Lower School
The Lower School – A Firm Foundation
“My children can’t wait to come to school in the morning! They love their lessons and talk enthusiastically about what they have learnt during the day”
Year 4 Parent
In the Lower School, we provide the highest standards of education meeting the needs of each and every child. We have high aspirations for all of our pupils; most of whom work beyond age related expectations and thrive on the breadth we offer across the curriculum. Our excellent Lower School staff are supported by a team of specialist teachers who deliver physical education, music, drama and French to all pupils from Reception to Year 5.
Lower School Curriculum
The Lower School covers the age range from 4 to 10 years. The early curriculum emphasises the acquisition of basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics, enabling other subjects and topics to be introduced as mastery of these skills develops.
Our facilities, broad curriculum and rich diet of extracurricular opportunities ensure that our pupils are readily engaged and enthused, developing quickly their self-confidence and ability to work with others.
As the children progress, our aim is to develop greater independence and self-confidence. All pupils are taught the core subjects of maths, English and science alongside foundation subjects and benefit from specialist teaching in PE, music and drama and are introduced to French.
Each class tutor is responsible for the pastoral care of children in their class. There is a keen emphasis on developing children as responsible and caring citizens through subjects such as PSHE and through tutor sessions, assemblies, Eco-groups and the School Council.
These are truly happy times, when children begin to establish life-long friendships and to develop skills which will form the basis of a lifetime of learning.
Renaissance Reading
In the lower school we use Renaissance Reading as one of the tools to develop reading comprehension skills in addition to guided reading and phonics. The steps are:
1) Children are given a ZPD* (from Star Reading or Star Early Literacy baseline assessments – this is changed regularly)
2) They read a book
3) They quiz on the book and get instant feedback
4) They choose a new book to read and repeat the process
Some books also have vocabulary quizzes and inference quizzes.
What is a *ZPD?
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) defines the readability range within which pupils should read to best develop their reading, while avoiding frustration. The ZPD is especially useful for pupils using Renaissance Accelerated Reader, which lists readability levels for all quizzed books. However, success at any difficulty also depends on a pupil’s interest in a book and knowledge of its content. See this link for a guide – http://www.renlearn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Zpd-Poster.pdf .
To take a quiz at home you must use this link: http://ukhosted95.renlearn.co.uk/6712618.
To find out what books are quizzable in your child’s ZPD range please visit this link – http://www.arbookfind.co.uk.
To register as a parent to get email updates on any quizzes they take please use this website below (you will need your child’s log in and password) – http://ukhosted95.renlearn.co.uk/6712618/homeconnect.
Below are links to guides that you can use to find out more information:
http://www.renlearn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/skill-domains-in-star-reading.pdf
http://www.renlearn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/AR-parents-guide-updated.pdf
http://www.renlearn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/What-Parents-need-to-know.pdf
