Our Intent
In September 2021, the newly designed Heene curriculum was launched. Our curriculum re-design is a journey in progress, one in which we strive to involve all our stakeholders, in order to successfully meet the needs and interests of all our learners, enabling them to know more, to do more and to remember more. We are striving to ensure that as a result of this curriculum journey, the children at Heene CE (Aided) Primary School will thrive as learners and achieve all they are capable of and leave us being more than ready for the next stage of their education.
As a school we recognise the importance of knowledge acquisition, recognising that it builds strong foundations for later learning and it is our aim is to equip our pupils with key lifelong knowledge. Whilst the Heene curriculum has been carefully planned in accordance with the 2014 Primary National Curriculum we are continually seeking to personalise it to reflect the context of our school. The requirements for each subject have been sequenced by our subject leaders who have carefully identified the knowledge pupils should acquire in each year group.
Learning has been organised into termly themes and where applicable cross curricular links are made to enable pupils to make links or connections between their learning. Subjects that do not fit directly into the theme are taught discretely rather than tenuous links being made. Each termly theme is underpinned by a core text/s.
In developing our curriculum, we have sought to provide a range of experiences and activities outside of the more traditional curriculum recognising the importance such experiences provide for all pupils, regardless of their background or ability. These include but are not limited to: visits off site; visitors to the school to support particular curriculum areas; swimming; school council; residential visits; links with our local churches.
We live in an area which is rich in history and which provides excellent opportunities for links to other areas of learning, especially geography. Wherever possible, we ensure that we plan to use our local environment enabling our pupils to gain a sense of identify within the wider world.
We are proud of our status as a church aided school and the links that we have with the churches of St Matthews and St Botolph’s are important to us. We strive at Heene to ensure that our Christian distinctiveness shines through all that we do. The ‘Heene Way’ and our Christian values are woven into our curriculum and regularly celebrated. We want all our pupils to reflect these values in their actions, their thoughts and their words.
It is our desire to see all of our pupils become successful, enthusiastic, well rounded lifelong learners who are well prepared for the challenges and adventures that await them.
If you would like to find out more about the curriculum here at Heene, please contact our Deputy Headteacher who will be happy to answer any specific questions that you may have.
Alternatively, for the national curriculum programmes of study please follow this link National Curriculum programmes of study.
The image below powerfully represents the intent philosophy of our community.
Implementation
Our knowledge based curriculum is carefully sequenced from starting point to end point. This ensures that children in our school learn in cohesive sequence and ‘stick’ their learning together each year, building on previous knowledge, skills and experiences.
Each subject of our curriculum is led by a specialist subject leader who has responsibility for the intent, implementation and impact of their subject across the school.
Progress is achieved for all children by the identification of the skills and knowledge that children need to acquire over time; these are outlined in our progression grids for each subject which contain carefully chosen components crucial for subsequent learning.
Impact
The impact of the curriculum at Heene, lies in the outcomes for our children. From their different starting points, all children will make good progress academically, emotionally, creatively, socially and physically. This will be reflected both in children’s attitudes to their learning and how they articulate and apply what they have learnt.
We constantly review our curriculum through regular subject based monitoring activity to ensure sequential, layered knowledge acquisition to ensure that outcomes for all children are of a high quality.
