Curriculum

At Hillside, we believe that a curriculum fit for the 21st century must be broad, varied and enriched with exciting experiences that fire children’s imaginations and give them the confidence to face new challenges and solve problems. Our vision and values are at the core of everything we do and underpin our teaching and learning. We know that children learn best when they are offered engaging and immersive opportunities and this is fostered through our approach. We believe that learning should be exciting, interactive and focused on children’s own personal needs.

Through careful planning, teachers ensure that topics are bespoke, tailored to pupils’ needs and interests, relevant to modern day events and our community. We use the National Curriculum as a starting point for all planning, ensuring that key knowledge and objectives are covered throughout units. Teachers then meet in teams to discuss what key skills and experiences they want pupils to have by the end of the year, and their primary school journey. These experiences, along with the other subjects, are woven into each year group’s planning in a very cross curricular way. Although there are times where it is appropriate for a subject area to be taught explicitly, we are confident that if you were to walk into one of our lessons, you would see a number of themes flowing throughout.

Pupil learning at Hillside is enhanced by trips, visitors and curriculum days, whereby children are able to immerse themselves in the lives of those they are studying. Our curriculum is also heavily Values based, and our core values of learning, independence, collaboration, respect, resilience and happiness are at the heart of everything we do.

With each unit, we aim to pass on knowledge outlined in the National Curriculum, as well as the skills required to face our rapidly changing world. We want children to enjoy the challenge and adventure of learning, to follow their own curiosities and to make a positive contribution to the local and wider community.

Throughout our curriculum, learning is connected by our key concept of ‘influence’. It is the golden thread that ties all year groups’ learning together, regardless of subject, or topic.

With so many areas to cover in the National Curriculum, it is not difficult to see why children may find it difficult to link learning across year groups. Take History for example, throughout their school careers, children will encounter the Ancient Egyptians, Anglo Saxons, Mayans, the World Wars, and more. At face value, it can be difficult to identify similarities that these topics have or see how they relate to one another, other than being areas of ‘history’. But, when you discuss the influence that these peoples or events had on the world, their link becomes much clearer.

Excellent teaching and the design of our curriculum, equips all young people with the knowledge and skills for future challenges as lifelong learners. The curriculum stimulates their curiosity of how people, places, and events have influenced how we live today.

Below are the year group overviews to show what each year group will be covering across the year from Year R-6.

Below are copies of the parent talks held at the start of the year.

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

We follow the ‘Read, Write, Inc Phonics’ scheme from Foundation Stage to Year 1.

To help parents, here is a video to support:

We use ‘Read, Write, Inc. Spellings’ from Year 2 to Year 6.

We use Master Reader & Accelerated Reader from Year 2 – Year 6. Reading books are linked to your child’s reading range (ZPD).

Here is a copy of Hillside’s Music Development Plan – click here.

View a Glossary of Educational abbreviations that are commonly used.

Download glossary

Click here to find out what e-safety actually means and for links to support parents and children on how to keep safe when online.

We use Times Tables Rockstars to support our children’s times tables knowledge.

In Reception and Year 1, we use Numbots to support early Maths.

Religion and belief have become more visible in public life in recent years, making it important that all pupils should have an opportunity to engage in RE.   However, the parent of a pupil (or pupils themselves if they are aged 18 or over) may request that they be excused from all or part of the religious education (RE) provided.

Parents who wish to withdraw their children from RE should be aware of its aims and what is covered in the RE curriculum and that they are given the opportunity to discuss this if they wish. It should be made clear whether the withdrawal is from the whole RE curriculum or specific parts of it. No reasons need be given

Important – limitations to withdraw

• If pupils are withdrawn from RE, schools have a duty to supervise them, though not to provide additional teaching.  A pupil may be required to work in another area of the school, such as library or break out area.
• Whilst parents or carers have a right to withdraw children from RE, they should note that children may also encounter religions and beliefs and wider aspects of faith in other areas of the curriculum from which there is no right of withdrawal.
• On occasion, spontaneous questions about religious matters are raised by pupils or issues related to religion arise in other curriculum subjects such as history or citizenship (PSHE)  For example, schools promote community cohesion and help pupils to understand ideas about identity and diversity, feelings and emotions within both religious and non-religious contexts.

As part of our Personal Development curriculum, we would like to encourage all children to challenge themselves to complete our Independence Checklist for Home before the end of the school year.

The suggested activities are important life skills that will ensure that our children are ready for the next school year ahead. We believe all children should have opportunities to build resilience and confidence when facing new challenges, both inside and outside the classroom.