Curriculum
We offer a well-balanced curriculum that ensures that all targets set by the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum are available to all children.
This education is not only academic, but includes cultural, social, spiritual, physical development, growth and fun.
We plan the curriculum carefully to provide a meaningful and worthwhile education that will prepare our children for the experiences and responsibilities of secondary education and later life. Clear procedures are in place to identify and meet children’s needs providing extra support and new challenges where appropriate to help every child fulfil their potential.
A wide range of learning opportunities and activities are offered alongside the statutory curriculum, which complement learning within the classroom.
If you would like further information about the curriculum followed at Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy please contact the office to make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher.
Subject Leadership at Thomas Hinderwell
All the areas of the curriculum are looked after by different subject leaders within the school. Each subject has an individual action plan and impact plan to drive improvements. To ensure a balanced and reflective team, our school is split into four key areas:
- Reading
- Writing
- Maths
- Curriculum
Our Subjects
Reading
Subject Leader - Miss Chard
Here at Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy we are committed to ensuring that all children develop the ability to communicate fluently and effectively. We do this by delivering a designated Talk for Reading lesson a day in addition to Read Write Inc lessons. Read Write Inc is designed to support early readers with phonic development and initial reading skills such as blending and comprehension.
Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy is a Read Write Inc. model school and we use this scheme from Nursery to Year 2. Reading is taught daily through Talk for Reading and class story sessions.
All children at Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy have a reading book and a reading record to take home. In Key Stage 1 the reading books are phonetically decodable and link to the Read Write Inc. scheme. With such high expectations, we recommend pupils read at least three times a week at home and that reading records are completed by parents and guardians so that progress can be monitored and there is a positive home-school link.
A love of reading is developed through the experience of high-quality texts from a variety of authors during the Talk for Writing sessions and through use of our reading for pleasure books and our class stories. All children, from our early readers to those who are fluent, have a rich and varied reading diet, promoting both reading pleasure and an experience and appreciation for a range of texts.
By the end of Key Stage 2 we expect children to be competent and confident readers who can read a wide range of texts and show an understanding through proficient comprehension skills.
DRET Reads
At Thomas Hinderwell, we encourage our children to read widely and enjoy a variety of different texts. These texts are carefully chosen based on classics, picture books, award winning texts, Talk4Writing and Talk4Reading Spine books as well as non-fiction and poetry. Each year group has a wide selection of texts to read for their year group. These are recorded on a class bookmark by their teacher.
Home Reading
At Thomas Hinderwell, we want our children to read regularly as well as widely. We expect our children to read at home a minimum of 3x per week. These reads can be logged using our online QR code and this is monitored by the English lead as well as all staff. We ensure that all children are listened to reading weekly. If children are unable to log reads at home, they will be invited into the reading shed to read with one of our Year 5 or 6 Reading Ambassadors.
Race to Reading
Our fortnightly reading assemblies share total reads with children and these are recorded on our Race to Reading wall. Classes choose reading based awards for reaching reading milestones. We aim our reading rewards at promoting a reading culture across the school. These awards are chosen by the children in their classes.
Author of the month
At Thomas Hinderwell, we strive to promote the love of reading within our children. To be a fluent reader is not only a necessary life skill but one of the greatest pleasures in life. Books enable a gateway for children and adults to explore new worlds, learn new information and spark imagination. To ensure our children read a rich variety of books and have an opportunity to learn about different writers and genres, we have launched Author of the Month.
Each month is dedicated to a different author and this is promoted in school during class library sessions. Children can read and borrow books written by the author.
Writing
Subject Leader - Miss Chard
We believe that knowledge, understanding and the successful application of the English language is a fundamental life skill; it develops children’s ability to communicate their experiences, desires and knowledge effectively and successfully. Throughout our school, we aim to nurture and develop independent writers through purposeful, engaging and developmental lessons which link to our rich and stimulating creative curriculum work.
During our Talk for Writing lessons, we support our children to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, as they become enthusiastic and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama; as well as non-fiction and media texts.This allows pupils to learn a quality story or text that they can then imitate in their own writing before innovating in a different context. We look at many different forms of writing across the school such as stories with imaginative settings, instructions, recounts, humorous poems and so on. We apply these writing genres across the curriculum to ensure the children gain lifelong skills and are prepared for writing in the wider world.
Our children also gain an understanding of how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins and use their knowledge, skills and understanding across a range of different situations.
The daily talk for writing lessons are linked to the current national curriculum objectives. The units of work begin with a cold write which is an independent piece of writing to assess previous understanding and knowledge. The children then repeat this task at the end of the unit as a hot write. This showcases the progress and learning that have taken place across the unit. Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar is taught as part of the T4W lessons as well as in cross- curricular writing opportunities.
Thomas Hinderwell follow the Read Write Inc spelling programme to ensure that our children become competent and confident spellers building on prior knowledge of spelling rules. We also encourage and teach handwriting daily and have a Daily Handwriting Star and a fortnightly handwriting certificate award in our Celebration Assembly. At Thomas Hinderwell our children are encouraged every year to achieve their Pen Licence and are so proud when they receive their pen.
Oracy
Subject Leader - Miss Chard
At Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy we expect all of our children to progress to secondary school as fluent and effective communicators and we begin this process from when the children enter our nursery setting. We include speaking and listening skills in all of our lessons. We do this through class discussions, drama activities, paired talk, oral rehearsal, echo reading, poetry recital and in many other forms.
Maths
Subject Leader - Miss Hill (Maternity cover Miss Hawden Easter-December)
The teaching of maths is planned carefully to meet the needs of every child at Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy. Effective Maths is used to support children to progress quickly and develop a mastery understanding of mathematical processes.
Effective Maths is a mastery approach to the teaching of mathematics. It is a comprehensive framework for ensuring high quality maths teaching. Lessons are designed carefully to incorporate the below elements:
- mastery
- procedural and conceptual understanding
- variation
- mathematical patterns, relationships and connections
Planning is based on the new national curriculum standards and used to facilitate high quality teaching and learning. Every child at Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy has a Times Tables Rockstars Log ins.
Furthermore, where possible, we believe that maths should be taught in context. We particularly value the importance of children understanding the reason why their mathematical learning will be relevant to them in the real world and demonstrate a clear purpose for learning mathematical skills.
Science
Subject Leader - Miss Wilson Curriculum Lead - Miss Hawden
Our Science Curriculum is sequenced coherently so useful knowledge and skills builds through the three distinct disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. As a result of the accumulation of essential knowledge and skills pupils’ science capital and scientific understanding will be substantial and will provide a secure foundation that will enable them to succeed in the next stage of their education.
At Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy, we aim to stimulate children's curiosity by engaging our pupils in science activities that are designed to encourage pupils to plan, observe, predict, investigate and analyse.
Geography
Subject Leader - Mr Charlesworth
Curriculum Lead - Miss Hawden
Our Geography Curriculum is sequenced coherently so useful knowledge builds through two distinct strands; Locational Knowledge and Human and Physical Geography. As a result of the accumulation of essential knowledge pupils are provided with the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time, enabling them to become true global citizens.
History
Subject Leader - Mr Charlesworth
Curriculum Lead - Miss Hawden
Our History Curriculum is sequenced coherently so useful knowledge builds through six unifying themes; humans and the environment, cultural develops and interactions, governance, economic systems, system interaction and organisation and technology and innovation. As a result of the accumulation of essential knowledge pupils’ cultural capital and historical disciplines will be substantial and will provide a secure foundation that will enable them to succeed in the next stage of their education.
PSHE
Curriculum Leaders - Miss Hawden
Art & DT
Subject Lead - Miss Metcalfe
Curriculum Lead - Miss Hawden
Our Art & Design curriculum stimulates creativity and imagination through visual, tactile and sensory experiences.
Our aim is for children to enjoy Art & Design through developing increased confidence in their ability to communicate what they feel and think through the use of colour, texture, form and pattern using different materials, tools and techniques.
Art is frequently taught through cross curricular lessons and we employ a wide range of mediums ranging from paint and pencil to digital and photography.
Language
Subject Lead - Mrs Bentley
Curriculum Lead - Miss Hawden
Bonjour. This year sees the introduction of Thomas Hinderwell becoming a French Speaking school. As this is something new across the school all year groups will be following the same units to begin with.
We are also pleased to announce that as of Autumn 2 Year 4 have been selected to pilot Latin as a language.
Computing
Subject Leader - Mr Kelly
Curriculum Lead - Miss Hawden
Computing is split into three fundamental elements: Computer Science, Digital Literacy and Information Technology.
Computer Science is the core of the computing curriculum, in which children learn how the digital systems work and how to put this knowledge into action through programming. The children use information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content.
Digital Literacy ensure the children can develop their ideas with the use of information and communication technology to ensure they are active participants in a digital world and are at a level suitable for the future workplace.
We also teach the children about safety online: how to spot any dangers; how they can be avoided easily and what to do if they encounter any misuse of the internet.
British Values
The Trust is very supportive of the ethos of promoting British Values, and preparing our pupils for success in a modern Britain.
A heavy reliance is placed upon broadening horizons for each and every child and this includes developing the core skills of tolerance, respect, teamwork, resilience and building self esteem. These are all values and qualities that we feel are relevant in order to play a full and meaningful role in society, and are promoted via our extensive house system that lends itself to cultural and sporting competition, democratic principles, social mixing, the development of greater pastoral care and enhanced PSHE.
At Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy we uphold and teach pupils about the British Values which are defined as:
- democracy
- rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect
- tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs
These values are taught explicitly through Personal, Social, Health and Emotional (PSHE), and Religious Education (RE). We also teach the British Values through planning and delivering a broad and balanced curriculum, and the way we run our Academy (embodying respect, democracy and tolerance of all).
The school takes opportunities to actively promote British Values through our half termly focus on a different value and whole school themed assemblies and whole school systems. We also actively promote the British values through ensuring that our curriculum planning and delivery includes real opportunities for exploring these values. Actively promoting British Values also means challenging pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British Values, including ‘extremist’ views.
These values are reinforced regularly.
Click here to find out more about British Values at our academy