Lower Curriculum
Curriculum
At The Queen’s School, our curriculum is designed not just to meet, but to exceed the National Curriculum standards, offering a rich and diverse educational experience that goes well beyond statutory requirements. Our approach encourages pupils to actively engage in their learning, fostering an environment where they feel confident to express their opinions, ask questions, and develop a positive attitude towards learning.
Our curriculum is engaging, making learning an exciting and enriching experience and motivating our pupils to delve deeper into their research, encouraging a genuine passion for each topic.
While we dedicate substantial time to English and Maths, recognising their critical role in all learning, we also place significant emphasis on other key areas. Our girls acquire historical and geographical knowledge, develop scientific investigative skills, and explore the creative realms of Art, Drama, Music, and Design and Technology.
One of the unique aspects of The Queen’s School is our use of specialist teachers at the primary level. Our pupils benefit from expert instruction in Swimming, French, Computing, PE, and Music. This specialist teaching not only enhances their learning experience but also helps to build a strong foundation in these subjects from an early age.
We believe in nurturing well-rounded individuals and our curriculum promotes opportunities for exploration, inquiry, and reflection, alongside life skills such as resilience, teamwork, and leadership. By fostering these skills, we prepare our girls to face future challenges with confidence and enthusiasm.
Reception Curriculum
Our Reception curriculum is specifically designed to provide a nurturing and stimulating environment for young learners.
We follow the statutory framework, but progress is accelerated through small class sizes, holistic provision, specialised teaching, and a plethora of co-curricular opportunities.
Our focus is on developing foundational skills through a balanced mix of structured activities and play-based learning. Emphasis is placed on fostering social, emotional, and physical development, as well as literacy and numeracy skills. Our approach encourages curiosity, creativity, and a love for learning, ensuring that each pupil receives personalised attention and support to thrive.
Key Stage One & Two Curriculum
Our Key Stage One and Two curriculum offers a comprehensive and holistic education that balances academic rigor with personal development.
With specialised teaching and a range of enrichment activities, we ensure each child receives a well-rounded education. Form Teachers play a crucial role in providing consistent support and guidance, fostering strong relationships and a sense of community. Additionally, we focus on ensuring a smooth and supportive transition to the Senior School, preparing pupils academically, socially, and emotionally for the next stage of their education.
Why The Queen’s Lower School?
The Queen’s School learning environment is a place where your daughter will thrive, inspired by dedicated teachers and a curriculum designed to ignite her passion for knowledge.
At Queen’s we promote a classroom environment where curiosity is nurtured, and pupils are active rather than passive learners. We challenge our children to solve problems by applying their knowledge, thinking logically, and coming up with creative solutions.
We discuss and debate, enabling pupils to articulate their thoughts, listen to different perspectives and develop reasoned arguments. Through our collaborative learning strategies, we exchange ideas and challenge each other’s thinking.
As much as possible we connect our lessons to the real world, so learning is relevant, practical and engaging.
Our teachers provide regular, constructive feedback which guides pupils in refining their ideas and considering alternative solutions.
Interactive learning platforms, educational apps, and online research opportunities provide pupils with diverse resources to explore topics and develop their critical thinking skills.
Together with art, music and drama, pupils are given further opportunities to express their ideas and perspectives in unique ways.
We teach our children to think about their own thinking. By reflecting on their learning processes, pupils can identify strengths and areas for improvement, fostering a deeper understanding of how they learn best. Mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning; our pupils take risks, ask questions, and persist through challenges, all of which are crucial for developing strong critical thinking skills. They view feedback as a valuable tool for improvement rather than criticism. Ultimately, we are preparing them for a love of life-long learning.
The principles of good science and maths are driven home from the moment our pupils arrive in Reception, with subject-specific teaching starting in Year 3. The girls cannot wait to get started with the dynamic learning involved and love working in teams, especially enjoying the fact that it can be messy and fun and is easy to relate to the world around them.
It is through firing their imagination at this young age that we teach the girls that science and maths is relevant, exciting, stimulating and lots of fun, something which we know stays with them into Senior School, where more than half take a STEM subject as an A-level.
At the Lower School we teach French across the whole school, from Reception to Year 6 and lessons are delivered by a specialist teacher.
Pupils also have the benefit of being introduced to languages like Spanish and Mandarin through our co-curricular club provision, so all pupils have the opportunity to try a new language and discover a different culture during their time in the Lower School.
Queen’s has for a long time been a centre of excellence for teaching and learning Modern Languages including Mandarin. The school is a Confucius Classroom; a title bestowed by the Confucius Institute which allows us to benefit from CLEC teachers from China who are based at the school.
A Challenge and Enrichment Programme is available to help stretch and challenge particularly gifted and talented pupils, whilst the curriculum for all pupils is enriched by school trips, visiting speakers and artists, talks by authors and other activities planned throughout the academic year.
Quality-first teaching is every practitioner’s priority, with lessons differentiated according to pupil ability and expectation. Extension opportunities are provided daily to challenge and extend all pupils, encouraging them to collaborate, question and problem solve.