Year 1 is a time of rapid development, building on the strong foundations laid in Nursery and Reception. Children become much more confident in their reading and enjoy a widening range of phonically decodeable books. Handwriting is taught alongside phonics and is developing quickly; much of it is joined. Children start to work more independently, to be individually creative, to make connections between home and school and to become fully involved in every subject. Plenty of practical Science, Design and Technology, Computing and Maths activities, including problem solving, are needed at this most imaginative age.
In Year 2 the children continue to develop their word reading and reading comprehension skills as well as becoming more expressive in their writing. By the end of the year and of their time in the Lower School, most children are fluent and accurate both in their reading and their writing. They are reading independently and benefit from being exposed to a wide range of genres and authors. Handwriting is now fully joined and the children use their well refined skills to produce extended stories as well as accurate, factual writing. In Maths, they apply their understanding of concepts to solve more challenging problems in number, shape, time and measurement.
Strong basic skills enable children to make the most of the wide curriculum and a topic approach encourages rich and deep learning of History, Geography and Science. In the Lower School, children continue to be taught by specialist teachers for Arts, French, Computing and Sport.