How our school is organised

Foundation

Foundation Stage comprises pupils in the Nursery and Reception.
Bessacarr Primary School provides part time nursery education for boys and girls who are four years old within the school year.
Children enter the nursery (Foundation 1) at the beginning of the school year in which they are four and transfer to the reception class. (Foundation 2) at the beginning of the school year in which they are five.

Primary

Primary

The primary school is divided into two key stages

Key Stage 1 comprises pupils from Year 1 to Year 2.
Key Stage 2 comprises pupils from Year 3 through to Year 6.

At the end of Year 6 pupils transfer to a secondary school. The catchment area secondary school is Hall Cross School.

Please see the admissions information on the Doncaster website for information regarding admission to school.

The aims of the curriculum are:

That each child is provided with opportunities to reach his/her potential in all fields of learning and development relevant to his/her age and ability.

To prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.

All documents relating to the school curriculum can be seen at the school and on the website Bessacarr.doncaster.sch.uk

The Foundation Stage Curriculum

The Foundation Stage curriculum is relevant to pupils in the nursery and reception years, i.e. children aged 3 – 5 years old.

The Foundation Stage curriculum is organised into 3 prime areas:

• Communication and language
• Personal, social and emotional development
• Physical development and these specific areas:
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design
• Literacy
• Mathematics

Phonics And Reading

At Bessacarr Primary we follow a systematic, synthetic phonics programme.

Phonics Bug is a core reading programme that can be used for independent and guided reading from Foundation 2 to Year 6. It is a balanced approach to the teaching of reading using synthetic phonics. It teaches the segmentation of words for spelling and develops phonemic awareness skills. Children are taught to pronounce the individual phonemes associated with the graphemes they see and then to blend them together to form a word. Phonics Bug is supported by decodable readers which match the order of phoneme introduction. Phonics Bug offer coverage of Phase 5 phonic progression and also match the recommended teaching and learning in the DfE’s Letters and Sounds. Phonics Bug supports learning in Phase 6 introducing more complex, multi-syllabic words and morphemes such as prefixes and suffixes.

In the Foundation Stage, there is larger emphasis placed on reading. Children are encouraged to develop an awareness of the difference between pictures and text and to begin to point to the first word on a page. They repeat the text and begin to recognise that letters make sounds. Oxford Reading Tree’s ‘Floppy Phonics’ supports learning in this area.

Throughout the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One, children receive phonics input, using the Phonics Bug scheme supplemented where necessary with Letters and Sounds or Jolly Phonics. Reading is taught through a variety of teaching approaches which include: shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, home reading and 1:1 reading as appropriate. Teaching of reading gives attention to word recognition and comprehension.

We use a combination of reading schemes which are banded by ability. We have a wide variety of texts in the library, including fiction and non-fiction. The children are taught library skills and have access to the library to utilise these.

The Curriculum for Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2

Our School Curriculum is divided into subject areas of the National Curriculum.

• Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
• Physical Education
• Literacy
• Modern Foreign Language (Spanish)
• Mathematics
• ICT
• Design and Technology
• Geography
• History
• Science
• Religious Education
• Art and Design
• Music

Each year group follows a planned scheme of work which aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills associated with each area of learning. The school uses a topic based approach to teach most subjects.

Religious Eduction

Religious education lessons provide opportunities for children to develop their knowledge and understanding.

The School has no religious affiliation. An act of collective worship is also held every day. Parents who wish their children to be withdrawn from religious education or collective worship should inform the Head Teacher and alternative arrangements can be made.