Core Subjects

There can be no underestimating the importance of English in the Pre-Prep and Prep School years. Put simply, we are responsible for teaching core literacy skills that will stay with our pupils for life.

Basic skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening are learned in the early years, honed through the middle school and it is our aim that children leave Moulsford with a passion for reading and a love of the subject.

As pupils progress through the school, the English Department continues to prioritise the core skills of reading and writing, with a strong importance placed on speaking and listening. We work closely with the Drama Department and where possible try to create cross-curricular work.

A love of reading is central to everything we do, and the pupils have access to the very latest children’s and young adult fiction.

Similarly, accuracy over grammar and spelling, as well as due diligence with regards to handwriting and presentation are strong messages that emanate from the English classrooms.

Pupils who require Learning Support enjoy differentiated provision both in English lessons and in the Learning Support Department. This could be a Spelling Booster group in Years 4 to 6, Friday morning reading with parents, or the presence of a Classroom Assistant in a number of the lessons. Common Entrance is equally tiered so that pupils can work towards a level that is appropriate to their specific learning requirements.

English at Moulsford should be a fun and positive place to be.

Lessons are dynamic, active and varied: a Year 6 class might be in the Sports Hall hurling Shakespearean insults at one another; the Year Fours may be using a recent App on the ipad to learn about nouns; the Year 8s could be battling out a poetry slam to help with their understanding of poetry; and Pre-Prep could be being heard read out on the adventure playground.  There are events throughout the year to promote the subject and World Book Week has become a week-long celebration of all things bookish with a real literary festival atmosphere taking place in school. In addition, we have authors and poets visit the school each term and each year group enjoy an English based trip.

Again, put simply, English is a central subject on the curriculum. A life-long passion for reading and the subject is the ultimate goal, and we aim to create a dynamic, inspirational and hugely enjoyable environment where children's English learning will thrive.

Richard Martin
Head of English
Follow us on Twitter @moulsfordeng

In the Maths department, our objective is to provide a learning environment and range of experiences which will develop pupils' confidence, allow each child to make the optimum progress and inspire a love of mathematical enquiry.

We aim to develop our students into confident, analytical and problem-solving thinkers through lessons that are meaningful, engaging and challenging.

Effort and achievement are praised equally to create and encourage a positive and confident approach to Mathematics.

Core skills are at the heart of our junior maths syllabus with pupils following a mastery curriculum encouraging them to make connections across mathematical topics, sustain their understanding and build on prior learning. In following this approach, they build a rich canvas of learnt experiences that makes them not only better mathematicians but better learners altogether.

In Years 7 and 8 students prepare for their mathematical journey beyond Moulsford. Lessons offer regular opportunities for problem solving and investigative work and collaboration is actively encouraged in order to aid the development of effective reasoning skills. Students are stretched not through acceleration but by providing extra depth, in particular by using a wide range of harder questions and problems.

By encouraging mathematical thinking and reasoning, we expect students to question the world around them and unravel assumptions to arrive at their own logical conclusions.

Each year, children from each year group are encouraged to take part in a range of maths competitions, which we hope fosters an enjoyment and appreciation of both the broader applications of mathematics and of the pursuit of mathematical truth itself.

Justin O'Reilly
Head of Mathematics
Follow us on Twitter @MoulsfordMath

We aim to promote scientific ways of thinking. The word “Science” brings to mind different pictures for different people. For some it is a fat textbook, people in lab coats and funny looking glasses, microscopes, astronomers peering through telescopes, David Attenborough in a rainforest, Albert Einstein’s equations scribbled on a black board, Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the Moon or that Bunsen burner smell that evokes memories of your own school laboratory.  

Pupils at Moulsford are motivated by the thrill of as much practical work as possible; investigational work is paramount.

All of those images do reflect some aspects of Science, but at Moulsford we aim to promote scientific ways of thinking behind the image.  We believe:

• Science is both knowledge and understanding:  We try to make all Science a continuum rather than a collection of isolated facts in a textbook. This combination of knowledge and understanding enables the boys to have a broader view of the natural world.
• Science is exciting:  Science is about discovering what is in the universe and how things worked in the past, today and how things are likely to work in the future.
• Science is on-going:  Just as our pupils grow and change, Science is continually changing and therefore needs refining. As our knowledge and understanding of our pupils develops so does the Science teaching. Science could be described as “never finished” which certainly applies to our children.
• Science is a global endeavour:  Our pupils, and children from all over the world, participate in the process of Science.

To summarise, at Moulsford we endeavour to develop a set of attitudes in the children which promote scientific ways of thinking. These include: open-mindedness, perseverance, objectivity and recognising the importance of teamwork.

Our aim is for the children to be able to recall scientific facts, ideas and data through speaking, writing and interpretation of data.  Once the fundamentals have been established, the students will be able to apply these concepts to other situations, make and test hypotheses and therefore make valid conclusions based on the information they have found out.

We carry out as much practical work as possible in two purpose-built Science laboratories. The laboratories are fully equipped with all the necessary practical apparatus along with interactive whiteboards in each.

By the time the children leave Moulsford, we hope that they will be both confident in the laboratory, and have developed a love and an interest in Science that will lead them to continue studying it at their Senior Schools and beyond.

Russell English
Head of Science
Follow us on Twitter @MoulsfordSci