At William Harding our intent is to ensure that our curriculum meets the needs of our pupils, is engaging, memorable and inspiring. Please read below to find out about our Foundation Subject curriculum.
Click here for our whole school long term curriculum overview
Please click here to read about our Knowledge Rich Curriculum for History, Geography and Art.
If you would like to find out more about our EYFS curriculum, please click here
Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
Intent
At William Harding School, pupils learn about relationships, health and wellbeing, keeping safe, managing their off and online lives, living in the wider world and financial education. This curriculum gives pupils opportunities to ask questions and explore issues that are real and relevant to them in a safe and managed environment.
Our PSHE provision has been designed to be age appropriate, whilst being sensitive to the needs of our whole school community to ensure PSHE provision gives our pupils an education which supports them now and prepares them for the future. Our PSHE provision is underpinned by the 2010 Equalities duty and provides an inclusive curriculum that promotes understanding and mutual respect for all.
Implementation
Our PSHE provision at William Harding extends beyond the curriculum and includes themed days/ weeks, assemblies, debates, developing effective learning characteristics and fully supports our school’s ethos and values.
PSHE is an integral part of William Harding’s broad and balanced curriculum supporting spiritual, moral, social and cultural education, equalities and safeguarding. We ensure meaningful cross curricular links are made to enable our pupils to understand how these skills can be applied in everyday life.
Impact
Our high quality PSHE supports pupils’ personal, social, health and economic development. It helps to give pupils the knowledge, skills, strategies and attributes to help them make informed choices and decisions about the different opportunities and challenges life presents.
Click here for our whole school PHSE overview
If you would like to find out more about our PHSE curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Skinner.
Modern Foreign Language (MFL) – French
Intent
William Harding intends to use the Language Angels scheme of work and resources to ensure we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2.
The intent is that all content will be continuously updated and reviewed annually, creating a dynamic programme of study that will be clearly outlined in both long-term and short-term planning. This will ensure that the foreign language knowledge of our pupils progresses within each academic year and is extended year upon year throughout the primary phase and, in so doing, will always be relevant and in line with meeting or exceeding national DfE requirements.
The four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing will be taught and all necessary grammar will be covered in an age-appropriate way across the primary phase. This will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning and also helping the children improve overall attainment in other subject areas. In addition, the children will be taught how to look up and research language they are unsure of and they will have a bank of reference materials to help them with their spoken and written tasks going forward. This bank of reference materials will develop into a reference library to help pupils recall and build on previous knowledge throughout their primary school language learning journey.
The intent is that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning a second language will also offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners.
Implementation
All classes will have access to a very high-quality foreign languages curriculum using the Language Angels scheme of work and resources. This will progressively develop pupil skills in foreign languages through regularly taught and well-planned weekly lessons in KS2.
Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language.
All teachers will know where every child is at any point in their foreign language learning journey.
The planning of different levels of challenge and which units to teach at each stage of the academic year will be addressed dynamically and will be reviewed in detail annually as units are updated and added to the scheme and through discussion with year leaders. Lessons offering appropriate levels of challenge and stretch will be taught at all times to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language they are learning.
Units, where possible and appropriate, will be linked to class topics and cross curricular themes. Children will build on previous knowledge gradually as their foreign language lessons continue to recycle, revise and consolidate previously learnt language whilst building on all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Knowledge and awareness of required and appropriate grammar concepts will be taught throughout all units at all levels of challenge. Teachers are provided with a Progression Map and Grammar Grid to ensure all children are progressing their foreign language learning skills and are taught the appropriate grammar at the right time in their foreign language learning journey. Grammar rules and patterns will be taught by level of challenge:
· We start with nouns and articles and 1st person singular of high frequency verbs
· We move on to the use of the possessive, the concept of adjectives, use of the negative form, conjunctions/connectives and introduce the concept of whole regular verb conjugation .
· We end with opinions and introduce the concept of whole high frequency irregular verb conjugation .
· Each unit and lesson will have clearly defined objectives and aims.
· Each lesson will incorporate interactive whiteboard materials to include ample speaking and listening tasks within a lesson.
· Lessons will incorporate challenge sections and desk-based activities that will be offered will three levels of stretch and differentiation. These may be sent home as homework if not completed in class.
· Reading and writing activities will be offered in all units. Some extended reading and writing activities are provided so that native speakers can also be catered for.
· Every unit will include a grammar concept which will increase in complexity as pupils move from Early Language units, through Intermediate units and into Progressive units.
Impact
As well as each subsequent lesson within a unit being progressive, the teaching type organisation of Language Angels units also directs, drives and guarantees progressive learning and challenge. Units increase in level of challenge, stretch and linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move from Early Learning units through Intermediate units and into the most challenging Progressive units. Units in each subsequent level of the teaching type categories require more knowledge and application of skills than the previous teaching type. Activities contain progressively more text (both in English and the foreign language being studied) and lessons will have more content as the children become more confident and ambitious with the foreign language they are learning.
Early Learning units will start at basic noun and article level and will teach pupils how to formulate short phrases. By the time pupils reach Progressive units they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge. They will be able to create longer pieces of spoken and written language and are encouraged to use a variety of conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives, opinions and justifications.
Pupils will continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language will be recycled, revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.
Teachers will have a clear overview of what they are working towards and if they are meeting these criteria. They will use the long-term planning documents provided in the form of Language Angels unit planners to ensure the correct units are being taught to the correct classes at each stage of the scholastic year. Short-term planning is also provided in the form of unit overviews (covering the learning targets for each 6-week unit) and individual lesson plans laying out the learning aims and intentions of each individual lesson within a unit. These planning documents ensure that teachers know what to teach and how to teach it in each lesson, across whole units and across each scholastic term.
Pupils will be aware of their own learning goals and progression as each unit offers a pupil friendly overview so that all pupils can review their own learning at the start and at the end of each unit. They will know and will be able to articulate if they have or have not met their learning objectives and can keep their unit learning intention sheets and unit core vocabulary sheets as a record of what they have learnt from unit to unit and from year to year.
The opportunity to assess pupil learning and progression in the key language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing). This information will be recorded and will be monitored by the class teacher so that the Foreign Language Subject Leader can use this data to ensure teaching is targeted and appropriate for each pupil, class and year group as well as to feedback on progress to SLT and stakeholders.
Children are expected to make good or better than good progress in their foreign language learning and their individual progress is tracked and reported to pupils and parents at the end of the school year.
Click here for our whole school French long term curriculum overview
If you would like to find out more about our MFL curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Culverhouse
Music
Intent
Increasingly, research is showing that high-quality music lessons have a significant, positive impact on a child’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical development. According to the Music Education Council, “The benefits are greatest when musical activities start early and continue over a long period of time.”
Singing and active music-making are the core of music experience and understanding, and have been shown to benefit concept formation, abstract thought, memory, linguistic development, spatial awareness and co-ordination, as well as creativity and confidence.
Our high-quality music curriculum is designed to provide opportunities for our pupils to:
get singing in every classroom
empower teachers and staff with skills and confidence
support the music and Voices lead to set up high quality choirs and singing assemblies
provide high quality resources to support school music
to ensure no child is left out when it comes to learning to be a musician
Implementation
At William Harding we work alongside The Voices Foundation who is a national charity which uses the power of singing to improve the lives of children and young people in the UK.
We are taking part in the following VF programmes:
Musical foundations
Choral excellence
This approach complies with curriculum expectations for excellence in Music, as set out in the Department of Education’s National Plan for Music Education and conforms to our prevailing understanding of best pedagogical practice.
It is an effective, practical and powerful way of teaching Music, from Early Years through to Year 6. It is based on a sound understanding of child development, so that children learn musical skills and concepts naturally and progressively, by engaging in hands-on musical activities and singing games. These activities are taught across the week in each class. All staff have access to a variety of musical activities that show consistency and progression across the whole school. Training is provided through CPD opportunities from The Voices Foundation using the Singing Schools Programme during Inset, staff meetings and an ongoing timetable of CPD during the school day.
Impact
From studying our music curriculum our pupils will be:
Engaging in high quality regular musical learning from a young age
Developing their musical, intellectual, emotional and social skills
Practising musical skills and concepts are in a variety of ways to suit individual needs and learning styles
Accessing the musical literacy and the benefits of music training
Enabled to understand how music is linked to mental health
Click here for our whole school music long term curriculum overview
Links that may be of interest;
Music Education Council website, Why Music?
What if every child had access to music education from birth?
If you would like to find out more about our Music curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Batory or Mrs Charlton.
Physical Education and School Sport
Intent
Our high-quality physical education curriculum is designed to provide opportunities for our pupils to;
Be inspired to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities
Be physically confident which supports their health and fitness
Compete in sport and other activities regularly
Build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect be physically active for sustained periods of time
Engage in competitive sports and activities and lead healthy, active lives
Develop a healthy attitude to sport and hobbies as part of being mentally healthy
Implementation
Introduction of Primary PE Planning
PE is taught twice a week in each year group for 45 mins at a time, split into indoor and outdoor lessons. Each lesson is broken into different learning objectives and outcomes, where pupils can have a better understanding of what they are successful in and how they can grow/develop further.
At William Harding, we follow the ‘Primary PE Planning’ scheme. The scheme of work has been developed to give ALL children the physical literacy, emotional and thinking skills to achieve in PE, sport and life. It places the learner at the heart of what we do with the ultimate goal of children feeling valued, included, challenged and supported in their learning.
Other traditional subject areas e.g. netball, tennis, athletics etc, will be delivered by highly confident class teachers and members of the school PE & Sports team.
Through targeting lunchtimes, we are promoting active lifestyles. Staff from the PE team lead activities for our physically disengaged/inactive pupils.
Equipment is reviewed termly and new stock ordered when required to provide best possible learning experiences for our pupils.
Intra-school competitive opportunities
By providing more opportunities to compete we encourage our pupils to ‘be the best they can be’ and to develop core skills and values including determination, teamwork, self belief, passion, including respect and honesty - which are two of our school values.
Through the Mandeville School Sports Partnership and the Buckinghamshire Cricket program we are participating in a range of competitions and festivals to best meet the confidence, competence and motivations of all the young people attending. These events provide opportunities for all our young people including SEND, including Physical Disabilities and Speech and Language difficulties, and target groups to integrate and experience competitive and no competitive sport.
Pupil Leadership opportunities
The senior pupils have the opportunity to become a sports leader who are responsible for providing more opportunities for pupils to be active during school hours, by running a wide range of sporting activities. With the support of our specialist sports coaches, training is provided to develop their skills and qualities to lead, therefore having impact on a large number of pupils.
Enrichment & extra-curricular opportunities
Providing a broad and balanced enrichment and personal development offering at William Harding is key for us to give opportunities for our pupils to be active. We have identified core strengths of staff, to provide high quality experiences for all pupils, in a fully inclusive environment.
Through targeting lunchtimes, we are promoting active lifestyles. Staff from the PE team lead activities at lunchtimes for our physically disengaged/inactive pupil.
CPD for staff
Staff have access to a full range of CPD opportunities through the Bucks School Sports Partnership as we are committed to delivering a ‘pupil focused’ PE provision. Staff will also benefit from CPD opportunities available through School Sports Cluster Membership.
Primary PE planning offers a wide range range of resources for teachers to use and develop their teaching. This ranges from high quality plans and a wide range of video and picture resources.
All staff have unlimited access to the following CPD:
PE training for ECT’s
CPD from our specialist sports coaches.
Impact
From studying our physical education curriculum our pupils will be;
successful and excel in competitive sport
confident
compete in sport and other activities regularly
able to embed values such as fairness and respect
physically active and fit
lead healthy and active lives
able to understand how sport and PE is linked to mental health
Click here for our William Harding Way
Click here for our 2024 Curriculum map
If you would like to find out more about our PE curriculum, please email the office FAO Mr Rayner, Mr Dawson and Mrs Munday.
Religious Education (RE)
Intent
We believe that it is important for all our pupils to learn from and about religion, so that they can understand the world around them. The aim of RE in our school is to help children to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in Great Britain; to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Religious Education is taught throughout the school in such a way as to reflect the overall aims, values, and philosophy of the school including inclusion and respect.
At William Harding, we believe that RE is imperative because:
It helps pupils understand the world they live in by developing their religious literacy.
It helps them to develop skills in recognising, handling and analysing the big questions and concepts that arise from experience and help make sense of life.
It provides opportunities for and develops their ability to reflect on experience
It develops debating, reasoning, self-expression, relationships and self-understanding.
It helps with their literacy, creativity, personal development and critical thinking.
It helps their understanding of identity and their search for meaning, purpose and value.
It helps the school with their ethos and values.
It helps develop a sense of community and belonging.
It provides opportunities to build positive relationships for learning and behaviour.
It helps the children to explore meaning, truth and live by values.
It allows us to understand and respectfully challenge and be challenged by people of different lifestyles, beliefs and practices.
Implementation
We follow the Buckinghamshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education which is supported by Discovery R.E. and adopts an enquiry based approach to teaching and learning. Christianity is taught in every year group, with Christmas and Easter given new treatment each year to develop learning in a progressive way. Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are also covered. Humanist perspectives are added when appropriate. Each session has a learning objective which shows the learning over the enquiry and SMSC development opportunities are mapped throughout as is each contribution to the British Values agenda.
The Discovery R.E. syllabus has been created in a recurrent format to enable children to revisit and build on their prior knowledge of the different beliefs and practices taught across the school. The syllabus also allows for teachers to be flexible and adapt the term in which units are taught in their year group, to allow for cross-curricular links or involvement with parents and other members of the community.
Impact
At William Harding, we are committed to providing our children with an exciting and positive learning environment, in which they have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of religions.
We also seek to ensure that all pupils in our school are educated to develop spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to better understand themselves and others and to cope with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world. We strive to ensure we respect people in the wider community, including their beliefs, traditions, culture, language and history.
Click here for our whole school RE long term curriculum overview
If you would like to find out more about our RE curriculum, please email the office FAO Miss Brown.
Computing
Intent
Our curriculum teaching of computing at William Harding aims to produce learners who are able to confidently and safely use technology to engage with the world around them and to promote a love of using information technology.
We aim to encourage all pupils to:
Understand how to keep themselves safe when using technology
Have the knowledge and skills that they need to take them forward in computer programming and computational thinking
Think critically and develop their problem solving skills
Explore everything that technology has to offer and to develop the skills to use it to enhance their learning across the curriculum and outside of school
Understand how computers are programmed
Consider how computers can be used to solve problems
Understand how computers interact with one another and how networks are managed
Develop a broad understanding of information technology and its applications
Access a wide range of different technologies
Utilise technology for research and to support their learning
Develop their understanding of how to use computers to present and organise information
Understand how their use of technology impacts upon those around them
Implementation
Our curriculum has been designed to both meet the objectives set out in the National Curriculum and to give pupils a chance to see a wide range of different applications of technology. Our work across all areas of computing builds on what pupils have learned in previous years and supports them to develop a deep understanding of the key skills. We plan our computing topics to support our learning in other subject areas and to ensure that our pupils appreciate the cross-curricular applications of computing.
The teaching of computing is separated into two key areas: information control technology and computing. In ICT focused topics we work with pupils to enhance their understanding of how technology can be used to find, present, store and organise knowledge, both in school and in day to day life. Computing focuses on the programming of computers and understanding the languages which are used to input and extract information from them. Our computing scheme of learning is ICompute. We teach computing once a week, for an hour from Year 1 to Year 6. In reception, the children have opportunities to explore and use technology through choosing and adult led activities.
Impact
Our computing curriculum supports pupils to;
· Pupils will understand the importance of online safety, how to deal with situations which they encounter online and know how to access support should they need it,
· Pupils will build their understanding and confidence with using technology and apply their learning to real-life experiences,
· Pupils will understand how computers work and of how they can be used in daily life,
· Our pupils will become powerful learners and will have knowledge and experience to become the next generation of computer engineers.
Click here for our whole school Computing long term curriculum overview
If you would like to find out more about our Computing curriculum, please email the office FAO Miss Beaney, Mr Irwin, Mr Fuller and Miss Toft.