Mastering the Foundations at Bexton
Strong foundations. Lifelong success.
Every child should leave Bexton able to read fluently, write legibly and accurately without having to think about it, work with number confidently and understand and use the language of every subject they study. We call these the foundations. When they're secure, the rest of the curriculum opens up. When they aren't, everything gets harder, and it gets harder every year.
That's why Mastering the Foundations sits at the centre of our curriculum rather than alongside it. It shapes how we teach from Nursery to Year 6, which programmes we choose, how we protect time in the school day and how we help any child who needs a little more support.
Our five foundations
Early reading: accurate, automatic decoding that becomes fluent reading with expression and understanding.
Handwriting: a correct grip, good posture and accurate letter formation, building to a fluent, legible joined hand used in every book.
Spelling: accurate spelling of taught sounds, rules and statutory words, applied in writing across the curriculum.
Number sense: fast recall of number facts and a flexible understanding of how numbers are built and related.
Vocabulary: understanding and using the words pupils need to learn, think and talk in every subject.
Why these five?
Every subject depends on them. A Year 4 history lesson asks pupils to read a source, use words like invasion and settlement, and write an explanation. If a child is still sounding out words, forming letters slowly or counting on their fingers, most of their attention goes there and very little is left for the history.
Working memory is small. When the basics are automatic, children's thinking is free for ideas, reasoning and meaning, which is what we want lessons to be about. These skills also take years to become automatic so no single year group can secure them alone. They have to be built carefully, from the first day in Nursery.
Secure first, then sustain
In Nursery, Reception and Key Stage 1, our job is to secure the foundations first time. They are taught daily, in small steps, and checked often enough that children don't slip behind for more than a day or two. We would rather a child takes an extra week to secure a sound than carries a gap for three years.
In Key Stage 2, our job is to keep them secure and put them to use. Handwriting, spelling and number practice continue every week, reading fluency is still taught and vocabulary is still planned. Expectations rise as pupils write at greater length, read harder texts and tackle more demanding maths but we never assume a skill is secure just because it was taught a year or two ago. If a gap remains, we find it and close it before a child leaves for secondary school.
Choices we have made on purpose
Some of what we do differs from what you might expect, and each choice has a reason.
In Reception, number is taught through the NCETM Mastering Number programme rather than a published scheme. It builds exactly what young mathematicians need: recognising small quantities at a glance, knowing how numbers to 10 are made and recalling number bonds without counting. Children meet the same models and language in every year group that follows.
Reception children follow Drawing Club before formal writing lessons begin in Year 1. Children tell stories, learn new words and draw their ideas, alongside daily phonics and handwriting. A child who can tell a story, hold a pencil well and hear the sounds in a word is ready to write.
Nursery builds the skills that come before reading and writing. Language, listening, rhythm and rhyme come first, and handwriting starts with the whole body, through dough, threading, cutting and construction, before a pencil is introduced. Formal phonics begins only in the summer term, when children are ready, and our pre-school year is taught by a qualified teacher.
In Year 2, we put fluency ahead of comprehension. In the autumn term most reading sessions are in small guided groups so the teacher hears every child read. As fluency secures, the balance moves towards whole-class reading. Year 3 keeps a weekly guided and one-to-one reading session so that no child's slow reading goes unnoticed.
Handwriting, spelling and number practice each have their own protected time. Mastering Number runs as its own short session in every year group, separate from the main maths lesson, because short daily practice is the first thing to be squeezed out when it shares a lesson.
Our English programmes work together. Floppy's Phonics, then the Ready Steady family of Handwrite, Spell, Write and Read Together, use the same language and routines year after year, so a child hears the same thing whichever adult is teaching them.
If a child needs more help
Our principle is keep up, not catch up. Gaps are spotted in the lesson and addressed the same day or the next, before they have time to grow. Extra help is always on top of core teaching, never instead of it: no child misses phonics, shared reading, story time or the main maths lesson to receive support. Because the foundations are built through short daily teaching, being in school every day matters too, and we work with families early if attendance starts to slip.
Strong foundations matter most for pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils, who have the least margin for a gap. We know every one of these children by name and their progress in the foundations is reviewed with the class teacher throughout the year.
Beyond the classroom
The foundations work hand in hand with The Pathway, our framework for learning, culture and personal development. A child who reads fluently can read aloud with confidence. A child with the words to explain their thinking can take part in a Team Talk, disagree politely and build on a friend's idea. Bright Beginnings experiences, from putting up a tent to making pancakes, give children something real to talk, read and write about, and the vocabulary to go with it.
How you can help at home
Listen to your child read every day and sign their home school reading diary.
Ask your class teacher how we say our phonics sounds. A clean, short sound without an added "uh" makes blending far easier.
From Year 1, use 1-Minute Maths regularly.
From Year 2, use Times Tables Rock Stars, for around 15 minutes a week.
Talk together. Use interesting words, ask what a word means and read stories aloud, whatever your child's age.
Come to Meet the Teacher, where staff explain how reading, spelling, handwriting and number are taught in your child's year group.
If you would like to know how any of this works in your child's year group, ask your child's class teacher. They will be glad to talk it through.
Our 'Mastering the Foundations' Handbook sets out how each foundation is taught from Nursery to Year 6, the reasoning behind our choices and what you can expect to see in every classroom and you can read or download the full handbook below.