Our Curriculum
Staff at Heber have the highest aspirations for our children and have a clear and ambitious vision for the school to ensure that each and every child is given the opportunity to flourish and excel through a united commitment to a creative, challenging and diverse curriculum. Staff nurture individuality and foster strong relationships across the school community. We are committed to meeting the academic, social and emotional needs of all children, whatever their starting points as they progress through the school.
In addition to this, we believe that our curriculum should not only be a window into the wider world, but also a mirror in which all children can see themselves. We aim to celebrate diversity, challenge assumptions and broaden horizons for all children.
The curriculum is designed to give all pupils the knowledge and skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners in readiness for their next stage of education. The curriculum provides the opportunity for children to contribute positively to their local, national and global communities. Children are encouraged to work collaboratively and to be reflective and adaptable learners.
We have developed our own challenging and relevant topic based curriculum that enables children to learn in a joined up way. They are inspired to learn through exciting, meaningful cross-curricular lessons.
Units of work begin with an enquiry question and immersion day designed to capture children’s imagination about the learning ahead. We do this to encourage children to be curious and excited in order to make learning relevant and purposeful. Regular educational visits and visits from experts and members of the local community further enhance the learning experience and bring topics to life.
Specialist Art, Music, Spanish and PE teachers are employed at Heber to ensure the highest quality of teaching is taking place across the curriculum. These teachers plan lessons and projects that are linked, where possible to the topic in order to broaden children’s knowledge, skills and attitudes. Making meaningful links to Literacy and providing regular writing opportunities through the topic ensures that children’s vocabulary, reading and writing skills are continually developed throughout the school day.
At the start of each academic year, we hold curriculum meetings to help parents and carers understand what to expect in their child's year group. For parents and carers of children in Years 1-6 unable to attend or who would like a refresh, all presentations can be accessed through your child's Google Classroom, under the 'Supporting Parents' tab in the Classwork section.
Who and what do our children learn about?
Please download our full curriculum grid below:
More information about the ethnically diverse history, events and people of interest in our curriculum can be found here.
Our school curriculum recovery strategy can be found here.
Impact
We measure the impact of our curriculum in a range of ways. This is done consistently during lessons to highlight misconceptions and therefore teachers will intervene at the point of learning. We assess children's learning in all subjects at the end of each unit of work through the use of NTS (National Test Styled Standardised) assessments, quizzes in foundation subjects and also practical activities where appropriate. In History and Geography, children will answer the ‘enquiry question’ which was posed at the start of their topic. This gives our children the opportunity to apply their knowledge to an open ended question to demonstrate whether they have retained the required knowledge or skills. There will also be one Exit Point and one class assembly for each year group. For example, at the end of the Year 4 topic on Romans, children created an Egyptian museum. Children were the tour guides and shared their learnt knowledge with their parents, who were invited in for the event.
This use of a range of methods is important for teachers and subject leaders to identify what knowledge they have retained to memory and what they do not yet know. This information, along with outcomes produced during lessons is used to evaluate children’s learning.
