St Hugh's CofE Primary School

Curriculum Offer  

 Our curriculum offer can be viewed above.  

School Vision Statement

'Let all that you do, be done in love'  (1 Corinthians 16:14)

We desire to be  a Christian family of God which is aspirational, inclusive and loving.

We treat each person as a unique individual of inherent worth to support them towards academic excellence and personal growth, as they become advocates for change within society.

‘Be the change you want to see in the World’  (Gandhi)

School Mission Statement:

We aim:

• To ensure that each child achieves high standards and makes good progress in relation to prior attainment in all areas of school life.
• To provide all pupils with high quality teaching in order to achieve high quality learning, by means of broad, balanced curriculum within a framework of Christian values.
• To provide a well-resourced, high quality learning environment.
• To create a positive, inclusive school culture, in which we promote our children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, helping children towards an understanding of Christian belief and other world faiths.
• To promote an inclusive, mutually supportive learning partnership with parents and community and to encourage children to take a full role in their school community.
• To support the work of the school by effective management of finance, curriculum, resources, administration and personnel.

St. Hugh’s Statement of Curriculum Intent

Our Curriculum has been designed to ensure that each child can ‘be the change they want to see in the World’ by offering stimulating and awe-inspiring learning experiences with Christian values and high aspirations at its heart.

It is bespoke to the needs of the pupils at St Hugh’s, not only by focussing on appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum, but by modelling the virtues given to us by Christ and by developing individual and collaborative learning experiences, a sense of responsibility and challenges that take them beyond the classroom.

We are an urban school with a curriculum which responds to the needs of the learners and their interests by enhancing learning experiences and raising awareness from the local area to the national and global arenas.

We are highly ambitious for our children, irrespective of their background or academic prowess.  All staff know what their children should achieve at the end of each year and the learning is carefully planned to meet these points.    All of our pupils are provided with a rich and relevant curriculum, with enhancement activities - including those with special needs and disabilities. 

In 2022-23 curriculum was evaluated and re-designed following training make made even more bespoke to the school focusing on key concepts and knowledge, global links and diversity.  The curriculum is blocked into learning units for science, history, geography, art and technology, to ensure emersion in learning and to support memory retention.  Children will also have weekly MFL, PE, PSHE, RE, computing lessons along with a daily act of worship and daily English and Maths lessons.   This has been evaluated and further adaptation made for 2024-25.

Additional Information

The curriculum has been designed to be a ‘Knowledge-rich’ curriculum focussing on knowledge for each learning unit.    Each learning unit is complemented with a knowledge mat.  See the school’s curriculum offer for more information about each subject.

Hooks and Wow starts

Where possible new learning units will begin with a ‘hook’ for learning or an experience.  

Maths:

In the Early Years, we focus on the early mathematical concepts of developing number sense, patten, spatial awareness, measure and shape through adult led and provision-based learning.

The rest of the school uses the NCETM ‘progression maps’ alongside Maths Shed to create a bespoke curriculum for St Hugh’s, which is in line with our school policy and reflects the core principles of CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach in mathematics. We also have a wide variety of resources to support pupils in their learning. The curriculum runs from EYFS through to Year 6 to ensure consistency for our pupils. We use standardised assessments using ‘PUMA’ from Rising Stars - and we moderate these scores alongside teacher assessments during regular Pupil Progress meetings.

English

Nursery to Year 2 use Read, Write, Inc. to teach phonics and RWI reading books are sent home for individual home reading along with supplementary books to be read at home, based on the ‘Reading 4 Pleasure’ approach. Once a pupil has completed RWI, they will move onto age related books and then ‘free’ reading. There are also several interventions and initiatives to increase reading attainment including:  Read theory, Fast track phonics, Fluency and targeted 1:1 reading sessions for children that may need further acceleration.

Once the children are fluent, Reading ‘Gems’ are utilised in KS2. These follow a progression of skills linked to the National Curriculum for word-reading and comprehension which are taught in a consistent manner and monitored rigorously throughout the year.  We use the FFT fluency assessment to track prosidy, speed and understanding.

English lessons follow a 3 weekly cycle and writing is taught across a range of genres.  A high-quality text is utilised for each 3 week block.  Spelling is taught via the Spelling shed materials (based on etymology and morphology) - and common exception words/high frequency words, which are incorporated alongside the relevant texts. Similarly, grammar is taught explicitly within each genre, allowing for both technical and creative skills to be utilised.  Reception to Year 3 follow the talk for writing approach – using ‘Mighty Writer’ as a vehicle for learning.

RE

The school Manchester Diocese Board of Education Syllabus for RE. The syllabus incorporates the Understanding Christianity approach and is now rooted in the Understanding Christianity syllabus.

PSHE and RSHE

The school follows the Jigsaw scheme for PSHE with circle time and mindfulness sessions.  Half-termly sessions are as follows:

RSHE is incorporated in the scheme.

    Science  

Science at St Hugh’s is taught through the use of the Snap Science Scheme and learning units.  We offer a knowledge-rich curriculum which continually develops children’s working scientifically skills and creates independent learners who are able to ask and answer scientific questions about the world around them.

The science vision and principles underpin the science teaching and learning. 

https://www.st-hughs.oldham.sch.uk/oldham/primary/st-hughs/arenas/websitecontent/web/sciencevision.pdf

Working scientifically objectives:

Music:

Children in Nursery to Year 3 receive a weekly 30-minute curriculum music session, with the teacher focusing on singing, percussion, composition and performance.  In the Nursery this is ‘Tune into Talking’ which invites parents and families to participate regularly.  The Reception children have Musical Beginnings.  The Year 1 and 2 classes receive curriculum music lessons and the Year 3 lessons focus on pre-wider opportunities music.  In Years 4 and 5 the children receive Wider Opportunities Brass lessons.  Those children excelling in music are invited to join the school band and on-going opportunities are extended to the Year 6 children. As an Arts Mark school the lessons focus on singing, performing and learning to play their instrument, covering all areas of the music curriculum.

Computing:

The school uses code.org to deliver the coding curriculum and its own scheme to deliver safety and digital literacy.  Each year group has a clear set of medium-term plans to ensure progression and coverage.  Children in year 6 are also developing digital skills by using 1:1 devices for a wider range of learning activities. 

MFL:

Our MFL programme of study teaches children French language skills in a variety of fun and creative ways encompassing the arts wherever possible.  Each class follows a progressive, well-structured scheme of work (based on the National Curriculum requirements) to ensure continuity and a solid basis to increase the children’s attitude, skills and knowledge (ASK) throughout their primary experience.

PE:

Early Years

Please see the documents attached for information about our Early Years.