At Brinkley Grove we believe in educating the whole child offering a broad and balanced curriculum which is engaging and inspires children.
Each curriculum area is taught discreetly so that pupils learn the relevant knowledge and skills for every subject. The skills for each year group build upon what has been taught previously creating a strong foundation of knowledge and skills. Key skill are revisited and consolidated at regular intervals.
We review our curriculum regularly and make sure that it is adapted to meet the needs of pupils and to create rounded, global citizens. Our curriculum encourages exploration of different cultural values and values diversity in all forms. This can be seen throughout the curriculum, such as studying the impact of individuals from diverse backgrounds in history, understanding the issues of deforestation in the Amazon, purposefully chosen texts in English and our library to reflect our pupils and difference groups of people.
If you wish to find out more about our school curriculum please contact the school office or email info@brinkleygrove.essex.sch.uk for the attention of Mrs Patmore.
Brinkley Grove uses aspects of ‘Read, Write Inc’ as its phonics programme. This is taught in EYFS and KS1 classes to help children develop their reading skills. Children are regularly assessed to ensure they are making good progress with their phonics.
Click on the link below for more information about ‘Read, Write Inc’.
In EYFS, children are regularly assessed and heard read using the Read, Write Inc reading scheme. Phonics is taught daily and the children will be placed in small groups based on the sounds they know. The children will take home ‘Book Bag Books’ that provide children with opportunities to practise their phonics skills at home and read with growing confidence as the books are precisely matched the sounds the children are learning at school. Each book consolidates sounds that the children have learnt allowing independent reading from the outset.
At the beginning of Y1, all children are assessed using the PM benchmarking reading assessment resource. This allows the teachers to ensure every child is reading a PM reading book which is appropriate to their needs. The PM reading scheme is meticulously levelled to ensure a gentle learning gradient. More high frequency words are introduced within this reading scheme and are reinforced regularly to foster fluency. Children can then progress through the levelled fiction and non fiction texts until their class teacher is confident that they have the reading and comprehension skills to become a ‘free reader’ when the child can choose any text that is not part of the PM scheme.
Brinkley Grove uses Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for Writing’ approach to teaching English. Each year group’s learning is based on a variety of texts; this ensures all children experience a wealth of high quality children’s literature. These stories go on to become the basis for children’s writing and ensures the progression of skills when learning about different genres and plot structures year on year.
