Rationale:
At HCPS our curriculum is challenging, exciting, enjoyable, and relevant. Our curriculum is a carefully planned, through a topic based, thematic approach designed to support children’s natural curiosity and stimulate their creativity. Our curriculum is underpinned by the Accelerated Learning Cycle and by purposeful and robust assessment to ensure our pupils know more and remember more. It allows children the opportunity to work in depth, giving them the time, they need to reflect, consolidate and transfer their learning.
In line with the DFE guidance on providing a broad and balanced curriculum, the curriculum of Hoyland Common Primary School has been designed to ensure there is breadth but also allows for the prioritisation of missed content in core subjects including key knowledge, skills, vocabulary and concepts.
Developing communication takes place across the whole curriculum. Speaking is at the heart of all learning, and adults’ model ambitious vocabulary through lessons. Questioning develops the children’s thinking skills and encourages them to begin to problem solve. Children are encouraged to ask why things happen and to explain their thinking. Research suggests that the development of talk skills is best embedded in the teaching and learning of all subjects something which our curriculum is built around.
The key concepts, substantive knowledge and disciplinary outcomes build up progressively, helping children to grow and develop as they move through school. Our curriculum provides children with the understanding and ability to gather knowledge (which covers History, Geography, Art and Design, Design and Technology, Science, PE, MFL, Music, Computing, PSHE and RE) and allows a creative way of learning and teaching.
The curriculum we offer is designed to meet the needs of all our pupils. It is rich, varied, creative and imaginative and meets the needs of individual learners. After regular assessment tasks are matched to the ability of each child through adaptive teaching, direct input and activities are appropriately adapted including the use of adult support, providing a level of challenge that is stimulating for pupils and questioning skills.
The rationale for the use of adaptive teaching and assessment in our curriculum policy is rooted in our commitment to providing an inclusive and personalised learning experience for all students. We recognise that students have diverse abilities and prior knowledge, and that a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and assessment may not effectively meet their individual needs. Adaptive teaching and assessment strategies allow us to address these variations by tailoring instruction and evaluation to each student’s unique abilities and learning pace.
By utilising adaptive teaching methods, we can provide targeted instruction that aligns with each student’s strengths, challenges, and learning preferences. This approach fosters a supportive and inclusive classroom environment where students feel valued, engaged, and motivated to learn. Adaptive teaching promotes active participation, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, enabling students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts.
Furthermore, adaptive assessment practices allow us to gather real-time data on student progress and identify areas where additional support is needed. We can make informed instructional decisions and provide timely feedback to students, allowing them to track their own growth and take ownership of their learning.
The implementation of adaptive teaching and assessment aligns with our overarching goal of ensuring equitable educational opportunities and maximising student achievement. We can create a dynamic and responsive learning environment that promotes individualized growth and prepares students for success in an ever-evolving world.
We value the importance of direct experience within the curriculum so that teachers draw out and develop children’s thinking and capacities in meaningful contexts. Core knowledge and skills are at the heart of the learning process with the children exploring a wide range of topics, to prepare them for life. The wider curriculum at HCPS is delivered through knowledge rich and practical skill based units of work designed by Subject and Curriculum Leaders to ensure that all children have the opportunity to study a range of concepts and disciplines. A gather, skills, apply approach to planning and delivery of lessons is taken across school to ensure children develop a deep understanding and are able to apply these in a range of situations.
As a school, we believe that reflection time is an important step in pupil learning and progress. We ensure that our pupils are given time to reflect upon their learning. Reflection helps us to recognise what and how we have learned and what we need to focus on in the future. Scaffolding reflection in the classroom helps our pupils to develop and use the skills of peer and self-assessment – reflecting on what they have learned, and self-evaluation – reflecting on how they’ve learned it. Reflection should be about valuing and encouraging pupil involvement – getting them to share ideas, listen to each other and develop the confidence to join in.
Our curriculum is continually monitored and reviewed. This is done through the use of pupil voice feedback and through monitoring by our curriculum leads and subject teams.
Policy:
In Practice:
Adaptations within the curriculum
Pupils who find it difficult to access the HCAT curriculum due to individual needs have access to a personalised curriculum through consultation with class teacher, SENDCo and other relevant agencies.
At HCPS our curriculum is ambitious for all pupils, including those children with SEND. Curriculum designers and teachers have high expectations of what SEND pupils can achieve and the curriculum is not diluted or unnecessarily reduced for SEND pupils.
Every pupil is different and so what works for each pupil varies. Pupil’s individual needs are considered and adaptations are planned to ensure the success of pupils in all subjects.
The way that our curriculum is designed ensures that chunks of learning are sequenced in a coherent way to enable all pupils, including those with SEND, to build on prior knowledge. Too much information at once can be a barrier to learning which is one of the reason why we have chosen half termly curriculum drivers.
Where pupils are identified with having complex needs it may be appropriate to provide a personalised curriculum which will be based on individual needs and will retain ambition for the pupil.
Where working memory is an issue for pupils, including those with SEND, we look to reduce extraneous load as much as possible as well as identifying key information when teaching. This helps pupils to pay attention to the content which they are expected to learn.
Adaptations to support individual pupils will be recorded on personal school support plans.
At HCPS we do not assume that pupils with SEND learn content better through practical work as this can cause distraction and cognitive overload rather than increase clarity or accessibility. The curriculum is not narrowed for any pupils. Knowledge is taught and then pupils are provided with opportunities for scientific enquiry to test and investigate the knowledge taught. Pupils specific needs determine the types of adaptations which are required. These adaptations are in how the subject is taught rather than the content pupils are expected to learn. Where appropriate, learning will be chunked into smaller steps and pre learning and consolidation time in planned in to support need. Time is also planned to ensure pupils with SEND are pre taught vocabulary to support their understanding. Adaptations may include supporting pupils to pay attention to key aspects as well as reducing excessive or unhelpful demands on working memory.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
