Specialisms

The National Curriculum provides the basis for the education at Redhill. However, it’s not the whole story; we supplement with four areas of specialism. These are areas which we feel are important in the development of the whole children, in particular, enhancing self-esteem, empathy, confidence and inter-personal skills. Staff receive training in these specialist areas and we look for opportunities to embed them into other areas of the curriculum as well making them the focus of dedicated lessons.

Drama:

Drama involves imagination and feelings and helps us to make sense of the world. It is a creative and cultural activity, providing an opportunity for pupils to explore the world, people from other places, times and cultures, and to examine differences and similarities with their own environment. Through drama, children develop confident oral skills, develop their comprehension skills and learn empathy through exploring the emotions and reactions of characters. Drama is used at Redhill to explore texts or real life issues. Every child performs in school productions or class assemblies.

Literature:

Quality literature is a key way in which children are exposed to the best that has been said, thought and written. It helps children to build their ‘cultural capital’ – their understanding and knowledge of the key signifiers of their own culture and that of others. At Redhill we ensure that every child in the juniors reads rich and varied novels as a whole class and every age group learns to love literature through hearing stories read to them every day.

Visual Arts:

The art and design curriculum at Redhill is progressive and engaging, but we also provide further enriching creative experiences. Each term there is a whole school arts week, themed to help children explore artists, techniques or movements in greater depth. Every child in school at some point in the school year will work with a visiting artist or our own ‘artist in residence’ Mrs Lee. We work hard to create a stimulating, immersive learning environment in school through our eye-catching and creative displays.

Enterprise skills:

Enterprise education is the practice of helping to develop the skills and attitudes we most closely associate with being enterprising or entrepreneurial. As part of this we teach children about budgeting, profit, loss and running a business. However, being enterprising is about more than this, it is about children having a positive and resilient mindset, being able to use their initiative, problem solving and working as a team. As part of our new SECRET to our Success curriculum, each year in our 'Enterprising' focussed term, children take the lead in an enterprise project, culminating in an ‘Showcase Enterprise Evening' where children sell products to their visiting families. We use the money raised for a cause in the school or local community chosen by the children.