Designing, planning and delivering the curriculum at Honilands

At Honilands, we want our curriculum to open doors.

Our ambition is that every child leaves us as a confident, successful and curious learner, equipped with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to thrive at secondary school and beyond.

We believe that a high-quality curriculum, taught exceptionally well and underpinned by strong relationships, has the power to broaden horizons, raise aspirations and give children opportunities that will shape their future.

Intent

Our curriculum has been carefully designed to provide children with a rich, broad and ambitious education from the Early Years through to Year 6.

We want children to develop secure knowledge across a wide range of subjects, to make connections between what they learn and to become increasingly confident in explaining, applying and building upon that knowledge.

Reading is central to our curriculum. Confident, fluent readers are able to access the full breadth of learning available to them. We therefore place great importance on developing both the skills of reading and a genuine love of books.

Language, vocabulary and oracy are equally important. Throughout the curriculum, children are encouraged to discuss ideas, explain their thinking, encounter ambitious vocabulary and communicate with increasing confidence and precision.

Our curriculum is designed to extend children's knowledge of the world. Through carefully chosen content, high-quality texts and purposeful experiences, we introduce pupils to significant people, places, ideas, cultures and achievements and encourage them to be curious about the world around them.

We have high expectations for every child. Teaching is responsive to pupils' needs, with appropriate challenge and support enabling all children to participate successfully and develop increasing independence.

Strong relationships are at the heart of learning at Honilands. Positive relationships between children and adults, and between pupils themselves, create an environment in which children feel safe, valued and confident to contribute, take appropriate risks in their learning and respond positively to challenge.

Our values of respect, responsibility, honesty, determination and kindness thread through our curriculum and wider school life. Together with high-quality teaching, positive relationships and consistently high expectations, they help children to develop resilience, ambition and confidence in themselves that will remain with them into the future.

Enrichment is an important part of the Honilands experience. Visits, visitors, workshops and wider opportunities complement classroom learning, deepen children's understanding and provide experiences which inspire new interests and aspirations.

Implementation

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that learning builds progressively from the Early Years through to Year 6.

Within each subject, we identify the important knowledge, concepts and vocabulary that children need to learn. Teachers understand what pupils have learned previously, what they are learning now and how this prepares them for future learning.

Important ideas are deliberately revisited so that children strengthen their understanding over time. This allows them to connect new learning with what they already know and develop increasingly secure and sophisticated knowledge.

Meaningful links are made between subjects where they strengthen understanding, while ensuring that children also learn the distinctive knowledge and ways of thinking associated with each subject.

High-quality teaching

The strength of our curriculum depends upon the quality of its teaching.

We invest significantly in developing our staff. Teachers and support staff are trained to a high level and benefit from ongoing professional development, strong subject leadership and collaboration with colleagues across Children First Academy Trust.

Teachers use clear explanations, modelling, questioning, discussion and purposeful practice to help children understand new ideas. They check understanding carefully and adapt their teaching so that pupils receive the challenge or support they need.

We want children to become increasingly independent learners. Support and scaffolding are therefore used thoughtfully and adjusted as pupils grow in knowledge, confidence and competence.

Our curriculum is supported by carefully selected, high-quality programmes and resources. Further information about how individual subjects are designed and taught can be found on our subject curriculum pages.

Impact

Our aim is for children to know more, remember more and be able to do more as they progress through Honilands.

We want pupils to build knowledge that lasts: knowledge they can recall, connect, discuss and apply rather than simply remember for a single lesson or topic.

By the time children leave Honilands, we want them to be:

• fluent and confident readers

• articulate and thoughtful communicators

• knowledgeable across a broad range of subjects

• curious and willing to ask questions

• able to make connections in their learning

• confident in tackling challenge

• increasingly independent and resilient

• ambitious about their future

• well prepared for the next stage of their education.

Through an ambitious curriculum, high-quality teaching, strong relationships and enriching experiences, we aim to give every child the strongest possible foundations for future success.