‘Be the Best You Can‘
Curriculum Intent
At Hemblington Primary School, we are committed to providing a curriculum that puts the child at the centre of our caring, sharing and achieving school. The curriculum at Hemblington is designed to provide an inclusive, broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children and gives them the skills, knowledge and understanding which will enable them to flourish so they can reach their full potential. Our ambitious curriculum has been designed to take account of the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and the Primary National Curriculum. At Hemblington Primary School we design our curriculum to take in account the needs and character of our children and the community in which they live, the children’s starting points and their prior learning.
At Hemblington Primary School we aim to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and that will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement so that they know more, remember more and understand more. Our curriculum provision exposes our children to enriching experiences, immersing them in progressive knowledge and skills as well as equipping them with the personal characteristics required to succeed in life.
We have identified key curriculum drivers that are central to our school’s ethos and vision and ethos;
To be Society Ready-We aim for our children to be able to use the knowledge and skills they have gained to help improve their own lives, whilst making a positive contribution to the world in which they live.
To have high aspirations – We aim for our children to aspire towards greatness, to be the best that they can be and to challenge themselves as learners in lessons.
To be emotionally resilient -We aim for our children to have the emotional and physical security to become resilient individuals who are able to take risks and face challenges or barriers.
To be curious and develop a love of learning – We aim to inspire and sustain a love of learning for all our pupils.
To be able to communicate confidently and have good oracy skills– We aim for our children to develop the necessary tools to communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings.
To experience a variety of experiences and opportunities -We aim to create fun, memorable and purposeful experiences that enable our children to connect their learning to the real world.
Curriculum Implementation
At Hemblington Primary School we are committed to motivating our children to be the best they can. We understand that our pupils need an ambitious curriculum, which gives them the best educational start in life. Our curriculum considers the needs of a 21st Century child and is ambitious in providing our children with the knowledge, skills and learning behaviours required to become successful life-long learners.
At Hemblington Primary School, we are fully committed to all teaching being excellent by developing our pedagogy on teaching strategies that can enhance teaching and learning across the curriculum. Our pupils enjoy coming to school and are happy in their learning, they are encouraged to ask questions and teachers continually strive to stretch their thinking in order for pupils to achieve their potential in a supportive, welcoming learning environment.
What does our curriculum look like?
During the majority of morning lessons children are taught the core subjects; Maths and English, which includes learning key skills in maths, daily calculation practice, handwriting, spelling, phonics and guided reading. We ensure that there is continuity in how these lessons are taught throughout the school to enable all children to achieve their full potential. Foundation subjects are taught in the afternoon, although meaningful links are made where appropriate. All areas of the curriculum encourage children to form links to their prior learning and identify progression.
The core subjects of maths and English are taught using a consistent approach during the majority of the morning sessions. We follow a progressive curriculum in these core subjects, learning is cumulative, allowing children to build upon their prior learning. Strong phonics teaching starts in the foundation stage and continues through the school using a consistent approach. As well as learning to decode, children are taught to comprehend texts and develop a love of reading using a combination of guided and whole class reading.
Planning takes on the form of medium term units and these are delivered over a half term basis. Planning is led by a question, theme or end goal, which staff use to plan a series of lessons that teach the key golden threads of knowledge and/or specific skills in small steps. Knowledge/skills are consolidated and built upon to support retention and recall and is clearly outlined in lesson plans, with key vocabulary identified. Our teachers present subject matter clearly, check pupils’ understanding, identify misconceptions and provide opportunities for feedback.
This ensures that by the time children leave our school they have learned, and are able to recall and apply the key information that we feel is important in order for them to be society ready. Subject leaders are integral to the planning process and understand the pathway that their subjects take. Progression of knowledge and skills is carefully mapped across Key Stage for all our subjects to ensure continuity of learning. In some subjects we use schemes to help implement our curriculum but these are adapted to meet the needs of our pupils.
History, Science and Geography
Knowledge and skills are taught through a unit question in science, history and geography. Each unit consists of a main question that the children are unable to answer at the end of a blocked unit. Teaching provides the children with the knowledge and skills to provide or demonstrate a response to this unit question, where teachers have identified the golden threads of knowledge to be taught and assessed. Links to the children’s community and environment have been built in to enable the children to make connections.
Writing and reading opportunities are thread through lessons, with formative assessment built in across the units and an end of unit independent task used to assess the child’s ability to answer the question. Our curriculum is organised this way to allow for a deeper understanding and so we can prepare our children for subject specific learning in Secondary School.
Computing, PE, Music, MFL, Art and Design Technology
These subjects are taught in half term units, where subject specific skills and knowledge are planned and taught in a sequence of lessons. Across the unit of work children practise key skills and secure subject specific knowledge and lessons are sequenced so our pupils develop the skills needed to work towards an end goal or task. For example, making some tray biscuits, learning skills to play tag-rugby or knowing how to edit, save and print a document. Our school have adapted schemes for a number of these subjects to ensure that we are providing high quality planning written by specialists for our teachers.
The Hemblington Curriculum is bespoke and compliments the National Curriculum. The Hemblington Curriculum nurtures our children’s spiritual, moral, cultural and social development to help them to gain an understanding of the world that they live in, learn to respect their own and of others beliefs, cultures and identities and to equip them with the knowledge and skills they need to form positive, healthy relationships. The Hemblington Curriculum underpins our curriculum drivers, broadens the horizons of our children and links to our “School Values of a Learner”.
The curriculum allows our children to find their learning passions, learn to believe in themselves, feel a sense of achievement, experience and enjoy areas of learning, which go above and beyond the statutory curriculum.
The Hemblington Curriculum includes
- Weekly PSHE (RSE) and RE lessons (British Values are woven through these lessons)
- Daily assemblies, including celebration assembly
- Special weeks – Mental Health Week, Science Week,
- Key events
- Assemblies, events and lessons that underpin the British Values
- Performances in front of an audience
- Attending sports events/competitions as part of the Schools Sport Partnership
- Educational visits and visitors
- Access to music lessons
These all provide our children with unique learning opportunities but are also key to developing characteristics of a lifelong learner. We aim to broaden horizons by developing global learners, which underpins all of our values, by planning for opportunities to be aware of the wider world and its current issues and to understand and respect cultural diversity and differences with an understanding of how the world works and encourage participation in the community at a range of levels.We teach our children to make the world a more sustainable place and to take responsibility for their actions. We do this by providing learning linked to:
-International/Cultural understanding
-Respect for others and our differences
-Community participation (local and global)
-Sustainability and environmental issues
-Challenging stereotypes
