At Overton St. Helen’s Church of England Primary School, we strive to provide high quality education that meets the needs of all children throughout their whole school life. We believe that every child is special. Within our school family all decisions are underpinned with Christian values which play a major part in the life of our school.
We aim to prepare children by inspiring a love of learning. We strive to equip them with life-skills to ensure that each individual child can develop their heart and mind fully.
Our curriculum is designed to provide breadth and balance of experience, knowledge, skills and understanding in all areas of the national curriculum and beyond and is carefully structured to ensure progression for each child.
We take account of each child’s individual skills and interests and develop these through a curriculum which is enriched by a wide range of exciting opportunities inside and outside the classroom.
Phonics
In Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1, pupils are taught to crack the phonics code through systematic daily phonics sessions. Teachers plan their lessons using Lancashire’s ‘Rose Rose Letters and Sounds’ (2022). Phonics continues to be taught in Key Stage 2 where necessary.
Children are given opportunities to apply their understanding of phonics during Guided Reading sessions and through independent writing tasks.
Reading
Reading is highly regarded at Overton St Helens and we work hard to develop a real joy of reading. Children have the opportunity to take part in engaging and enjoyable shared, group and independent reading activities through each day. During guided reading sessions, teachers make ongoing assessments of our pupils’ progress.
In EYFS and Key Stage 1 we use reading books that are carefully matched to Lancashire’s Red Rose Letters and Sounds. We use Oxford Reading Tree and Pearson Phonics as our home reading books to support the development of phonics.