At Holmer Green First School and Pre-School, our aim is to provide opportunities for our children to blossom and grow through our curriculum. We strive to inspire our children to become the best that they can possibly be. As a school, we focus on the development of children’s knowledge and skills across all aspects of Development Matters in Pre-School and Reception and the National Curriculum in Year One and Two, with the intention of ensuring that pupils are ready for the next stage of their learning.

We understand the importance of ensuring that our children are settled and happy when they begin school. During the autumn term, the children in Pre-School and Reception follow a 'Happy to Be Me!' theme. This allows us to really get to know our children and gives them the opportunity to build up their confidence as they share information about themselves and their families.

Throughout the term the children get to know their new friends and learn all about themselves. They identify features that make them unique and find out how they are similar and different to one another. The children learn to identify body parts and senses. They also spend time finding out about their families and how families can differ. They also focus on communities and discuss the communities and groups that they belong to, enabling them to understand what belonging means.

During the rest of the academic year, the Early Years themes are based around the children's interests. 

We have carefully reflected on the qualities we believe our children should have when they complete their journey with us and have designed our curriculum around these core values.  

• We want our children to be happy and make healthy choices throughout their lives.
• We strive to immerse our children in the world around them, enabling them to be curious and learn through first hand experiences.
• We want our children to be proud of their achievements and to celebrate the success of others.
• We have high expectations of our children. We encourage and support them to be ambitious, challenging themselves and raising their aspirations.
• We want our children to be independent and resilient, taking calculated risks and be willing to have a go.
• We expect our children to be respectful and have an appreciation of the diversity and richness of other cultures, whilst gaining an understanding of their own culture and traditions.
• We nurture our children to become creative and confident learners. 
• We open our children’s eyes to the world beyond their immediate environment, we want them to be adventurous and marvel at the incredible world in which they live.
• We encourage our children to be imaginative and value originality.
• We expect our children to be honest and have high standards of personal behaviour and exemplary attitudes. 
• We want our children to be inclusive individuals with a kind, caring approach towards other people and the world around them.

NED is our school dragon, our mantra. With the qualities of Never give up, Encourage others and Do your best embedded across all areas of school life, we aim to support and guide our children to develop as confident, hard-working and compassionate global citizens who value and contribute to the community in which they live and the society as a whole.

We aim to encourage children to love books, and to take a delight in reading for pleasure and information. We have an extensive library, catering for Pre-School to Year Two children. We use Unlocking Letters and Sounds (ULS) to teach phonics across the school, this was validated by the DfE in December 2021.

All aspects of our curriculum are accessible to all children, regardless of their ethnic background, gender, disability, religious or linguistic background. We strive hard to meet the needs of those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those who are more able, those with talents and children who are learning English as an additional language. We provide a rich, challenging curriculum, which stretches all of our children. Staff are aware of children who have exceptional talents and monitor their progress carefully to ensure that their academic potential is developed. For further details please see the relevant policies.