Phase 3

Years 4, 5 and 6

Curriculum

Homework

Our Philosophy

Outcomes and achievement in Phase Three grow stronger year on year.  We are fortunate, here at Preston Hedge’s, that we have the resources to structure core learning in small group settings: in all year groups in Phase Three, children are taught in at least three groups in both English & Maths. This ensures that class sizes in these subjects are kept small, and that children are taught very precisely – each child within the phase has a highly individual, personalised learning journey.

Encouraging a love of learning is an integral part of the ethos here in Phase Three, and as part of this, learners at all stages are supported to find pleasure in challenge and be aspirational in their learning – due to this our pupils make excellent progress over their time in Phase Three. It is of note that achievement at the end of Phase 3 is significantly higher than national achievement overall and our best outcomes as a school were achieved over the past three years, with last year’s outcomes being the highest in the school’s history. This means that our pupils have an excellent starting point when they leave Preston Hedge’s and begin the next stage of their education at secondary school.

Reading is a priority within the phase: children are encouraged to read widely for pleasure, and discuss their reading with others. Each class has a classic read that they read as part of their homework and record in their reading journals. The children will then have the opportunity to discuss the text with each other and the class teacher and tackle comprehension questions. Additionally, each class has a class reader that they read together: every day, at the end of day, the class teacher reads the children extracts of classic text during ‘ Book Time’ – a time where our children relax and lose themselves within a story. Both pupils and teachers relish this opportunity to read whole books, and our children gain many educational benefits from this time. We also take every opportunity to read throughout the wider curriculum areas, in order to develop valuable research and information gathering skills.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) is an integral part of the new curriculum and is a focus in Phase Three this academic year. SPaG is taught discretely during weekly sessions and referenced throughout both English writing and reading sessions. During SPaG sessions, children experience progressively pitched SPaG objectives to ensure, by the end of Key Stage Two, they have full coverage of the new curriculum expectations.

The strong core skills that our pupils gain in Reading, Writing & Mathematics, are utilised and given a context within a broad and creative curriculum. Phase Three offers the children a diverse range of exciting  experiences, from becoming astronomers or developing video games to the entrepreneurial experience of creating a product, marketing it and selling it in a Phase Three Enterprise event.

Our philosophy in Phase Three is that the children will be well prepared to continue successfully into secondary education and beyond. To this end, we endeavour to include our six Modern British Values throughout our curriculum to ensure that our pupils are role models for all of society. These are : aspiration, caring, self-discipline, resilience, co-operation and tolerance. We take the time in our curriculum to study those that reflect these Modern British Values and learn from them. Additionally we ensure that our wider curriculum gives children memorable experience to learn from. These include: visits from the National Space Centre to learn about our universe, Shakespeare productions at the Royal & Derngate Theatre and trips to KidZania in London to learn about our future aspirations and career paths.

If you have any questions with regard to any part of your child’s experience in Phase Three, please do not hesitate to pop in and have a chat with me.

Mr Ian Sinnamon

Phase Three Leader