Our Creative Curriculum

Our school’s curriculum is all the planned activities that we organise in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. We offer children broad, balanced, adapted and relevant curriculum which recognises individual developmental needs and takes account of National Curriculum subjects.

We aim to provide children with the ability to meet the unknown challenges of the twenty-first century. We focus on developing children’s learning capacity so that they can become positive, responsible citizens who can work and co-operate with others while at the same time developing their knowledge and skills, in order to be the best they can be.

The aim is for our curriculum to be the best for our children at Harpenden Academy. We want it to be exciting, interesting and engaging so that children are curious and want to learn. We want children to come home from school excited about what they are learning about. We also want our curriculum to be about raising standards.

Our curriculum is primarily skills based, with a focus on improving key subject skills as well as embedding knowledge into the long-term memory. This is so that children gain the subject knowledge, skills and understanding appropriate to their stage of development. Each subject is broken down into key concepts that are revisited throughout the primary curriculum.  We do this by following three simple principles. The what, why and how of the curriculum planning:

WHAT

As an Academy we are not required to teach the National Curriculum, so in its place we have created an effective school curriculum which is based upon our curriculum drivers of diversity, first-hand experiences and communication and our values, as well as reflecting the breadth of National Curriculum subjects.  Teachers plan engaging experiences for the children to learn first-hand through trips, visitors, use of the local community and practical learning.

WHY

So that children learn and get better at using key subject skills and have transferrable knowledge that can be applied across the curriculum.

HOW

We aim to make learning real and relevant to the lives of our children. The curriculum is frequently reviewed to ensure that it meets the current needs of our children.

Our Curriculum has been organised so that there are meaningful cross-curricular links, which incorporate the key skills and subjects set out in the National Curriculum. We encourage writing across all curriculum areas and find real-life learning examples to enhance our curriculum. We also teach the skills and knowledge for subjects discretely:

MATHEMATICS

We enhance the Maths scheme called ‘Maths No Problem’ which teaches the skills of reasoning, maths fluency and incorporates the use of resources, problem solving and group work.  The maths scheme is child-centred and fun to teach and was assessed by the DfE’s expert panel, which judged that it met the core criteria for a high-quality textbook to support teaching for mastery.

ENGLISH

We follow the Herts for Learning English planning for writing which is about to be relaunched (as Essential Writing) and which incorporates the most up-to-date research in how children learn best to write, for example with a significant focus on thinking aloud as a writer when modelling writing. This approach also prioritises vocabulary development and oracy which are two aspects of English that we are passionate about.

Our writing curriculum is centred around purpose and audience using the following schema: to inform, to discuss, to entertain, to persuade, which are built on each year to encourage increasingly sophisticated and engaging writing.

Transcription is a key element of writing so spellings (taught through Spelling Shed) and handwriting (taught through our own HA scheme) are taught discretely across the school.

Reading is taught using our own HA approach – see the reading page for more detail.

Phonics is taught using Bug Club and continues beyond EYFS and KS1 where necessary.

SCIENCE

The teaching and implementation of the Science curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and follows an enquiry-based approach. Each unit begins with the impartation of essential knowledge. This gives children the appropriate foundation to carry out effective investigations. Scientific enquiry skills are embedded throughout our curriculum and children are exposed repeatedly to all seven types during the course of each academic year.

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY

History and Geography expectations are set around the Chris Quigley Essentials “mile stones” approach.  We use resources and expertise from the Historical Association and The Royal Geographical Society to ensure that subject-specific concepts are built upon year on year to support children in their discussions as they become Historians and Geographers.

COMPUTING

As Computer Scientists the children will learn the key concepts of Computing through the ‘Teach Computing’ scheme which prepares children to be technologists of the future.  We enhance this scheme and the teaching of online safety across the curriculum. 

PSHE

PSHE is at the heart of our curriculum at Harpenden Academy.  Our Values, as well as the British Values complement the ‘Jigsaw’ scheme which we use in school.  Our Mental Health lead champions pupil, staff and parent well-being continuously.

MUSIC

We follow the scheme ‘Charanga’ which is a complete scheme to teach the national curriculum for music.  It incorporates a vast library of songs, topics, instrument courses and creative apps, in also provides in-depth support for assessment, SEND and personalised teaching and learning.

PE AND SWIMMING

PE in KS1 & KS2 is taught by the  class teachers.  Physical fitness and physical awareness are important in developing a healthy lifestyle. A range of dance, gym, sports and swimming will be covered.

Swimming and water safety has been a requirement of the curriculum since 1994. The aim is for all children to leave primary school with a basic ability to swim competently. Requirements are broken down into three; swimming 25 metres, using a range of strokes, knowing how to self-rescue.

Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 all have 1 term of swimming lessons at our local Harpenden Leisure Centre.   97% of our Year 6 cohort are meeting the national curriculum requirement to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres, use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.  Any child not meeting these swimming requirements are offered lessons in Year 6 to get them up to this standard.

MFL - SPANISH

We follow the ‘Language Angels’ scheme of work which allow us to cover the content of the National Curriculum programmes of study. Children are given a balance of speaking and listening opportunities as well as the chance to develop their reading and writing skills. Furthermore, children are provided with an introduction to the culture of Spanish-speaking countries and communities. It aims to foster children’s curiosity and help deepen their understanding of the world.

RE

Religious Education (RE) is a necessary part of a broad and balanced curriculum. As RE is not nationally determined, we use the Discovery R.E curriculum to ensure that all children are learning about the five main religions throughout their journey at Harpenden and have the chance to explore these through an enquiry-based approach. Christianity is taught in every year group, with Christmas and Easter being taught each year developing children’s learning in a progressive way. The scheme also supports the SMSC curriculum and is underpinned with British Values.