Curriculum
Curriculum Forecasts
2012-13 Term 1 and 2 (pdf documents)
Homework Brochures
Why homework
We believe that all children benefit from regular independent learning away from the classroom. We hope you will appreciate this opportunity to keep in touch with the work your child is doing at school. We value this extension of school as a means of enhancing your child’s learning and helping them develop self-discipline. Homework provides the opportunity to reinforce, enrich and extend learning.
What counts
A wide variety of activities can be set. These activities range from reading, written exercises, numeracy, projects, background reading to personal research, library and museum work. Some homework activities, including longer projects, require a number of homework sessions to complete.
Homework Brochures
Our homework brochures set out the key information about class homework for the coming year. Each year group has a brochure. The brochure enable teachers, children and parents to be clear about expectations for homework as well as giving a timetable for the year group’s homework over the coming weeks and terms. Homework will be set in accordance with the brochure, although a degree of flexibility is built in for the pattern to vary occasionally.
Whole School Homework Brochure (pdf document)
2012-13 (pdf documents)
Handing it in
We expect your child to complete their homework tasks and will praise them for doing so. Where homework is not regularly completed in line with expectations on three occasions, your class teacher will formally write to inform you. If three formal letters are sent to one child’s family during the year a phone call from the head will follow.
Getting Feedback
Homework will be marked in accordance with the school marking policy. Feedback will be in a variety of forms, and not always written. It may be to individual pupils, or to groups of pupils.
Learning to Read and Write
St Stephens School utilise the Jolly phonics scheme. Jolly Phonics is a systematic synthetic phonics programme designed to teach children to read and write. Children learn the 42 letter sounds of the English language, rather than the alphabet. They are then taken through the stages of blending and segmenting words to develop reading and writing skills.
In addition we use a range of phonic teaching resources to support learning where children have not made expected progress through our learning support systems.
We use a range of reading scheme materials but our core scheme is Oxford Reading Tree.
Parents are truly valued as partners in their chidlren’s learning and as such are invited to find out more about the way we teach literacy and numeracy as well as a range of other information giving evenings. These tend to be particularly frequent in the very early months of a childs reception experience although they are also offered for parents across the whole school.
Key Stage 2 Results
Key Stage 2 includes Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. Although St Stephen’s organizes many aspects of school life around a Phase system which is slightly different, the statutory testing of children remains organized within the Key Stages.
So children will be statutorily tested at the end of Year 2 (the last year of Key Stage 1) and the second key stage of the National Curriculum. KS2 Tests are sat by year 6 pupils (in school year they become 11 years old).
Stephen’s School Key Stage 2 Latest Results (for tests taken May 2011)
The school’s most recent key stage 2 results as published by the Secretary of State in the School Performance Tables and on the Department for Education’s website are as follows:
KS 2 test results and Progress All pupils| % achieving Level 4 or above in English and Maths | 98% |
| % making expected progress in relation to English | 76% |
| % making expected progress in relation to Maths | 88% |
| % achieving level 5 or above in English | 51% |
| % achieving level 5 or above in Maths | 58% |
The Department of Education intends to publish the School Performance Tables for Key Stage 2 tests sat in May 2012 in mid December 2012.
For the Full Results and Data held for St Stephens School on Department of Education website please click here.
The Pupil Premium
The Pupil Premium was introduced by the Government in April 2011 whereby extra funding is given for each child at school who is currently eligible for free school meals. For the year 2012/13 the amount is £600 per year for each qualifying pupil.
“The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.” From the Department of Education - Pupil Premium What You need to Know.
St Stephens School Use of the Pupil Premium for 2012/13:
Total Amount of Funding |
£18,600 |
How intended to spend |
Two part time teacher contracts working 5 mornings per week and four afternoon sessions |
Previous years how spent |
Supporting extension activities and providing additional learning support through withdrawal and specific learning objectives linked to IEPs (Individual Education plans). |
Effect on attainment of those who received it |
The specific details are tied to individual children and would not be appropriate to publish here but the attainment of all children receiving the Pupil premium was at or above national expectations. |
Pupil Premium Allocation and Expenditure 2012/2013
Total number of pupils eligible for pupil premium = 31
Allocation per child = £600 Therefore total allocation £18,600 for financial year 2012/13.
Teacher A pupil premium support salary cost 3 days per week £13,544
Teacher B pupil premium support salary cost 6 hours per week £ 4,228
£17,772
Special Wednesdays
For more information on the curriculum-based activities offered on Special Wednesdays (PPA days), click here.
