Welcome to Year 1 & 2

Meet our Team

• Phase Leader: Mrs Darling and Mrs Cavanagh
• Percival Teacher: Mrs Worrall
• Teaching Assistants: Mrs Karmous.
• Milne Teacher: Mrs Parveen (Mon - Wed), Mrs Allsopp (Wed - Fri)
• Teaching Assistant: Mrs Gill.
• Donaldson Teacher: Mrs Darling (Mon - Wed), Mrs Johnson (Wed - Fri)
• Teaching Assistant: Mrs Shaw.
• Rosen Teacher: Miss Ahmed
• Teaching Assistant: Mrs Ahmed.
• Zephaniah Teacher: Miss Dolbinska
• Teaching Assistant: Mrs Smith.

‘We must provide all children, and especially the disadvantaged, with experiences that will promote curiosity, active learning, co-operation and engagement and so foster a love of learning.’

 ‘Let me be Five’     Sue Quirk and Victoria Pettett  2021

Happy children make successful learners!  At Arboretum, we believe that pushing children too soon into a developmentally inappropriate learning environment is not conducive to developing a love of learning, raising attainment or acknowledging the wellbeing of our children. A wealth of research into child development confirms this.

‘The reason early learning of formal academic skills does not translate into long-term gains is because formal learning tends to be too abstract for young children’s development.  For the first six years at a minimum, learning must be active and meaningful.  

Exploring the contexts for early learning      McDowall Clark   2017

In our KS1 classrooms you will see a mixture of child-initiated, adult-initiated, play-based activities along with some short whole class (more often small group) adult-directed sessions. We create a context for learning, in line with our whole school curriculum vision, by linking all activities to a core text.  We make effective use of outdoor environments and focus on developing independence through the creation of enabling environments (continuous provision).