The national curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge they need to be educated citizens. The national curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.
Whole School Trips and Celebrations
Overview of Trips and Celebrations
Key Themes and Long Term Plan
Reception and RP Long Term Plan
More Able and Talented Guidance
Phonics and Early Reading
At Horton Park Primary, we aim to teach phonics and a love of reading so that our children
- develop enjoyment and pleasure in learning how to read
- learn as quickly as possible to identify and blend phonemes
- habitually use their phonics knowledge and skills across the curriculum
- develop their fluency in order to extract meaning from text
- are able to understand and discuss what they have read
We achieve this through using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds to teach Early Reading.
Reading at Horton Park Primary School supports and contributes to a rich, engaging and deep curriculum. The children develop problem solving skills and build resilience through a progressive reading structure which results in fluent, confident readers able to access a range of texts throughout the breadth of the curriculum. Through accessing a range of high-quality literature, children acquire and are able to use a wide variety of ambitious vocabulary as part of their spoken and written language. Children are able to effectively communicate and demonstrate their fluency and prosody when reading aloud. They also have opportunities to perform and recite literature to an audience. Children demonstrate high levels of mutual respect when listening to other readers and taking part in discussions about books and favourite authors.
Writing
Writing at Horton Park Primary School supports and contributes to a rich, engaging and deep curriculum. The children will develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar throughout their writing experiences. Throughout the Power of Reading, the children will access a range of high-quality literature which will ensure that the children acquire and are able to use a wide variety of ambitious vocabulary as part of their spoken and written language. Children will be able to communicate effectively through speaking, listening and writing opportunities. Throughout writing lessons, children will develop an enjoyment and pleasure in learning how to spell. They will habitually use their phonics knowledge and skills across the curriculum to spell words and attempt to spell words which are unfamiliar to them.
Maths
The teaching of Maths is based on the National Curriculum and is supported by our mental maths and calculation policy. Our curriculum ensures aspects of fluency, reasoning and problem solving are incorporated around the key concepts being covered. We provide children with the ability to reason in a logical way and to apply mathematics through problem solving and becoming critical thinkers to deepen their understanding. We foster children’s love of maths through a range of purposeful experiences.
Maths at Horton Park includes:
- Sticky Knowledge starters which revisit and provide spaced opportunities to recall key calculation skills
- Learning which is broken down into place value, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions and geometry
- The 5 big ideas from the Mastery NCETM are incorporated:
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- Cohesion ensures ideas are broken down
- Fluency of key maths skills and vocabulary are taught
- Critical thinking via investigations and reasoning opportunities
- Mathematical structure using resources, images and representations which are linked to the calculation policy
- Through variation the children work on noticing and wondering what is the same and what is different
Science
Horton Park follow the National Curriculum for Science, supported by Curriculum Maestro, and progressively cover a range of knowledge and skills. Our curriculum focuses on substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils are taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science.
The aims of our science curriculum are to provide children with:
- scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
- understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of scientific enquiry that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
- the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future
We believe enriching children’s learning with a variety of experiences and opportunities is essential in their development as scientists. Through science we aim to build resilient children by providing challenge and problem solving opportunities whilst developing effective communication skills. We believe it is essential for children to have the scientific knowledge and terminology ready for them to possess the skills to enquire further. Children at Horton Park Primary learn mutual respect through group work and collaboration with their peers. We believe our children’s natural curiosity is nurtured which allows them to ask questions and develop the skills they need to find the answers.
Religious Education
Horton Park follows the agreed syllabus for Religious Education (RE). The syllabus has two key elements. Firstly it focuses on beliefs and values and secondly on belonging.
The Local Agreed Syllabus for RE requires all pupils to:
- Investigate the beliefs and practices of religions and other world views, including:
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- Beliefs and authority: core beliefs and concepts; sources of authority including written traditions and leaders;
- Worship and Spirituality: how individuals and communities express belief, commitment and emotion.
- Investigate how religions and other world views address questions of meaning, purpose and value, including:
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- The nature of religion and belief and its key concepts;
- Ultimate Questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth.
- Investigate how religions and other world views influence morality, identity and diversity, including:
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- Moral decisions: teachings of religions and other world views on moral and ethical questions; evaluation, reflection and critical responses;
- Identity and Diversity: diversity among and within religions and other world views; individual and community responses to difference and shared human values.
The syllabus ensures that there is a focus on specific core religions at each key stage. In addition, other religions and non-religious world views are also included as part of the curriculum.
Underpinning the RE curriculum are our whole school drivers. Children develop effective communication skills by talking about experiences related to their learning. Children also learn how different faiths can work together to build awareness, foster tolerance and share values in our communities building mutual respect for each other.
We ensure our children have a range of experiences through accessesing visits and visitors to enhance their learning. Steps are taken to ensure connections between morals and values found in religious teachings and everyday life are implemented throughout the RE curriculum and intertwined throughout the wider curriculum.
PSHE
At Horton Park, we have adapted You, Me and PSHE to ensure that learning is personalised to suit the needs of our children and their community in line with the National Curriculum.
Our PSHE curriculum consists of the following themes:
- Physical health
- Keeping safe and managing risk
- Identity, society and equality
- Drug, alcohol and tobacco education
- Mental health and emotional wellbeing
- Careers, financial capability and economic wellbeing
The PSHE curriculum provides children with the skills and knowledge to lead safe, healthy, independent and confident lives in the future as responsible citizens in modern Britain.
Our children’s physical and mental well-being is paramount to their learning and overall success at Horton Park. Our PSHE curriculum ensures that our children have mutual respect for our diverse school community and beyond. Our children are encouraged to take risks and learn from mistakes in order to build resilient, young people. We do this by exposing our children to a wide range of enhanced learning experiences. Our ambitious PSHE curriculum gives the children the vocabulary to communicate effectively about their own emotional and physical wellbeing whilst being respectful to others in how they respond. Children are given tools and strategies to grapple and overcome problems that they may face in their everyday lives.
Design Technology Including Cooking and Nutrition
Horton Park follow the National Curriculum for Design and Technology, supported by Curriculum Maestro, and progressively cover a range of knowledge and skills. The Design and Technology projects across school are well sequenced to develop children’s designing, planning, making and evaluating skills. Each project is based around a design and technology subject focus of structures, mechanisms, cooking and nutrition or textiles. The design and technology curriculum’s electronic systems and IT monitoring and control elements are explicitly taught in our science projects to ensure the links between the subjects are highlighted. All projects contain focused, practical, sequenced learning to help children gain the knowledge and skills needed to complete their tasks and embed skills for the future.
Throughout Key Stages 1 and 2, children build up their knowledge and understanding of the design process. They design, make, test and evaluate their products to match specific design criteria and ensure they are fit for purpose. Throughout the projects, children are taught to work safely and hygienically (cooking and nutrition).
At Horton Park we provide a broad and balanced curriculum which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences for later life.
Art and Design
Horton Park follow the National Curriculum for Art and Design, supported by Curriculum Maestro. The projects are well sequenced to provide a coherent subject scheme that develops children’s skills and knowledge of visual elements, art forms, artists and art movements. The projects enable children to build on their previous understanding and skill and further develop their expertise.
We believe that through teaching Art, we will create and foster transferable skills for our children as well as enhancing overall academic achievement, leading to better future work opportunities, enhanced well-being and self-esteem.
Through art, we aim to provide experiences for all pupils to express themselves creatively. Children will gain an understanding of Art as a subject and develop their ability to communicate themselves confidently through varied art forms. Children are encouraged to respectively evaluate the work of artists and use high level vocabulary to express their views.
Geography
Horton Park follow the National Curriculum for Geography, supported by Curriculum Maestro, and progressively cover a range of knowledge and skills. The geography projects we follow at Horton Park are well sequenced to provide a coherent subject scheme that develops children’s geographical knowledge, skills and subject disciplines.
Understanding and learning about geographical locations provides a broad and diverse understanding of the world, with a wide range of learning experiences that inspire the children to be curious about the world and its people. Also through field work, the children are able to problem-solve and deepen their understanding of the earth’s physical processes.
Children are able to communicate their opinions about global environmental issues and begin to become global citizens sharing in the responsibility of our planet, by using subject specific vocabulary. As knowledge grows, the children at Horton Park begin to analyse the interaction between the physical and human processes that form our landscapes and environments over time.
History
Horton Park follow the National Curriculum for History, supported by Curriculum Maestro, and progressively cover a range of knowledge and skills to develop curiosity in History and to explore how the world around us has evolved and changed. Our children learn from the past and think about what this means for the future.
The history projects are well sequenced to provide a coherent subject scheme that develops children’s historical knowledge, skills and subject disciplines. Key aspects and concepts, such as chronology, cause and effect, similarity and difference and significance and hierarchy are revisited throughout all projects and are developed over time. All projects also develop historical skills based on evidence and historical enquiry.
The choice of historical periods follows the guidance set out in the national curriculum, with specific details relating to significant events and individuals chosen to present a rich and diverse account of British and world history. Where there are opportunities for making meaningful connections with other projects, history projects are sequenced accordingly. For example, the project Dynamic Dynasties is taught alongside the art and design project Taotie to give children a better all-round understanding of ancient Chinese arts and culture.
Music
Horton Park utilises Charanga’s Musical School Scheme, which supports all the requirements of the National Curriculum – providing a wide range of experiences through exposure to a variety of genres of music, an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning.
The interrelated dimensions of music weave through the units to encourage the development of musical skills as the learning progresses through our core strands:
- Listening and appraising
- Singing
- Playing
- Improvising
- Composition
- Performance
Charanga Musical School units of work enable children to understand musical concepts and vocabulary through a repetition-based approach to learning to enable the mastery of musical skills. The music at Horton Park is interrelated and strands are built upon learning from Year 1 to Year 6. Over time, children can both develop new musical skills and concepts, and re-visit these throughout their journey at Horton Park.
PE
At Horton Park Primary School we believe in giving every child the physical literacy, emotional and thinking skills to achieve in PE, sports and life. We implement the REAL PE scheme, a unique, child centred approach to include challenge and support for every child. The key areas are aligned with the National Curriculum focussing on development of agility, balance and coordination, healthy competition and cooperative learning.
Creating positive early experiences helps to form our pupils’ perceptions of physical activity and builds their confidence, resilience and relationship with it. Children are taught subject specific vocabulary and learn to talk about physical education, expressing their likes and dislikes. Children express their thoughts and opinions on their own work and the work of others.
Across school, pupils take part in competitions and tournaments. Our children develop emotional and physical security needed to become resilient individuals who are able to take risks and deal with different challenges across the curriculum and in the wider world by thinking positively and having the confidence to ‘have a go’. Our PE curriculum promotes the value of sportsmanship which is echoed across the curriculum.
MFL – Arabic
Arabic is the modern foreign language taught at Horton Park Primary School. We follow the National Curriculum whilst also providing the children with a wide range of learning experiences that inspire them with curiosity and provides an opening to other cultures. Children learn about the culture of Arabic speaking countries and are provided opportunities to learn new ways of thinking. Using subject specific vocabulary, the children are able to communicate and express their ideas and thoughts in Arabic including understanding and responding to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. Language teaching at Horton Park provides the foundation for learning further languages and equips children with the skills and knowledge to communicate effectively.
Computing
At Horton Park the Computing curriculum progressively covers a range of knowledge, skills and learning experiences to enable children to participate effectively and safely in this digital world. Our high-quality computing education equips pupils to use creativity to understand and change the world. Through our curriculum, we intend for children not only to be digitally competent and have a range of transferable skills at a suitable level for the future workplace, but also to be responsible online citizens.
The strands within computing are:
- Computer Science
- Data Handling
- Media
- Information Literacy
- Online Safety
A key part of implementing our computing curriculum was to ensure that the safety of our pupils is paramount. We take online safety very seriously and we aim to give children the necessary skills to keep themselves safe online. Children have a right to enjoy childhood online, to access safe online spaces and to benefit from all the opportunities that a connected world can bring them, appropriate to their age and stage.
Our provision of online safety education ensures that it is empowering, builds resilience and effects positive culture change. The objectives promote the development of safe and appropriate long-term behaviours, and support educators in shaping the culture within our setting and beyond.
The core of computing is Computer Science, in which pupils are introduced to a wide range of technology, allowing them to continually practise and improve the skills they acquire. This ensures they become digitally literate, so that they are able to express themselves and develop their ideas through technology as active participants in a digital world.