OUR CURRICULUM

Our Curriculum - Intent, Implementation and Impact

At West Hampstead Primary we provide a broad and balanced curriculum which develops the individual child according to their age and ability.

The West Hampstead Curriculum is designed to:

1. Ensure the children have a broad, balanced and secure knowledge and understanding of the world.
2. Ensure high levels of competence in the core subjects of English and maths.
3. Teach our pupils to live well in a diverse world, as confident, responsible citizens.
4. Teach our pupils to learn well and to love learning.
5. Teach our pupils how to lead happy, healthy, constructive lives, in which they can aspire and experience success.

OUR CURRICULUM

• We believe that children learn best through a curriculum that has rigour, challenge, depth and breadth, and which connects areas of learning;
• Our history, geography and design technology units are designed by our teaching team to ensure coverage of the National Curriculum, making links horizontally through the year, and vertically from nursery through to year 6;
• We are clear about what knowledge children will learn, and in which order, throughout their time at our school.
• We believe that learning should be enriched through vivid, memorable lessons, trips and expert visitors;
• We want children to know more and remember more over time, and we check their growing knowledge with quizzes, mind maps and vocabulary checks.

Our curriculum is designed so that children leave West Hampstead Primary School as:

• Fluent readers with a love of books and excellent comprehension;
• Fluent mathematicians, with a confidence in problem-solving and reasoning;
• Clear and engaging writers who can communicate their thoughts and feelings
• Happy, healthy, interested children with a range of experiences, memories and knowledge of a broad and deep-rooted curriculum.

THE WEST HAMPSTEAD PRIMARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM

We are committed to providing significant opportunities for pupils to master basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics from an early age. Our curriculum is drawn from the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum.

The National Curriculum:

At our school, the National Curriculum is statutory. It lays out the range of subjects we must teach and sets the standards pupils are expected to reach at the end of each key stage of learning. Our school’s curriculum incorporates the National Curriculum and goes beyond it. We have adapted and extended the National Curriculum to meet the particular needs of our pupils and families. It is a curriculum designed to work for all in our community.

Vertical Curriculum:

Our subject leaders map out how each subject is built across the school in coherent components, taught through rich topics, towards end points which lay the foundations for future learning. All of this begins in the EYFS, which is the foundation.

Our approach to curriculum:

• Every lesson has subject specific learning.
• Sequences of lessons are designed so that children know more and remember more by the end. Over time, we revisit the learning, so children do not forget the key knowledge and skills they have gained.

English

Our English curriculum is based on the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education's Power of Reading approach

Phonics

Phonics is taught systematically and rigorously, following the Little Wandle Sounds and Letters scheme. 

Maths

Our Maths curriculum is based on the Teaching for Mastery approach. Teachers design lessons which follow a carefully planned progression of learning through the school and use a variety of resources to support understanding.

The Wider Curriculum:

We teach the foundation subjects in a way that engages with children’s natural curiosity while ensuring that we cover all the statutory requirements. Teachers use a wide variety of teaching methods, which are adapted according to the subject, age and ability of the individual pupil.

Our Topic Map

Term	Autumn  (History)	Spring (Geography)	Summer (History)
Year 1	Earth and Space We are Builders	Heroes Our Secret Garden	Carnival of Animals Travellers
Year 2	The Great Fire of London	A Journey Along the River (Nile and Thames)	Ancient Egypt
Year 3	Victorians	Urban and Rural	The Stone Age
Year 4	The Romans	Ports in Europe (Liverpool, Rotterdam and Naples)	The Shang Dynasty
Year 5	Ancient Greece	Climate Zones	Invaders and Settlers
Year 6	The Battle of Britain	Natural Disasters	The Silk Road

In Key Stage 2 we introduce French to the curriculum.

All children participate in weekly physical activity with our specialist Physical Education (PE) coaches. In addition to the formal PE lesson, children have access to sports coaching every lunchtime.

All children will also learn music with either their class teacher or specialist music tutors from Camden music. Every child at West Hampstead Primary has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument and many pupils take up the individual one-to-one music tuition we offer.

Our curriculum is outlined in the documents below.

INCLUSION

At West Hampstead Primary School, we aim to provide equal access to the curriculum for all children. We recognise, respect and celebrate the diversity of languages and experiences our children bring to school. We aim to reflect these in our classroom and to promote parental involvement to strengthen the links between home and school communities. We believe that all children can achieve, and we value and promote each child’s achievements. We give our children every opportunity to achieve their best by taking account of our children’s range of life experiences when planning for their learning. The planning and organising of teaching strategies for each subject is consistently reviewed to ensure that no pupil is disadvantaged. We regularly review our curriculum and the resources we use to ensure that our teaching reflects equality and respects diversity.

Inclusion and Intervention:

Quality first teaching is central and class teachers are responsible for the learning of all children in their class. There is a level of differentiation that challenges and includes all children in any subject.  Some children do need additional support.

Teachers, teaching assistants and tutors work in small groups or one to one with children who are:

• Struggling with reading, writing or maths;
• Building confidence;
• Building knowledge and skills.

We aim to minimise the amount of whole-class teaching children miss when working in small groups.

For more details about the curriculum, please contact admin@westhampstead.camden.sch.uk