Our Curriculum Design

Our mission statement strapline: ‘Learning and growing together in Christ’ underpins everything we do at St Hilda’s.

Our Vision

The Seed of Faith

Through faith we are ‘Learning and growing together in Christ’ so that we will become inquisitive, independent, resilient citizens and have the compassion, curiosity and courage to flourish and enjoy life in all its fullness, in the modern world.

Our vision is rooted in scripture:

“Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Matthew 13 v32

Like the mustard seed, our children have the raw potential to achieve well and we want them to achieve their full potential. We aim to provide a literacy-rich, questioning curriculum that is broad and balanced and meets the needs of all the children in our community.

The curriculum is all the planned activities that we, as a school organise, in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. It includes, not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also the range of extra-curricular activities that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of our children. It also includes the ‘hidden curriculum’, or what the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave.

Curriculum Drivers

              Curiosity   Knowledge  Skills   Independence   Enrichment

We aim to:

Develop curiosity by providing a literacy-rich, questioning curriculum that engages and challenges all children;

Deepen knowledge and develop skills, ensuring effective progression in all subjects across all year groups;

Support and nurture so that all children can access the curriculum fully. We enable children to be independent thinkers and learners who are confident, responsible and resilient;

Provide children with well-planned, ‘wow’ moments, memorable experiences and experiential learning, and offer children access to a range of quality resources, activities, visitors and specialists to enrich their learning journey and broaden horizons.

Our Christian Values flow from our vision and we explore these alongside developing our children’s understanding of fundamental British values:

‘Creativity, Thankfulness, Perseverance, Love, Hope, Service, rooted firmly in Faith.’

At St Hilda’s we implement an engaging and exacting curriculum that meets the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum. Our curriculum is well-planned and provides literacy-rich, cross-curricular opportunities. 

Children study topics across the year that focus on Geography, History and important scientific knowledge. Art and DT link, where appropriate, to the topic studied. Pertinent links are made between subjects. 

Teachers start each topic with questions, to pique the children’s interest and develop their curiosity, and children generate their own questions. We build in experiences our children may not otherwise have the chance to access and teachers plan a ‘wow moment’, (trip, visit, visitor, experience) to engage the children; provide first-hand experiences and make learning meaningful.

Teachers check children’s prior knowledge and questions they may have and add these to topic floor books. Knowledge organisers are shared with parents but shared with pupils, over time, in lessons so that they are not be given all the information straight away. This is to develop curiosity, encourage discussion and questions, develop vocabulary and deepen knowledge throughout the topic. 

Lessons are well-planned to develop children’s knowledge, building on prior experiences and making meaningful connections in their learning.

The children then develop their knowledge and skills and ‘show case’ what they have learnt to someone else.

Teachers use carefully selected, high-quality texts to deliver elements of the English curriculum.

Teachers ensure that there are opportunities planned for children to further develop their literacy skills, including regular cross-curricular writing, ensuring that standards are consistent across the curriculum. 

Children can select from a range of homework activities related to their learning from the class homework grid.

There is a clear focus on phonics for our younger pupils and effective support is in place for any older children who may need additional help: these may be SEND, EAL or children who are new arrivals to the country.

Children are immersed in, and exposed to, a diet of high-level, subject-specific vocabulary in both discrete vocabulary lessons and across the curriculum.  This both aids understanding and extends their breadth of language.

Our children have the opportunity to learn a common language and culture through our MFL curriculum.

Our curriculum promotes respect for the views of each individual child, as well as for people of all faiths and cultures. We value the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of each person, as well as their intellectual and physical growth. We organise our curriculum so that we promote cooperation and understanding between all members of our community and develop fundamental British values, supporting pupils to debate and disagree well.

All of our staff have had training in trauma-sensitive approaches in order to develop self-regulation and resilience to enable our children to access learning effectively.

We never stand still: Our curriculum is continually shaped, refined and developed to meet our children’s interests and needs. 

Our curriculum ensures that children are knowledgeable and skilled, make good progress and achieve their full potential at each stage of their education. Through our curriculum offer, our children are inquisitive, independent, resilient citizens who are articulate and prepared for the next stage of their education and beyond.