Our Curriculum

We believe learning is for life: a dynamic journey of discovery that provides memorable and enjoyable learning experiences to encourage inquisitive minds.

At Kanes Hill School, we believe passionately that our curriculum should be broad, balanced, relevant and meet the needs of all children, whatever their ability, race or ethnic origin, gender, religious beliefs or disability. Whilst focussing on high standards, our curriculum has been designed to reflect the needs of our children - to be fun, interesting, creative and thought provoking - thus combining excellence with enjoyment. We aim to give all children the cultural capital (essential knowledge & skills) to be successful citizens.

Kanes Hill is a brilliant school! The teachers are caring, supportive and get to know each child as an individual, encouraging them to be the best they can be. My children are eager to go to school every day and always return home with something exciting to share.

Mrs Torkaman, Reception and Year 4 parent

Below you will find our Curriculum Intention for the children of Kanes Hill Primary School, as well as the Curriculum Intent for each subject.

Curriculum Intent

The curriculum is the totality of experiences which are planned for the children as they progress through all of our schools.

The curriculum will have at its heart the learning behaviours that will support all children to be successful learners for life.

We will ensure that the curriculum is literacy rich, raises aspirations, drives ambition, and maximises high rates of progress in all areas.

Our curriculum will be broad, balanced, meaningful and relevant and build upon children’s prior knowledge.

It will be equitable, providing children with essential knowledge, skills and experiences to reduce the effect of disadvantage.

It will support all children to develop healthy attitudes to their and support them in their development as respectful members of the local community physical and mental health and society at large.

New Technologies will be used creatively to engage and support children in their learning.

All schools within our Trust will provide a curriculum, which inspires, challenges and safeguards all our children, and enables them to become:

Active participants, constructing their own knowledge and holding the key to being the architects of their own learning;
Motivated to enjoy new learning, experiencing personal satisfaction, success and high quality outcomes;
Curious, constantly seeking answers through thinking critically and creatively;
Confident and work with a diverse range of people; to use their emotions productively, as they encounter new experiences
Eager to engage with others, learning from each other and building on each other’s strengths;
Resilient, determined and able to persevere in the face of obstacles;
Risk takers, who can work with uncertainties, looking for new possibilities;
Reflective: confident with who they are and inspired by the world around them;
Responsible for explaining their learning by being classroom ambassadors

Implementation of Curriculum Intent

We use The National Curriculum to create carefully thought out Long-term plans in English, Maths and foundation subjects. These plans are then used to create midterm plans in these subjects. Subject Leaders support staff to develop midterm plans to ensure progression of skills and knowledge from year R to year 6. Subject leaders have developed knowledge organisers for history, geography and science in order to-

Ensure secure knowledge for staff
Identify key teaching points
Highlight key knowledge & skills
Identify prior learning/links
Highlight tier 3 subject specific vocabulary
Ensure the integrity of each individual subject

Each integrated topic unit has a hook to inspire the children and captivate their interest at the start. The unit then culminates with a celebration where parents are invited to share in the learning outcomes. Each unit has a lead subject- geography, history or science. This ensures that the integrity of these important subjects remains at the forefront. We balance these both in each year group and across the key stages to ensure a broad and balanced approach. Maths and English are interweaved throughout units where appropriate to ensure opportunities to apply previously learnt skills.

Our Principles for our integrated topic units

Enrichment/Enjoyment (eg learning from experts/investigating artefacts/extending learning outside in the local and wider community)
Application of front loaded knowledge (A depth of experience is gained through learning skills-eg creating/ designing/ developing/ appraising/ questioning/experimenting/analysing/evaluating/ answering a big question)
Quality End point which gives purpose to the learning (eg answering the big question/writing an explanation/debates justifying opinions)
Connections/making links to prior learning (eg links to prior knowledge/topics in previous year groups/skills & concepts)
Writing opportunities (In all units-writing as scientists/geographers & historians)
Maths (Giving children the opportunity to develop and apply previously learnt maths skills eg data handling/number/tallying/measures)
Relevant to our children and context (Bespoke to Kanes Hill children eg using grounds/local area/community/being creative with approach)
Purposeful (Identifying the purpose for learning and the intended outcome -real life audiences/real experiences)
Enquiry based/igniting curiosity (Enquiry questions/ 6 step enquiry in history/children asking questions)
Vocabulary- teaching tier 3 academic vocabulary

Through the provision of rich, broad and balanced curriculum we aim to:

encourage the best possible progress and the highest attainment for all pupils
ignite children’s curiosity across a range of subjects
develop the use and understanding of subject specific vocabulary
enable pupils to make links across different areas of the curriculum
help pupils to think creatively and solve problems
enable pupils to respond positively to opportunities, challenge and responsibilities
enable pupils to acquire and develop a broad range of knowledge, skills and understanding
foster our learning behaviours- Resourceful/Reciprocity/Reflective/Resilience

Intended Curriculum Impact

All children know more and are able to retain this new knowledge
All children grow as rounded, caring and responsive individuals with personal ambition.
All children show positive attitudes for learning, apply essential knowledge and learn to use skills flexibly and purposefully. They are well prepared for Secondary School education.
All children, regardless of starting points, enjoy personal success and good progress.
All children leave Kanes Hill School with a positive attitude to learning. They are risk takers, show resilience and become lifelong learners.

We are continuing to develop our broad and balanced curriculum that is based on units of work that are meaningful for the children that we have in school at any one given moment. This means that it is forever evolving and changing to meet the needs of our ever-changing community. This will enable our children to be the best lifelong learners that they can be.

Our Curriculum and Curriculum Planning Principles

Curriculum Principles:

Dynamic learning with a cohesive learning journey
Knowledge- front loading the knowledge- remember & understand
Depth & Challenge (After front loading the knowledge the children are given opportunities
to apply and master this knowledge -eg applying, analysing, evaluating and creating
An exciting hook into learning and parent celebration at the end
Enrichment/Enjoyment (eg learning from experts/investigating artefacts/extending learning
outside in the local and wider community)
Connections (made to prior learning)
Relevant to Kanes Hill children and their context
Will include a clear end point (after front loading the knowledge eg
debate/report/exhibition/museum)
Rich texts (exposing them to the best written)
Speaking & listening opportunities-drama/debate/discussion
Integrated computing opportunities
Maths/Reading/Writing – as appropriate

Curriculum Planning Principles:

PSHE blocked (1 or 2 days) at the beginning of each half-term
6 week topic units (or shorter)
Each learning unit will have a knowledge organiser
Rich Learning topics to be History, Geography or Science led
RE to be blocked at the end of a half-term
Art and DT taught at the end of the topic, before or after the RE
Evaluation at the end of a topic for impact on learning

Our Curriculum Map

kanes hill primary curriculum map.pdf