Our Curriculum | High Halden Church of England Primary School

School Vision

As a school we take pride in creating a nurturing environment where our community of learners are valued as individuals. Through God’s love, rich experiences and a sense of belonging, all will make strong roots to grow, flourish and bear fruit.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will

bear much fruit.

John - Chapter 15 verse 5

Our Intent

With our vision at the forefront of all we do at High Halden School, we worked closely with all stakeholders to design a curriculum specific and unique to our school community and context.

From this we established key points and considered how we wanted children to leave our rural setting with the appropriate skills and experiences to enable them to succeed in life beyond High Halden. As a direct result, the aim of our curriculum is to enrich the children’s lives and provide opportunities to grow their…

Curiosity and Creativity:

Through enriching first hand experiences.
Inspirational and enquiry led teaching and learning.
Broad, active and exciting curriculum.

Strong Sense of Community:

Engaging with the features of our beautiful rural village.
Collaboration with local residents and our wider communities.
Embracing the diversity and background of all.

Character Development:

Building resilient, confident learners by providing opportunities for all to flourish.
Encouraging aspirations and independence.
Strong sense of moral purpose underpinned by our Christian values.

We recognise that our curriculum must not only support and build on the children’s interests, but ensure that the children are given the opportunity to experience British culture and provide them with knowledge to ensure they can make informed choices in the wider world.

At High Halden, we understand the importance of reading, writing and mathematics in order to ‘open doors’ to other aspects of the curriculum. We aim to provide an education where all children are literate and numerate, giving them a solid foundation to build upon in the next stage of their journey.

Implementation

As every child has a fundamental right to a good education, it is vital that our curriculum is implemented effectively. At High Halden Church of England Primary School we strive to ensure teaching and learning are a joyful experience for all. In doing so, children are passionate about their learning whilst acquiring and developing the skills and knowledge required to meet their future aspirations.

Teaching:

Our teachers maintain that learning should be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone; it should be fun. Through delivering our High Halden Curriculum consistently whilst also applying teachers’ own spontaneity, creativity, imagination and individuality. Through our teaching we equip children with the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to be able to make informed choices about the important things in their lives. We believe that appropriate teaching and learning experiences help children to lead happy and rewarding lives

Our curriculum design:

Through embracing our children alongside teachers as ‘curriculum designers’, the High Halden Curriculum is specifically designed to meet the interests and aspirations of the school community, embrace the locality of the school setting and to provide children with a broad range of learning opportunities whilst also ensuring all statutory coverage is met. We believe in incorporating children as part of the curriculum design process, teachers are further empowered to ensure learning excites, hooks, inspires and engages children.

Impact:

At High Halden Church of England Primary School, we believe that in ensuring our curriculum is implemented effectively, children will develop a set of skills which prepare them for life beyond High Halden and support them to flourish as learners. As the curriculum allows time for children to think, discuss, practice and explore their skills, we expect learning to be fully embedded across the curriculum. In turn, high quality learning is consistently produced by all pupils across the curriculum, children are supported in their next stage of education and the school nurtures an ethos of life-long learning.

Curriculum Intention	Intended Impact	How it will be measured?
The curriculum develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge so that children know more, remember more and understand more.	Children make at least good progress from their last point of statutory assessment.	Progress from a child’s starting point or from the last point of statutory assessment. Attainment at each point of statutory assessment.
The curriculum nurtures children’s learning behaviours and develops a curiosity towards the exploration of knowledge so that children know more, remember more and understand more.	Children have positive attitudes towards their learning which continues as they move to secondary school and adulthood. Children access opportunities to deepen learning independently. Children experience and enjoy engaging lessons which are joyful and inspiring. Children are provided with carefully selected rich first hand experiences which benefit their cultural capital. Children experience a unique curriculum which is broad, active and exciting.	The learning behaviour displayed by children in the classroom and in the wider school environment. The care children demonstrate in their learning through the presentation of their work. The levels children engage with their knowledge organisers and open ended homework tasks. Attendance. Pupil and parental feedback.
The curriculum supports children’s character development which enables all to flourish beyond our school by ensuring children know more, remember more and understand more.	Children build resilience and become more confident learners - not giving up when things get difficult. Children have high aspirations and levels of independence which are encouraged by all members of staff. Children demonstrate a positive attitude towards all aspects of school life. They demonstrate respectful behaviour to all both in school and the wider school community. Children establish a strong sense of moral purpose underpinned by the schools Christian values. Children obtain social skills which enable them to succeed in the next stage of education.	Behaviours for learning in the classroom are positive. Throughout the school, children and staff exhibit positive attitudes. Incidents of disrespectful behaviour are resolved through respectful discussion. School pupils are able to discuss their aspirations for later life. older children are able to articulate how specific skills can be transferred into the workplace. School pupils embody our Christian values and are ambassadors for this whenever they learn outside the school environment. Children stand up for what is right and positively speak out against inequalities.
The curriculum builds upon the local context to provide opportunities for children to grow a strong sense of community, enabling them to know more, remember more and understand more.	Children have a positive outlook of High Halden and engage with the features of our beautiful rural village. Children are provided with opportunities to collaborate with local residents and our wider communities. Children embrace and understand the diversity and background of all.	Parental, pupil and community feedback on the connection between the school and the wider community. Reflect upon the schools involvement in community events. Learning on theme or experience days is presented of high quality and children clearly appreciate its value. Pupil feedback supports the inclusive message of the school.