At Harden Primary School, we value the uniqueness of each individual child, recognising and nurturing their potential for learning. Our aim, through our tailor-made curriculum, is to enable each child to fully participate in current and future society as a responsible, self-confident citizen. We use our local village community, and the surrounding areas to enhance and make learning purposeful.

We believe that our curriculum offers a balance between understanding and using knowledge as well as developing and applying skills, leading to better understanding and progression for the pupils.  Our curriculum has been designed with the following principles: it is personalised around what our children need, maximising our locality; it is outward-facing, setting learning in local, national and global contexts wherever possible; it aims to celebrate diversity to emphasises unity and it is rooted in authenticity and context so that learning is relevant, purposeful and sequenced, because we want children to know certain things at certain points of their life.

Core Learning

Core learning is integral to the expectation of excellence that runs throughout our curriculum, ensuring that we demonstrate high standards to the children, and that they have high expectations of themselves. There is an emphasis on reading and writing throughout our curriculum, with maths being taught discretely, making cross-curricular links where appropriate. We ensure the effectiveness and demonstrate impact of our core learning through rigorous assessment in our cyclical benchmarking model. ‘Hook’ texts are used to engage children in their learning across the curriculum, giving all children access to high quality texts to promote a love of reading.

Life Skills

Children at Harden leave school with the skills to support them with lifelong learning to ensure they can access wider opportunities in their future lives. Our children will be challenged, in an environment where they feel safe, and where any mistakes are viewed as part of their learning journey to build rig and determination to succeed. Our children are taught how to work in teams, where each team member is valued and has a role to play in order to achieve a collective goal. This enables them to develop excellent communication skills and provides our children with opportunities to explain and discuss their ideas, allowing them to become reflective and considerate learners.  This is achieved by providing a curriculum that motivates and inspires children, so that they have a thirst for learning, and an intrinsic desire to achieve their goals.   Character development, independence, collaboration and building resilience are key elements that our curriculum offers and combining this with developing the whole child in a structured approach to teaching well-being and mental health, we believe we are preparing our children for the wider world.

Enrichment

Our curriculum encompasses enrichment with the expectation that our children will work within, and be, active members of the community. This is embraced and encouraged by members of our governing body, local businesses and parents, who work with our staff to plan community projects and topical days. In doing this, we are creating future global citizens, who will be equipped for the challenges and opportunities of life, in a fast-changing and interdependent world.

As part of the curriculum design, we have considered:

• Developing sequential, progressive learning skills, where pupils know more and can do more, building on what they have been previously taught.
• Local context of our school and its history, as well as forward facing to our future and enriching the lives of pupils and our community.
• Considering depth, breadth and curriculum content, so that children have a rich understanding of our world.
• Having a clear purpose for assessment, and the way in which that is used.
• Listening to pupil’s voice so that this feeds into the curriculum and the children learn about things that they are passionate about.

Here is a copy of our curriculum that is further supported by each year groups long term plan: Curriculum at Harden Primary

English in EYFS

The teaching of English is rooted in the Statutory Framework and delivered through the prime area of Communication and Language and the specific area of Literacy. Communication and Language focuses on developing children’s listening, attention, understanding, and speaking skills through high-quality interactions, storytelling, singing, role-play, and vocabulary-rich conversations. These oral language foundations are essential for reading and writing. Literacy is taught through daily story sharing, exposure to a print-rich environment, and systematic synthetic phonics using our scheme Little Wandle. Children are supported to decode, blend, and read simple words, as well as recognise common exception words. Writing development begins with mark-making and progresses to forming letters, spelling simple words phonetically, and writing short sentences. Throughout the EYFS environment, opportunities for reading and writing are embedded across all areas of provision, ensuring that children develop confidence and enjoyment in early literacy. Our EY team continually observe and scaffold learning through a balance of play-based and adult-guided experiences.

English in Years 1-6

In Key Stage 1 and 2, we have devised our own system for the way we plan, teach and assess units of work. Firstly, units are designed in a way to hook the children in to an exciting and high-quality text/film clip for that particular age group. Teachers will then assess where the starting point is for most children in that cohort. Subsequently, this then enables effective planning using assessment for learning as the core principle. Next, teachers will plan and deliver a range of reading, grammar, punctuation, spelling (GPS) and writing opportunities in a clear sequence that will eventually lead to the pupils' then producing high-quality written outcomes (a 'hot' task) linked to the particular text type that they have studied; this piece is then published in the pupil’s star writing book.

For more information – see English Curriculum 

At Harden Primary School we aim for the children to develop an enthusiasm for and enjoyment of Science. We strive to develop their knowledge and understanding of important scientific ideas, processes and skills and encourage them to relate these to their everyday experiences. We teach children different ways of thinking, how to find out things and how to communicate their ideas effectively. We strive to make the children confident learners, to explore values and ideas through Science.

Science Curriculum Aims

At Harden Primary School, we aim to develop pupils’ enjoyment and interest in science and an appreciation of its contribution to all aspects of everyday life. To build on pupils’ curiosity and sense of awe of the natural world by using a planned range of investigations and practical activities to give pupils a greater understanding of the concepts and knowledge of science. Introduce and adsorb pupils in the language and vocabulary of science and to develop pupils’ practical skills and their ability to make accurate and appropriate measurements. To use science as a tool to develop pupils’ use of information and communication technology (ICT) in their science studies.

Here you will find our Science Curriculum

Much of the pedagogy for the teaching of primary mathematics teaching at Harden is based on the NCETM’s research into primary mathematics teaching in East Asian jurisdictions and follows the long-term plan based on White Rose Maths. It is fully consistent with the Primary National Curriculum in England.

We aim to:

• provide our pupils with a mathematics curriculum which will produce individuals who are numerate, literate, creative, independent, inquisitive, enquiring and confident

· provide a stimulating environment and adequate resources so that pupils can develop their mathematical skills to their full potential

· ensure all pupils become fluent in mathematics through varied and frequent practise with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately

· to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language, and

· enable our pupils to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions

   Children who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any new content is accessed. Children who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier materials should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning follows the Early Years Framework and National Curriculum learning objectives through the White Rose Maths units for each specific year group.

• Teachers will ensure all children have easy access to a variety of resources to help visualise abstract concepts, and know how to use these resources to visualise concepts and ideas to aid their understanding. 
• Teachers will provide children will a variety of opportunities to develop and extend their mathematical skills using a variety of concrete, pictorial and abstract activities including: group work, paired work, whole class teaching and individual work.
• Children are taught efficient written methods for each operation as stated in the school’s Calculation Policy.
• Daily lessons include a variety of fluency, problem solving and reasoning activities based on the current maths skill being taught. Children will be given work based on their pre-learning task assessment data.
• Teachers will make full use of ITPs and other ICT resources like WRM smart notebook pages to enhance their maths lessons.
• Teachers will, wherever appropriate, include mathematics in other subjects including the creative curriculum.

Teaching principles

Teaching is underpinned by a belief in the importance of mathematics and that the vast majority of children can succeed in learning mathematics in line with national expectations for the end of each key stage. All children are assessed at the start of a unit based on the unit’s key objectives; these are based on the children’s own working assessment level. Work during the unit is then pitched appropriately based on this data and teacher assessment. During the unit, the learning needs of each individual child is addressed through careful scaffolding, skilful questioning and appropriate rapid intervention during or after the lesson, in order to provide the necessary support and challenge. After the unit, children are assessed using a post learning assessment task allowing them to showcase their progress across the unit. This data is then used by teachers, to plan opportunities to further support individuals/groups of children. Factual knowledge (e.g. times tables), procedural knowledge (e.g. formal written methods) and conceptual knowledge (e.g. of place value) are taught in a fully integrated way and are important elements in the learning of mathematics. Precise mathematical language, modelled in full sentences, is used by teachers and support staff, so that mathematical ideas are conveyed with clarity and precision. Pupils are expected to use the appropriate vocabulary to explain their understanding. Conceptual variation and procedural variation are used extensively throughout teaching, to present the mathematics in ways that promote deep, sustainable learning. Sufficient time is spent on key concepts to ensure learning is well developed and deeply embedded before moving on. The reasoning behind mathematical processes is emphasised with exploration of how answers are obtained, why the method/strategy worked and what might be the most efficient method/strategy.

Please click here to view the Maths Curriculum.

A high-quality music education should allow pupils to experience a wide range of musical styles both when listening and performing music. It allows children to consider how music influences our emotions and can be used in storytelling and in films/TV shows to create atmosphere. Children gain an understanding of how music has influenced people throughout history and is used in different cultures. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about different kinds of instruments and how sounds can be changed considering pitch, volume, tempo and specific rhythm patterns. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the different musical styles and instruments will allow them to create and compose music of their own using more complex features.

Our teaching focuses on developing the children’s ability to understand rhythm and follow a beat. Through singing songs, children learn about the structure and organisation of music. They are taught how to sing and perform in rounds and in parts. We follow the model music curriculum of “Sing up”.

Musical performances happen throughout each week through music lessons and the coming together in assembly, and throughout the year including – Harvest, Christmas, Easter, celebration assemblies, parent events, year 6 performances as well as extra-curricular opportunities through the choir. The choir take an active part of bringing the local community together and forge links between the different stakeholders of the school. Children are also given instrumental lessons as part of the curriculum during year 4 and 5 learning to play brass instruments and recorders.

Click here to view the Music Development plan summary for Harden Primary School.

At Harden Primary School, we are committed to providing a broad and balanced curriculum, which includes Religious Education (RE) as a key component. RE offers pupils the opportunity to explore a range of beliefs, religions, and world views, encouraging respect, understanding, and tolerance for different perspectives.

We recognise that parents and carers have the legal right to withdraw their child from all or part of Religious Education, in accordance with the Education Act 1996 and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. This right allows parents to opt out if they feel that the content covered does not align with their personal beliefs or wishes for their child’s education.

If you wish to withdraw your child from all or part of RE, we kindly request that you inform the school in writing. We will then arrange a discussion to understand your concerns and explore potential alternative arrangements for your child during RE lessons.

While we respect every family's beliefs and decisions, we encourage parents and carers to consider the value of RE in promoting inclusivity, tolerance, and cultural awareness.

For further information or to discuss the process, please contact the school office.

At Harden Primary School, we are committed to supporting the mental and emotional wellbeing of our pupils and staff. It is important that pupils learn that mental and emotional wellbeing is a normal part of life in the same way that physical health is and they know how and where to get help during times that they may need additional support. We believe that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play. Having a positive mental health is the ability to face life’s challenges with confidence, to manage them effectively, being responsive to the emotions of one’s self and others and to learn from these experiences.  

We aim to meet the needs of all our pupils through our aims, ethos and school values, our curriculum and our wider curriculum. We are proud to be a ‘My Happy Mind’ school which is taught alongside our PSHE curriculum.  We believe in teaching the science and then embedding habits around mental wellbeing in a fun and positive way. Rather than focussing on the ‘issues’ or challenges overtly we take a preventative approach by giving children the understanding and tools to cope when times get hard. Research shows that preventative approaches are both more accessible for children and are more likely to lead to lasting change. The programme is taught across the whole school and is taught weekly, ensuring that regular directed time is devoted to developing mental wellbeing. You can find out more about the programme here: http://myhappymind.org/aboutandapproach/ 

Mrs Ruddock, Head Teacher, says “My Happy Mind is delivering a shift in children’s understanding of mental health and wellbeing. My Happy Mind helps children understand how their brain works and supports them in developing positive skills and habits to be their very best selves! The children utilise the designated session each week, but it has now become embedded in all of our practice across the school and curriculum. We are proud to be a My Happy Mind school.”

We are proud to announce that we are a “myHappymind Silver Accredited School!

This means that as a school we consider the mental health and well being of our children as one of our top priorities. We have created a whole school culture that helps build our children’s resilience, confidence and self-esteem as well as teaching them how to self-regulate in those stressful times. This Accreditation badge has been awarded thanks to all the effort our staff, children, governors, and parents have put in to bring the lessons of myHappymind to life all around our school!

At Harden Primary School, we are committed to providing a purposeful and empowering curriculum that fully prepares learners for the next steps in their school career and the wider world. We want our children to believe, achieve and succeed and believe that it is essential that they understand the world they live in. Broadening our children’s horizons and giving them the belief that they are capable of achieving great things drives our curriculum. Our Personal Development offer gives the children the knowledge and understanding they need make informed choices and to be a positive influence in the communities that they belong to. 

Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, and also includes challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way. Our aim is to develop skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, team-working and critical thinking.

For more information please click here: Personal Development at Harden Primary School 

After exploring the information on our website, if you would like any further information about the curriculum for your child’s year group, please contact their class teacher, who will be happy to discuss it with you. If you have any other queries or questions about the curriculum, please feel free to contact school at parents@hardenprimaryacademy.co.uk