Curriculum introduction
A curriculum is set guidelines that that have been established to help educators decide on the content of a of study – what children will learn. Our High Hurstwood school curriculum includes the ‘national curriculum’, as well as a strong religious education curriculum. The national curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same content.
We aim at High Hurstwood to give children a range of learning experiences that are fun, purposeful and memorable learning experiences.
You can find out more about our curriculum under the curriculum tab or on our class pages, where you can read about the specific learning in each class
Our School Vision is to inspire our children to love learning, to give them the confidence to contribute to the local community and the wider world and to equip them with the skills to live a happy healthy and fulfilling life.
We strive to achieve this vision by following our simple motto: BEE– Belong, Enjoy and Excel – providing opportunities for our school family to have a sense of belonging in our community, enjoy their learning and have the chance to excel.
- Belong: - We belong to a Christian Community who not only love to learn but love God and each other, like a good neighbour (Luke 10:27). This creates a safe and secure place for children to learn and grow.
- Enjoy: - We enjoy the challenges that life and learning bring for both young and old, remembering that Jesus said that he came to bring ‘life, in all its fulness’ (John 10:10).
- Excel: - We seek to excel in all that we do following Jesus’ example. He grew in wisdom, strength and friendship with his Heavenly Father and others (Luke 2:52).
Our School Vision and our Mission Statement are at the centre of everything we do at High Hurstwood.
The National Curriculum comprises of thirteen subjects, classified in legal terms as 'core' and 'foundation' subjects:
CORE: English, Mathematics, Science & Religious Education(as a Church School)
FOUNDATION: Art, Music, Geography, History, Computing, Design & Technology (DT), Physical Education (PE), Personal Social & Health Education (PSHE) & Modern Foreign Language (French).
In addition we have started a Forest School from September 2022, the skills they learn in Forest School cross over into Science, DT, PSHE, PE, Georgraphy and many more links across the curriculum.
The curriculum is designed with the 3 I's of education in the heart of our curriculum planning and development. The 3 'I's' of education or 'Intent, Implementation and Impact' have been derived from the Ofsted inspection framework 2019.
- Intent indicates what is taught in schools and why it is taught.
- Implementation is to apply a framework within an institutional context to help children thrive.
- Impact shows what the results will be and how something is going to make a difference.
CURRICULUM INTENT
The intention of the curriculum at High Hurstwood is to provide a broad, rich and varied education that develops children’s life experiences, interests and prepares them for the next stage of their education. Our curriculum is underpinned by key knowledge and skills that impacts positively on their performance in all subject areas.
Using a range of teaching strategies and experiences we aim to foster in the children a love of learning and a passion for enquiry. Our aim is to provide children with a safe, yet challenging, environment in which they can take risks and make mistakes as well as developing their resilience and ability to be self-reflective as they do so.
We put emphasis on the experiential nature of learning, the ‘hands-on’ approach where children can learn by doing. Our active and engaging lessons build on and strengthen children’s knowledge and understanding. We make use of the local area, both within the school grounds and beyond, to support the acquisition of skills and knowledge in a way that is meaningful for the children.
Our curriculum is split into subjects and each subject has a ‘Skills and Knowledge Progression’ document. This details the progression of learning that pupils will go though year by year within the subject. Teachers use these documents to plan units of work that ensure that we initially re-visit prior learning before building on this and deepening pupils understanding so that over units of work pupils are able to learn more, do more and remember more.
Curriculum Implementation
Teachers are provided with PPA (Planning, Preparation and Assessment time) to plan their curriculum for the whole term and on a weekly basis with their parallel teacher. As part of this planning process, teachers need to plan the following:
- A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth;
- Challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning to a range of contexts;
- Ensure that lessons and learning are targeted at the correct level for the ability of all pupils; including those with SEND and the most-able;
- Adapt future learning based on outcomes and assessments of completed work to ensure; that learning is reinforced and extended over the sequence of lessons;
- Trips and visiting experts that will enhance the learning experience;
The core subjects of Maths and English are taught daily and all other subjects are taught throughout the week. We plan the curriculum to ensure that all children receive a broad range of lessons and subjects each week in every year group.
All subjects have a subject leader(s). These teachers champion their subject across the school and ensure that standards are met. They monitor the outcomes for children and work alongside their colleagues to further enhance and develop the provision offered in their subject. Time and training for subject leadership is allocated to all teachers each term.
For information about how our curriculum meets the needs of pupils with SEND by clicking here.
Our accessibility plan and equalities policy can also be viewed on our policies page
Curriculum Impact
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes;
- Review pupil response to the questions and learning provided;
- Pupil discussions and conferences about their learning;
- Book scrutinies of pupils’ learning across the school demonstrating the depth of understanding, progression and challenge;
- The tracking of standards across the curriculum subjects not just in the core subjects.
- Children are happy learners who talk enthusiastically about their learning and eager to learn more.
- Feedback from parents on their experiences of pupils through surveys and discussions.