Our Curriculum

At Polesden Lacey Infant Academy, we teach a curriculum that is exciting, fun and imaginative. Children are engaged in thinking, questioning and learning. The school enriches the National Curriculum programmes of study and motivates and engages pupils by ‘bringing learning to life.’ All areas of the curriculum are valued and enrichment opportunities are offered across the year, including a wide variety of clubs.

In order for our pupils to be well-prepared for the next phase of their education, we believe our curriculum and its implementation must develop pupils who are enquiring, independent, have a growth-mind set and high aspirations. Where appropriate we aim for our curriculum to be enquiry based, provoking questions and challenging the thinking of our pupils. Alongside these qualities needed for academic success, we aim for our school values to pervade our approach, so developing a sense of caring, resilience, courage, curiosity, fairness and respectful are just as important.

We aim for our curriculum to be meaningful to all children. We plan carefully to develop the progression of skills and knowledge. The content of each subject is sequential, building on prior learning and ensuring a depth of understanding is achieved. We allow our curriculum to have some fluidity to follow children’s interests or respond to topical events and pupils’ individual needs.

High academic standards are an important goal for the school. Our focus is on developing a love of reading, promoting maths fluency, supporting children to have a broad vocabulary and providing meaningful cross-curricular writing opportunities. Reading has a strong focus at Polesden Lacey Infant Academy. In addition to being taught phonics and reading skills, children are encouraged to read for enjoyment and teachers read aloud high-quality texts in every class.

The school curriculum promotes respect, tolerance and diversity including, fundamental British values. Children are encouraged to express themselves through discussion and debating. This is done partly through our unique use of circle time where all pupils are involved in discussing both school issues as well as current national and international topics. Children are made aware of the potential for change that individuals can bring about through action, campaigning and lobbying. We promote a respect for our environment.

Children have opportunities for a wide range of enriching experiences and active learning. Our beautiful school and the local area provide a fantastic resource for teaching our curriculum, By the time our pupils leave us they will have built dens in the woods, drunk hot chocolate around a fire, explored Polesden Lacey House and visited our local mosque and synagogue. We also expect our children to have a good understanding of history, culture and geography beyond Bookham to enable them to have a wider understanding of the world.

Forest School is an integral part of the school. Pupils in all classes have weekly Forest School sessions. The children develop their resilience, risk taking and problem solving in a safe and supportive environment. All of these skills are then taken back into the classroom to support them with their academic learning and their personal and social development.