Early Years & Key Stage 1 (Ages 4-7)

Our Creative Curriculum

If your child joins Pre-Prep (ages 4-7) their educational adventure starts in a light and modern building called Stewart House, with small class sizes and an environment that balances aspirations with warmth, kindness and praise.

Every minute of every school day is spent laying solid foundations for their future life and education. Through playing, exploring, creating and thinking critically inside and outside of the classroom, pupils in the first phase of our vibrant all-through school are actively involved in their own learning and personal development.

Academic success is prized but so is laughter and having fun whilst learning. Your child will have plenty of opportunities to make lots of friends along the way and be known, supported and valued by nurturing and talented teachers.

What's included in the curriculum?

What's included in the curriculum?

With a rich curriculum that grows with our pupils, our youngest years start off learning English, Maths, Expressive Arts, Music, Spanish, Computing and Sport, adding other subjects such as Art, DT, History Geography, Science and RE along the way. The children will also begin to visit our onsite Forest School and learn to swim in our onsite swimming pool.

Effective learning is tailored to suit every individual - ‘stretch and challenge’ are the watchwords and learning activities are devised by our experienced and nurturing teaching team, based on educational theory and pedagogy and in tune with the needs of today’s children.

Children learn best when they don’t realise they are learning. That is why most of your child’s learning here will be topic based, through practical and purposeful play. Each topic is introduced with a tangible experience which acts as a reference point. Activities follow which encourage problem solving, enquiry and collaborative work.

Bringing Learning to Life

Our Reception classes focus on child led interests to engage the children in their learning. The classroom environment, both inside and outside, enables the children to make choices of how they demonstrate their understanding of the world around them in creative ways. This includes opportunities to write, count, imagine, role play, and construct. Familiar stories help stimulate interests and themes.

Year 1 and Year 2 begin to focus on topics which link learning together.

Year 2 for example, during their Great Fire of London topic, are immersed in life in London in 1666, not only dressing the part but role playing the jobs and crafts typical of that time.

They then hear a bell ring, calling out that a fire has started in a bakery in Pudding Lane. Will they be able to put out the fire before London is destroyed?

As well as writing descriptions and learning historical facts, the children create houses and a street scene which is then taken to our Felsted Forest School area where a real fire in the bakery starts. The children can see, in real time, how the layout of the streets caused the fire to spread rapidly through the city. These first hand experiences all bring the learning to life.