Our Curriculum

‘Learning and Achieving Together for Life.’

We believe that we can make a difference by working together so that our children are well educated and acquire the essential skills that they need for the future… for life.

At Heygarth Primary School, our intent is to create a curriculum which inspires, nurtures and motivates children to achieve their full potential irrespective of their starting points. We aim to develop the whole child by promoting academic, spiritual, moral, cultural, mental, technical and physical qualities of all children. We believe that an effective curriculum offers a balance of knowledge, skills and understanding from EYFS to Year 6.

We provide first-hand learning experiences that allow children to learn about their local area and the wider world. The curriculum has been designed so that all staff have been involved in the creation and has carefully considered:

• the starting points of the children and is personalised in order to build on the background of our children;

• the importance of hands-on learning;

• opportunities for children to develop understanding of core British values and cultural capital;

• opportunities to deepen their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development;

• delivering the statutory National Curriculum whilst offering enrichment in a variety of ways: trips; after school clubs; visitors; real world contexts; cross-curricular links and purposeful use of the environment.

We deliver the National Curriculum using some commercial schemes and some bespoke planning to create an inspiring curriculum broken down into small components in logical, progressive, manageable amounts of learning, constantly revisiting knowledge and skills across the curriculum, ensuring depth of knowledge and understanding and application of skills.

All stakeholders are part of the development of the curriculum design. To ensure an ambitious, quality curriculum for all children we have considered the following:

• Statutory Requirements;

• Local context and relevant barriers;

• The curriculum as a progressive model;

• Pupil Voice;

• The need to plan and sequence coherently in order to accumulate sufficient knowledge and skills;

• Subject disciplines with application across the curriculum;

• Purposeful assessment.

We use a knowledge-engaged approach which underpins and enables the application of skill. We strive for children to learn skills alongside knowledge, ensuring that both are developed at Heygarth Primary School. We see knowledge and skills as intertwined and the development of the curriculum is created with how we can ensure that children can achieve both. We do this by having an emphasis on discrete and cross curricular teaching. We believe that this is important for making the curriculum relevant and meaningful to children and for putting knowledge into context. We believe it is our responsibility to develop literacy and numeracy skills for all our children. Using the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and National Curriculum as a basis, age-appropriate progression in knowledge for each core and foundation subject has been identified. This has been mapped out to ensure coverage of identified knowledge is secured across EYFS, KS1 and KS2. We carefully select the sequence of when, what and how knowledge is taught and subject leaders, alongside SLT work actively to review this aspect regularly. In addition, the specific skills required to be successful in each subject have been identified and crafted into structured progressions considering KS3 content.

Curriculum content is grouped into a series of units of work/teaching sequences. Each unit/sequence begins with either an inquiry question, a hook or reveal etc designed to engage the children and frame the learning journey through to identified outcomes. Initial reflection on this question supports formative assessment of children’s starting points and gives an opportunity for children to showcase what they have learnt at the end of a unit/sequence by answering the inquiry question. Staff awareness of prior learning from previous years ensures the is regular reinforcement of key knowledge and skills. Teachers systematically check children’s understanding identifying misconceptions and provide clear direct feedback to ensure progress. Teaching is designed to help learners to remember in the long term the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.

During the learning journey, a range of objectives in several curriculum subjects are addressed. This content is sequenced to ensure that components of knowledge lead to conceptual learning. This analysis is supported by strong subject knowledge from staff and aims for both depth of learning and breadth of coverage. Opportunities to practise knowledge and skills are built into the curriculum to secure deep understanding of each discipline. The curriculum planning ensures a layering of knowledge and concepts so that all children can make progress. The length of each unit/sequence depends upon the identified learning and outcomes.

Our core values develop children’s respect for themselves and for others and a sense of pride in their community so that they can become good citizens. We promote an understanding of the need to take responsibility for any actions and to consider the related consequences. Stakeholders identified these core values as essential for all subjects and are discussed and revisited as themes for collective worship and through curriculum opportunities.

At Heygarth Primary School, we have proactive subject leaders who develop, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their subject within school from EYFS to Year 6. Staff are committed to delivering high quality learning experiences throughout the curriculum. Support staff have developed their knowledge and skills in order to further enhance the quality of learning.

The impact of the curriculum is evident in the outcomes for all children. Heygarth Primary School will have focussed, motivated children who take learning with them that prepares them for the next stage of their education and be confident and prepared to embrace opportunities and follow their interests and aspirations. The children will be able to apply knowledge and skills through regular opportunity to practice and rehearse prior learning and use knowledge and skills in different contexts. The school will show a learning environment which is exciting and reflects the context of the school and the diverse opportunities our children encounter. Assessment data will also be used to reflect progress made against national expectations.

At Heygarth Primary School, we believe that PSED (Personal, Social and Emotional Development) is the building blocks of future success in life and that good development of PSED is fundamental if children are to learn and achieve to their full potential, which is why PSED is at the heart of everything we do.

The foundations to our broad and balanced curriculum are the core values by which we teach: Resilience, Honesty, Courage, Determination, Readiness, Respect & Thoughtfulness …