The curriculum of the Junior Department achieves a dichotomy of aims; it ensures that the teachers have high expectations of the girls and that academic standards are high, whilst teaching in a way that quite simply put is ‘fun’. By ensuring that the teaching and learning in the Department is interesting and motivating, the girls are fully focused on their work and quite simply want to learn more.

The curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and the National Primary Frameworks for English and Mathematics, but we try to ensure that we teach beyond the confines of these documents. The girls will have many practical and first hand experiences during the course of any one week, allowing their meaning to come to life and ensure their knowledge is applied in a variety of new and challenging tasks.

In Pre-Prep, the curriculum is guided by the Foundation Stage Curriculum. This curriculum has six main areas:

· Personal, Social and Emotional Development

· Communication, Language and Literacy

· Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

· Knowledge and Understanding of the World

· Physical Development

· Creative Development

Activities in the morning focus on literacy and numeracy skills, while always being related to the current topic of the class. In the afternoon, the girls continue to learn with role play, construction, art, technology, water play and computer activities.

The subjects taught in Years 1 to 6 are as follows:

Core Subjects

English
Mathematics
Science
ICT

Foundation Subjects

French (from Year 2)
Latin (from Year 5)
History
Geography
Religious Education
Art
Design Technology
Music
Drama
Personal, Social and Health Education
Games, Gymnastics and Dance
Swimming (from Year 3)

In many classes, and certainly those of the younger girls, these subjects are taught using cross-curricular topics, which enables the girls to have greater continuity in their learning.