Curriculum

Our English curriculum aims to foster a love of reading and writing in our students from an early age. We want to instil a passion for the written word that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

In our creative writing syllabus, we want our students to feel comfortable expressing themselves through adventurous and unique vocabulary. We encourage them to use their imagination to write original and interesting pieces, using intrinsic grammar and spelling. Older pupils write across a variety of genres, including science fiction, historical writing, gothic fiction and performance poetry. Through presentations and performances, they learn to share their work with growing confidence.

Reading is the key to a lifelong love of literature, and we encourage guided and independent reading in the classroom, at home and in our beautiful library. We aim for students to be excited by the characters that leap off the page in literature, by the interplay of words and rhythm in poetry and by the simplicity of prose. Our school librarian runs several book clubs and children are encouraged to discuss their preferences and opinions through structured book-talk.

Our main goal in English is to build a community of passionate readers and writers.

At Kew College Prep, our aim is to enable children to become confident, capable and enthusiastic mathematicians. We want children to develop their skills in reasoning and problem solving, learning to work systematically and to think critically. We want them to make connections between mathematics and cross curricular subjects to see its purpose and value in real life. Above all, we want our children to develop an enjoyment and passion for mathematics that will continue in their future learning.

We achieve our aims as follows:

• Children have opportunities to work independently and in a range of collaborative groupings and are actively encouraged to explain their thinking and to justify their reasoning.
• We use a wide range of resources and teaching methods, ensuring that maths is taught in a cross curricular way.
• Children experience maths in a practical and relevant way, using a wide range of concrete, pictorial, and ICT resources to support their understanding and enhance learning.
• Pupils of all abilities are suitably challenged with appropriate support and extension activities.
• We continually reflect on our mathematics teaching and learning and adapt and develop our provision to ensure we provide children with the opportunity to achieve their potential.

At Kew College Prep, teachers and children work together to create a collective vision of the Science curriculum. We aim to produce active learners who develop their scientific skills to predict, observe and research. Children discuss ideas and opinions to broaden their thinking and conclusions.

Our curriculum is designed to ignite children’s passion for Science, and we carry out a wide range of exciting and challenging experiments and investigations linked to the National Curriculum and beyond. Children are encouraged to use ambitious scientific language to explore their ideas and our lessons inspire them to be inquisitive. They learn to ask questions, make predictions, record results and make conclusions.

Kew College Prep children learn to solve scientific questions posed through practical activities and experiments, both in and outside of the classroom. We run a variety of excursions, including day trips to the Science Museum, Tower Bridge, London Zoo and Kew Gardens which are linked to Science topics the children are studying.

In History, our aim at Kew College Prep is to help pupils understand the society in which they live in and how historical events have helped shape civilisation.

Our younger years learn about famous people and toys of the past. In Year 1 and 2 they investigate topics such as the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Windrush Generation. In the Junior House, we examine medicine and disease, WW2 and the Mayans as a discrete subject. Children learn to interpret the past through role play, discussion and debate.

Being situated in Southwest London, we take full advantage of the historic sites and museums which are only a train or tube ride away. Our workshops and trips range from visits to local buildings, where we learn about how our immediate area has changed over time, to our Year 3 trip to the Vermeulen Museum to study Roman life.

Most importantly, at Kew College Prep, we want to bring history to life for our children.

Kew College Prep is a non-denominational school with a Christian ethos. We promote respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs.

Religious Education has an important role for the development of our pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development. Children learn to ask searching questions and develop open and tolerant minds.

RE is taught on a weekly basis and we cover the main six world religions – Christianity, Judaism, Islam. Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

We incorporate festivals such as Diwali, Christmas and Chinese New Year into our whole school curriculum and hold religious concerts and festivals at St. Anne’s church on Kew Green.

Geography at Kew College Prep is taught as a discrete subject. Through Geography, our children are taught to explore and celebrate both the physical and cultural characteristics of different regions.

In the Infant House, physical and human Geography are incorporated into the curriculum as well as discussions about the need for stewardship and sustainable development to preserve our planet for future generations. Themes include Kenya, our local area and the UK.

In the Junior School, exciting topics such as Rainforests, our European neighbours, Japan, India, and Rivers and Mountains are explored and debated. We complement our lessons with a wide range of workshops, trips and visits. For example, Year 4 recently visited Kew Gardens to be immersed in a rainforest environment and to complete some geographical based fieldwork.

In an increasingly globalised society, we want our children to understand different cultures and countries and to recognise the effect that humans are having on the Earth.

At Kew College Prep, we deliver an inspired and modern approach to the teaching of ICT and Computing, one that embraces the 21st century’s learning needs. Our curriculum encourages our children to think computationally when creating, improvising and solving problems using technology.

Children from Reception through to Year 6 are taught how to navigate a desktop computer, search for information effectively, manage files and work on different applications. Keyboard recognition and touch-typing are practised, and pupils are given opportunities to create a variety of artistic projects on Photoshop, Purple Mash and Busy Things. Computing lessons also cover areas such as coding, databases, simulations, stop motion creation, and creating graphs. Children particularly enjoy coding with Scratch, Swift as well as Minecraft: Education Edition.

We aim for our children to be responsible Digital Citizens. They learn the importance of balancing their time on devices, keeping personal information private, and giving credit if they use others’ work. We ensure our pupils feel safe using technology and act responsibly. To further enhance their skills, we offer a variety of after school clubs such as touch-typing, robotics, STEM, Music Technology, and Coding Club.

At Kew College Prep, we are proud to offer French as part of the core curriculum. We believe that learning another language is important to raise awareness of the multilingual and multi-cultural community in which our children live.

Throughout Reception and the Infant House (Years 1 and 2), our French department fosters curiosity and excitement for language learning by encouraging children to engage with a wide variety of French sounds and words. They are exposed to the language through songs, games, simple role-plays and lots of repetition. Years 1 and 2 pupils become more familiar with French in the written form and learn to write simple words and phrases.

When children move up to the Junior House (Years 3-6), we revisit topics and themes in more depth and children increase their capacity to express themselves in sentences rather than using short phrases or single words. Lessons remain interactive with a focus on listening and speaking and children practice the skills of reading and writing in French.

Year 6 pupils complement their learning with a trip to a chateau in France. This exciting trip is led in French by native-speaking animateurs to give maximum exposure to the language.

Through our French programme, we hope to give Kew College Prep children the desire and skills to become lifelong language learners.

At Kew College Prep, we aim to provide pupils with the knowledge, understanding, attitudes, values and skills they need to reach their potential as individuals and as members of the wider community.

Children are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities and experiences across and beyond the curriculum, with a key focus on Mental Health and Wellbeing. They learn to recognize their own worth, work well with others and become increasingly responsible for their own learning. They reflect on their experiences and understand how they are developing personally and socially, tackling many of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.

Our children learn to understand and respect our common humanity, diversity and differences so that they can go on to form effective, fulfilling relationships that are an essential part of life and learning.