Throughout the school, children are based in classrooms and spend the majority of their time learning with their class teachers. Alongside this, we make full use of our extensive outdoor spaces, including our wildlife area, to enrich and extend learning opportunities beyond the classroom.
Specialist teaching is also provided in a number of curriculum areas, including music, art, dance, PE and Modern Foreign Languages. Children in Years 3 and 4 learn Spanish, while children in Years 5 and 6 learn French. In addition, our Year 3 pupils spend one term developing their swimming skills at Braywick Leisure Centre.
This combination of class-based and specialist teaching ensures that children benefit from high-quality learning experiences across the curriculum, while developing a broad range of knowledge, skills and interests.
Our staff work closely as a team, collaborating to plan engaging learning experiences, assess children’s progress and continually develop and strengthen their teaching. This collaborative approach ensures that all children are supported to achieve their full potential.
A copy of our Teaching & Learning policy can be found in the Policy Section of this website. Please refer to this to understand more about our Teaching & Learning philosophy.
Here at Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, when it comes to designing and delivering our curriculum, we are acutely aware of how the children’s learning is enhanced by the type and range of experiences we offer. With this in mind, we organise trips to places of interest, some near some far. Whether it’s a trip to a museum like Bletchley Park or simply a walk around the village with a clip board in hand, the experience helps to engage and motivate.
In addition, a significant and unique part of our curriculum offer is delivered through themed weeks. Our themed weeks, five in total during the course of an academic year: ‘Science and Technology Week’, ‘Maths and Computing Week’, ‘Book Week’, ‘Arts and Culture Week’ and ‘Sports Week’, allow us to focus on specific areas of the curriculum in a meaningful way that the children speak enormously positively about.
The year always starts with ‘Science and Technology Week’ during which new topics are introduced, famous scientists are researched and investigations are carried out. As well as visitors coming in, elements of the science and technology curriculum are covered in lessons delivered by class teachers. Pupils try their hand at cooking and all participate in a technology challenge which is completed at home but tested and evaluated in school.
During the week, the children meet a range of outside workshop providers. Some use our wildlife area to support their teaching of topics including habitats, life cycles and food chains. Often small creatures: insects, amphibians and small mammals are brought in but we occasionally play host to larger animals including, one year, alpacas.
Working closely with Wild Cookham, the children can enjoy fascinating workshop which involved a range of practical tasks: dissecting owl pellets, pond dipping, setting up wildlife cameras, and ever popular are workshops led by ‘Build to Learn’, which relay on teams using Lego to create structures with a very specific brief.
Our ‘Science and Technology Week’ is always enhanced by parents who volunteer their time to run sessions on a range of topics which have included bee keeping, nutrition and dentistry. We place a high value on this as it opens the children’s eyes to the world of work and gives them an insight into career paths even at this young age. Committed to ensuring the highest level of engagement and maximising learning opportunities, we reach out to many organisations including environmental groups to join us for the week and share their expertise. The five days gives the children opportunities to question, analyse, work cooperatively and develop resilience through the completion of a range of tasks.
‘Maths and Computing Week’, the second themed week of the year, coincides with Maths Week, England and again workshop providers are invited into school. Organisations like the ‘Problem Solving Company’ challenge the children to complete maths puzzles which encouraged teamwork and shared thinking.
During the rest of the week, every class can expect to take part in a number of maths and IT related activities and hear from parents whose work relies on skills in these areas.
We participate in Times Table Rock Star competitions along with many schools across the country and award certificates to those particularly successful in completing challenges. Some pupils complete the Primary Mathematics Challenge designed by The Mathematical Association to encourage enthusiasm, boosts confidence in mathematics and show the different way questions can be asked. The task highlights the importance of problem solving as a means of helping pupils develop their reasoning skills.
In the Spring Term the children can look forward to ‘Book Week’ which always coincides with World Book Day. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to promote reading and the enjoyment it can bring by inviting children’s authors in to school.
Local authors are also welcomed in and through the power of technology, virtually sessions with well-known personalities are possible as is the opportunity to join others in the BBC Live Lesson which always falls on World Book Day.
Our offer is always enhanced by workshops led by parents. Who better to guide the children in speech writing than someone who works in the civil service or promote the value of writing than a journalist.
‘Book Week’ gives the children an opportunity to work collaboratively by organising ‘book swaps’, promoting our school newspaper ‘Trinity Times’ and sharing a love of books through paired reading sessions.
Always popular is the trip to the Little Bookshop in Cookham High Street allowing every child to spend their pocket money on something that entices them and when travelling theatre companies perform, inspiration for our annual Book Week dress-up day is provided.
‘Arts and Culture Week’ is another significant event in the calendar and over the years it has evolved. Initially it involved a journey around the world with each class studying a particular country. The week culminated with a whole school performance on the field during which the children danced, sang and recited poems related to the country they had explored in depth. More recently, however, it has developed into something which is more tightly tied in to specific subjects in the curriculum. In a ‘Celebration of Cookham’, geography was the focus when the whole school rejoiced in everything which makes Cookham special; the river, Stanley Spencer, our school and the church. History has been a focus as has PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) when through song and dance, the importance of friendship and togetherness was celebrated with resilience, teamwork and uniqueness promoted.
Alongside this emphasis on performance, workshops and concerts which promote the arts are timetabled. The children can enjoy experiences delivered by classical musicians, opera singers and contemporary dancers. Outreach artists from Norden Farm share their skills and visits to The Stanley Spencer Gallery are planned.
'Sports Week' draws the year to a close with the aim of promoting a healthy lifestyle and enjoyment through shared participation in sport. With experts, the children participate in a range of activities which culminates with sports day.
Through our themed weeks we aim to provide the children with a range of activities that are broad and enriching. We believe that these first-hand experiences provide enjoyment and motivation which is long lasting.