How does learning begin in Early Years?
Our Early Years curriculum provides the foundations for everything that follows.
In Nursery and Reception, carefully planned teaching, purposeful play, high-quality interactions and meaningful first-hand experiences work together to develop children’s language, knowledge, confidence and independence.
Our Reception curriculum is organised around six enquiry questions across the year:
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Autumn 1: What Makes Me Special?
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Autumn 2: What Can We Discover?
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Spring 1: What Can We Imagine?
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Spring 2: Where Can We Go?
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Summer 1: How Do We Get There?
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Summer 2: What Can I Be?
Each enquiry connects learning across the seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage and helps children gradually extend their understanding from themselves and their immediate experiences towards the wider world.
Explore our Early Years curriculum →
What will my child learn in their year group?
Our year group pages give families a clear picture of the learning planned for children throughout the academic year.
From Year 1 to Year 6, each page brings together the subjects, topics, texts, knowledge and experiences that shape learning across the autumn, spring and summer terms.
These pages help parents understand what their child is studying, see how learning connects across subjects and find opportunities to support learning at home.
Choose your child’s year group:
Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6
Explore our year group curriculum overviews →
How do knowledge organisers help children remember?
Knowing something today is important. Remembering it and being able to use it in the future matters just as much.
Our knowledge organisers identify the important knowledge, vocabulary and concepts children will encounter in each curriculum unit.
They help children understand what they are learning, make connections with previous knowledge and revisit important information.
Alongside our Retrieval Roots activities, knowledge organisers form part of our approach to helping children remember more, understand more and explain their learning with confidence.
Families can access these resources to see the key knowledge being taught and talk about learning at home.
Explore our knowledge organisers →
How can families find out what children are learning?
Our curriculum newsletters keep families informed about the learning taking place in school.
They provide an accessible overview of upcoming topics, important vocabulary, key texts, curriculum experiences and ways to support learning beyond the classroom.
By sharing this information, we want families to feel involved in their child’s education and have meaningful conversations about what children are discovering in school.
Read our curriculum newsletters →
How do we help children develop a love of reading?
Reading is central to our curriculum.
Through carefully chosen books, stories, poetry, non-fiction and opportunities for discussion, children develop the vocabulary, comprehension and knowledge needed to learn across every subject.
Our reading and poetry spines introduce children to a wide range of authors, poets, ideas and experiences. Texts are chosen not only for enjoyment, but also for their contribution to children’s language, imagination and understanding of the world.
Systematic phonics teaching provides the foundations for early reading, while carefully planned opportunities to read, discuss and respond to texts help children become increasingly fluent and thoughtful readers.
Explore reading, phonics and poetry →
How can children and families explore learning beyond the classroom?
Learning does not stop at the classroom door.
Our online curriculum resources provide opportunities for children to revisit learning, investigate new ideas, explore important vocabulary and share their knowledge with families.
Across our curriculum, families can find:
- Pupil-friendly activities and investigations.
- Explanations of important knowledge and vocabulary.
- Recommended books and videos.
- Questions to encourage conversation.
- Practical activities to try at home.
- Opportunities to revisit and check understanding.
These resources are designed to complement classroom teaching and help families engage with the exciting range of learning taking place at St Stephen’s.
Visit our curriculum learning resources →
How do we know that children are learning and remembering?
Assessment is an important part of our curriculum, but it is not simply about tests.
Teachers continually explore what children know, understand and can do through questioning, discussion, observation, practical activities and their everyday work.
Regular retrieval helps children revisit previous learning, while end-of-unit assessments provide opportunities to demonstrate what they have remembered and understood.
Subject leaders and teachers use this information to identify strengths, address misconceptions, adapt teaching and improve our curriculum.
Our ambition is for children to be able to:
Know → Can Do → Explain
Children should develop secure knowledge, use it with growing confidence and explain their ideas with increasingly precise language.
How does our curriculum prepare children for the future?
Our curriculum is about much more than completing a series of lessons.
It is about ensuring children leave St Stephen’s with the knowledge, vocabulary, skills, confidence and curiosity needed for the next stage of their education.
We want children to understand their own community, appreciate the richness of the wider world, think carefully, communicate effectively and recognise the possibilities available to them.
Through a curriculum that is ambitious, inclusive and carefully sequenced, we aim to give every child the strongest possible foundations for future learning.
