepts.  Within subjects, there are also highlighted recap weeks to revisit learning taught previously within a unit of learning.

Our curriculum provides opportunities within and outside of school, through extensive enrichment opportunities, to support our delivery of the curriculum, including a wide ranging extra-curricular activity offer during and after school hours to nurture and develop pupils’ talents, skills and interests.

Subject Leadership:

A subject leader, who is skilled and passionate in the identified curriculum subject, leads each subject within our curriculum. Curriculum subjects have been well matched to leads areas of expertise and interest, meaning curriculum subjects are well led across the academy. We take a collaborative approach to subject leadership, ensuring there is equal importance and emphasis on each curriculum subject.

Each subject lead has a subject coach – a trusted college whose role is to offer support and appropriate challenge to ensure high standards of subject leadership.  We also make best use of our collaboration with other Trust primaries through termly subject network meetings, enabling subject leaders to collaborate regularly, sharing and supporting best practice.

All subject leaders have been central to the design of our curriculum and the design of individual subjects, playing a key role in identifying and designing the content, progression and coverage of their subject. They carefully organise the curriculum to ensure children have opportunities to revisit, practise and repeat learning, which is essential to deep learning by monitoring key progression and skills.

Curriculum Implementation: How are we delivering our curriculum?

Our ambitious curriculum is implemented through high quality teaching and learning for all, well-equipped and skilful staff with secure subject knowledge, successful subject leadership and clear rationale.

We implement a curriculum which is pupil learning aligned and staff learning aligned; we ensure our curriculum is implemented high effectively because our staff receive quality continued professional development at whole school level, phase level and individual level to ensure they are equipped to expertly implement our curriculum.

Our curriculum is progressive throughout the whole school, so year on year pupils are developing and deepening their knowledge and skills across all curriculum subjects, making relevant interrelated connections across units of learning and having opportunity to recall and revisit previous learning concepts.

A consistent lesson structure in subjects incorporate the following stages to ensure consistency, learning for all and to deepen knowledge and skills:

  • revisiting the definition of each subject (e.g. What is history?)
  • knowledge recall grids (covering key pieces of information previously taught in current and past units)
  • review of learning from the previous lesson
  • new learning for today (underpinned by learning objective or key question)
  • key vocabulary for each lesson (presented on each slide and on vocabulary boards in classrooms)
  • independent learning tasks
  • what has been learnt during the lesson

Lessons are adapted by teachers to the learning needs and requirements of all of their pupils to ensure that they are all able to access and maximise their learning within each individual lesson.2

Retrieval practice, blocked practice and interleaved learning are all prominent features within our curriculum implementation to support our children’s understanding and their ability to know more and remember more.

Where appropriate, enrichment opportunities are provided to further supplement and enhance delivery through additional memorable learning experiences beyond the realms of everyday classroom teaching.

Music and PE are delivered by high-quality specialists while additional opportunities to work with secondary subjects specialists with the Alpha Academies Trust are available throughout the academic year. In addition, our curriculum is well-resourced in terms of learning materials, technology, books, physical apparatus, learning spaces and texts.

Curriculum Impact: What are we achieving through our curriculum?

Through our curriculum, we are achieving our overarching purpose statement: pupils who secure and experience success regardless their social and academic background and pupils who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, character and experiences to support the next stages in their education and personal development. This is reflected in our outcomes at the end of each phase, with the large majority of pupils meeting and exceeding National expectations. It is also reflected in our pupils’ personal development, through their character.

Reading at the Heart

EPA Reading Statement 

“Our aim is to provide children with plentiful opportunities to become fluent, confident pupils that enjoy opening a book, ensuring that children read widely and often across the whole curriculum which in turn helps them to acquire new knowledge and gain the necessary skills to read and understand texts for the rest of their education and beyond.” 

Reading and reading for pleasure underpins our curriculum: 

At the heart of our curriculum is the teaching, promotion and encouragement of regular reading. Reading is key to accessing the whole curriculum, and through a variety of teaching strategies and techniques, children are given plentiful opportunities to become fluent, confident pupils that choose to pick up a book to both learn new things and read for pleasure.  

Reading for pleasure is promoted and encouraged in many ways: 

During the English session where a range of genres, different texts and authors are explored 

Book talk within English sequence of sessions  

Regular one to one reading with the class teacher or TA in FS and in KS1/KS2 where appropriate 

Daily story time – class novel 

DEAR time 

Use of library – school library/reading buddies and links with local libraries 

Recommendation boards in each classroom/displays outside of the library  

Celebrations of World Book Day 

Regular readathons 

Mystery readers in FS/KS1 

Reading buddies  

Each classroom has a reading area 

Access to reading for pleasure books at playtimes 

Reading across the curriculum  

Comprehension activities 

Questioning techinques 

Whole class guided reading – in isolation and also as part of the English session.  

Focus on understanding of language  

Use of word banks 

Golden lines  

Early reading and phonics: 

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides a language rich and stimulating environment that promotes our love of language and literacy. From the start of Nursery, we develop the children’s attention and listening skills through shared group time and activities such as listening to stories or listening for sounds in the environment. Opportunities for speaking and the development of the children’s vocabulary is also at the heart of our curriculum. Bright and vibrant role play areas, which the children enjoy accessing, are in all the Early Years classrooms. Initiatives such as ‘Winston Wizard’ develop our children’s vocabulary. Twice a week, Winston Wizard will deliver a new word in the class register for the children to discuss and define and then use both in their speech and eventually writing.  

Quality stories and nursery rhymes are celebrated in school, and the children quickly develop a love of reading and books. The children enjoy spending time in their own class reading areas, and also visiting to the school library. Shared story time is an important part of each day and we also provide opportunities for the parents to join their children for story time sessions. All children will start their reading journey in the Nursery, taking home books to share and eventually read with their families. Children in the Early Years also have access to the Bug Club online reading resource. Letter sounds and common exception words are provided so that parents can support their child at home.  

Early reading is explicitly taught in both English and Phonics sessions in Reception class. The school follows a systematic synthetic phonics program that enables and supports the children to begin to blend sounds to read. Our reading sessions are taught through quality texts that motivate, inspire and challenge the children.  

Texts we use 

Demonstrating that reading is a priority across the academy, high quality texts have been carefully selected to ensure engagement of all pupils. Where applicable, these texts are linked directly to the foundation subjects. Using texts which link to our topics ensures our children are fully immersed in their topic and this in turn moves children towards a deep level of understanding where they use and apply skills and knowledge in different areas. We carefully choose texts throughout the course of the year which cover a range of genres: our long term and medium term planning and guided reading journeys ensure that every genre is covered, covering classic fiction, historical fiction and science fiction to name a few, poetry and many non-fiction text types. As an academy, we also place high value on picture books and the opportunities they bring right through to Year 6.  

As an academy, wefollow a whole school reading programme called Bug Club whichis a powerful guided and independentscheme that supports reading. It combines a library of stunning books with an incredible online reading world that help to develop confident young readers. Every child has their own log in details to access Bug Club at any time.This programme is used throughout the academy, fromFoundation Stagethrough to Year 6 and forms part of the delivery of reading across the academy and guided reading sessions, as well as supporting home reading – teachersallocate books for children to read into virtual reading bags.  

Reading across the curriculum: 

Reading is central to every subject taught across the academy. Reading is prioritised again throughout the teaching of foundation subjects – for example, when teaching history, we provide the children with opportunities to use essential reading skills alongside encouraging the learning of new knowledge such as ‘life as an evacuee in WWII.’ These opportunities are consistently provided across all of the foundation subjects. As part of the children’s reading journey, children are provided with knowledge organisers to begin each new topic – here, children use many reading skills to acquire new knowledge in all subjects. We also have our ‘weekly news’ sessions which provide the children with opportunities to read about what is happening currently all around the world. In addition, we have book lists for each topic to promote reading across the curriculum and rotate these books within reading areas in the classroom.   

English and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development 

Our children thoroughly enjoy their reading experiences in school and show a real fascination when learning about characters and the different settings the stories take them to. Children display extremely positive attitudes towards reading and are motivated to use stories and texts to help them when writing for a range of purposes and audiences. Within reading sessions, children are exposed to many moral questions which arise in the stories and texts we provide them with. Children explore moral questions through discussion, role play and debate activities which lead to children being able to empathise with characters and also make decisions themselves. Furthermore, our children lead their own learning within the classroom and consistently take part in self and peer assessment activities which give them the opportunity to reflect upon their own progress and achievements. Relationships are strong across the academy, demonstrating that we value the relationships that we have with the children and also the importance of the positive relationships which children have with each other – collaborative work within English provides the children with excellent learning experiences which teach them the importance of listening, sharing, appreciating other viewpoints and being respectful towards others. During guided reading, children’s understanding and appreciation of a range of texts brings them into contact with their own literary heritage and also texts from other cultures.  

Home reading and the Bookworm: 

Home reading 

It is the belief of every member of staff at the academy that reading progress and attainment is supported heavily by reading at home. Because of this belief, we set ambitious reading expectations at home as well as in school. High on our agenda is also developing readers that read for pleasure and possess a passion for reading. It is the expectation, as part of our homework policy, that the children read at least three times per week (this includes the use of Bug Club online). Reading diaries are in important part of the school day – teaching staff regularly check consistency of reading at home and liaise with parents/carers as necessary through these.  

Home reading books in Reception are phonic based and the books are closely matched to the children’s ongoing phonics ability. The children will practice and apply at home the sounds that are taught in school.   

Book Worm

Book worm is an aspirational challenge that we set the children involving home reading. To promote consistent, positive attitudes towards reading for pleasure and to help children develop the habit of reading widely and often, we encourage our children to read 5 times per week (3 is set as the minimum). The children who read 5 times per week consistently over a half term all receive a prize and a congratulatory letter sent home. All children are then entered into a prize draw which is drawn in a celebration assembly at the end of each half term. We have a winner from EYFS/KS1 and a winner from KS2 – a prize that children vote for themselves.  

Library: 

Children have opportunities to visit the school Library on a weekly basis.Children are encouraged to read for pleasure at home and at school. We have reading ambassadors in school who are Year 6 librarians who open the library up to children every lunchtime. Furthermore, Eaton Park collaborates with the local library and invites them in to speak to both children and parents. The sessions begin as early as Nursery where reading for enjoyment is promoted through the use of the library and the many events that it runs. An initiative that is welcomed by children from the EYFS is the ‘Little Library Van’ that pays the children an annual visit to encourage positive reading habits; and again parents are invited to share this experience also. As an academy, we are always involved in the ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ – library staff come into school to encourage children to read over the summer, and we celebrate this at the start of the new academic year. At different points throughout the year, we are invited to attend a variety of workshops which are both reading and writing based; an example being a fantasy writing workshop led by an author.  

Enrichment: 

As well as our library links, the children have many other things on offer to them at our academy. After school, we have our Bug Club and Storytelling clubs which provide our children with further stimulating and purposeful experiences across the reading curriculum. Over the course of the academic year, we invite parents/carers into school for workshops based on phonics, Bug Club and how to help your child with reading at home. These are always well received by our families at home. Moreover, family learning workshops often have a reading focus which enables our children to embed their skills at in the home environment. Every year, each year band visits the theatre, and we also plan for companies to come into school and perform particular productions which link to the children’s learning in foundation subjects. Reading is celebrated at every opportunity: our World Book Day celebrations are enjoyed by children and staff, we hold readathons to raise money for children in hospital and invite authors in throughout the year to provide inspiration to our children and share a love of reading.  

Whole class guided reading: 

As reading is a priority, we deliver further reading sessions outside of the English lesson. Whole class guided reading takes place three times per week. Our guided reading sessions are designed and taught so that pupils read at an age-related expectation; the majority of children read a story, text or poem at the standard appropriate for their year band. A range of genres are covered throughout the year – our guided reading journeys showcase the texts we use each term. Questions are differentiated to challenge our more able children. Regarding our children with SEND, we provide reading material which is suitable to meeting their immediate needs. During guided reading, the following sequence is adhered to in each year band: 

  • Becoming familiar with the text – reading together with teacher modelling first, then children reading aloud, paired reading and individual reading.  
  • The teaching of new vocabulary – children working out in context and also using dictionaries to support.  
  • Questions – guided/independent (based on a range of reading skills from across the reading curriculum).  
Cultural Capital
Character Curriculum

As part of our enrichment offer here at Eaton Park and across Alpha Academies Trust, every year band will have at least nine amazing experiences across the year, which will link to their learning and provide experiences to enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding. This programme has been carefully selected by staff to ensure that children get the very best from their learning, and each experience will be planned in for Autumn, Spring or Summer term, depending on when it is most appropriate. We are fortunate enough that The Trust have ensured that no child will miss out on any enrichment experience by donating £100 per child towards this programme.

As well as their experiences across the year, the children will have the opportunity to join in with ‘Alpha Days’ in various activities with other schools from The Trust, which may be focused around storytelling, teambuilding or survival skills to name just a few!

Please see on the link below our Enrichment Programme for 2023/24 along with the brochures for each year band to outline their experiences.

Safeguarding in the Curriculum

The Learning and Teaching of Safeguarding and Personal Safety

At Eaton Park Academy, we actively teach the children about safeguarding and personal safety. This takes many different forms, for example:

  • Cycling proficiency
  • Safe travel
  • The development of healthy minds
  • How to be safe on line
  • Stanger Danger
  • Fire and water safety

In the Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception), we teach the children such this as personal hygiene, how to be safe in the sun and near water. We also work continually with the children to ensure that equipment they have access to is used carefully and safely.

Throughout Year 1, the children are taught such things as being safe when crossing roads, we develop their awareness of ‘stranger danger’, how to be safe when near and in the sea, safety in the community and safety in the home.

In Year 2, we work with the children to develop their understanding of such things as online safety, the safety requirements when going on school trips. They also develop children’s understanding of the ‘Underwear Rule’. The road safety officer also comes into school to work with the children and talk about wearing a seatbelt when travelling.

During Year 3, the children are taught about safeguarding and safety through such things as fire safety, basic first aid and when, why and how they would call 999. They are also taught about how to talk to different people, safety in the playground and about managing risks in the environment. They also engage in road safety tasks including a road safety walk and assessment with a road safety officer.

Year 4 spend time during the year learning about such things as friendships, peer pressure and online bullying. Along with this, they develop their understanding of road safety and how to be safe when taking the bus as well as learning about having healthy minds and mental health. The children also start to engage with Bikeability.

As part of their learning in Year 5, the children learn about personal safety and safeguarding through such things as making positive choices and the impact of not making the right choices as you get older. They also spend time thinking about the effects of peer pressure, online safety particularly linked to mobile safety and safe travel on public transport.

Throughout Year 6, the children learn such things as the impact of air pollution on themselves and the environment, how to be safe on a beach and more complex road safety. They learn about relationships and how to be safe, along with gangs and gang culture and how this can impact on their safety. Time is spent preparing the children for secondary school and how to be safe whilst there as well as safe travel. The children also attend a safety workshop called Crucial Crew at the local fire station.

The above descriptions for each year group are by no means exhaustive and the curriculum builds year on year. We use a range of teaching techniques form class teacher input, workshops and visitors into school and trips out. Alongside the curriculum, all classes have worries boxes where children can place their worries and staff respond accordingly to these. We also have an online worry box for the children to access outside of school.

Our curriculum and particularly our RSHE curriculum ensures that the children are taught how to react to and deal with different situations and thus keep themselves safe. As well as  this, we work to develop children’s self-esteem and self-worth.

As a school, we work continually to equip the children with the skills they need to be safe for life in modern Britain.

Safeguarding and personal safety experiences for our pupils:

  • Fire safety officer – fire safety talk
  • Crucial crew at the local fire station
  • School nurse talk
  • Road safety walk and assessment
  • Road safety officer – travel safety and crossing roads
  • PSHE lessons
  • Online safety including workshops
  • PCSO visits
  • Relationships education
  • Career-related learning
  • Challenging stereotypes
  • Bikeability
  • The Big Question
  • Personal, one to one support and intervention
  • Swimming safety
EYFS (Early Years)

Here at Eaton Park Academy, our vision for our Early Years Foundation Stage is to ‘Lay secure foundations in the Early Years’.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework is a government document that all schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers in England must follow. It sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old. The standards ensure your child will learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.

The EYFS framework outlines seven areas of learning and development and educational programmes. There are three prime areas of learning, which are particularly important for your child’s development and future learning:

There are four specific areas of learning, through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied:

The EYFS framework identifies the essential role of play in your child’s development. It is through both child-led play and play guided by an adult that your child will develop confidence and relationships with others. Through play, EYFS practitioners will help your child to extend their vocabulary and develop their communication skills. The EYFS framework identifies three characteristics of effective teaching and learning:

A greater focus on teaching specific skills will occur as your child progresses through their reception year, which will help them to prepare for year one.

Our approaches to learning at Eaton Park

In the nursery, the children are placed into a key worker group of up to 20 children. This gives the children the opportunity to form close bonds with both their key worker and also their peers. The three key worker groups are then over seen by a qualified teacher who is responsible planning and assessing the needs of the children with the support of the key workers. The nursery day consists of short 20 minute adult led inputs which are phonics, maths, English and Topic. The rest of the time is spent immersed in the continuous provision with adults working alongside the children to scaffold and challenge the children as needed. There are also dedicated times for stories, rhymes and singing throughout the day.

In reception, the children are placed into two classes which each have a class teacher and member of support staff. The approaches in reception are slightly more formal than in nursery, with the children mostly engaging in whole class learning. The children engage in daily phonics, maths, English and handwriting lessons with topic discussions and story times threaded throughout the day. Throughout the reception year, there is big emphasis on the children developing their independence skills in preparation for their transition into Year One.

Early Intervention

Across EYFS, we take part in the Stoke Speaks Out communication screen which is carried out at both the beginning and end of each academic year. This screening tool allows us to quickly identify children which are not working at an expected level within their communication and language skills and we are able to put necessary interventions into place to develop the children’s communication skills. As a department, we are also fortunate to have an Early Years SEND specialist who is able to offer tailored support for those children who may have additional needs.

Parents as Partners

Here at Eaton Park Academy, we know how important it is to work in partnership with our parents to help each child achieve their full potential. We build this partnership through our use of school Dojo, which provides a constant link between home and school allowing learning to be shared and communication between school and parents to be fluid. We also use an electronic learning journey system across the department (Learning Book), so that parents can become involved with sharing their child’s achievements and also see achievements from their child’s time at school. Throughout the school year, parents are given the opportunity to come into school and get involved with their child’s learning through parent workshops, interactive lessons, shared story times and craft sessions. Information is also shared termly with parents, detailing their child’s level of attainment and targets for their child to develop even further.

100 Things to do at EPA

At Eaton Park Academy, we want our pupils to learn as many skills as possible and to have as many different experiences during their time at Eaton Park.

We have therefore created…

We will promise to provide you with the opportunity to develop and experience the above. These skills and experiences will contribute towards your Values Passports.

How do we assess the impact of our curriculum?

  • Pupil Voice – listening and talking to our pupils
  • Pupil Book Study – pupils’ ability to recall knowledge and skills: know more and remember more
  • Assessing how well our pupils are achieving in each curriculum subject
  • Through recall weeks and revisit opportunities
  • Quality of work
  • Data outcomes
  • Summative assessment outcomes
  • Formative assessment – central to our curriculum delivery
  • Transition
  • End products
  • Monitoring activities
  • Triangulation of evidence
  • Internal and external reviews
  • Stakeholder feedback

The school is a happy and positive community.

| Ofsted 2019

Why Eaton Park?

Eaton Park Academy has been at the heart of our community for many years.

Our Curriculum

Our ambitious curriculum is shaped around the pupils and the community in which we serve.

Latest News

Here you can find a collection of our latest news. We aim to keep all stakeholders as up-to-date as possible.

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