Timings of the School Day
Our School Day at Bredbury Green
Doors open: 8:45am
School begins: 8:50am
School ends: 3:20pm (Key Stage 1) and 3:30pm (Key Stage 2)
We know that coming into school in the morning can feel like a big step for some children. We want every child to arrive feeling calm, safe and ready to learn.
8:45am – A gentle start
Our doors open at 8:45am, so children can come in while it is quieter and calmer. We find this helps children who feel worried or nervous in the mornings (supporting emotional regulation and reducing transition anxiety), and it means the day starts well. Being in school every day matters enormously, and a calm start helps make that possible.
8:50am – Time together
This is time for children and staff to talk, catch up and settle. It might be quiet reading, a calming activity, or thinking about our school values of self-belief, independence and respect. It is a short part of the day, but it helps build the relationships and sense of belonging (pupil voice and personal development) that underpin good learning.
9:00am – Strong Foundations
Every child has half an hour a day on the skills that everything else is built on. We come back to these skills each week so they get stronger over time (a spaced, cumulative approach to retrieval practice, in line with evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation). Strong Foundations covers handwriting and fine motor skills, speaking and listening (oracy), staying calm and focused (self-regulation and mindfulness), reading, and confidence with numbers (mathematical fluency and reasoning).
9:30am, Monday to Thursday – English and maths
Children work on English or maths right through until lunch. Learning to read, write and work confidently with numbers opens doors for life, so we give these core subjects significant curriculum time to secure literacy and numeracy for all pupils.
Monday to Thursday afternoons – The rest of our subjects
Every afternoon, children learn at least one other subject, as part of a broad and balanced curriculum offer. We are proud to offer a wide range: music, dance, art, history, geography and, in Key Stage 2, Spanish — and there is more besides. Every child has different strengths, and we want them all to find what they are good at, building their knowledge, skills and cultural capital.
Fridays – A full day of other subjects
Friday is a little different. After Strong Foundations, children spend the whole day on our other subjects. This gives them extended, uninterrupted curriculum time to get stuck into subjects like art, music, history and science in real depth, rather than fitting them into a single afternoon.
Fridays are also when children learn RE (religious education), where they find out about different faiths and beliefs, and PSHEE (personal, social, health and economic education), covering looking after your body and mind, staying safe, healthy relationships, and financial education — supporting pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development.
Children in Key Stage 2 finish ten minutes later than Key Stage 1, reflecting the additional curriculum content and subject-specific teaching time required as pupils progress through Key Stage 2.
After school clubs
We run a wide range of clubs, led by staff your child already knows and trusts. These include cooking, choir, dance, gardening and life skills, extending pupils' opportunities beyond the academic curriculum. Almost all of our clubs are completely free, reflecting our commitment to equity of access for all pupils regardless of family circumstance.