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 aim of the west Hampstead primary school Curriculum

Our Curriculum Aims:

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;
• We achieve this by teaching subjects through long-term topics/themes;
• Our topics 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 we interrupt the forgetting of the key knowledge and skills

Each ‘topic’ has an overarching theme

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 scheme. 

Maths

Our Maths curriculum is based on the Mathematics Mastery approach. 

Enrichment of curriculum:

We believe that all topics should be memorable, engaging and exciting! So for each topic you will see that we have planned for:

• An exciting entry point;
• opportunities for exploration through in depth research;
• exciting trips;
• and an exit point that will often involve sharing work with our community.

The Wider Curriculum -

We use a topic based approach to learning which engages with children’s natural curiosity while ensuring that we cover all the statutory requirements during your child’s time with us. 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 1	Autumn 2	Spring	Summer
Year 1	Earth and Space	We are builders.	Heroes Our Secret garden.	Carnival of Animals. Travellers.
Year 2	Growing up in Kenya	Toys and Lego	The Great Fire of London.	By the Sea.
Year 3	Field to fork	Victorian schools	Stone Age/ Changing planet	Britain from the air.
Year 4	The Egyptians	The Romans	Steam	Europe
Year 5	Shackleton	Ancient Greece	Space	Invasion!
Year 6	The Silk Road	Battle of Britain	Disasters	Evolution and adaptation

In Key Stage 2 we introduce French to the curriculum.

All children participate in weekly physical activity with our specialist PE teacher. In addition to the formal P.E. lesson, children have access to sports coaching every lunch time.

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 wish to take up individual one-to-one music tuition.

Our curriculum is outlined in the documents below.

Enrichment of curriculum:

We believe that all topics should be memorable, engaging and exciting! So for each topic you will see that we have planned for:

• An exciting entry point;
• opportunities for exploration through in depth research;
• exciting trips;
• and an exit point that will often involve sharing work with our community.

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;
• maths;
• building confidence;
• building knowledge and skills.

Missing whole class teaching is kept to a minimum.

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