At Ashbourne Hilltop Primary School, we ensure full coverage of all foundation subjects by following the recognised Cornerstones Curriculum. Each year group has a different topic each half term which is initiated by an experience that links directly to the topic theme.

Our school curriculum is updated to reflect changes within the government guidance, what best suits the needs of our pupils and to ensure that it inspires and engages the children. Our curriculum provision follows the 2014 National Curriculum which you can access below.

In Reception, KS1 and lower KS2 we use Oxford Reading Tree as our home/school reading scheme to track children’s development and progress across the National Curriculum reading objectives. Each classroom also has available a library of fiction and non-fiction books to encourage children to read a wider variety of books. We celebrate children reading independently at home with an adult through a badge scheme, where children can move through a series of colour coded badges that correspond to the number of times they have had comments written in their reading diaries by an adult. Each term children have the opportunity to reach a gold badge which they can keep forever!

Synthetic phonics is taught at the same time throughout the school to allow children to access the correct phase of “Letters and Sounds” according to their ability. The groups are reviewed regularly to ensure children are always accessing the most appropriate phase for their phonic ability. We subscribe to “Phonics Play” which gives us access to numerous interactive games and activities to support the teaching of synthetic phonics in a structures and lively 20- minute session every day throughout EYFS and KS1. Children in KS2 also have the opportunity to access the relevant phonics phase if they need to.