Monken Hadley
Curiosity Curriculum
Our aim at Monken Hadley is to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum which engages children and stretches them to achieve all that they can. This is at the heart of our school vision; a vision of learning community growing together. We follow the National Curriculum in all subject areas and in order to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum we use a range of resources and schemes of work to deliver interesting and engaging lessons. As our classes are mixed ages groups, parts of the curriculum are taught on a cycle to ensure that children do not repeat topic areas. Class overviews give a broad idea of what is covered each half term. If you require any further information about our curriculum please contact the Head of School through the school’s contact details.
Curriculum Intent and Monken Hadley Journey
At Monken Hadley we believe that we are a unique place of learning where our pupils develop a deep rooted curiosity, are digitally literate and have a growing understanding of social justice and their role in local, national and global communities.
In order to achieve this, we provide a rich, broad and balanced curriculum which meets the needs of our specific and unique community.
Through our curriculum we ensure that:
- Every child succeeds and achieves. There is equality in provision and we are a school for all children irrespective of need or background.
- All pupils have opportunities to engage with culture in its many forms, providing them with the cultural capital that will help prepare them for their future as young adults.
- A rich, engaging, broad and balanced curriculum which meets the requirements of the Primary National Curriculum and more.
- The well-being of our community is central to the school. Through our curriculum we ensure that our pupils know how to look after themselves physically and mentally.
Central to this is ‘We are Community’ : a celebration of what it means to be part of our school and to look beyond our community. Our goal is for pupils to leave Monken Hadley with a sense of advocacy and an understanding of their role in the wider community. This is at the heart of our school vision: “Seek what is good, Treasure what is true and Do what is right.
Curriculum Intent
Seek what is good, treasure what is true and do what is right.
Our school vision, “Growing as a learning community through Joshua 1.9”, means we aim to equip our children with the knowledge and skills needed now and preparing them for the future. We want our children to develop a resilience towards learning. Through Joshua 1.9 children are taught to have courage and to not “give up” when faced with challenges.
Our school values, which include: integrity, service, kindness and joy, are at the centre of learning. Our children have memorable learning experiences. We enrich our children’s lives with a wide range of opportunities both with and beyond the classroom.
Our curriculum is crafted so our children fulfil their potential: academically, socially and spiritually. Learning at Monken Hadley should be joyous. Through our curriculum, children develop long lasting “sticky knowledge”. Our curriculum is based on embedding knowledge and ensuring a clear progression of skills.
Our children benefit from being part of a diverse community and living in London. With this in mind, our curriculum maximises these opportunities whilst celebrating diversity, promoting British Values and exploring our environment with a range of educational visits.
We also use our rich local resources and with woodland on our doorstep, our curriculum maximises opportunities for outdoor learning, exploring the local area and providing the children with new experiences and life-long skills.
Implementation
Our bespoke Curiosity Curriculum is mapped against National Curriculum key skills and knowledge ensuring that there is clear progression across the year groups and opportunities for knowledge to embed and “stick.”
We strongly believe in a knowledge based curriculum which underpins and enables the application of skills through cross-curricular teaching, making learning meaningful and relevant to children. Using a topic themed approach our curriculum maximises opportunities to make links in learning, develop vocabulary and technical language.
As a composite school with mixed age classes, our curiosity curriculum is planned on a two year rolling cycle.
Impact
The key to the success of our pupils is knowing where they are and the next steps required to ensure good progress for all.
Quality first teaching is at the heart of our curriculum: adapting and modifying learning to meet the needs of all children in our mixed age classes. Formative assessment is used daily by teachers to inform planning and establish any gaps or additional stretch required. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils. Summative assessment is carried out termly and our progress tracking system is used to assess key objectives in the core subjects on a termly basis. "End of unit projects" are carried out for each themed topic to help assess progress by giving the children opportunities to demonstrate their acquired knowledge and skills.
Assessment data, along with findings from monitoring activities including book looks, work samples, learning walks, observations and pupil and parent voice, are reviewed by SLT and used to inform curriculum development.
Pupil progress reviews are conducted termly with teachers and SLT. This process provides the SLT and Governors with a comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in our school.
As a school, we regularly review the impact of our curriculum ensuring it matches and meets the needs of our pupils and adapting it where necessary.
EYFS
Every child who skips through our gates will experience a broad, balanced and engaging curriculum. As each child is unique and has different starting points, we adapt the curriculum to meet their needs in order that every child is able to flourish. For more information about how we achieve this, click on the box below.
English
Reading at Monken Hadley
Reading is a key aspect of school life and here at our school it is embraced and celebrated. As well as teaching the children the skills of how to read and comprehension skills, we also endeavour to instil in them a love of reading and of books across many genres. Here is how we do it:
Early Reading
Phonics
Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language. Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children decode words as they read. Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words.
Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch. Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out. For example, when a child is taught the sounds for the letters t, p, a and s, they can start to build up the words: “tap”, “taps”, “pat”, “pats” and “sat”.
Phonics is taught daily in EYFS and Key Stage 1. We follow a synthetic programme Twinkl Phonics which is based on the Department of Education Letters and Sounds programme for the teaching of phonics, This is supplemented with a range of interactive resources. Please read our Early Reading at Monken Hadley document for further information.
Early Reading at Monken Hadley. Helping at home with Phonics
Comprehension
As children become more fluent readers, we further develop their comprehension skills. Using Cracking Comprehension, an online and paper based resource, through whole class reading and smaller group work. The children are able to retrieve information, infer meaning from texts and give their opinions with evidence from what they have read.
Writing
Throughout their primary school life, children are given the opportunity to develop their writing through a range of genres including stories, poetry, reports, persuasive writing and factual accounts. We focus on the three purposes for writing: to inform, persuade and entertain. Ensuring the children understand their purpose for writing enables them to choose language and structures that not only match the genre but matches the purpose, engaging the reader and focusing their writing. Do read more about how we do this click on English at Monken Hadley above.
Spellings
From Year 2 spelling rules are taught weekly. Spelling rules plus key spelling words are sent home each week. We ensure that all the spelling requirements as set out in the National Curriculum (2014) are covered for each year group.
Statutory Spellings Years 3 and 4
Statutory Spellings Years 5 and 6
Maths
Our goal is to develop confident mathematicians who relish a challenge! We provide the children with the opportunity to see maths in all forms: concrete, pictorially and in the abstract. Children are given opportunities to apply their understanding in different contexts. Do read Maths at Monken Hadley.
Below you will find what is taught in each year. You can see the progression of learning across the school.
- Curious about Maths in Willow Class
- 10 progression map statistics
- 1 progression map place value
- 2 progression map addition and subtraction
- 3 progression map multiplication and division
- 4 progression map fractions
- 5 progression map ratio and proportion
- 6 progression map algebra 1
- 7 progression map measurement
- 8 progression map geometry properties of shapes 1
- 9 progression map geometry posistion direction and movement
Religious Education
As a Church of England Voluntary Aided School, Religious Education plays a central and vital part. Our school vision is at the heart of our school and this is expressed and explored in religious education. Religious Education provides time each week to study a world religion. As a Christian school, we spend the majority of this time studying Christianity. Through the study of Christianity, we allow children to build up religious literacy and confidence with the Bible as a reliable source for finding out about who God is and what He has done. Children's biblical literacy is developed further by sharing and discussing stories from the bible linked to each themed topic.
At Monken Hadley we follow the London Diocese (LDBS) Scheme of Work. This is supplemented with additional resources, visits and guest speakers. As well as Christianity, each term children learn about a major world religion. Pupils are encouraged not simply to learn facts about other religions but to also reflect upon them and gain insights from them. Children will learn:
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how members of different faiths live as a community
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how other faiths worship
Religious Education is intentionally taught in year groups which allows for smaller group teaching and age specific content.Biblical links to topic themes
Themed Curriculum
All children across the school follow themed topic areas covering aspects such as Art and Design, Geography, History and Design Technology. This creative curriculum approaches aspects of study through a thematic approach enabling pupils to see connections between subjects. We want this approach to develop children’s innate sense of curiosity and for this purpose the ‘creative curriculum’ at Monken Hadley is called the ‘Curiosity Curriculum’. Each topic theme begins with a memorable experience to excite the children and to launch the topic. The topic is also extended to home learning. As our classes are mixed ages, this part of the curriculum is run on a two year cycle A and B.
Art & Design and Design & Technology
At Monken Hadley, we want our Art and Design curriculum to instil an appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts. We want it to stimulate imagination and creativity and involve children in a range of visual, tactile and sensory experiences. At our school, children explore ideas and meanings through studying the work of artists and designers. Through art, our children also experience different cultures and are exposed to "new worlds!" In Design and Technology, children use a range of skills and tools. They are given opportunities to plan, design, create and evaluate in different settings. To find out more click on the boxes below.
Art and Design at Monken Hadley
Humanities
Our humanities are taught through our themed topics which have been carefully mapped against the required knowledge and skills of the National Curriculum. To find out more of how we do this, please click on the subject areas below.
Science
In line with our overall school vision where we all endeavour to grow as a learning community and as an integral part of our Curiosity Curriculum our vision for science is to inspire all budding scientists. Our aim is to:
Instil curiosity – Our enthusiasm and curiosity are promoted at every opportunity.
No fear – We know we learn best by making mistakes and testing ideas.
Scientific words - We will talk like scientists.
Practical where possible – We will experience ‘hands on’ activities as much as we can.
Instigate questioning – What do we think we know? How can we test it?
Research – We will learn about real scientists.
Explore the outside – We use our local environment to provide learning opportunities.
Using Collins Snap Science scheme of work and supplemented by Investigate from Cornerstones, we want science to be practical, exciting and year-on-year to build on children's knowledge. Read Science at Monken Hadley for further details.
Computing
Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to grow as a learning community and to flourish. We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression which as part of our Creative Curriculum. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children.
To find out more about computing on our school do read the Computing at Monken Hadley.
Music
Music, whether it be singing together, exploring rhythm or learning musical vocabulary, should always be a joy at primary school. Giving children a taste of what music can achieve, how it can be created and how it can bring us together is key in our music teaching and learning. We follow the scheme of work created by Charanga which has at its centre an integrated, practical, exploratory and child-led approach to musical learning. Read Music at Monken Hadley to find out more!
Relationships and Health Education
At Monken Hadley we understand that pupils must be provided with an education that prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life. A key part of this relates to relationships and health education, which must be delivered to every primary-aged pupil. Primary schools also have the option to decide whether pupils are taught sex education. Relationships education focusses on giving pupils the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships, and to build their self-efficacy. Health education focusses on equipping pupils with the knowledge they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing. We understand our responsibility to deliver a high-quality, age-appropriate and evidence-based relationships, sex and health curriculum for all our pupils.
Monken Hadley is a caring community committed to Christian values. Our school is based on the love of learning, social justice, inclusion and responsibility. Our school vision states to seek what is good, treasure what is true and do what is right. As advocates of this, we focus on the importance of relationships and the qualities and character needed to sustain the best relationships which are good, based on truth and that honour each other whether within a friendship, family relationship or romantic relationship. Each child is a unique being, a child of God, loved and accepted. As such, our school seeks to enable children to develop through an inclusive programme of teaching that is based on Christian principles, which both respects the human body and seeks to ensure health and well-being.
The aims of relationship, sex and health education at our school are:
- To ensure Relationships, Sex and Health Education is part of a child’s broad, balanced curriculum, integral to the basic curriculum of the school and part of the child’s all-round development.
- To enable pupils to understand the qualities of healthy relationships based on Christian principles, including the importance of marriage and lifelong commitments.
- To prepare children for healthy relationships in an online world.
- To understand how to stay safe, know the importance of boundaries and how to report abuse or feelings of being unsafe.
- Help pupils develop a positive and secure personal identity, a sense of their own value and feelings of confidence and empathy.
- Create a positive culture around issues of sexuality and relationship.
- To ensure that all understand the importance of respecting others and accepting those who differ, yet challenging those behaviours and attitudes which exploit others.
We use the Jigsaw scheme of work across all our classes. A copy of what is taught in each year group is available from the school office.
Teaching RHSE at Monken Hadley parent information
Jigsaw Unit " Changing Me" for parents and carers
Hola y bienvenido - Spanish
At Monken Hadley we believe that learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children's curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. Our children begin to learn Spanish and about the Spanish culture from Year 4. We use the Jolie Ronde scheme and have a Spanish speaking teacher who is able to deliver the learning across the classes. Do read Spanish at Monken Hadley to find out more.
Espagnol at Monken Hadley
Spanish Curriculum
Physical Education at Monken Hadley
At Monken Hadley we value Physical Education. A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. It provides opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. Opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as resilience and humility.