Welcome to Chestnut 1!

"We are Chestnut 1!"  We have an amazing classroom, which is carefully organised, to ensure that we use it to learn and challenge ourselves every day.

We are constantly reading, performing and creating imaginary worlds with loose parts and construction materials. We like learning about famous artists and have several budding designers in the making.  In maths, we develop our knowledge and understanding of number, applying this to our playful challenges. We like explaining and developing what we know and telling adults how we know it! We are incredible authors and you will regularly find us sharing our stories with the 'little ones!'

We are very lucky to have access to a beautiful outdoor area which we share with Maple Class and we love to take part in Outdoor Learning in our school nature reserve.

In Chestnut 1, we are building on the amazing foundations that we laid in Maple class; developing our ability to plan, solve problems, work as a team and to keep persevering when things are difficult. We are developing our communication skills further, deepening our love of reading and writing and learning new skills to make us even more successful, independent learners. 

Our teachers know us very well and know exactly what we need to work on. They like to play with us so that we can develop our skillset in a non-stressful, fun and developmentally appropriate way.

We love to read. We love to write. We love working with BIG numbers. We love to explore the world around us. We love to explore the past. We love to make and create. We love to learn!

We love school in Chestnut 1 and we are happy that playful learning hasn't gone!

Intent, Implementation and Impact

We intend for our children to enter Key Stage one and continue to build upon the amazing foundations from Maple Class. Our children thrive in Maple class and we have no intention of letting the children's passion to learn be overshadowed. We believe children learn best when they are engaged, inspired and interested. At this age, children are more engaged when they have 'ownership' of the ideas and line of enquiry! Our children have quality teacher inputs in all subject areas and time to apply new learning in a way that interests them. 

We intend for children to enter Chestnut 2 as independent, eager, confident learners. We aim to nurture their love of reading, their self-driven desire to write, develop a wide range of knowledge to be applied in Maths, Science and all non-core subjects.  We want to ensure that children develop their love of learning, communication skills and enter Chestnut 2 ready to consolidate their independent approach to learning. 

Our curriculum is well thought out, ensuring children can revisit and revise learning throughout the year. All learning has links to our whole school's Golden Threads. Our Key Stage one teachers know us well and consider our personal areas for development, carefully planning for these aspects in both teacher led inputs and 'Teacher Planned Focus' in CP time. This means, as well as well planned teacher inputs, children have well-considered teacher interactions during their CP time; time where children direct their own learning and access their continous provision.

We believe it is essential to provide children (particularly in KS1) with the opportunity to rehearse skills and apply knowledge both with and without the support of their teachers. The children have adult-led inputs, where they are taught according to the National Curriculum expectations for all subject areas. We then allow children (through child-led enquiry and access to a carefully planned Continuous Provision) to explore and apply skills in a way that engages them, interests them and develops their independence. Adults know the children as individuals and have a clear understanding of their next areas for development. Through careful interactions during CP time, teachers model, support, extend, challenge and further motivate children to develop their individual targets and apply new skills and learning. Children are more motivated and invested in learning whilst they are engaged in their own pursuits/lines of enquiry. 

As a result, our children love to learn; love to write, love to read; love to apply mathematical knowledge; love finding out about the world around them; love to investigate the past and love to create, make, build and present their findings in their way! 

Our children make excellent progress in all areas of the curriculum and do so with a smile on their faces. 

Chestnut One Long Term Curriculum Overview:

Daily Information:

PE Days

PE will be on Wednesdays and Fridays this term. On these days, the children should come into school in their PE kits which will act as their 'uniform' for those days. As such, the children are expected to wear a light blue polo PE shirt, navy leggings or jogging bottoms and a school jumper or navy jumper.

Please explore our school website and if you have any questions, I would be more than happy to help. 

Mr Good.