At Hallow, our curriculum is constantly evolving, responding to the needs of learners and their interests by enhancing learning experiences and raising awareness from the local area to national and global arenas.
We use our local area to drive hands on learning and allow the children to make connections between local history and national history. Thus, we develop outward looking pupils who are able to engage in learning about themselves, their European and global neighbours and have an understanding of the wider world and its complex cultures.
In everything that we do, we strive for greatness, and our curriculum is no different. In order to achieve this, we believe it must be informed and shaped by expert subject matter and evidenced informed research. Therefore, our curriculum will never stand still. Year after year we will work hard to create new experiences and new ways of imparting knowledge, which are tailored to the individual needs of our context and up to date with the world.
Hallow’s curriculum will drive our children forward through high aspirations and a belief that every child can succeed. We will give our children the tools they need to change their own world and the world around them whilst at all times knowing that they are loved, valued and strengthened by God.
Maths
Our curriculum intent for mathematics reflects the purpose and aims of the national curriculum by helping our pupils to:
ü become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately
ü reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
ü 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
Science
Our curriculum ensures that knowledge and investigative skills are built upon progressively each year.
The science curriculum provides:
- Opportunities to explore and investigate whilst giving the children the knowledge and information linked to their work.
- Consistent use of scientific vocabulary.
- Ongoing opportunities to apply learned skills and knowledge across the curriculum.
Computing
Our curriculum for Computing ensures that computing knowledge is built upon progressively each year. E-safety concepts are woven throughout each topic informed by local and national priorities.
As a school we use ‘Kapow’ as a scheme to support our computing teaching, please see below a link for this and our computing curriculum overview for more information.
Design and technology
Design and Technology is taught as a discrete subject with links made to other subjects where appropriate.
Our overview for D&T ensures that knowledge is built upon progressively each year. The importance of teaching real-life skills and opportunities for design and evaluation is a key component in our curriculum.
We use the Kapow scheme of work to support our teaching of Design and Technology across the school.
Geography
Our learning is structured around eight key geographical concepts: human features, human processes, natural features, natural processes, climate, interdependence, resources and maps & data. In this way, we are able to support children in developing their geographical knowledge progressively each year.
Children engage in learning about diverse people and places, using different geographical resources, including a range of maps, images and charts.
History
In KS1 pupils begin by exploring their own lives and recent history, they then learn about the lives and legacies of prominent individuals such as Walter Tull.
At KS2 key events and concepts are taught in chronological order, beginning with the Stone Age up to and including World War 2, which will help pupils develop their knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Our curriculum aims to inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.
Modern foreign languages
At Hallow School, we follow the LanguageAngels French curriculum. This approach focusses on the teaching and learning of foreign languages like ‘language lego’. Starting with small blocks of language knowledge, then increasing the number and complexity and encouraging pupils to put the blocks together to create complex, adventurous and amazing linguistic structures.
Music
At Hallow School, we teach music as a discrete subject but it is also a large part of our daily lives - our regular daily and weekly collective worship will always include music and singing.
Our Music Room, holds a wonderful selection of musical instruments and is used by a variety of peripatetic music tutors for weekly lessons - guitar, drum and piano lessons are particularly popular!
We use the Kapow scheme of work to support our teaching of music across the school.
Religious education
As a school we follow the Worcestershire Agreed Syllabus the schemes which we use to teach this through are ‘Understanding Christianity’ and ‘Discovery RE’.
PSHE – including RSHE
Our PSHE including RSHE curriculum takes a whole school approach to themes which help children to value themselves and respect others, and to keep themselves safe and healthy. The scheme incorporates health education including healthy relationships, mental wellbeing and helps children to become our partners in tackling bullying and discrimination.
Our aims:
- Provide a framework in which sensitive discussions can take place
- Prepare pupils for puberty, and give them an understanding of sexual development and the importance of health and hygiene
- Help pupils develop feelings of self-respect, confidence and empathy
- Create a positive culture around issues of sexuality and relationships
- Teach pupils the correct vocabulary to describe themselves and their bodies
Art and design
Through our varied art and design curriculum, we aim to foster curiosity and a resilience to take risks when exploring and experimenting with new concepts to generate ideas.
Our children will have:
ü A secure understanding of techniques, media and the elements of Art (colour, form, line, tone, texture and shape).
ü Confidence in discussing artists, art, their own work and identifying their own strengths and areas for development.
ü A developed understanding of artists they have studied at an age-appropriate level.
Physical education
Our PE curriculum ensures all pupils are equipped with the knowledge and understanding of the value of leading a healthy lifestyle and the benefit of physical activity for the duration of their lives by instilling values such as sportsmanship, patience, and determination in all.
Through healthy and competitive sports, children will learn to cooperate and to compete fairly, understanding their own and others’ roles. We endeavour to provide children with the confidence they need to develop a growing self-awareness and a commitment to self-improvement. We aim to ensure children raise their own aspirations, set goals and work hard to achieve them, seeing how this will influence their opportunities in education, leisure and in future life.
Phonics and spelling
At Hallow School, we teach early reading through the systematic, synthetic phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
Right from the start of Reception children have a daily phonics lesson which follows the progression for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and this continues in Year One to ensure children become fluent readers.
Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress (please see below for the progression). Four new phonemes and their corresponding graphemes are taught (GPCs) each week and they are then used in the final lesson of the week to review the week’s learning. Children will also learn tricky words during these sessions.
In the Autumn and Spring term, Reception learn phase 2 and phase 3 GPCs and then will spend the final term learning phase 4.
Year 1 begin the Autumn term with 3 weeks of revision of phases 2, 3 and 4 before learning phase 5, which will be completed by the end of the year.
Half termly assessments take place through Reception and Year 1 to help inform future teaching and help identify children who have gaps in their phonic knowledge and need additional practice. Daily assessment of learning also takes place within the classroom so staff can quickly identify any children who are in danger of falling behind and provide the appropriate daily ‘Keep Up’ intervention.
For support with the pronunciation of the phonemes taught, please refer to the videos below.
Reading Practice Sessions
Children in Reception and Year 1, read fully decodable books with an adult 3 times per week during our ‘Reading Practice’ sessions. These books are then sent home for children to build their reading fluency and showcase their developing skills and phonetic knowledge to their parents/carers. These 3 reading practice sessions each have a different focus; decoding, prosody and comprehension. Our reading books in Reception, and Y1 are Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Big Cat books.
Reading
We are determined that every child will learn to read, regardless of background, needs or abilities. We want Hallow children to be fluent, confident readers. They will be exposed to a wealth of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and engender a genuine love of reading and a keen interest in a range of texts. We work to inspire them to become life-long readers who enjoy books and have a desire to read for pleasure.
In order for the children to have the will to read, and be able to read to learn, they need to have secure skills in reading so that they can read with fluency and comprehension. Reading is at the heart of our whole curriculum underpinning every subject area. We want every child to read widely, and to gain a rich knowledge across the curriculum. By offering a wide range of texts we aim to broaden their minds and experiences to allow them to empathise with the world in which they live and support the development of their cultural capital. Reading is such an important life skill that it is imperative we enable them to become independent readers who can easily process information, fully engage in all learning and be well prepared for their next stage of their education.
Reading for Pleasure
Reading for Pleasure remains a whole school priority. We believe that a whole school Reading for Pleasure culture must be planned for and promoted throughout the school in a variety of ways, ensuring that all children have the opportunity to develop that real.
Every day the teachers read aloud the class book to the children. These texts are chosen carefully so there is a range of high quality, diverse texts to engage the children and appeal to a range of children. When reading aloud, they do not stop unnecessarily to ask clarification/comprehension questions. Instead, they allow the story to weave its own magic, only pausing occasionally where necessary to define any important vocabulary.
Children read independently during morning and afternoon registration times. Reading is encouraged at home and parents are supported parents to understand how to read to/with their children. Teachers promote reading for pleasure through making recommendations and informal book talk; this includes promoting the different reading challenges for each year group. Careful recording of what the children’s reading diet includes happens regularly so staff are able to monitor, develop and extend this as and when appropriate. Book corners are well used, inviting spaces with a limited number of high-quality texts that children are able to borrow.