Halstead Community Primary School

Our Vision

At Halstead Community Primary School, everyone takes pride in demonstrating respect and kindness. In our inclusive, nurturing environment, we inspire and challenge our children through memorable learning experiences. We build a flourishing family which embraces individuality and independence where everyone can succeed.

Our motto

‘Everybody different, everybody equal.’

Curriculum Rationale

Our school curriculum reflects our strong belief that all children have an entitlement to an exciting and inspiring curriculum that engages children through memorable, inclusive experiences.

     Intent

At Halstead Community Primary School we believe that children learn when they are interested and fully immersed, so we create exciting themes, environments and challenging activities, giving them fantastic and memorable experiences. We allow children to take risks in a safe environment and help them learn from their mistakes. We believe strongly in building relationships between the children and their peers and model conversation and interactive play. 

At Halstead Community Primary School, the curriculum is designed to: recognise and build on children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences through a range of immersive activities, trips and visits, and allow children to become resilient, creative and critical thinkers whilst building self-esteem and individuality. We set high expectations and allow children to develop their learning through high quality thinking.  Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, as well mental health and well-being, are prioritised to ensure children have concern for others.

Threaded through our curriculum is the teaching of the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) personal goals, (thinker, adaptable, resilient, ethical, communicator, empathetic, collaborator, respectful), the five British values, (democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, respect, tolerance), and our PRIDE values:

• Personal excellence

The curriculum is designed for every child to gain knowledge and develop their skills.  The sequence of learning is designed so children build on, apply and make connections with previous knowledge. The curriculum fosters an excellent attitude to learning.

• Respect and Friendship

The curriculum is designed to build on the culture and experiences of children in the school.  It promotes working together and encourages the children to treat one another with respect. Enrichment activities link to real life and are purposeful.

• Inspiration

The curriculum is designed for every child to have a wide range of experiences and raise their aspirations through planned events.  The curriculum develops enquiring minds so that the children learn to think critically.

• Determination and Courage

The curriculum is designed for every child to challenge themselves through perseverance, resilience, confidence, curiosity, enthusiasm, reflection, reasoning and use of a growth mindset.

• Equality

The curriculum is designed for every child to reach their potential. This is achieved by ensuring that all children feel valued and listened to. Use of active learning provides opportunities for all to achieve equally at their level.

     Implementation

The curriculum is implemented through thematic topics from EYFS to Year 6.  These are designed with progression of knowledge and mastery of skills at its core.  All subjects are linked, where possible, to these themes - including music, computing, DT, art and science- to provide the opportunity to make links and ensure depth of understanding. Themed units help children to see how subjects are both independent and interdependent. This enables them to see the big picture of their learning, make connections across different subjects, and talk about a topic from multiple perspectives.

In KS1 and KS2 we use the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) and follow its suggested themes (units).  Some examples of these are: Time Travellers, The Magic Toymaker and Space Scientists.

As part of this learning we begin with an entry point in which children become fully immersed in the subject of the unit, perhaps dressing up, or exploring with all senses involved, including tasting, touching and smelling. Investigating the new unit. Then comes the knowledge harvest so children can share what they already know and so teachers can build on this bank of knowledge and ensure progress within the curriculum subjects. The theme finishes with an exit point. This exit point has two main purposes. First, to help children pull together their learning of this unit and second to celebrate the learning that has taken place. The celebration can take many forms such as a performance to parents, a gallery of art work, a tea party hosted by the children. 

As part of the themes we also aim to visit places outside of school, as well as having visitors into school, which create immersive and memorable experiences.  These are particularly important to us as we also aim to improve our children’s cultural capital. We want our children to know about their local community as well as the wider world and so this is threaded through our curriculum. 

Through our compassion curriculum, teaching of PHSEC, RHE, Personal goals, British values, school council, Head pupils and other roles within the school -  a Halstead Community Primary School child will understand how to contribute positively to their community and the wider society.

Extra-Curricular

We value the importance of providing children with opportunities for enriching learning experiences which are part of their school experience. Our curriculum includes the ‘Pioneer Passport’ which we believe serves to purposefully close the experience and knowledge gap from home. We want children to be curious and excited by the awe and wonder of the world and we design our curriculum to infuse that excitement.

Our Key Stage One passport outlines seven activities to be completed by the age of seven (Seven by Seven), including visiting a farm, observing life cycles, creating a piece of art for an exhibition, building a den in a forest, and making a boat and floating it on a river.

Our Key Stage Two passport, which is eleven activities to be accomplished by the age of eleven (Eleven by Eleven), includes visiting a beach, castle, and art gallery, cooking a healthy meal, performing Shakespeare, learning a non-curriculum sport, such as horse riding and visiting famous London landmarks.

Impact

At Halstead Community Primary School, we strive for all our learners to make rapid progress from their starting points.  We use assessment for learning to see where children may have gaps in their learning so we can quickly address this through quality first teaching as well as one to one and small group interventions.  We want all children to make progress academically, emotionally, creatively, socially and physically.

Inclusion is at the heart of our school. It is expected that all children will participate in learning, and adaptations will be made to ensure that all children have access to a broad and balanced curriculum.

Children learn and develop in different ways and may need extra help and support at various points throughout their time at school. Lessons, which include practical experiences, set the foundations for lifelong learning and enable children to apply skills to real life context.

Work is modified to support learning in the classroom. Adapting resources and activities which focus on personalising the curriculum to ensure accessibility for all and reduce to barriers to learning.

Our exciting and inspiring curriculum, based on assessment and the needs of every child, ensures that our children achieve high levels of attainment in the speaking and listening, reading, writing and maths readiness to that that they have a very strong foundation for the next stage of their learning.