Curriculum

Our curriculum aims:

At Heathlands, we aim to provide a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum which allows each child to develop fully, according to his/her aptitudes and abilities; helping them to shine their light. Our curriculum has been designed and revised to ensure that each child has equal entitlement and can develop his/her knowledge, understanding and skills in each subject.

Our curriculum and use of SOLO taxonomy (an approach where challenges in learning grow in complexity) allow all children to progress from surface level to deeper learning over a series of lessons. ‘Big questions’ also ensure that the children become fully immersed in their thematic learning which is driven by our curriculum intent; Inspiring innovative, confident, inclusive and caring members of the local and global community. Through inspiring our children in their learning we hope to help everyone shine their light. 

The planned curriculum aims to encourage an enthusiasm for learning; nurturing the children’s aural, visual, verbal, mental and physical skills. It also aims to help them understand and appreciate the social, moral, cultural and spiritual aspects of the curriculum; the school; the community and beyond. There are opportunities for children to showcase their learning each term both with the local and global community. Our children are universally positive about their work and they appreciate the opportunities to be visible learners and also showcase their learning with our community. The school has a high expectation of all pupils, with everyone having equal access to the opportunities presented throughout the curriculum. 

The school aims to encourage self-esteem through personal success, and also to teach children to work together as team work turtles and play together in harmony, showing respect for the views of others. One of the key characteristics that Heathlands advocates and celebrates is teamwork and children using their ‘buddies’ as we feel each individual is part of a jigsaw and that we are better and stronger together. Our Christian Core Values: Trust, Respect, Enjoyment, Courage and Kindness, run through everything we do and are the foundations of all decisions. 

Reading 

A love of books and enthusiasm for reading is fostered from an early age. The skills of reading comprehension are taught through the whole class approach of DERIC (decode, explain, retrieve, interpret, author’s choice) which are focused on class books; allowing the children to become immersed in a love of reading while developing their understanding of texts. There is a school library and children are encouraged to borrow books to take home and share their reading.

We follow our bespoke phonics programme to support speaking and reading skills and ultimately preparing our children to be confident and fluent readers. 

Here at Heathlands, we are lucky to have a Pets As Therapy READ 2 DOGS programme, which is designed to give pupils opportunities to increase their confidence of, and enjoyment in reading.

READ 2 DOGS will give pupils an opportunity to practise and enjoy reading away from their peers, to an audience that will enjoy the experience as much as the child does. There are weekly session of 15 minutes, reading to a Pets As Therapy registered dog, Gabe, under the supervision of the P.A.T. dog’s owner and a member of school staff.

Gabe is a specially registered dogs who normally visit in hospitals, hospices, care homes, etc and will remain on the lead and under control at all times. A full risk assessment has been completed.

Phonics

Phonics is taught systematically and carefully to all children, allowing children to develop the phonics skills they will need to read with fluency.

Writing

Children write on a wide variety of topics and become progressively aware of the notion of the purpose and audience- writing in various ways to achieve different communicative purposes (poems, notes, letters, pamphlets,
plays, stories etc.).

The children learn through a series of lessons around the structure of ‘read’, ‘write’, ‘plan’, ‘create’, 'edit'. This allows them to be immersed in high quality texts, explore their features, plan their own writing and then create and edit this. ‘Talk for Writing’ is also used across the school. This is an engaging framework developed by Pie Corbett based on how children learn. It enables the children to imitate language for a topic, read and analyse texts and then write their own versions.

A clear legible style of handwriting is taught and children are encouraged to develop their own style based on our scheme, which is used throughout the school as a basis for forming and joining letters. They develop the ability to spell, to punctuate, to use spacing and paragraphs and to structure their writing to enable them to communicate in writing clearly and effectively. Planning and editing, both collaborative and non-collaborative, helps children reflect upon their writing and constantly strive to improve their work.

Maths

In accordance with the National Curriculum, mathematics is taught systematically based on the stages of children’s mathematical development - from early intuitions and using concrete resources; pictorial representations; to the capacity for handling abstract ideas. Our children develop confidence and an ease with number which is then extended to develop their mathematics, problem solving and reasoning skills. 

The White Rose scheme is used across the school focusing on children gaining deeper understanding, confidence and competence in maths and securing real progress. This is all provided within opportunities for problem solving and reasoning throughout. There is also a strong focus on fluency with children completing arithmetic daily as well as investigative work happening weekly across the school to ensure children are developing deeper investigative thought.

If you have any questions about our school curriculum then please contact Emily Howells or Harriet Brennen (Curriculum Leads) via admin@heathlands.essex.sch.uk