Curriculum Statement

Our Vision

Hudson Primary School is an inclusive learning community where we are:

Building a strong school community; inspiring pupils to gain the confidence, resilience and independence to become life-long learners, making the best progress possible and creating happy memories.

Our intent for the curriculum at Hudson Primary is one designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children in our care. 

It provides opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident and successful learners, with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society and are inspired to do so. 

The curriculum ensures that academic success, creativity and problem solving, reliability, responsibility and resilience, as well as physical development, well-being and mental health are key elements that support the development of the whole child and promote a positive attitude to learning. 

The curriculum celebrates diversity and utilises the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the community while supporting the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, ensuring that children are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

Children leave Hudson Primary School with a sense of belonging and are proud that they have developed the confidence and skills needed to be learners for life.

Our general principles:

• Children develop new skills through a variety of interesting contexts
• Children learn within a coherent and progressive framework
• Children develop a rich and deep subject knowledge
• Children understand the purpose and value of their learning and see its relevance to their past, present and future

Here at Hudson Primary School we provide a creative curriculum based around the Cornerstones Curriculum, a nationally recognised approach for delivering outstanding learning opportunities for children.

The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 primary national curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations.

It is based on a child-centred pedagogy called 'The Four Cornerstones' and is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) and Knowledge Rich Projects (KRPs), which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning.

We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum will provide lots of learning challenges throughout the academic year that will require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively across the curriculum.

Cornerstones Curriculum has four structural tiers. Each tier builds on the previous to create interconnected layers. These interconnected layers provide a robust framework that ensures connectivity across the curriculum.

Tier 1: Big Ideas

The curriculum is led by 10 central Big Ideas. These Big Ideas are the overarching aims of the curriculum.

They were conceived by careful analysis of the national curriculum subjects, drawing out common themes, which then, through a period of refinement, became our Big Ideas.

Tier 2: Subjects (Aspects and Concepts)

In the curriculum structure, each Big Idea is directly connected to the curriculum subjects, which have the relevant aspects or concepts through which the Big Idea can be delivered. For example, in geography, the Big Idea of Humankind is connected to and delivered through the geographical aspects of Settlements and land use and Human features and landmarks. 

Tier 3: Programme of Study (National Curriculum Coverage)

To ensure coverage of the national curriculum, each subject aspect or concept is then matched to the relevant programmes of study. Across the curriculum, there is full coverage of the programmes of study for art and design, design and technology, geography, history and science.

Tier 4: Progression Framework (Knowledge and Skills Statements) 

In Tier 4, programmes of study, aspects and concepts are broken down into smaller component parts or ‘chunks’ to form a cohesive progression framework. The progression framework runs from Nursery to Year 6 and includes knowledge and skills that children need to know and be able to do in order to make progress through the curriculum. 

For more information about the Cornerstones Curriculum CLICK HERE

Subject-specific or ‘formal’ learning occurs where a pupil can demonstrate recognisable and specific skills, knowledge and understanding in English language comprehension and reading, English writing and mathematics.  Some children may require a bespoke curriculum.  

A pre-formal curriculum recognises that some young people have a range of complex learning difficulties and disabilities; and it is this combination of two or more challenges that the curriculum is designed to meet by a personalised learning approach based on.  Using The Engagement Model and Equals curriculum as the focus of statutory assessment for pupils who are not engaged in subject-specific study helps to ensure that they are developing the right skills and concepts in their physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. This can help them progress on to subject-specific study, when they feel confident enough to do so. 

The pre-formal education is planned and takes place apart from the school system.

• The timetable and curriculum can be adjustable.
• It involves learning of skills
• It is process driven
• Unlike theoretical formal education, it is practical
• Sensory based activities
• Child lead
• Environment led- free exploration

The curriculum meets the statutory requirements as laid out in national curriculum 2014

High quality texts are at the heart of the English curriculum to allow for opportunities to read for pleasure and to model and stimulate the children's writing. Where appropriate, other curriculum subjects are used to extend writing opportunities in a range of genres.

Reading is at the heart of the Early Years and KS1 curriculum. Daily phonics sessions are delivered to all children in Nursery and beyond following the Read Write Inc. Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme. Lessons are interactive, practical and stimulating. Reading sessions for parents are delivered across the school to ensure parents are able to support effectively at home.

The teaching of reading is timetabled daily in all year groups. These sessions have a clear focus and ensure the wider skills of reading are taught. There are opportunities for children to read silently and complete reading related tasks independently each week.   There is dedicated reading and library time on each class timetable.  The environment around school and our rewards systems are focused strongly around reading promotion and celebration.

Speaking, listening and drama activities are inbuilt into the various phases of the reading and writing process to enhance and deepen understanding.

There is a systematic approach to the teaching of spelling across the school. There is discrete teaching, this is then carried through into all subjects. 

The teaching of Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar form an important part of the English curriculum. In most year groups there is a dedicated time given to the discrete teaching of these aspects which are also followed up within the main body of English lessons and in other subjects to embed a contextual understanding. 

Handwriting is taught following 'Pen Pals for Writing' this is a systematic whole school approach to handwriting. 

Intent 

The English National Curriculum (2014) states that:

‘The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.’

We believe the exposure of children’s literature within the primary school setting is vital as a rich context for learning; not only within English as a subject but to support building a reading culture throughout the school. We aim to use high quality books that offer opportunities for empathy and can aid philosophical enquiry, as a means of developing the spoken language requirements through debate, drama and discussion using the issues raised through, and within, the text. 

Implementation

At Hudson Primary, we teach our English lesson discreetly by following the Literary Curriculum (Literacy Tree). The Literary Curriculum from the Literacy Tree is a complete, thematic approach to the teaching of primary English that places children’s literature at its core. As a whole-school approach, children explore 115 literary texts and experience at least 90 unique significant authors as they move through the school. By placing books at the core, we are allowing teachers to use the text as the context for the requirements of the National Curriculum. 

The National Curriculum states that:

‘‘This guidance is not intended to constrain or restrict teachers’ creativity, simply to provide the structure on which they can construct exciting lessons.’

This would suggest that a context for learning is vital – and this is where our chosen approach can support teachers with ensuring that objectives for reading and writing, including those for grammar can have purpose. Our writing opportunities will be meaningful; whether short or long and the audience is clear. Books offer this opportunity: children have real reasons to write, whether to explain, persuade, inform or instruct and that where possible, this can be embedded within text or linked to a curriculum area. Writing in role using a range of genres is key to our approach as is writing a critique of the text and making comparisons – all writing skills that will support children in preparation for their time in secondary school. This sits comfortably alongside the following statement from the English National Curriculum. 

‘The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.’

Over their time at the school, children will read and write a variety of fiction and non fiction texts, including recounts, news reports, explanation texts, poems, plays and stories of all kinds. We use drama, role-play, storytelling and discussion to engage the imagination, before moving on to vocabulary exploration, sentence craft and creative writing.

Organisation

We teach English as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support for slower graspers to enable them to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials such as Word Banks or a greater level of modelling. Rapid graspers are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features. Children will experience aspects of the National Curriculum within each phase on multiple occasions, for a range of audience and purpose, embedding knowledge and skills by over-learning. 

Spellings: Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. Teachers use the Literary Tree Spelling Seeds to support their teaching and to provide activities that link to the weekly spellings. Children are given spellings to learn each week and are given a spelling test the following week. 

Grammar and Punctuation: Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers may sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as stand-alone lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.

Impact

• Pupils will enjoy writing across a range of genres 

• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will be appropriately scaffolded

 • Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing 

• Pupils will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience 

• Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught 

• Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support spelling, grammar and composition and home, and contribute regularly to homework 

• The % of pupils working at ARE within each year group will be at least in line with national averages. The % of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be at least in line with national averages 

• The will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non -disadvantaged)

Hudson makes great use of research to inform English teaching practices and also the support and networking with the St John Vianney English Hub.

When developing the mathematics curriculum at Hudson Primary, we have taken much of the content and principles of ‘Mastery’ taken from the National Curriculum, which reflects the teaching found in high performing education systems internationally, particularly those of east and south-east Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea and China. 

We have carefully considered the impact of the cultural differences and the specific needs of our children. Through work with NCETM and collaborations with our local NW3 Maths HUB we have created a curriculum that provides the children with a greater Mastery approach. 

Whole class moves through content at the same pace

When teaching maths for mastery, the whole class moves through topics at broadly the same pace. Each topic is studied in depth and the teacher does not move to the next stage until all children demonstrate that they have a secure understanding of mathematical concepts.

Time to think deeply about the maths

Students are given time to think deeply about the maths and really understand concepts at a relational level rather than as a set of rules or procedures. This slower pace leads to greater progress because it ensures that students are secure in their understanding and teachers don’t need to revisit topics once they’ve been covered in depth.

Builds self-confidence in learners

In a traditional primary school maths lesson, children are put in different groups and given different content based on their anticipated ability. This means that from an early age children are classed as those who can and can’t “do maths”. Teaching maths for mastery is different because it offers all pupils access to the full maths curriculum. This inclusive approach, and its emphasis on promoting multiple methods of solving a problem, builds self-confidence and resilience in pupils.

Differentiates through depth rather than acceleration

Though the whole class goes through the same content at the same pace, there is still plenty of opportunity for differentiation. Unlike the old model, where advanced learners are accelerated through new content, those pupils who grasp concepts quickly are challenged with rich and sophisticated problems within the topic. Those children who are not sufficiently fluent are provided additional support to consolidate their understanding before moving on.

Basis for the 2014 National Curriculum For Maths

Teaching maths for mastery is a key plank of the Government’s education reforms and is reflected in the 2014 English national curriculum for mathematics. The NCETM, Department for Education and OFSTED have all endorsed this evidence-based approach which is a key part of the work within the Maths Hubs Programme. For more information of our approach to Mathematics see - https://mathsnoproblem.com/

Multiplication Tables 

At Hudson we realise knowing times tables facts is crucially important to your child’s progression in their mathematics education. Without a thorough understanding of multiplication and division facts, children frequently get ‘lost’ when it comes to do anything with fractions and any multiplication or division with larger numbers. Many mental maths activities and tests require a quick recall of multiplication and division facts. Children who are secure in their times tables knowledge are able to get to grips with trickier tasks straight away and are far more successful. 

We practice times tables daily in the classroom with weekly tests to check for flunecy and instant recall. Our pupils also have access to a fantastic online way to develop knowledge of times tables and division facts for all pupils from Y1-Y6. Times tables are recognised as essential to access many mathematical concepts and knowledge will be assessed at the end of Y4, from September 2018, by a National test.

At Hudson Primary School we believe that STEM is an education for life. Through the Developing Experts scheme we have a mission to enable children to access high-quality STEM education that is linked directly into the real-world career progression pathways.

We aim to ensure that all of the children that study through Developing Experts become exceptional critical thinkers and problem solvers; the essential skills that are needed in the world of work. They are never too young to start with STEM.  We have addressed this by designing and implementing schemes of learning that offer breadth and depth, respect the National Curriculum and build progressively across the Key Stages; lesson-by-lesson, and unit by-unit.

Through well-structured and engaging science lessons, we enable children to:

• Be curious and explore their world building a wealth of scientific knowledge and skills. 
• Become effective problem solvers using science to answer the challenges that the world is facing.
• Develop excellent skills in maths to enable data handling and analysis.
• Emerge as effective exponents of STEM through the disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
• Challenge themselves to address every question with investigation, prediction, observation, data collection, synthesis, analysis, and a thorough evaluation of their findings.
• Communicate their understanding and ideas with a wide technical vocabulary.

At Hudson Primary School we understand that every child is individual and every child learns at their own speed. Through the use of Developing Experts resources, we aim to ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn science knowledge and vocabulary, revisit knowledge and science vocabulary, and to apply it in meaningful experiments across each year group. We use child friendly indicative assessment opportunities, through; Mission Assignments, quizzes, comprehensive handouts and a range of other activities that interweave with prior learning, as well as end of unit assessments. This blend of assessments grants teachers the necessary tools to ensure pupils make good or better progress in science.

The Developing Experts curriculum revisits and builds upon the national curriculum objectives with extra lessons to really strengthen and make links between science units.

We feel that it is important that the opportunity is offered to extend higher achieving pupils beyond the limits of a key stage of National Curriculum, as well as catering for those that need extra support. As such, our Developing Experts scheme has included additional lessons and resources that carry ‘signpost’ to extended learning capability, which is used at the discretion of the class teachers.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• Formative assessments provided by the Developing Experts scheme.
• Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are considered and discussed and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
• Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
• Marking of written work in books.

At Hudson Primary School we aim to provide the children with a broad, well balanced, stimulating curriculum which provides first hand experiences and builds on the children’s prior knowledge. We encourage all of our pupils to become independent, confident learners and help prepare them for the next stage of their lives.

The statutory National Curriculum 2014 programmes of study are covered across Key Stages 1 & 2.  Details of what is covered in each year group can be found in our year group and school curriculum maps. Progression within each subject is carefully planned to ensure a good balance of consolidation and new learning to ensure knowledge and skills are embedded.

A Themed approach to learning is used wherever possible. The length of time spent on a theme may vary. Our Curriculum Maps show how subjects are linked or if they need to be delivered as a ‘stand alone, or discrete’ subject.  Subjects may be covered in a weekly lesson or in a block e.g Science Day or Design & Technology Week. We use trips to a variety of places and organise visitors to school to help create enthusiasm for learning and to provide academic, social and cultural experiences.

Videos and photographs are also used to record the children’s work. These are often shared with parents via ClassDojo and our school class pages within our website.

We follow the Sefton syllabus for RE namely RE Today!

Children have the opportunity to explore different faiths, there is a focus on key celebrations within the christian faith too which is further emphasised through assemblies. 

Through our teaching, including collective worship, we foster a tolerance and understanding of other faiths and promote that all faiths can live harmoniously.  

Supplementary resources are utilised through the Cornerstones curriculum resource ‘I love to celebrate.’

All children have one timetabled PE lesson each week, coverage is carefully mapped out offering a broad and balanced curriculum, supplemented through the teacher resource 'Complete PE.'

The school sports funding is used to promote exercise and increase the level of activity during the day. 

Daily Mile 

The Daily Mile is a social physical activity, with children running or jogging – at their own pace – in the fresh air with friends. Children can occasionally walk to catch their breath, if necessary, but should aim to run or jog for the full 15 minutes. We want every child to have the opportunity to do The Daily Mile at primary school, and are now working to build The Daily Mile’s community with schools, local councils, sports bodies and other supporters in the UK and beyond. For more information see the following link - https://thedailymile.co.uk/about/

Walk to School Travel Tracker

At Hudson we also encourage children to walk to school whenever possible. Children have the chance to earn badges at the end of each month for successful active trips to school. For more information see the following link - 

https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/?_ga=2.256065480.215344486.1646999050-1172916786.1646999050

Wider curriculum offer 

Coaches offer sessions during the school day (Dance) afterschool (Football) to enhance the quality of provision. Children can take part in a range of local and regional competitions which also provide opportunity to access competition at a national level. These are co-ordinated by our PE leader.

At Hudson we foster an early understanding of the Spanish language and enable children to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and accuracy.  We aim to teach children to read and write increasingly complex sentences and build an understanding of key grammatical features.

We also foster an appreciation of the culture and traditions of Spain.

In Key Stage 2 the teaching of Spanish is delivered by the class teacher with the support of a bilingual volunteer.  Hudson has timetabled weekly lessons which involve; speaking, listening, reading, writing and learning about Spain and its traditions.  

All Spanish lessons include games, songs and a highly motivating style of teaching to foster an enthusiasm for learning the language.  The Language Angels scheme of work assists teachers in a progressive and consistent approach to its delivery.

The PSHCE curriculum is one that Hudson prioritises within its curriculum timetable, research shows that children who are emotionally healthy do better at school.

A PSHE education helps children and young people to achieve their potential by supporting their wellbeing and tackling issues that can affect their ability to learn, such as anxiety and unhealthy relationships. 

The 1decision programme has been invested in to provide a current and accessible curriculum for all of our children.    Its resources have been produced for the media generation and includes interactive content suitable for all learning styles.

The core of the 1decision programme is a series of documentaries and videos with alternative endings, which enable children to explore various topics in a safe, educational environment.  At Hudson this programme is delivered in all class weekly.

Using technology is a very important and essential feature of the teaching and learning that takes place at Hudson Primary School. ICT is used across the curriculum with teachers and pupils using it in the way they would any other resource.

Professional development of staff skills is a paramount feature of developing a successful and positive approach to the use of existing and future technologies.

We believe ICT at Hudson will allow the children to become confident users of technology equipping them to become successful and productive learners. Our current range of technology is purposely varied and includes Laptops, chrome books and iPads. 

As a result of a well-planned broad and balanced curriculum, children at Hudson Primary School are well prepared for the next stage in their education. Throughout their time at our school they acquire knowledge, skills and a love of learning that governors and staff believe will carry through to their adult lives and into the workplace. 

Progress outcomes for pupils are high at the end of Key Stage 2 in reading, writing and maths setting them firmly on the road to success in the future.

Survey outcomes are strong and positive across the school from all stakeholders confirming the approach to teaching and learning is the right one for our children.