Curriculum

Mrs Miles leads Forest School Sessions for children in Key Stage One and works with the EYFS team to support outdoor learning sessions. The sessions are held on a rolling programme in blocks and take place in the small wooded area and field within the school grounds. 

Forest School is an approach to educating children in the outdoor environment on a regular basis.

The activities support the main curriculum (particularly literacy, science, maths and the arts) and have a strong emphasis on raising all children’s self-esteem and independence.

An integral part of Forest School is that children will experience the outdoors in all weathers. With the exception of very high winds and thunder storms, please assume that your child will be outside when they take part in Forest School, even if it is for a shortened session.

To help achieve this, we ask you to ensure that your child is sent to school with weather appropriate clothing and footwear to change into. We recommend that the children wear long trousers to minimise stings and scratches but please bear in mind your child is likely to get dirty! We reserve the right to exclude anyone who we feel is inappropriately dressed.

If you have any questions about Forest School Mrs Miles will be very happy to chat with you.

Mrs Miles holds Forest School Leader Level 3 qualification and Forest School First Aid.

At Forest School all participants are viewed as:

• equal, unique and valuable

• competent to explore and discover

• entitled to experience appropriate risk and challenge

• entitled to choose and to initiate and drive their own learning and development

• entitled to experience regular success

• entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people

As a school we believe it is important that all children engage in regular exercise. This is not only benefits their physical development but also supports their mental wellbeing.

We are fortunate to employ Sports Stars to deliver our PE sessions in the main school.

Coach Ben, Coach Jay and Coach Luke from Sports Stars are an integral part of the school staff. They deliver high quality PE lessons in a fun and engaging way for children of all abilities. They also organise a range of opportunities for the children to compete against other local schools.

All coaches are DBS checked, first aid qualified and hold nationally recognised sports qualifications.

Swimming

Year 2 will have the opportunity to swim at the pool at St. Catherine's School in the summer term, these sessions are led by volunteers and staff from St. Catherine's and supervised by school staff.

Religious Education in Church Schools is a subject of excellence through which we can express our distinctive Christian ethos. It allows a deep spiritual engagement with others which leads to greater understanding of the Christian Values which underpin the curriculum.

Religious Education is unique in the school curriculum in that it is neither a core subject nor a foundation subject but the 1988 Education Act states that ‘Religious Education has equal standing in relation to core subjects of the National Curriculum in that it is compulsory for all registered pupils.’

Bramley C of E Infant and Nursery School delivers RE in line with the Guildford Diocesan Guidelines.

The children at Bramley Infant School enjoy their learning in RE and the teachers ensure that the learning experiences are creative, thought-provoking and inspiring. We are proud of the achievements of the children in RE and the school enjoys celebrating their successes through different productions and assemblies.

Inclusion

Local committee members and staff appreciate the difference in people’s cultural and religious backgrounds and these are taken into account when planning learning opportunities and choosing resource materials. An awareness of stereotypical gender images or views are also considered. The requirements of children having a special need are also considered.

The National Curriculum and Guidelines for Religious Education 2014

Bramley Infant School follows the Guildford Diocesan Board of Education Guidelines and the additional supplementary units https://www.cofeguildford.org.uk/education. These provide detailed guidelines and ensure continuity and progression in the teaching of Religious Education. Children in reception follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, but are introduced to aspects of Religious Education through topics.

Intent, Implementation and Impact

RE Yearly overview

SIAMS report

Every day the children join together in an act of collect worship. This is a wonderful time to gather together as a school to learn about the values taught to us by Jesus and God. Our themes are based on the school values and vision. The children are all given the opportunity to contribute by choosing stories, making comments, asking or answering questions, retelling the stories or making up prayers. Each half term the value is celebrated and explored in special acts of worship. A member of the governing body joins us and presents an award to a child from each class who has demonstrated the value in a special way.

Open the Book Assemblies

Open the Book (OTB) is a project which offers primary school children an opportunity to hear the major stories of the Bible. Each week members of the local churches will act out a story from the Lion storyteller Bible based on Christian Values. The children always look forward to Open the Book assemblies every Friday. It is a fun and interactive way to learn about the Bible. It also provides a special and valuable link to our community. The children love spotting the OTB members in the village and at community events.

Our Prayer Spaces

Our prayer and reflective spaces are an inclusive space to enable children to explore their own spirituality. They are able to use this quiet space to reflect on the themes they have learnt about in their RE lessons or in the collective worship. It is a quiet and respectful area in which children go to pray or write down their thoughts, ideas or big questions. There are activities that children are able to carry out based on Christian or British values.

Pause Days

Each term we carry out a Pause Day. This is a special time when the children come together to work with children from different year groups. These days are invaluable to the children as they enable them to reflect on their learning and engage in deeper religious thinking. Recently our pause days have focused on courageous advocacy, the importance of the festival of Easter and Advent.

Worship Team

Our worship team are from Year 2, the worship team help to change and maintain the prayer spaces and help to lead some collective worship. Our worship team are responsible for helping others understand our school vision.