Good Practice Case Study

Cunningham Hill Infants' School

School No: 437

Literacy & Cross Curricular

Staff at Cunningham Hill Infants use their medium term plans to develop cross curricular links.

Through the careful choice of Big Books, the teachers are able to link ideas and make learning relevant and purposeful.

The pictures of their display boards illustrate how this is developed. Click on the photos below to view larger photos (excluding In the Air):

The school teaches the key objectives for the year groups, but may re-order the sequence of when these are taught in order to make the curriculum ‘make sense’.

The curriculum coverage is carefully mapped and the books chosen support this coverage. Literacy is embedded in the foundation subjects so they provide a vehicle for the application of taught skills. There will usually be a main subject focus – one half-term may be history, while another will have a focus on D&T and other subjects are drawn in where appropriate. The objectives stay the same but the context varies.

The advantage is that it allows more curriculum breadth, children take ownership of their learning and are very motivated by the books and ideas explored. Children develop their thinking skills, their interests and strengths are valued and their levels of attainment are raised.

Having a sense of the bigger picture fosters creativity.

Other starting points or stimuli can be paintings, current affairs, anniversaries or centenaries e.g. of the Wright Brothers first flight.

	One hundred years of flight! Descriptions, research skills, historical accounts, questions, newspaper reports…
Literacy in Art Account writing, descriptive writing, creative writing…
	Literacy in Geography Labelling, questioning, sequencing, explaining…