In the Early Years Unit we passionately believe in offering all children a positive and stimulating start to their education .We stand united with the whole school ethos that ‘We can ALL succeed ‘ and offer opportunities to develop the ‘ whole child’ through providing;

• Warm, stimulating and challenging interactions and activities that initially focus on building children’s Personal, Social and Emotional, Physical and Language and Communication skills. These can then be built on and extended to mathematical, scientific, creative and technological development as children progress through the Foundation Stage. (Early Years Foundation Stage)
• A rich environment both indoors and outdoors that provides a wide variety of opportunities for children to develop their creativity, problem solving, concentration and independence skills. (Characteristics of Effective Learning)
• Experienced Early Years Practitioners to support, scaffold and extend children’s development and learning through a balance of child led play and planned, focused activities that are based around children’s fascinations, interests and needs.
• Online Learning Journeys (Tapestry) –to document children’s interests, development and Next Steps in learning .These are highly interactive between staff, children and parents to enable us to work in partnership with parents and communicate effectively about their child’s progress on a regular basis.

The Early Years Unit

The Early Years Unit consists of three separate areas;
River Room-caters for our youngest learners. Children can start here from aged 2 and benefit from a small group with a high staff ratio of experienced practitioners enabling them to learn to separate from their parents/carers and start to learn about pre-school life, for example, playing alongside others, joining in with singing , snack times and sensory activities.

Nursery Class-For children aged 3+- Children transition to the Nursery Class shortly after their third birthday when they are ready for the challenge of a slightly bigger environment .This transition is seamless as the children regularly visit the Nursery class with River room staff prior to starting and are usually keen to join in. The activities based in the Nursery are designed to continue to stimulate and engage children to take them on the next stage in their learning and prepare them for school life including phonics sessions, cooking, Music, Forest School and maths activities.

Reception Class-The Reception Class marks the end of the Foundation Stage and the beginning of their school life. Children happily move up from the Nursery Class ready for this exciting stage in their learning and staff continue to develop and extend their learning through lots of fun play based activities and offer experience of more formal activities like handwriting, P.E. lessons and attending whole school assemblies which children are now ready for and thrive on.

Throughout primary school, children will use skills developed in lessons to find out about different places in the world. They will use a range of resources to study small regions in the UK, Europe and the Americas, and compare these to other areas including their own town.

In Key Stage 1, children will name the four home nations and their capital cities as well as the names of the continents and oceans of the world. They will use simple maps and photographs to explore the local area and use the four main compass directions to show points of interest and find places.

Useful links for this key stage 

Join Barnaby Bear as he visits different locations and discuss the similarities and differences

In Key Stage 2, the children will learn the counties, regions and major cities of the United Kingdom, using ordinance survey maps and grid references to describe and locate them. The children will locate and discuss different countries in the world focusing particularly on Europe and the Americas. They will begin to explore geographical features such as volcanoes and tectonic plates, as well as features of human geography such as trade links and land use.

Useful links for this key stage

View the places discussed in class

Our approach to teaching of English is multi-faceted, incorporating oracy, drama, and high-quality literature. Our priority is to provide our children with all the skills and knowledge they need to articulate and express their ideas appropriately for any audience, and to be confidently literate in life.

We want all children to leave Upton upon Severn Primary School with a life-long love of reading and a love of books, because we know that reading will improve their vocabulary, inspire them creatively and improve their ability to write well. We teach them to read and write confidently not only in English lessons but across the wider curriculum.  We teach our children the skills required to edit and improve their writing (spelling, grammar, punctuation and handwriting) to make it the very best it can be.

Reading
At Upton upon Severn Primary School, reading is at the heart of our English curriculum, and we have carefully designed both our programme of study and our school environment to instil a love of reading and books in our pupils, which we hope will remain with them all their lives.

Every classroom has a welcoming and comfortable reading corner bursting with exciting books which our children love to explore.  Our school library is a treasure trove of fiction and non-fiction books, and provides a wide range of reference materials to support our topics.

Important foundations for reading are laid in Early Years and through KS1 where our systemic and structured phonics programme introduces the key knowledge and skills children will need in order to become fluent readers.  Right from the start, and throughout their time at Upton, children are encouraged to read both in the classroom and at home, with access to a wide range of interesting and exciting books which have been carefully selected to match their developing reading ability.  Our English curriculum is strongly rooted in literature, meaning that children are exposed daily to the work of a wide variety of authors and a broad range of genres during their time at Upton Primary with lessons designed to focus children in getting the most from every book they read.

Writing
Our writing curriculum is rooted in reading: children enjoy a wide variety of high-quality texts across a broad range of genres which have been carefully chosen by teachers to meet their learning needs and to provide full coverage of the National Curriculum. Our writing curriculum ensures that children are exposed to different writing styles and structures, and learn the skills they need to write for different purposes and for different audiences.

Writing is taught progressively both within and across the year groups, and is closely aligned with our reading curriculum, thereby helping children to forge links between the books they read and the skills they use in their own writing. Grammar is taught both discretely and independently, so that children can readily identify the ‘building blocks’ they will need in order to write purposefully and accurately throughout their lives.

Spelling, too, is taught purposefully: Throughout school lessons are closely aligned with Phonics teaching, and lessons follow the structure and format of the Spelling Shed and FFT Phonics Programme. In Key Stage 2, children are exploring the different rules and spelling patterns applicable to English.

In all their written work, children are encouraged to use different strategies to help them spell correctly and independently, including using their phonics knowledge, the use of word lists or mats, and dictionaries.

The Writing Process
At Upton upon Severn primary School, writing lessons begin with reading. Children are supported in exploring a text, identifying the tools used, and content created by the author, that, taken together, make the writing successful. In both whole class teaching, and in daily guided reading sessions, key vocabulary is explained and developed, and the structure and organisation of the text is explored and discussed. Vocabulary learning is also supported through the Word Aware programme.

The next step in the writing process is the planning stage, where the children formulate their own ideas, draw on a broad range of vocabulary, and secure their understanding of the grammatical concepts they will need to use, through whole class teaching and purposeful discussion with their peers. They will practise shared writing, both as a class and in group work, with teachers modelling the writing process so that pupils gain an insight into the steps needed for successful writing. Independent writing is undertaken at least fortnightly when children will complete an extended piece of writing based on their prior learning.

Next in the writing process is editing. Children are taught to review their work critically and make changes not only to correct any errors they may have made, but also in order to improve the structure and content of their work. Successful editing is an important skill, and children are encouraged to think carefully and explain their reasons for making changes to their work. The uses of purple polishing pens allows the children to focus in on specific changes before they publish their final work.

Finally, we believe that children should take pride in their work and be given chances to produce a final ‘best’ piece. This may be copying up edited work, reading aloud to the class or creating s special finished piece.

Daily reading is essential for all year groups from those early reading skills in reception to the more challenging texts of Year 6 readers. Please listen to your child read and record it in their Home/School liaison books.

Every week your child will receive spellings. Please support them using the Look, Read, Cover, Write method. Spelling will be tested and the children’s results found in their Home/School liaison books.

Below are some useful links which will help you support your child at home:

We have lots of music at Upton! In addition to weekly singing assemblies and an after-school choir, we have lots of special events.  This year these has included taking part in ISingPOP, a music programme that teaches all the children songs with Christian values and their corresponding dance moves, culminating in two performances in the church.  We have also had workshops with a group from the Upton Blues Festival, taken part in the Upton Jazz Festival parade and sung in a Singing Day we led for our local primary schools to join us for. We are also lucky to have our own brass band, run by Helen Lane, where children are taught brass or percussion instruments in an ensemble setting.

Class music lessons build on musical skills as the children go through school, with lots of singing along the way. We have lots of instruments, stored in our music room where our peripatetic teachers give individual and group lessons on a variety of instruments.

PSHE stands for personal, social, health education. It is the area of the curriculum that focuses on developing knowledge, skills and attributes to keep children and young people safe and to prepare them for life and work. Here at Upton we have a comprehensive programme from Reception through to Year 6. Our programme of study is based on three core themes: health and well being, relationships and living in the wider world. It aims to develop resilience, self esteem, risk management, team working and critical thinking.

It is exciting times for PSHE as it is due to become compulsory in 2020. In February 2019 guidance was produced to support this and we will be looking at updating our curriculum alongside this guidance.

Here are some website links that may support parents, carers and children:

Pupils have two hours of PE timetabled per week through which we develop core skills to enable children to become well rounded sportsmen and women as set out in the National Curriculum. Children have an allocated indoor PE slot where they will participate in dance and gymnastics and they have an outdoor session where they are involved in team games and learn ball skills. Children are given the opportunity to swim during KS1 and KS2 and we aim for all pupils leaving the school to be able to swim at least 25m.

As we are so near to the River Severn there are additional opportunities for children to take part in Bell boating clubs and Regattas. Also being close to Worcester Warriors we hope to involve them in our school. In addition we have a terrific level of competency amongst our staff who undertake sporting clubs throughout the year as after school clubs.

With our link to Hanley Castle High School all pupils can take part in a range of tournaments and sporting festivals. There are events throughout the year that are either (Intra-competitions) between year groups or competitions with other schools (Inter-competitions). More details of these events will be added nearer to their commencements. We also have our school sports day where we involve all children of all abilities in a selection of events.

As a church school, R.E. is a core subject and we follow a rolling two-year programme to ensure coverage of a variety of themes and world religions.

We use the Worcester Diocese scheme of work and units from Understanding Christianity, a national scheme which encourages our children to ‘Dig deeper and linger longer’ in their thinking.  Our lessons make links with other subject areas and focus on practical and engaging activities, rather than overly placing an emphasis on writing. We aim to develop children’s thinking as they progress on their own spiritual journey.

We are fortunate to have super support from our vicar, Barry Unwin, and our local churches who regularly support our Collective Worship through an excellent Open the Book team. At various points during the school year, we visit our church to hold services, including harvest, Christmas, Mothering Sunday and Easter. We also support the church during community events, such as participating in the Town Carol Service, Remembrance and the Mayor’s Civic Service.