Monkfrith is a warm and welcoming school with a caring and committed team of staff and governors. We seek to actively involve parents at all stages in their child's education and value their contributions to their child's learning. Monkfrith is committed to robust safeguarding procedures to ensure the safety of all our children.
Services
Pupils enter the school during the academic year in which they become 5 years old. The school has one intake for the Reception class each year. Children start school in small groups with the oldest children starting first. All children entering our Reception class attend part-time for a short time at first to make the transition to school easier for them.
We provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Our learning is connected through exciting themes which develop children's ability to make horizontal links across the year and vertical links between year groups. Vocabulary linked to subject specific areas of the curriculum, as well as vocabulary for learning, is explicitly taught so children are able to talk confidently about what they have learnt.
At Monkfrith, we follow the Letters and Sounds programme for the systematic teaching of phonics. Activities are divided into seven aspects, including environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and finally oral blending and segmenting. The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each.
Language plays a vital role in the curriculum because it is through language that children formulate and express their ideas, organise their thinking and attempt to make sense of the world. Children in all classes spend at least an hour every day on English skills. In the early years speaking and listening play an important part in developing the skills to read and write.
There are some elements of the National Curriculum which we feel are best taught outside of the themed learning journeys. All our children enjoy music and from Reception upwards have the opportunity to sing and play musical instruments. Listening and appreciating music composed in the past and present from a variety of cultures is also part of the music curriculum.
