Our bespoke curriculum is designed and delivered to be intellectually exciting, academically engaging and imaginatively stimulating. It is a great honour to help shape the young minds of tomorrow, and we work tirelessly to make sure Prospect House pupils leave with the courage, confidence and creativity they need to thrive at senior school and beyond.
For us, academic excellence is a given. Nurturing individuality is really at the heart of what we do. It opens up young minds to endless possibilities, encouraging them to think creatively and form their own ideas – while having fun. Our teachers tailor their classes so every child can excel. Core subjects are complemented by a wide range of arts, languages and humanities, as well as a keen focus on sport.
A love of reading is at the very heart of English at Prospect House. From the earliest days at school, we foster an enjoyment of literature and encourage the children to take joy in discovering new vocabulary. As well as appreciating the writing of others, we also guide our pupils in exploring their own creativity, harnessing the power of their imagination to craft and finesse their own prose. By the time students reach Year 6, they will have been supported in becoming confident, articulate and passionate writers and readers.
Having a strong knowledge of the fundamentals is key to becoming a successful mathematician. Our approach moves from the concrete, to the practical and finally, to the abstract. By giving children something physical that they can get their hands on, they develop confidence and a greater understanding, which leads to higher achievement.
Children are encouraged to investigate mathematical principles and reason logically. Problem solving strategies are modelled in lessons and opportunities to apply these strategies include our annual Problem Solving Day, maths challenges and our interactive problem solving walls.
Our children are supported to make the best possible progress; they enjoy maths and achieve very high standards.
From the beginning of Year 3, we add lessons in verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning into the timetable. In this way the children are introduced to the foundations of each skill tested later in the 11+ secondary school entrance processes.
The topics covered include word and letter patterns, vocabulary, number patterns, and problem solving involving shape similarities and differences, matrices, analogies, rotations, folded shapes and codes. We use a variety of concrete resources in these lessons to enable the pupils to visualise solutions and strategies.
Our approach to science is designed to stimulate and build on the natural curiosity children have in the world around them. Our varied and inspiring curriculum gives pupils plenty of opportunities to get involved in a wide range of investigative activities.
Students are encouraged to develop good practical skills through serious, structured investigations. They are guided to devise and discuss their own ideas for investigations and to represent their results clearly and accurately.
The topics we cover at Prospect House are:
Life cycles and processes of plants and animals
Materials and their physical, useful and magnetic properties
Physical processes such as light, sound, electricity, forces and motions
Our younger students usually receive ethically-sourced caterpillars, tadpoles and ducklings into their classrooms in the summer term each year to enable them to observe life cycles up close.
From age 3 our children are introduced to French language and culture through games and songs, encouraging confidence and enjoyment of the language through oral work. As they get older, pupils build on their knowledge of familiar topics and we introduce role plays to develop their interaction skills. Writing and reading activities are incorporated from Year 3 alongside the continual extension of vocabulary to improve spoken fluency.
We believe it is important to foster an interest in classical civilisations from an early age. Our year 5 and 6 children enjoy and learn a great deal from the logical processes required to decipher and translate Latin text. We use the Cambridge Latin Course, Book 1 which focuses on vocabulary and basic grammar together with learning about daily life in ancient Rome.
In our geography lessons, we discuss the ways in which our planet is continuously being shaped both by physical processes and human societies, and how they affect the way we live today and might live in the future. The children enjoy learning practical skills through hands-on activities and steadily develop their research skills. We also love to invite parents to share their knowledge of countries in which they have lived via short presentations particularly in Reception and Year 3.
Some of the topics we cover are:
An introduction to countries and continents together with major natural features of the world
The use of maps and atlases, keys and compass points
Rivers and oceans including features of erosion and deposition
Settlements: definition, types, sizes, locations, land use, change over time and environmental issues
Tectonic plates, mountains and volcanoes
In-depth focus on London, Tokyo and India
In Year 6, pupils carry out an extended research project where they can focus on a particular area of interest and demonstrate their oral and visual presentation skills. We also organise a widely-anticipated urban route finding project focusing on London’s famous landmarks culminating in a ‘treasure hunt’ around the city itself. The children use a variety of maps to plan their route (using only public transport) before setting off in small groups to race each other!
Our history lessons bring the past to life, and help children learn valuable analytical skills, such as assessing evidence, making balanced arguments and reaching supported conclusions. In each time period studied, we examine different lifestyles, localities, time scales, belief systems and knowledge bases. Our children are encouraged to reflect on ways in which historical peoples and events influence the modern world together with how their lives differ from our own. We cover the following topics:
Year 2 – the Great Fire of London and the Victorians
Year 3 – ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and ancient Rome
Year 4 – Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age followed by the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
Year 5 – Tudor England, the social, technological & scientific changes during the Victorian Era and the ancient Mayan civilisation
Year 6 – World War I, World War II and Britain since 1948
The children will often take part in full-day workshops where they develop their knowledge of the period through practical activities.
Our religion, philosophy and ethics lessons promote respect and a deeper understanding of religious diversity, and encourage personal reflection and spiritual development. The children will study the main religions of the world including celebrations, signs & symbols and special places. Across the school year parents and members of staff are invited to give talks to the children about religious festivals and holidays.
Our younger students discuss philosophical topics such as right and wrong, responsibilities and intentionality. As they get older, pupils explore the idea of change and personal growth within the topic on becoming an adult, learn about inspirational people and examine the effects of war and suffering. In Year 5 and 6 we focus on life’s big questions, moral dilemmas and notions of justice, poverty and wealth.
Our dedicated art teachers embrace every child’s individual sense of creativity, developing their imagination, expression and confidence through art and design technology from Nursery to Year 6.
In the Lower School the children are encouraged to explore colour and texture through mixed media. They paint, sketch, print and make observational drawings. Recent projects have focussed on Georgia O’Keeffe and Van Gogh’s Starry Night. In design and technology, the children use a variety of materials to design and make mechanisms, structures and puppets. A favourite project among the children is a series of fairytale engineering problems to solve such as how to rescue Rapunzel from her tower and how to build a bridge for the Billy Goats Gruff.
In the Upper School pupils continue to develop concepts and skills, including in clay and woodwork, and learn to use a variety of different tools, techniques and materials. The children also learn to critically evaluate the work of diverse range of artists, as well as discussing their own work and the work of their peers to encourage reflection and progression. Our art and design technology projects at this age are often linked to topics taught in other subjects and aimed at encouraging investigation and problem-solving skills.
Our Head of Computing takes an energetic and creative approach to the teaching of computing and embraces the learning needs of our 21st century children. This includes an online safety programme for each year group to show students how to use the Internet responsibly and introduce the concept of digital citizenship.
Our pupils begin in Year 1 to develop basic coding and control skills by using online simulators and floor robots. They also use a block-based visual programming language app to create animations and games. In Year 2 the children learn to code more complex algorithms and use iPads to create animations bringing to ‘life’ stories they have written themselves.
In the Upper School, with an increased focus on creativity, the children use robotics kits and block-based visual programming language apps together with online code editors to creatively program and control a micro:bit. They are introduced to creating and formatting spreadsheets as well as using formulae, performing calculations, and problem solving.
Our oldest children collaboratively produce online safety videos using the iMovie app and develop their own websites on Global Studies. They are introduced to text-based programming languages, including HTML, Javascript and Python, and engage in simple coding projects as well as working with creative programmable robotics.
Lessons with our specialist music teachers begin at age 3 where pupils are introduced to percussion instruments, movement to music and are taught to understand pitch together with basic tempo terminology. This is combined with singing nursery rhymes, learning songs from non-western musical traditions and discovering musical notation.
As students progress up the school, their music classes include learning to recognise composers and musical styles in addition to introducing regular vocal and breath control exercises. The children spend time dedicated to exploring specific musical pieces and the ever-popular Lip-Sync Battles help enhance performance skills and confidence on stage. Our students are taught to sing properly from an early age, and expectations are high, with attention to detail.
In the Upper School, the children respond to and discuss classical pieces, recognising musical structures and using suitable terminology. They delve into broad historical traditions such as the Renaissance, Classical and Romantic and write their own verses together with composing short pieces of music and duets. The students are encouraged to create their own musical pieces and projects using what they have previously learnt as the foundation.
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Drama at Prospect House is a vibrant and important aspect of the school curriculum, and plays an integral role in the personal development of the children. With regular performance opportunities, our pupils are able to improve their speaking and social skills in an engaging learning environment.
As part of both our music and drama curricula, the children develop relaxation and breathing techniques in addition to learning how to use their voices effectively. They explore a range of drama techniques, participate in scripted work and improvise with their own sketches and plays.
As the children get older they learn to create, adapt and sustain different roles both individually and in groups; use character, action and narrative to convey story themes, emotions and ideas in devised and scripted plays; use dramatic conventions to explore characters and issues. The overriding aim is to help promote the children’s confidence in appropriately projecting their thoughts and ideas to an audience.
Our students participate in full-scale musical productions in Years 2, 4 and 6 as well as smaller class-based productions in the intervening year groups.
A spirit of tolerance, empathy and respect for others lies at the heart of everything we do. Our personal, social, health, citizenship and economic (PSHCE) programme is an integral part of our school life. The lessons are conducted as open discussions and the time is used to develop self-awareness, self-esteem, independence and interpersonal relationships. Topics covered include healthy friendships, positive behaviour, use of personal data, social skills, human rights, current events, stereotypes and healthy lifestyles. Our school values of community, respect, aspiration, resilience and kindness are interwoven into this curriculum.
Wellbeing in childhood sets the stage for positive mental health, resilience, and the ability to cope with challenges later in life. It also plays a crucial role in a child’s ability to learn and thrive in various aspects of their development, from academic achievements to building essential life skills. Our pupils all take part in wellbeing sessions to teach them about their personal, social and emotional development, whilst strengthening their resilience and thinking skills. The children learn methods to help themselves emotionally self-regulate and the courses focus on making good choices, ways to help themselves concentrate and how to respond rather than react.
