At William Harding our intent is to ensure that our curriculum meets the needs of our pupils, is engaging, memorable and inspiring. Please read below to find out about our Foundation Subject curriculum.
Click here for our whole school long term curriculum overview
Please click here to read about our Knowledge Rich Curriculum for History, Geography and Art.
If you would like to find out more about our EYFS curriculum, please click here
Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
Intent
At William Harding School, pupils learn about relationships, health and wellbeing, keeping safe, managing their off and online lives, living in the wider world and financial education. This curriculum gives pupils opportunities to ask questions and explore issues that are real and relevant to them in a safe and managed environment.
Our PSHE provision has been designed to be age appropriate, whilst being sensitive to the needs of our whole school community to ensure PSHE provision gives our pupils an education which supports them now and prepares them for the future. Our PSHE provision is underpinned by the 2010 Equalities duty and provides an inclusive curriculum that promotes understanding and mutual respect for all.
Implementation
Our PSHE provision at William Harding extends beyond the curriculum and includes themed days/ weeks, assemblies, debates, developing effective learning characteristics and fully supports our school’s ethos and values.
PSHE is an integral part of William Harding’s broad and balanced curriculum supporting spiritual, moral, social and cultural education, equalities and safeguarding. We ensure meaningful cross curricular links are made to enable our pupils to understand how these skills can be applied in everyday life.
Impact
Our high quality PSHE supports pupils’ personal, social, health and economic development. It helps to give pupils the knowledge, skills, strategies and attributes to help them make informed choices and decisions about the different opportunities and challenges life presents.
Click here for our whole school PHSE overview
If you would like to find out more about our PHSE curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Skinner.
Modern Foreign Language (MFL) – French
Intent
The intention of the French curriculum at William Harding School is that children are taught to develop and an interest in learning other languages in a way that is enjoyable and stimulating. We encourage children’s confidence, striving to stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language.
Implementation
Our curriculum is designed to progressively develop children skills in languages, through regular taught lessons. Children progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary organised around topics. We follow the ‘Rachelhawkes’ scheme of work to ensure coverage and progression across Key Stage 2. Through planning we develop their awareness of cultural differences in other countries, British values and curriculum enrichment opportunities.
Impact
We strive to embed the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing necessary to enable children to use and apply their French learning in a variety of contexts and lay the foundations for future language learning.
Click here for our whole school French long term curriculum overview
If you would like to find out more about our MFL curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Culverhouse and Mrs Valji
Music
Intent
Increasingly, research is showing that high-quality music lessons have a significant, positive impact on a child’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical development. According to the Music Education Council, “The benefits are greatest when musical activities start early and continue over a long period of time.”
Singing and active music-making are the core of music experience and understanding, and have been shown to benefit concept formation, abstract thought, memory, linguistic development, spatial awareness and co-ordination, as well as creativity and confidence.
Our high-quality music curriculum is designed to provide opportunities for our pupils to:
get singing in every classroom
empower teachers and staff with skills and confidence
support the music and Voices lead to set up high quality choirs and singing assemblies
provide high quality resources to support school music
to ensure no child is left out when it comes to learning to be a musician
Implementation
At William Harding we work alongside The Voices Foundation who is a national charity which uses the power of singing to improve the lives of children and young people in the UK.
We are taking part in the following VF programmes:
Musical foundations
Choral excellence
This approach complies with curriculum expectations for excellence in Music, as set out in the Department of Education’s National Plan for Music Education and conforms to our prevailing understanding of best pedagogical practice.
It is an effective, practical and powerful way of teaching Music, from Early Years through to Year 6. It is based on a sound understanding of child development, so that children learn musical skills and concepts naturally and progressively, by engaging in hands-on musical activities and singing games. These activities are taught across the week in each class; Reception and KS1 between 3.00 and 3.10pm and KS2 between 3.15 and 3.30pm. All staff have access to a variety of musical activities that show consistency and progression across the whole school. Training is provided through CPD opportunities from The Voices Foundation using the Singing Schools Programme during Inset, staff meetings and an ongoing timetable of CPD during the school day.
Impact
From studying our music curriculum our pupils will be:
Engaging in high quality regular musical learning from a young age
Developing their musical, intellectual, emotional and social skills
Practising musical skills and concepts are in a variety of ways to suit individual needs and learning styles
Accessing the musical literacy and the benefits of music training
Enabled to understand how music is linked to mental health
Click here for our whole school music long term curriculum overview
Links that may be of interest;
Music Education Council website, Why Music?
What if every child had access to music education from birth?
If you would like to find out more about our Music curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Batory or Mrs Charlton.
Physical Education and School Sport
Intent
With the arrival of the new Inspection Framework the separation of Personal Development from Behaviour & Attitudes our intent is to have an increased focus and delivery of this through Physical Education (PE), School Sport (SS) and Physical Activity (PA).
Our high-quality physical education curriculum is designed to provide opportunities for our pupils to;
be inspired to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities
be physically confident which supports their health and fitness
compete in sport and other activities regularly
build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect
be physically active for sustained periods of time
engage in competitive sports and activities and lead healthy, active lives
develop a healthy attitude to sport and hobbies as part of being mentally healthy
Implementation
Introduction of Real PE as a PE delivery scheme
This new approach to PE will place a greater emphasis on the whole child and their attitudes to health and well being. The Real PE model we are adopting has a holistic approach to PE through a multi-ability model; Personal, social, creative, cognitive, physical, health & well-being.
These areas are broken into different learning objectives and outcomes, where pupils can have a better understanding of what they are successful in and how they can grow/develop further.
Click here to find out more about Real PE
Other traditional subject areas e.g. netball, tennis, athletics etc, will be delivered by highly confident class teachers and members of the school PE & Sports team.
Equipment is reviewed termly and new stock ordered when required to provide best possible learning experiences for our pupils.
Intra-school competitive opportunities
By providing more opportunities to compete we encourage our pupils to ‘be the best they can be’ and to develop core skills and values including determination, teamwork, self belief, passion, including respect and honesty - which are two of our school values.
Through the Mandeville School Sports Partnership and the South Bucks School Sport Partnership (inclusive sport) we are developing the range of competition and festivals to best meet the confidence, competence and motivations of all the young people attending. Our inclusive events provide opportunities for all young people including SEND, including Physical Disabilities and Speech and Language difficulties, and target groups to integrate.
Pupil Leadership opportunities
Our School Sport Organising Committee (SSOC) is made up of pupil as Sports Leaders and Playground leaders. The senior pupils within these roles are responsible for providing more opportunities for pupils to be active during school hours. With the support of school staff, training is provided to develop their skills and qualities to lead, therefore having impact on a large number of pupils.
Enrichment & extra-curricular opportunities
Providing a broad and balanced enrichment and personal development offering at William Harding is key for us to give opportunities for our pupils to be active. We have identified core strengths of staff, to provide high quality experiences for all pupils, in a fully inclusive environment.
Through targeting lunchtimes, we are promoting active lifestyles through the use of Change4Life clubs, (known at WH as Fit4Fun clubs). Staff from the PE team lead activities for our physically disengaged/inactive pupils.
Home/Community Partnership
Through the partnership agreement with Create Development, we have access to training and resources to deliver ‘Real Play’ and become a leading school in the area. Working with our families at WH we can work in partnership to encourage ‘active play’ within school and for them to then take home and share together.
All pupils in the school, including our nursery children have access to real PE at home.
real PE at home is an online resource which supports families to be active, play and learn together. It includes a programme specifically for children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 with 12 themes, 6 areas, over 250 activities and challenges. For children in Key Stage 2, there are carefully selected personal best challenges, skills and games designed for the home and garden.
CPD for staff
Staff have access to a full range of Create Development CPD opportunities as we are committed to delivering a ‘pupil focused’ PE provision; real PE, real Gym, real Play, real Dance and real Leaders. Staff will also benefit from CPD opportunities available through School Sports Cluster Membership.
Real PE will enable consistency and progression throughout the school, where teachers are confident delivering active and learning rich lessons. Pupils are more confident and are able to lead their learning to reach their own personal milestones.
All staff have unlimited access to our SSP calendar including:
PE training for NQT’s
Inclusive PE and SS through Sainsbury’s Inclusive PE and Tops Sportability
Impact
From studying our physical education curriculum our pupils will be;
successful and excel in competitive sport
confident
compete in sport and other activities regularly
able to embed values such as fairness and respect
physically active and fit
lead healthy and active lives
able to understand how sport and PE is linked to mental health
Click here for our whole school PE long term curriculum overview (pre-COVID 19)
If you would like to find out more about our PE curriculum, please email the office FAO Mr Thorpe.
Religious Education (RE)
Intent
We believe that it is important for all our pupils to learn from and about religion, so that they can understand the world around them. The aim of RE in our school is to help children to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in Great Britain; to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Religious Education is taught throughout the school in such a way as to reflect the overall aims, values, and philosophy of the school including inclusion and respect.
At William Harding, we believe that RE is imperative because:
It helps pupils understand the world they live in by developing their religious literacy.
It helps them to develop skills in recognising, handling and analysing the big questions and concepts that arise from experience and help make sense of life.
It provides opportunities for and develops their ability to reflect on experience
It develops debating, reasoning, self-expression, relationships and self-understanding.
It helps with their literacy, creativity, personal development and critical thinking.
It helps their understanding of identity and their search for meaning, purpose and value.
It helps the school with their ethos and values.
It helps develop a sense of community and belonging.
It provides opportunities to build positive relationships for learning and behaviour.
It helps the children to explore meaning, truth and live by values.
It allows us to understand and respectfully challenge and be challenged by people of different lifestyles, beliefs and practices.
Implementation
We follow the Buckinghamshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education which is supported by Discovery R.E. and adopts an enquiry based approach to teaching and learning. Christianity is taught in every year group, with Christmas and Easter given new treatment each year to develop learning in a progressive way. Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are also covered. Humanist perspectives are added when appropriate. Each session has a learning objective which shows the learning over the enquiry and SMSC development opportunities are mapped throughout as is each contribution to the British Values agenda.
The Discovery R.E. syllabus has been created in a recurrent format to enable children to revisit and build on their prior knowledge of the different beliefs and practices taught across the school. The syllabus also allows for teachers to be flexible and adapt the term in which units are taught in their year group, to allow for cross-curricular links or involvement with parents and other members of the community.
Impact
At William Harding, we are committed to providing our children with an exciting and positive learning environment, in which they have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of religions.
We also seek to ensure that all pupils in our school are educated to develop spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to better understand themselves and others and to cope with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world. We strive to ensure we respect people in the wider community, including their beliefs, traditions, culture, language and history.
Click here for our whole school RE long term curriculum overview
If you would like to find out more about our RE curriculum, please email the office FAO Miss Brown.
Computing
Intent
Our curriculum teaching of computing at William Harding aims to produce learners who are able to confidently and safely use technology to engage with the world around them and to promote a love of using information technology.
We aim to encourage all pupils to:
Understand how to keep themselves safe when using technology
Have the knowledge and skills that they need to take them forward in computer programming and computational thinking
Think critically and develop their problem solving skills
Explore everything that technology has to offer and to develop the skills to use it to enhance their learning across the curriculum and outside of school
Understand how computers are programmed
Consider how computers can be used to solve problems
Understand how computers interact with one another and how networks are managed
Develop a broad understanding of information technology and its applications
Access a wide range of different technologies
Utilise technology for research and to support their learning
Develop their understanding of how to use computers to present and organise information
Understand how their use of technology impacts upon those around them
Implementation
Our curriculum has been designed to both meet the objectives set out in the National Curriculum and to give pupils a chance to see a wide range of different applications of technology. Our work across all areas of computing builds on what pupils have learned in previous years and supports them to develop a deep understanding of the key skills. We plan our computing topics to support our learning in other subject areas and to ensure that our pupils appreciate the cross-curricular applications of computing.
The teaching of computing is separated into two key areas: information control technology and computing. In ICT focused topics we work with pupils to enhance their understanding of how technology can be used to find, present, store and organise knowledge, both in school and in day to day life. Computing focuses on the programming of computers and understanding the languages which are used to input and extract information from them.
Impact
Our computing curriculum supports pupils to;
Ensure our pupils understand the importance of online safety, how to deal with situations which they may encounter online and how to access support should they need it
Build their understanding and confidence with using technology and to apply their learning to real-world scenarios
Ensure pupils understand how computers work and of how they can be used in daily life
Help our pupils to become powerful learners and open the doors for them to become the next generation of computer engineers.
Click here for our whole school Computing long term curriculum overview
If you would like to find out more about our Computing curriculum, please email the office FAO Mrs Pullinger, Miss Furness or Mr Dinham.
Design and Technology
Intent
Our aim for the Design and Technology curriculum is to give children the opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to design and make functional products. To aim to ensure that pupils develop:
An understanding of how products solve problems in a range of contexts.
A full understanding of the criteria any products solving this problem need to meet to be effective.
The skills necessary to evaluate existing products against these criteria.
The skills necessary to design and safely make products to achieve these criteria.
The skills required to safely and hygienically prepare healthy and appetising food for a variety of contexts.
Implementation
At William Harding we work with guidance from the Design and Technology Association. Design and Technology helps us to teach Maths and English and other subjects in a fun manner and put these subjects into context making them easier to digest and more understandable.
There are two main elements of Design Technology – learning about the world we live in and the way things work, and learning to design, make and evaluate functional products for a particular person or user. Design Technology is often one of a child’s favourite lessons because it is a ‘hands-on’ subject where they can make their own decisions, test out ideas, take risks and produce their very own quality product which they are extremely proud of.
We have a Dye-Sublimation Printer in school which enables us to use IT to create designs and logos and print them onto a range of products. This printer is situated in our new practical room – a wonderful purpose-built room where children can use a range of tools and materials.
Impact
Pupils will leave William Harding with the following skills;
practical life skills; evaluation and design, risk assessment, fabrication skills
knowing how to solve real problems
understanding the effect of products on people and the environment
recognising and developing their own creativity
ability to safely and hygienically prepare food.
Click here for our whole school DT long term curriculum overview
If you would like to find out more about our DT curriculum, please email the office FAO Miss Stevens
Art
Intent
Our aim for our art and design curriculum is to provide all pupils with opportunities to master skills, express their creative ideas and gain knowledge of artists from a range of historical periods and cultural backgrounds.
We aim to ensure that all pupils develop:
mastery in a range of art and design techniques including drawing, painting and sculpting
an understanding of artistic concepts and styles, and how these relate to one another in a historical context
an awareness of a range of great artists, architects and designers from history and the ability to use subject specific language to describe the similarities and differences and make links between that and their own work
an ability to observe and record their creative ideas, thoughts, imaginations and opinions using a range of tools, materials and techniques.
Implementation
Art and design at William Harding is taught through the Primary Knowledge Curriculum and follows the National Curriculum to ensure that all pupils develop a range of artistic knowledge and skills. The pupils are provided with opportunities to develop mastery of a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. They create drawing, paintings and sculptures to express their ideas, experiences and imaginations. They gain knowledge of great artists, architects and designers in history and use this to critique and evaluate their own work using the language of art, craft and design. Through their art work, pupils are encouraged to investigate and offer reasoned views on ethical and moral issues and display respect and tolerance for all cultures and beliefs. Children use sketch books to record their observations and use them to renew and revisit ideas.
Impact
At William Harding, our curriculum provides pupils with opportunities to:
Master a range of skills and techniques using a range of materials.
Develop an understanding of historical and cultural developments influencing and resulting from artistic movements and styles.
Express their creative ideas and ethical and moral viewpoints through their artwork.
Understand and make links between their own art work and that of artists throughout history.
Develop critical and creative thinking skills.
Click here for our whole school Art overview
If you would like to find out more about our Art curriculum, please email the office FAO Miss Bird