Heston Primary School

Our curriculum rationale is:

• to nurture our children’s understanding of ‘belonging and being’ and promote their sense of self- worth, furthering their appreciation of how they connect to the past, live in the present and look to the future.

• to promote a ‘can-do-it’ attitude towards learning, so that all children are enthusiastic and passionate learners who are inquisitive and independent thinkers; who embrace new challenges and possibilities; who are able to push their own boundaries and who strive to achieve their personal best.
• to offer an enthralling and well-crafted curriculum with clear progression maps that enable our children to achieve success by developing their knowledge, understanding and skills.
• to promote our school values of: Empathy, Aspiration and Independence.
• to fulfil all the requirements of the National Curriculum and the Locally Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education.

Our curriulum overview provides an ‘at a glance picture’ of what our children will learn during their time at Heston Primary School. Each half-term, children’s learning revolves around a big question which has a main focus - history, science or geography. All subjects are taught and have their individual schemes of work - art, DT, music, computing, RE and PSHE. A more detailed breakdown of our children’s learning, including the core areas of maths, reading and writing, can be found on the curriculum pages for each year group from Nursery to Year 6. We use a combination of ‘block approach’ and a sequential weekly coverage approach, considering carefully what would enable achievement of depth in knowledge and skills with better retention in the long term.

The outdoor environment and the local community are considered an opportunity for active learning for all our children. The school grounds have been developed so they can enrich different curriculum areas, particularly English, Science and Geography. One of our staff members is a ‘Forest School Trainer’ at Level 3, and offers exciting Nature Ranger activities to our Y1 pupils in order to facilitate a smooth transition from Early Years to Key Stage 1. We are committed to ensuring that all learners have access to high quality educational experiences beyond the classroom walls. We aspire to integrate into our curriculum frequent, continuous and progressive learning opportunities outside the classroom.

Maths and English are taught as discrete subjects, with carefully considered sequences of learning which give children the opportunity to master key skills and develop fluency. Our curriculum emphasises the importance and value of reading, which we believe is a fundamental skill. English texts supplement wider themes, where appropriate, to ensure children have more opportunities to make links and to consequently commit what they have learnt to their long term memory. We use ‘Power Maths’ as the core of our maths curriculum, but we dip into other schemes to meet specific needs. This approach promotes the mathematical thinking skills necessary to solve problems. 

Children’s health and well-being is extremely important to us. We have a dedicated PE team, led by our specialist teacher. They organise competitive intra and inter-school events to include all children, while entering our keenest sportsmen into local competitions, developing team spirit and good sportsmanship in all. We have a specialist pastoral support officer who provides emotional support to children and our families. We have a CAMHS Tier 3 worker who comes to our school on a weekly basis to provide support to our families who have been identified by the SLT as needing support. We focus on supporting our children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, ensuring that children are well prepared for life in modern Britain. Furthermore, we aim to instil a strong moral compass, enabling them to act ethically and honourably. 

We are passionate about the creative arts at Heston. We have specialist music, PE (dance/gym) and art specialists who teach across the school in KS2. All children in KS2 have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument. Our choir regularly sang in the Hounslow Summer Festival (pre COVID-19) and at other local events.  We follow published schemes of work for these subjects, but they have been adapted to reflect our local context and our approach to the curriculum. The rationale behind having specialists to teach Arts is simply to offer our children high quality experiences. Profession Anne Bramford, The Wow Factor, 2006 had highlighted the importance of quality. She had reported,

“There seemed to be between 17-28% (averaged at around 22%) negative impacts of poor quality (arts learning) programmes. Put crudely, this meant that in a global sense, about ¼ of all arts and cultural education a child receives is likely to have a negative impact.”

We at Heston endorse Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s assertions:

• The arts play an important role enriching young people’s learning and educational experiences
• Support skills development in communication, collaboration, creativity and problem-solving
• Confidence, self-esteem, personal and social outcomes, supporting engagement in learning
• For many young people, particularly those experiencing the most disadvantage, the only opportunity to gain access to arts is in school.

We are committed to educating children to have healthy lifestyles, and we are proud to have achieved the Active School Gold Mark for competitive sports. Children have the opportunity to work with specialist coaches for gymnastics, cricket and tennis. Teaching children how to ride a bike with confidence is an integral part of our curriculum, and we have coaches from ‘The Bicycle Society who come to our school and lead workshops with identified year groups. We encourage children to walk or cycle to school, and make sure that there are plenty of opportunities for exercise with a plethora of after school clubs.

Our inclusive environment and engaging and ‘fit for purpose’ curriculum makes learning fun and enables our learners to make very good progress across all subjects and areas of learning. Learning is scaffolded, when appropriate, to help our children to achieve. The children who struggle in class are encouraged and given targeted support to embed their skills and enable them to develop at their own pace. Teaching methods are adapted to meet the needs of the pupils and their preferred learning style.

Subject leaders play an important part in the success of the curriculum at Heston Primary School by leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review. Good practice across the school is celebrated and contributes to the ongoing commitment to adapt, enrich and improve our curriculum offer. All subject leaders are given training and the opportunity to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding so they can support both the development of the curriculum and their colleagues throughout the school. Targeted action planning and focused CPD contributes to driving standards even higher. Subject leaders do not just reflect on what needs to be taught, but also, on how it can be taught, ensuring children remember what they are learning and that knowledge is not just a recall of disorganised facts. ‘Dazzle Me’ learning reviews at the end of every half term give children an opportunity to collaborate and show case what they have learnt in different subjects with their friends, teachers and SLT. It is a celebration of learning!

Our children at Heston thrive in a safe environment, behave in an exemplary manner and achieve well. They become more resilient, responsible and independent during their time with us. We encourage children to recognise their feeling and use tools and ideas related to ’Zones of Regulation’ to help them understand how they can regulate their behaviour. We believe, as with all learning, children need to be explicitly taught learning behaviour to enable them to fulfil their educational potential, and develop self-reflection, and ultimately an ownership over their behaviour. We also believe that this learning is best achieved by the combination of positive reinforcement and adult modelling. Fundamentally, we all subscribe to the credo ‘treat others as you wish to be treated yourself’, this applies to all adults and children at Heston Primary.

We have three simple rules connected to behaviour:

Our curriculum design ensures that the academic and social-emotional needs of individual pupils, small groups of children and whole classes are met through quality first teaching, and targeted, proven interventions where appropriate and where needed. Our committed and caring staff promote enjoyment of the curriculum and instil a ‘can-do’ belief in our pupils. Children have opportunities to share their learning with each other, their parents and carers and other learners through school-based and external exhibitions, performances, competitions and events involving other schools.

We are very proud of what our children achieve and become at Heston Primary.