Heston Primary School

At Heston Primary School, we offer a curriculum which is broad and balanced and which builds upon the knowledge, understanding and skills of all children, whatever their starting points, as they progress through each Key Stage. Whilst we follow the National Curriculum requirements, our curriculum is personalised for and by our children ensuring we meet their needs and interests and is reflective of our community. This is then bound together by our school values and British values. Our pupils’ engagement in learning is high because lessons are stimulating and interesting, allowing for pupils to learn independently, collaboratively and as part of a whole class. Learning is organised through termly/half termly themes which are planned to ensure clear progression in knowledge and skills.We cover a wide range of subjects and provide opportunities for academic, creative and sporting excellence.

​At Heston Primary School we try and foster a love of reading that we hope will stay with children throughout their lives. We endeavour to do this by teaching key decoding skills through phonics and comprehension skills through the sharing of quality  texts.

As a school, we use the Letters and Sounds phonics scheme throughout the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. Throughout the scheme, the children will be introduced to 44 sounds. These are made up of individual letters, represented by a sound, and groups of letters that make one sound. The children are taught how to blend sounds for reading and segment sounds for spelling. From year 3 through to year 6 children continue to develop their skills in spelling, punctuation and grammar through regular sessions throughout the week.

We also use Bug Club as a supplement to the teaching of Early Reading and Phonics. All children in the Foundation Stage, Key Stages 1 and 2 are given a log in and password so they are able to access phonetically decodable texts at home, in addition to their weekly reading books.

The school does not follow a particular reading scheme but uses a selection of books that are decodable using phonics. We also use core texts that use repetition, rhyme and interesting word choices to excite and engage the reader. All children across the school are able to choose and change their own books from the class reading area. The children have focused teaching in daily guided reading sessions as well as story times and have a reading journal to use at home and school to develop their love of reading further.​

Our school vision statement states that we are “A school where learning is a preparation for life.” As such, the aim of our curriculum is for pupils to have the requisite skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners in readiness for their next stage of education and for a life in general. We believe in providing children with as many opportunities as possible to explore a wide range of interests.  We employ specialist music, PE and Art teachers to ensure that children are exposed to high quality and stimulating lessons in these subjects.  To supplement our PE provision, we provide children with three years of swimming lessons and enter a range of sporting competitions/tournaments such as hockey, football, cricket and cross-country.  As well as regular music lessons, we also ensure all children have the opportunity to learn an instrument, via the Hounslow Music Services provision of recorder lessons and the opportunity to visit and experience a theatre performance.  Children also have the opportunity to learn to play the violin. Both during and after school, we provide a range of clubs including cycling, multi-sports, cooking, gardening, Bollywood dancing and choir.

If you would like to find out more about the curriculum at our school please feel free to get in touch.