Curriculum

Halsford Park is Soaring to Success

Halsford Park Curriculum Intent

Our ultimate goal is for learners to be successful, confident individuals, who soar to success, make a positive contribution to the community and society – both now and in the future.

We believe this can be achieved by fostering a passion for lifelong learning that we can enable through an irresistible curriculum which is mapped out to ensure that skills, knowledge and vocabulary build year on year so children are able to know, do and remember more. Our Core Values of Respect, Compassion, Responsibility and Courage drive our curriculum and how we will be as a community. Through our connected curriculum, we enable learners to develop learning and life skills which develop their well-being and understanding of mental health.

What do we want?

All children to have a voice and know who can help them
Learners to be emotionally literate and understand the importance of a healthy body and mind
An irresistible curriculum that engages learners
Enrichment opportunities to enhance the curriculum
Passionate teaching that enables individual learners to develop knowledge and skills
Autonomous learners
Culture that facilitates purposeful learning
Aspirational learners
Success for all
Key vocabulary accessed by all

What do we believe?

Every learner can achieve
In Independent and collaborate learning
In a growth mindset
In the value of learner voice to inform planning and assessment
In inspiring learners through purposeful learning experiences
In setting high expectations
In the importance of purposefully planned personal, social and emotional development opportunities
Knowledge, skills and vocabulary = learning

Vocabulary Intent

At Halsford Park, we believe that vocabulary and reading are the gateway to learning and are essential for children to access the curriculum. We value the importance of vocabulary and by making it a priority in every lesson, we give all children the opportunity to revisit and explore new vocabulary through talk and reading. We also plan for the explicit teaching of subject specific vocabulary across the curriculum to ensure that learners understand the words they are being exposed to.

We endeavour to:

Increase children’s knowledge of words, their meanings and connections and how they are used.
Develop and deepen children’s understanding of the key subject concepts and knowledge.
Build children’s capacity to speak, read and write like computer analysts, athletes, artists, geographers, historians and musicians that they may one day become.
Enable children to read and comprehend more challenging texts across the curriculum.

Subject Champions have selected key vocabulary which increases in complexity each year so that pupils can build upon their prior skills and knowledge.

At the start of every new Learning Experience, subject specific words taken from the key vocabulary documents are shared and displayed in the classroom for teachers and learners to refer to and use in lessons. Some of these words are also selected and sent home as part of spelling homework for Key Stage 2 so that parents can support their children.

All pupils are exposed to new vocabulary daily, including those who have SEN and/or disabilities, that are disadvantaged or may have English as an additional Language. Vocabulary lists are adapted where necessary to support learners and programmes such as Communication in Print are used to create visuals to aid their understanding.

Vocabulary is revisited throughout the year to ensure that it becomes embedded and part of the learner’s everyday vocabulary.

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)

We believe that our ‘Irresistible’ curriculum is for all learners. For learners with high level special educational needs, Individual learning Plans (ILP) are created and these outline reasonable adjustments made to ensure equality of access to the curriculum. Please see separate SEND policy for more details:

Implementation

We use the Edison Learning Achievement Statements to teach and assess our Reading, Writing and Mathematics curriculum, as outlined separately.

We plan Science and most of our foundation subjects (Geography, History, Design & Technology, Art) in ‘Learning Experiences,’ utilising the EdisonLearning Connected Curriculum and seek to involve the children and their interests in our plans.

If at any time a subject cannot be meaningfully linked to the learning Experience it is taught discretely- such as Physical Education, which follows the ‘P.E Planning’ scheme and Religious Education which follows the West Sussex agreed syllabus. For in-depth detail on the delivery of the curriculum please see our individual pages, Curriculum policy and Teaching and Learning policy.

In Early Years, all teaching and learning is based around the government non-statutory curriculum guidance ‘Development Matters’ and children work towards achieving the Early Learning Goals in the Prime and Specific areas. Teachers work closely with the children to ascertain and follow their interests, and so adapt the curriculum and learning to their specific needs.

Each Learning Experience takes appropriate objectives from the National Curriculum, broken into key skills acquisition for year groups. Each Experience has a ‘Stunning Start’ to ‘hook’ the children in to their new learning and ends with a purposeful outcome- a ‘Fabulous Finish’. Throughout the Experience, children are encouraged to think about what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they will be able to apply these new skills in a meaningful context. This is underpinned by a rigorous set of foundational skills such as times tables, phonics and handwriting. From recent reading we would consider our curriculum to have a ‘knowledge-engaged’ approach, where knowledge underpins and enables the application of skill and where both are taught explicitly.

Halsford Park is part of the Everychild Partnership Trust. Please see link for the Trust website for further details. https://www.everychildpartnership.org.uk/

Everychild Partnership Trust Curriculum Principles

Trust Curriculum Principles March 2024

Curriculum Documents and Information

Early Years Foundation Stage

Early Years

Government information for parents

Information for parents about the national curriculum assessments for pupils in primary school

National Curriculum assessments:information for parents

Curriculum pages

For detailed overviews of what is covered in each subject area, see individual curriculum pages below.

Halsford Park
Primary School