Heston Primary School

Our curriculum rationale is:

• to nurture our children’s understanding of ‘belonging and being’ and promote their sense of self-worth, furthering their appreciation of how they connect to the past, live in the present and look to the future.

• to promote a ‘can-do-it’ attitude towards learning, so that all children are enthusiastic and passionate learners who are inquisitive and independent thinkers; who embrace new challenges and possibilities; who are able to push their own boundaries and who strive to achieve their personal best.
• to offer an enthralling and well-crafted curriculum with clear progression maps that enable our children to achieve success by developing their knowledge, understanding and skills.
• to promote our school values of- Empathy, Aspiration and Independence.
• to fulfil all the requirements of the National Curriculum and the Locally Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education.

Our curriculum overview provides at a glance picture of what our children will learn during their time at Heston Primary School. Each half-term, children’s learning revolves around a theme which has a main focus - history, science or geography. All subjects are taught and have their individual schemes of work - Art, DT, French, Music, computing, RE and PSHE. A more detailed breakdown of our children’s learning, including the core areas of maths, reading and writing, can be found on the curriculum pages for each year group from Nursery to Year 6. We use a combination of a ‘block approach’ and a sequential weekly coverage approach, considering carefully what would enable the achievement of depth in knowledge and skills with better retention in the long term.

The outdoor environment and the local community are considered an opportunity for active learning for all our children. The school grounds have been developed so they can enrich different curriculum areas, particularly English, Science and Geography. We are participating in OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Primary Programme since the start of the academic year 2022-2023. We are committed to ensuring that all learners have access to high-quality educational experiences beyond the classroom walls. We aspire to integrate into our curriculum frequent, continuous and progressive learning opportunities outside the classroom.

Maths and English are taught as discrete subjects, with carefully considered sequences of learning which give children the opportunity to master key skills and develop fluency. Our curriculum emphasises the importance and value of reading, which we believe is a fundamental skill. English texts supplement wider themes, where appropriate, to ensure children have more opportunities to make links and consequently commit what they have learnt to their long-term memory. We always ensure our chosen texts give children the opportunity to engage with high-quality children's literature.

Our aim at Heston is for all children to enjoy mathematics and have a secure and deep understanding of fundamental mathematical concepts and procedures when they leave us to go to secondary school. We want children to see the mathematics that surrounds them every day and enjoy developing vital life skills in this subject. At Heston Primary School, we have adopted a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics. Mastering maths means pupils acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. We use White Rose Maths as our main resource but also dip into other resources, such as Power Maths, and adapt our teaching to address the needs of our learners in mathematics.

Children’s health and well-being is extremely important to us. We have a dedicated PE team, led by our specialist teacher. They organise competitive intra and inter-school events to include all children, while entering our keenest sportsmen into local competitions, developing team spirit and good sportsmanship in all. We have a specialist pastoral support officer who provides emotional support to children and our families. We work closely with Early Help Hounslow (EHH) to offer our families a variety of support services including 'Family Support Workers'. A CADA worker from the LA visits our school regularly to support children (provided consent has been given by a parent) move past domestic abuse. We focus on supporting our children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, ensuring that children are well-prepared for life in modern Britain. Furthermore, we aim to instil a strong moral compass, enabling them to act ethically and honourably. 

We are passionate about the creative arts at Heston. Music, PE, French and Art are taught by specialists who teach across the school in KS1/KS2 as appropriate. All children in KS2 have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument.  Our Y5 pupils are learning how to play the trumpet this year. Our choir regularly sang in the Hounslow Summer Festival (pre COVID-19) and at other local events.  We follow published schemes of work for these subjects, but they have been adapted to reflect our local context and our approach to the curriculum. The rationale behind having specialists teach Arts is simply to offer our children high-quality experiences. Professor Anne Bramford, 'The Wow Factor', 2006 highlighted the importance of quality. She had reported,

“There seemed to be between 17-28% (averaged at around 22%) negative impacts of poor quality (arts learning) programmes. Put crudely, this meant that in a global sense, about ¼ of all arts and cultural education a child receives is likely to have a negative impact.”

We at Heston endorse Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s assertions:

• The arts play an important role in enriching young people’s learning and educational experiences
• Support skills development in communication, collaboration, creativity and problem-solving
• Confidence, self-esteem, personal and social outcomes, supporting engagement in learning
• For many young people, particularly those experiencing the most disadvantage, the only opportunity to gain access to arts is in school.

We are committed to educating children to have healthy lifestyles, and we are proud to have achieved the Active School Gold Mark for competitive sports. Children work with specialist coaches for gymnastics, cricket and tennis.  We encourage children to walk or cycle to school and make sure that there are plenty of opportunities for exercise with a plethora of after-school clubs. We were awarded Gold level accreditation in recognition of achievement in active and safer travel initiatives in the past and we will be aimimng for it, once again this year.

Our inclusive environment and engaging and ‘fit for purpose’ curriculum makes learning fun and enables our learners to make very good progress across all subjects and areas of learning. Learning is scaffolded, when appropriate, to help our children to achieve. The children who struggle in class are encouraged and given targeted support to embed their skills and enable them to develop at their own pace. Lessons and tasks are adapted to make learning accessible for the vast majority.

Subject leaders play an important part in the success of the curriculum at Heston Primary School by leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review. Good practice across the school is celebrated and contributes to the ongoing commitment to adapt, enrich and improve our curriculum offer. All subject leaders are given training and the opportunity to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding so they can support both the development of the curriculum and their colleagues throughout the school. Targeted action planning and focused CPD contributes to driving standards even higher. Subject leaders do not just reflect on what needs to be taught, but also, on how it can be taught, ensuring children remember what they are learning and that knowledge is not just a recall of disorganised facts. ‘Dazzle Me’ learning reviews at the end of every term give children an opportunity to collaborate and showcase what they have learnt in different subjects with their friends, teachers and the Senior Leadership Team. It is a celebration of learning!

Our children at Heston thrive in a safe environment, behave in an exemplary manner and achieve well. They become more resilient, responsible and independent during their time with us. We encourage children to recognise their feeling and use tools and ideas related to ’Zones of Regulation’ to help them understand how they can regulate their behaviour. We believe, as with all learning, children need to be explicitly taught learning behaviour to enable them to fulfil their educational potential, develop self-reflection, and ultimately have ownership over their behaviour. We also believe that this learning is best achieved by the combination of positive reinforcement and adult modelling. Fundamentally, we all subscribe to the credo ‘treat others as you wish to be treated yourself’, this applies to all adults and children at Heston Primary.

We have three simple rules connected to behaviour: