French
The children take part in French lessons twice a week led by Madame Séverine who is a native French teacher. They learn basic French through stories, songs and take part in a range of role-play activities. At the end of Year 2, our children visit a local French bakery and restaurant to practise their French skills.
Music
The children have two music lessons each week with Mr Akers. During these lessons, the children explore tuned and untuned musical instruments, listen and respond to a wide range of live and recorded music and experiment with sounds. The children take part in musical events during the year such as Harvest Festival, our Nativity Play, Year Group music assemblies and we finish the year with the Year 2 leavers’ production. The Year 1 and 2 children are also part of Choir, which is held on Monday lunchtimes and offers children the opportunity to perform to larger audiences. Mr Akers also runs a very popular recorder programme on Wednesday mornings.
PE
The children take part a skills focused PE lesson each with, with our sports coach Mr Crossman. In addition to this, they have daily playtimes that include adult led games and regular visits to Warwick Gardens as part of the curriculum.
Mr Crossman leads a games session each week in Warwick Gardens. The children thoroughly enjoy the sessions which cover a wide range of physical activities and skills which can be transferred into many sports. Each term has a new skills area that is covered. These are:
Autumn Term – Invasion Games
Spring Term – Wall and Net Games
Summer Term – Striking and Fielding Games
Children have the opportunity to experience a wide range of sports at The Villa, they learn the basic skills for sport and thoroughly enjoy their weekly sessions with Mr Crossman.
Swimming
All the children take part in a swimming lesson every week. The children walk to Peckham Pulse Pool and each class is split into two ability set groups. When the children start in Reception, the focus is on water confidence and safety. This builds over the course of the three years to promote swimming skills and different strokes.
Our swimming lessons are a very important part of our curriculum as the children explore the local community on foot every week, develop road safety skills, learn to dress and undress independently as well as participating in physical exercise in the pool.
Forest Schools
All children at The Villa take part in a Forest School programme with a specialist teacher in the local Lettsom Gardens. These sessions allow the children to investigate woodland wildlife, tree climbing (with adult supervision), nature based art and craft activities, use tools (with adult supervision and with appropriate training in safety), trail finding and exploring and creating dens and shelters. Each year, the children build upon their skills and develop an understanding of nature and the world around them.