At Hillbourne Primary School we are able to provide Quality First Teaching and Learning for all children. We provide an enriched and adaptive curriculum for all children, which is designed to meet the individual learning needs of every child. We have very experienced teaching Assistants who have the skills and knowledge to adjust learning as necessary so that pupils thrive. We also have Teaching Assistants who have undertaken specialist training to support our pupils eg ELSA.
We comply with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Education Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 by ensuring that the curriculum is accessible for those with disabilities or SEN. This may be through resourcing, adaptations and adult support. Please see the SEN and equality policy for further information
Aim
Curriculum Intent
At Hillbourne Primary we are determined to provide the very best for every child and create a learning environment where they can achieve their personal best.
The curriculum at Hillbourne Primary School is designed to support every child to reach their full potential and enable them to have the skills and confidence to embrace the world in which we live. It is designed to be engaging, broad and progressive. It is a curriculum that evolves, based on the needs of our children and changes in the world around us. It takes into account the local context of the school, experiences and backgrounds of our children and provides them with relevant and memorable learning experiences to ensure every child has every opportunity.
Everyone at the school works hard to ensure that all our children love learning by ensuring our topics excite and engage the children. We also make sure our children are able to read, write, calculate with numbers, as these are important skills needed to help them succeed on their journey through education.
Throughout their time at Hillbourne Primary School, pupils will be encouraged to take responsibility for their learning so that they become independent, resilient and imaginative learners with a wide variety of skills.
The curriculum is inclusive and aims for all pupils to be deepen their learning. It focuses on knowledge and vocabulary development, as well as a range of experiences, which have been designed to increase children’s cultural capital, for example we include a range of trips to embed and bring learning to life. Your child will also have the chance to take part in a range of additional curriculum experiences such as sporting and musical events in the local community and with other schools. It fulfils the requirements of the National Curriculum through carefully sequenced learning, with a clear progression of knowledge from Early Years to Year Six. Every subject has specific learning goals (sticky knowledge) which children are expected to remember, and this is closely monitored and tracked to ensure attainment is at the highest level for each child. It is designed based on a spiral curriculum, allowing children to return to and build upon previous learning, applying substantive and disciplinary knowledge to new challenges.
Our curriculum reflects our ambition that every child is able to make safe choices and develops a deep spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding.
If you require any further information about the school curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Bennett, the curriculum leader. Please request a meeting via the office.
All of our children have a daily English lesson focused around writing and grammar. Reading comprehension is taught separately throughout the week.
In addition to this, there are daily opportunities to practice and enjoy reading, including in our structured reading lessons when all children read independently, as a group or with the teacher every day.
Reading occurs at other times of the day too. We strongly promote reading and writing across the curriculum so children have a sense of purpose and can apply their learning.
We teach all our children to become effective communicators, working with them on their speaking skills in a range of contexts so that they can express themselves with clarity and confidence.
Our staff value the importance of speech and language development and are supported to articulate clearly with close attention to accurate grammar and pronunciation in speech at all times of the school day.
A selection of books is kept in each classroom and children choose their own books from the library. Books are regularly swapped around so that there are more books to choose from.
We also have a range of topic books which children can read. This is in addition to the home-reading scheme and is to broaden the children’s knowledge of authors and topic related texts.
‘Whole class reading books’ are read to the children and shared by the whole class. This enables adults in the classroom to model reading aloud as well as exposing children to more challenging texts that they might not be able to access themselves.
If children are reading on a Phonics phase they are given appropriate phonetically decodable books to encourage overlearning and independence.
It is our aim that all children at our school read at home every evening.
Reading records allow children and parents/carers to record comments about how well and how often reading has taken place.
It is our aim that reading records are signed and brought into school every day so that staff in the class can do the same. We have a reading reward scheme for home reading.
Children are able to collect a bronze, silver or gold badge depending on the number of reads they have completed. Those children receiving a badge are celebrated in assembly each week and their photograph is placed on the reading corridor display.
Writing is always underpinned by experience and creativity.
Our children are increasingly motivated writers who enjoy the process of reading into writing to create stories, poems and a range of non-fiction texts.
Children in our school are exposed to a range of high quality texts, which exemplify the new skills they are expected to use, in a meaningful context.
We believe that children should be able to speak and write fluently so they can communicate their ideas clearly. At Hillbourne Primary School, we want our children to be creative writers.
Children are exposed to a wide range of vocabulary in order to be able to express themselves in interesting and exciting ways and vary their vocabulary according to the audience and purpose of writing.
Grammar teaching is a core element of our English curriculum. The characteristics of spoken language are very different from written language.
Writing needs to be more concise and explicit, whereas spoken language often relies on context, facial expression, intonation and pause and gesture to convey meaning and create effect.
As part of grammar study, it is important that children learn the conventions of Standard English so that they can adopt an appropriate level of formality in their writing appropriate to audience and purpose.
At Hillbourne Primary School, we believe that phonics should be taught in an engaging and systematic way, using a multi-sensory approach to our youngest children. The Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme enables us to do this.
By Year 2, most children can read and write a wide range of graphemes (the letter or letters that match a sound in English). Children then move onto the reading comprehension programme.
You can find our full English and Phonics policies on our school policy page.
The Little Wandle website has resources to help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also useful videos so you can see how they are taught at school and feel confident about supporting their reading at home.
Maths at Hillbourne Primary School
Why study maths?
Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. At BPNS, we believe that maths is not taught as a rule bound passive approach but where active learning promotes talking through and explaining maths.
Aims
The national curriculum for mathematic aims to ensure that all pupils:
· become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
· reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
· can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas (so that pupils have a sense of living maths in a real life context). The programmes of study are, by necessity, organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects.
We teach mathematics through the new national curriculum, which is broken down into the following strands:
We plan and teach mathematics through a system called Loopy Maths, which consists of clear modelling of the concept, time to practice the skills and a range of application opportunities. These opportunities allow children the chance to reason and problem solve in a range of contexts and even at a greater depth.
Mental mathematics, including quick recall of key facts, is very important to enable children to become fluent mathematicians. Therefore, we teach children their number facts and then times tables.
Read more about the role of mathematics at Hillbourne Primary School in our Maths Policy.
How can you help your child with maths?
There are so many rich and varied opportunities to interact with mathematical ideas and concepts in the world around us, but often as adults, we forget this. Simple things like talking to your children about the days of the week, months and seasons, discussing money and time and looking at patterns in nature and the environment are all great examples of how you can help your child with maths at home. Additionally, practising mental maths at home, such as quick-fire times table questions and encouraging your child to play for short periods on apps such as Times Table Rockstars can help them to improve their mental arithmetic skills.
We want children leaving Hillbourne Primary School to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne Primary pupils:
The teaching of Art and Design, involves teaching skills and concepts in an inclusive, inspiring, engaging and relevant way. The process of making art is just as relevant as a finished piece of artwork. This allows scope for further opportunities for development and for children to reflect and develop methods of revisiting works, or using art pieces as a point of reference.
Children see before they speak, make marks before they write, build before they walk but the children’s ability to appreciate and interpret these things is influenced by the quality of their art, craft and design education. Artists are chosen to reflect our diverse population ensuring that our curriculum is both inclusive and inspiring.
Throughout their time at Hillbourne, children will draw, paint, print and sculpt using inspiration from the local area, with its fantastic landscapes for many pieces. This will vary from charcoal beach side drawings in Year 2 to sea creature sculptures in Year 3 to landscape drawings in Year 6.
The art curriculum aims to ignite children’s love for expression, preparing them with essential knowledge throughout their time at Hillbourne. This begins in the EYFS where the foundation is laid through the knowledge and vocabulary where children develop a sense of mark making and colour theory, which enables them to access art content in KS1.
The art units have been carefully chosen to cover as wide-ranging content as possible without compromising depth, breadth and coherence. The curriculum content increases in range, depth and complexity as pupils move through the school. From drawing using pencil, charcoal and chalk; a deep understanding of colour theory during painting units, to experimenting with printing and sculpting techniques. Hillbourne has a dedicated and fully stocked Practical Room. Children begin sketchbooks in Year 1 and continue these throughout the school. Sketchbooks are not marked and children are taught to experiment and express themselves in their own way within their sketchbooks to give them a true sense of ownership.
The art curriculum has been designed to be both knowledge-rich and coherently sequenced with repeated encounters in different contexts. Knowledge means not only substantive knowledge of the elements of art within drawing, painting, printing and sculpture, but also knowledge of disciplinary concepts in art such as techniques, movements, variety around the world and an appreciation and evaluation of the works of a diverse pool of artists.
We want children leaving Hillbourne Primary school to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne Primary pupils:
Our aim is to deliver a high-quality, progressive computing curriculum that equips pupils with the knowledge to prepare them to thrive within a constantly advancing and technological world. At Hillbourne, technology is used as an educational tool and therefore we aim to build children’s understanding of how they can use technology efficiently and safely to do this.
E-safety is at the heart of the computing curriculum and a part of every lesson ensures that children are equipped with strategies that enable them to make confident and safe judgements about their online activity at school and at home. Throughout each year, children will build on their knowledge of how to stay safe which is divided into the following areas: self-image and identity; online relationships; online reputation; online bullying; managing online information; health, image and well-being; privacy and security; and copyright and ownership. This allows children to understand the potential online issues and the responsibilities of being online including the use of social media which is adapted and updated appropriately. Additional sessions are also taught to reflect the needs of the children and e-safety is celebrated through days such as Internet Safety Day.
The core of computing is Computer Science, in which pupils are taught the principles of how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Children will build upon their understanding of what an algorithm is and how they can input these into computers. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to create programs and use logical reasoning to debug them.
The computing curriculum is designed to ensure that pupils become digitally literate at a level suitable to prepare them for the next stage in their education, the future workplace, and as active participants in a digital world. This will enable them to express themselves and develop their ideas through information and communication technology.
Pupils in EYFS are exposed to a range of technology that gives them the opportunity to demonstrate that they recognise that technology is used both in school and out of school. This will develop children’s understanding of how technology can be used for a range of purposes. Pupils within KS1 and KS2 experience lessons where they are able to learn and build on skills that progress from lesson to lesson, unit to unit and year group to year group. Each year, children have the opportunity to develop their knowledge of computer science, information technology and digital literacy which builds on their prior knowledge. Children have the chance to work with a range of devices and different software to build their understanding of the uses of technology and their purposes.
We want children leaving Hillbourne Primary school to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne pupils:
The teaching of Design and Technology, involves teaching skills and concepts in an inclusive, inspiring, engaging and relevant way. Design and Technology is a rigorous and practical subject. Using creativity and imagination, our pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.
Learning about how to fix things, build things, create and problem-solve are vital, and encompass some of the main skills that we want children to have when they leave our school. While there are opportunities for pupils of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each teaching unit, the planned progression built into the Design and Technology curriculum means that the pupils are increasingly challenged as they move through the school.
Design and Technology is an enjoyable practical learning experience and pupils learn how to manage risks sensibly and within the remit of risk assessments. Pupils undertake a termly Design and Technology project at least three times a year. Designers and architects from different periods of time are studied and the children work through the iterative process of design, make and evaluate within every unit.
Throughout their time at HIllbourne, children will design, make and evaluate a range of products including a glove puppet in Year 2 to a Christmas stocking within textiles in Year 4; they will make bridges, greenhouses and bird houses when investigating structures; they will make an illuminated light box and a door entry system within electrical systems; moving pictures and moving vehicles will be created during units on mechanisms. Children will also design and follow recipes to create a variety of dishes to appeal to different users; all whilst gaining an understanding of seasonality and different dietary needs.
The Design and Technology curriculum will make a profound and positive impact on the outcomes of every pupil. The structure enables us to return to core knowledge and skills throughout the course, embedding key practises and understanding. Core knowledge of each unit is supported by the progression of skills which details the key vocabulary and key questions.
We want children leaving Hillbourne school to have a deep understanding of:
Importance to Hillbourne pupils and local links:
At Hillbourne we believe that our Geography curriculum should capture children’s interests and allow them to explore the fascinating world we live in. We do this through exploring our local area initially and expanding out to the wider world as children progress through the school. Our aim is to inspire curiosity and fascination about the world, equip them with deep knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and understand the human and physical processes that have shaped and formed our landscape. Where possible, topics are linked with the local area, visitors or with the experiences that the children have whilst at Hillbourne School.
The Geography curriculum aims to inspire a passion for Geography and equip children with the essential knowledge they will need to take this with them throughout their education. This begins with EYFS where children start to explore location, through the study of where they live and their immediate environment. This supports their learning of key concepts throughout Key Stages 1 and 2.
The Geography units have been carefully so that the extent of children’s knowledge of the world around them continually grows, whilst always looking to deepen understanding of content all the way from EYFS to Year 6. In addition, children will learn about a wide range of human and physical features, from villages, towns, transport and trade to beaches, rivers and volcanoes. The curriculum aims to introduce the children to a wide variety of Geographical concepts to spark their interest and show the true expanse of this fascinating subject.
Our Geography curriculum is taught by the class teacher, who will first revisit prior learning. We return to previous learning, for pupils to retrieve knowledge from their long-term memory and build on this, with the introduction of new knowledge. This is through an approach of clear modelling and scaffolding of new concepts. The pupils will then practise applying this knowledge in a group or individual task and have opportunities to deepen their understanding with reasoning and explanation.
We use key concepts that are thread through our Geography curriculum, from Year R to Year 6, to build on prior learning and support pupils making strong links in their knowledge.
We want children leaving Hillbourne school to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne pupils and local links:
Our local area is full of history. Throughout their time at Hillbourne, children will learn about where we can see the impact of history in our local area such as the RNLI (from the Grace Darling topic in Year 1), to how the local area was bombed during WW2.
Where possible, topics are linked with the local area, visitors or with the experiences that the children have whilst at Hillbourne Primary School.
The history curriculum aims to ignite children’s love for history, preparing them with essential knowledge throughout their education. This begins with EYFS where the foundation is laid through the knowledge and vocabulary where children develop a sense of past and present, through stories and their own experiences which enables them to access history content in KS1.
The history units have been carefully chosen to cover as wide-ranging content as possible without compromising depth, breadth and coherence. From ancient civilisations (Egypt, Rome, Maya) and prehistoric Britain (Iron Age, Stone Age); looking at law and power across the ages to understanding invasion and migration and exploitation. The curriculum aims to introduce the children to a wide variety of men, women and children from the past; from the widely venerated, to the lives of the less well-known who offer us a rich insight into life at the time- from Aristotle to Nelson Mandela.
The history curriculum allows children to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of local, British and world history. It has been designed to be both knowledge-rich and coherently sequenced with repeated encounters in different contexts. Knowledge means not only substantive knowledge of historical events, dates and people in the past, but also knowledge of substantive concepts in history such as ‘empire’, ‘monarchy’ and ‘invasion’, and disciplinary historical concepts such as evidence, causation, significance and interpretation.
The history curriculum is balanced to enable children to look in some depth at local, national and world history, encouraging children to explore the connection between significant events and people and how they have influenced the modern world. The content in the curriculum ensures children have a secure overview of a period, before studying aspects in more depth. The curriculum content increases in range, depth and complexity as pupils move through the school.
We want children leaving Hillbourne school to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne pupils:
At HIllbourne Primary and Nursery School, all children in key stage 2 are given the opportunity to study a French language curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils. We aim for the foreign language knowledge of our pupils to progress each academic year in the four key language learning skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. The curriculum is organised into teaching units, which each focus upon a particular topic, allowing children’s language to be developed through a familiar topic.
Our curriculum focusses on developing 3 key pillars of language learning: phonics, vocabulary and grammar. Our pupils must learn the sounds, vocabulary and grammar of the language, and be able to understand and produce these when they are combined. There are similarities between learning to read and write in our first language and leaning to do so in another language and our curriculum draws on our expertise in teaching English to teach French. A specific phonics lesson is the first lesson taught each year, focussing on particular French sounds the children will need to know to support their pronunciation, reading and writing. These sounds are then revisited and revised throughout the year to ensure children have a secure phonic knowledge. High frequency vocabulary is key, and these words develop the foundation of children’s French knowledge as they are experienced across all French lessons. Our teaching units have been organised in a way to ensure that vocabulary is repeated across units, as it is easier for children to remember vocabulary when it appears across a variety of topics. Grammar is explicitly taught within each lesson and is revised systematically to ensure that the taught concepts and structures are embedded in pupils’ memory. Planned practice and review of these three elements are at the centre of language teaching and support children to build upon their previous knowledge.
The children will be taught through a varied and engaging range of activities to develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages and other cultures and communities around the world as global citizens. Through acquiring a new language, it also enables pupils to become more confident communicators and learners. Through language lessons at Hillbourne School, we are striving to help all children develop: a love of learning new skills; courage to use these skills in a variety of contexts both in and out of school; deepening their sense of unity with the wider language rich world and inspiring others to become lifelong language learners.
We want children leaving Hilbourne Primary school to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne pupils:
Our music curriculum aims to provide our pupils with a range of musical experiences, where they can develop a real love for music as a whole, through both musical history and singing, performing with instruments, listening, improvising, composing, notation and appraising.
We tailor and put greater emphasis on specific themes, in response to our pupils needs. For example:
Our whole curriculum is comprehensibly planned and clearly sequenced and music follows this consistent design, effectively adapting and developing to meet the needs of ALL pupils, including those with Special Educational Needs and/ or Disabilities and those that are disadvantaged.
Our music curriculum is taught by the class teacher, who will first revisit prior learning.
We return to previous learning, in order for pupils to retrieve knowledge from their long-term memory and build on this, with the introduction of new knowledge. This is through an approach of clear modelling and scaffolding of new concepts. The pupils will then practise applying this knowledge in a group or individual task and have opportunities to deepen their understanding with reasoning and explanation.
We use key CONCEPTS that are thread through our Music curriculum, from Yr R to Yr 6, in order to build on prior learning and support pupils making strong links in their knowledge, from previous learning.
We want children leaving Hillbourne Primary to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne pupils and local links:
There are many opportunities for children to be active and take part in sports both in school and outside of school, including after school clubs, sporting events alongside Dorset schools and clubs outside of school.
Due to our proximity to the sea, we ensure children take part in swimming lessons with the expectation of swimming unaided for 25m. This forms part of our safety curriculum by ensuring children are aware of the dangers of water and how they can keep themselves safe.
The PE curriculum aims to encourage children’s love for sports and movement, equipping them with essential knowledge and skills throughout their education. Each P.E unit is designed to focus on three areas: motor competence; rules, strategies and tactics; and healthy participation with the aim of developing these throughout the unit and curriculum.
This begins in EYFS by building the children’s gross and fine motor skills before developing knowledge and understanding of different fundamental movements and sports in KS1 and KS2. Children will build on their declarative and procedural knowledge by learning key movements and performing them accurately and efficiently before applying them in the context of sports.
The P.E curriculum is well balanced, giving all children experience of a wide range of sports throughout the year and across year groups, which can be located on the concept map. This allows children to discover sports they are passionate about and pursue these in the future with confidence and enjoyment.
We want children leaving Hillbourne Primary school to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne Primary pupils:
At Hillbourne Primary School, we follow ‘Jigsaw’, which is a comprehensive Programme for Primary PSHE including statutory Relationships and Health Education, in a spiral, progressive and fully planned scheme of work, giving children relevant learning experiences to help them navigate their world and to develop positive relationships with themselves and others.
The programme is organised into ‘pieces’: Being Me in My World; Celebrating Difference; Dreams and Goals; Healthy Me; Relationships; Changing Me. These pieces run throughout the school, covering all the elements of PSHE. With a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health, Jigsaw allows us to deliver engaging and relevant PSHE within a whole-school approach.
As well as ‘Jigsaw,’ at Hillbourne Primary School, we have also designed a bespoke safety curriculum to ensure that when the children leave us at the end of Year 6, they are fully equipped to deal with a range of situations safely. Our safety curriculum covers aspects such as water and beach safety due to our close proximity to the sea as well as aspects such as first aid, body safety, online safety and stranger danger. Each aspect is revisited and built on in each year group meaning that the curriculum content increases in range, depth and complexity as pupils move through the school.
Where possible, aspects within our safety curriculum are linked with the local area, visitors or with the experiences that the children have whilst at Hillbourne Primary School.
We promote ‘British Values’ through our spiritual, moral, social and cultural education which permeates through the curriculum offer and supports the development of the ‘whole child’.
We work closely with our School Council to hear their views and opinions as we acknowledge children should be encouraged to form and to express their views.
At Hillbourne Primary School we promote a multi-faith curriculum where each person is respected and valued equally without regard to ability, gender, faith, heritage or race. The staff work closely with parents, carers and other professionals to ensure that the pupils are happy, well cared for and enabled to learn the skills they need to live a fulfilling life as part of their community.
SMSC
SMSC stands for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development. This is at the heart of our curriculum, and we want our children to make safe choices and develop a deep spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding. We actively look for links to this like for example through our safety curriculum where in Mathematics, children explore money safety and in Computing where children explore how to stay safe online.
RHE and RSE
At Hillbourne Primary School, Relationship Education focuses on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and adults. All teaching at Hillbourne reflects the Equality Act 2010 ensuring there is no discrimination for any pupil or family with protected characteristics.
At Hillbourne, all children are exposed to a range of different family types through explicit taught sessions but also through our everyday teaching materials. Each class will read at least one text a year as part of our English scheme of learning which represents a certain family type for example a family with two dads or a family with a dad and a step mum. These family types are also embedded through in other areas of our curriculum such as through the wording of Maths problems created by our teachers for the children to answer.
Children at Hillbourne are taught in an age-appropriate way about the characteristics and values of healthy relationships, including area such as differences, boundaries, respect, trust and kindness. Teaching focuses on both face-to-face and online relationships recognising the significance of the digital world we now embrace.
Learning is planned to meet the objectives set out in the Relationships Education, Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education Statutory Guidance 2020, under the broad headings of
We include the statutory Relationships and Health Education within our whole-school PSHE Programme of Jigsaw.
The Science Curriculum – body changes and life cycles
Body changes and life cycles Sex Education beyond the requirements of the science national curriculum is not compulsory in primary schools; however, we recognise the importance of preparing children well for secondary school. At Hillbourne Primary School, children will be taught about puberty as set out in the expectations of the science National Curriculum. In line with year group expectations, children will learn about external body parts, changes in the human body from birth to old age, and reproduction in some plants and animals. As part of the life cycle objectives, Year 6 pupils will be taught the science of how a baby is conceived and born. In our school, we only teach the body changes and life cycles required by the science national curriculum. Therefore, parents do not have the right to withdraw children from these scientific lessons. (Parents will have the opportunity to discuss and view the content of the curriculum before it is taught.)
We want children leaving Hillbourne Primary school to be able to:
Our whole curriculum is comprehensibly planned and clearly sequenced, and science follows this consistent design, effectively adapting and developing to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities and those that are disadvantaged.
Our science curriculum is taught by the class teacher, who will first revisit prior learning. We return to previous learning, in order for pupils to retrieve knowledge from their long-term memory and build on this, with the introduction of new knowledge. This is through an approach of clear modelling and scaffolding of new concepts. The pupils will then practise and apply this knowledge in a group or individual learning task and have opportunities to deepen their understanding by applying this knowledge to scientific enquires as well as having opportunities to explain and reason.
We aim for all pupils to develop: both their substantive (scientific knowledge) and disciplinary (working scientifically) knowledge through different types of scientific enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them. Our aim will allow children to become equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. Our curriculum is designed to enable children to ask scientific questions and deepen their scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding. Throughout their time at Hillbourne, pupils will explicitly develop the following skills, alongside the relevant conceptual knowledge, so that by the time they move onto their secondary education, all pupils have the skills and knowledge needed to independently undertake the five different enquiry types:
We use key concepts that are thread through our science curriculum, from Yr R to Yr 6, in order to build on prior learning and support pupils making strong links in their knowledge, from previous learning.
Scientific concepts:
At Hillbourne, we also ensure that we deliver a science curriculum which takes account of what pupils have learnt in other subjects. For example, pupils learn about states of matter alongside learning about the water cycle in geography. In this way, pupils can use their scientific knowledge of evaporation and condensation to better understand the water cycle in geography. This provides opportunities for pupils to consolidate their knowledge.
Our science curriculum also makes good use of our school grounds and local environment. For example, when looking at the concept of seasonal changes, our pupils are able to go on nature walks around the school grounds to observe changes in weather and the impact this has on humans. Similarly, when learning about living things and their habitats, our pupils are able to carry out classifying enquiries by using a classification key to categorise different living things within the school grounds and immediate local environment.
We use key concepts that are thread through our science curriculum, from Yr R to Yr 6, in order to build on prior learning and support pupils making strong links in their knowledge, from previous learning.
Scientific concepts:
At Hillbourne, we also ensure that we deliver a science curriculum which takes account of what pupils have learnt in other subjects. For example, pupils learn about states of matter alongside learning about the water cycle in geography. In this way, pupils can use their scientific knowledge of evaporation and condensation to better understand the water cycle in geography. This provides opportunities for pupils to consolidate their knowledge.
Our science curriculum also makes good use of our school grounds and local environment. For example, when looking at the concept of seasonal changes, our pupils are able to go on nature walks around the school grounds to observe changes in weather and the impact this has on humans. Similarly, when learning about living things and their habitats, our pupils are able to carry out classifying enquiries by using a classification key to categorise different living things within the school grounds and immediate local environment.
Religious Education
We want children leaving Hillbourne Primary school to be able to:
Importance to Hillbourne Primary pupils and local links:
Throughout their time at Hillbourne, children will learn about the theology, practices and festivals in Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Judaism.
The RE curriculum aims to ignite children’s interest in different religious and non-religious world views/faiths and have knowledge of the key concepts, preparing them with essential knowledge throughout their education. This begins with EYFS where the foundation is laid through a child centred approach, promoting the understanding that we and our families are all different and celebrate events in life in differing ways, and progresses through to key stage 1 and 2.
To enable our children to understand the impact of different world views and faiths in their own community we have regular visitors to talk about their faith and their festivals. We have made a close link to the local church, St Barnabas Church, and children partake in Harvest, Christmas and Easter celebrations either at the local church or through assemblies in school lead by the Vicar. Lessons across the school are also supported by the vicar, other members of St Barnabas Church and members of other world views/faith communities, which bring the subject to life for the children.
The RE units have been carefully chosen to cover as wide-ranging content as possible without compromising depth, breadth, and coherence. They are progressive throughout the Key stages and offer challenge. Our curriculum has been developed from ‘Understanding Christianity’ and ‘Discovery’ schemes of work. Each unit plan includes lessons which teach knowledge and explore the impact of belief on everyday life, and lessons for the children to discuss their opinions and ideas based on this knowledge.
The RE curriculum has been designed to be both knowledge-rich and coherently sequenced with repeated encounters in different contexts. Knowledge means not only substantive knowledge of the theology of the faiths or world views, but also knowledge of substantive concepts in RE such as ‘prayer’, ‘the afterlife’ and festivals and disciplinary concepts such as significance and interpretation.
Our aim is to deliver a high-quality, progressive computing curriculum that equips pupils with the knowledge to prepare them to thrive within a constantly advancing and technological world. At Hillbourne, technology is used as an educational tool and therefore we aim to build children’s understanding of how they can use technology efficiently and safely to do this.
E-safety is key component of the computing curriculum and safety curriculum, and children have many opportunities to take part in sessions that ensure they are equipped with strategies that enable them to make confident and safe judgements about their online activity at school and at home. Throughout each year, children will build on their knowledge of how to stay safe. This allows children to understand the potential online issues and the responsibilities of being online including the use of social media which is adapted and updated appropriately. Additional sessions are also taught to reflect the needs of the children and e-safety is celebrated through days such as Internet Safety Day.
Children are taught the principles of how digital systems work and how to put this knowledge to use through programming. Children will build upon their understanding of what an algorithm is and how they can input these into computers. Building on this knowledge and understanding, pupils are equipped to create programs and use logical reasoning to debug them.
The computing curriculum is designed to ensure that pupils become digitally literate at a level suitable to prepare them for the next stage in their education, the future workplace, and as active participants in a digital world. This will enable them to express themselves and develop their ideas through information and communication technology.
Pupils in EYFS are exposed to a range of technology that gives them the opportunity to demonstrate that they recognise that technology is used both in school and out of school. This will develop children’s understanding of how technology can be used for a range of purposes. Pupils within KS1 and KS2 experience lessons where they are able to learn and build on skills that progress from lesson to lesson, unit to unit and year group to year group. Each year, children have the opportunity to develop their knowledge of computer systems and networks, creating media, data and information and programming.
Children have the chance to work with a range of devices and different software to build their understanding of the uses of technology and their purposes.