Intent

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Hurworth Primary School is a family and as such we want to ensure that every child has access to the best start in life and develops to their full potential. We ensure that our school is at the heart of the local community, developing strong relationships with our families and with other groups and organisations in our locality. We also recognise the importance of broadening our children’s views and experiences beyond Hurworth to the rest of Britain and the wider world.

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At Hurworth Primary School, we offer an engaging curriculum that gives our children the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that will enable them to succeed. It is not only designed to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum but to engender a love of learning and a willingness to help others. It is our aim that our pupils are happy, well rounded and responsible citizens.

 

Our intent is that our curriculum:

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• Is underpinned by the school motto, ‘Consider, Create and Contribute’. It encourages our children to consider themselves, others and the world around them; to be creative and independent in their thinking and their approach to learning; and to contribute to their own and each other’s learning.

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• Is inclusive and meets the specific needs of all of our children by stimulating a love of learning, removing barriers, providing the depth and breadth of experiences necessary to challenge every child, and celebrating the achievements of all.

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• Is broad and balanced and is aspirational for all children, whatever their strengths, needs and interests.

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• Provides children with the opportunity to succeed not only in statutory curricular subjects, but to participate in and engage positively with a range of artistic, musical, sporting and cultural opportunities. We aim to give all of our pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge, experiences and ‘cultural capital’ necessary to become educated citizens and to succeed in life.

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• Ensures that knowledge and skills are taught thoroughly and progressively, whilst allowing teachers the flexibility to be creative in their approach and respond to the needs and interests of the children. All teaching staff and governors have a common understanding of our expectations and intent.

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• Is relevant to our children and draws on our locality.

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• Incorporates the teaching of British Values: democracy; the rule of law; individual liberty; mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith. These values are woven into the ethos and practice of the school.

 

For further information about how we fulfil our statutory obligations to ensure that our curriculum is inclusive and accessible to all, please follow the links below:

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Equality Policy and Objectives

SEND Info Report

Accessibility Policy

PSHE  Curriculum

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Implementation

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Our curriculum is taught by a team of highly skilled, creative teaching staff whose excellent subject and pedagogical knowledge means that teachers know what children need to learn and how to make it happen. An ethos of hard work and aspiration permeates teaching and learning throughout the school.

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We regard the teaching and embedding of reading, writing and mathematics as critical and this underpins the rest of our curriculum in all key stages. Please refer to our separate statements for reading, writing and mathematics for further information.

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Our long-term curriculum plans detail what will be taught across the year by subject and by year group. These have been developed by the whole staff team. They incorporate the programmes of study in the 2014 National Curriculum, reflect the interests of our children and make use of the rich heritage and natural learning opportunities of our locality.

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Medium-term plans detail the National Curriculum requirements; the subject specific knowledge, concepts and skills to be taught; key vocabulary; cross curricular links, including opportunities for embedding maths, reading and writing; and enhancement opportunities such as visits, visitors, performances, competitions and celebrations.

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There are clear objectives relating to the specific knowledge and skills to be taught in each subject which ensure progression across year groups and key stages. Although not wholly topic based, where appropriate, meaningful links are made between subjects in order to deepen children’s understanding. Key knowledge and concepts are revisited regularly to enable children to make connections and enhance their learning. Teachers may choose to ‘block’ the teaching of subjects when they believe that children will gain a deeper understanding, for example teaching a history or science topic every day over fewer weeks, rather than teaching every subject for one lesson a week over a whole term. Some subjects, however, are taught as discrete weekly lessons, for example French, PE and RE. Where appropriate, timetabling enables subject specialists to teach or support other teachers across the school, for example in PE, music, languages, computing and art.

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The teaching of PSHE, Relationship Education and SMSC is well embedded across the curriculum through both cross-curricular and discrete lessons, a carefully planned series of whole school and key stage assemblies, and external visits and visitors. We are proud to have been awarded the PSHE Quality Mark.

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The children are encouraged to share their ideas, initiate whole school projects and play an active role in ensuring the safety and well-being of each other through pupil bodies such as the School Council, Eco-Minions, Cyber Squad, Junior Road Safety Officers and Sports Champions.

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To further support the formal curriculum we provide a range of extra-curricular artistic, creative and sporting activities which children are actively encouraged to participate in. These are provided both by school staff and external providers.

 

The children, staff and parents are very proud of Hurworth’s sporting success and high quality musical and drama performances, which reflect both what we do in school and the activities that children participate in outside of school.

 

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Impact

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We have robust systems in place to evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum in terms of pupil engagement, outcomes and progress and to identify areas for improvement, make necessary changes and celebrate successes.

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There is a lead member of staff for each core and foundation subject who, with the support of the SLT, monitors teaching and learning in their subject. This involves lesson observations, discussions with teaching and support staff, looking at children’s work and data analysis. As the children are at the heart of our curriculum, subject leads and the SLT also regularly seek their views about teaching and learning and how we can improve their learning experiences. Subject leads produce action plans that are tightly linked to school priorities and are regularly reviewed. Long term plans are reviewed annually and medium term plans are reviewed termly by teaching staff, subject leads and the SLT to ensure that our curriculum remains relevant and engaging.

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We see progress as children knowing more, remembering more and being able to apply their learning independently. Our assessment system, which has been devised by and is used across the multi-academy trust, enables us to closely track pupils’ attainment and progress across the year and across key stages.

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For reading, writing and maths, assessment data is submitted and analysed three times a year formally. This is triangulated with information from lesson observations and learning walks, children’s work and discussions with pupils and teaching staff. This breadth of information helps us to set aspirational targets, identify which children may be falling behind their peers and put robust plans in place to ensure rapid progress where needed. For foundation subjects, children’s progress is monitored through assessment for learning, lesson observations, learning walks and scrutiny of children’s work throughout the year. Formal assessment data is submitted and analysed in the summer term.

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The Local Governing Body are kept fully informed about our curriculum. There are link governors for each subject who meet regularly with the subject leads to discuss developments in their subjects and to review action plans. Governors are encouraged to participate in learning walks and work scrutinies. Core subject leads and the foundation subjects’ curriculum lead deliver updates to the LGB Curriculum and Standards Committee each term.

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As part of a multi-academy trust, we are actively involved in curriculum networks for English, maths and the other core and foundation subjects. Subject leads and teachers from across the trust meet regularly to moderate pupils’ work, discuss local and national developments and initiatives, share best practice, challenge and learn from one another