Our Curriculum Ethos and Values

Our Curriculum Ethos @ CHIS

We believe our children learn best when stimulated by an exciting and challenging curriculum which inspires them and motivates them to learn. We believe in a curriculum model where pupils’ key skills and knowledge are developed across different subjects, themes and opportunities, and that through rich experiences we are able to inspire rich minds. We offer a topic based approach to the curriculum in order to give learning a real context and purpose. Our topics bring the skills, knowledge and understanding of the National Curriculum alive and make it exciting so that the learning is embedded.

Our aim is to offer our pupils a broad and balanced curriculum which focuses on developing the basic skills necessary for learning, the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills across the wider foundation subjects, and a focus on our wellbeing and development. We believe that through these three strands we have a holistic approach to developing the whole child, preparing our pupils for a love of lifelong learning.

Our programme of topics provides us with exciting ‘hooks’ to motivate and entice our learners. Our aim is to give the children a variety of opportunities in order to bring their learning to life, broaden their experiences and to make their experience in school enjoyable and memorable.

Where it makes sense, our learning is linked across the foundation subjects and with English and maths too, but other subjects might get taught in isolation, e.g. RE and PE. Our coverage is carefully plotted across the programme of topics so that the National Curriculum is covered, but is not the extent of the children’s learning.

As a result of a sharp focus on engagement, our children show high levels of attainment and progress across the foundation subjects.

Our learning extends outside of the school day. We offer a broad range of clubs before and after school and at lunchtimes in order to give the children taste of different experiences in languages, sports and the creative arts. We participate in a range of tournaments and competitions within our borough and signpost children with particular talents to wider clubs and providers.

Reaching for the Stars and our Curriculum - Here’s how our Values relate to our curriculum offer:

Respect

• We learn to take responsibility for ourselves and for each other
• We develop hope, empathy and compassion
• We have strong relationships and learn in a secure and safe learning environment
• We value partnerships with families and the community and take every available opportunity to celebrate and share our learning together
• We promote equality of opportunity, respect for ourselves, each other and our local and global community

Enjoy

• We are positive
• We inspire in order to motivate
• We encourage, challenge and take risks
• Everyone can develop their skills independently and collaboratively

Achieve

• We have high expectations of ourselves, and each other
• We believe that we can, so we do
• We foster persistence, determination, resilience and humour
• We celebrate our efforts
• We are lifelong learners

Creative

• We develop skills so that we can apply them in different situations
• We create opportunities to find out about things in an open ended way
• We maximise opportunities for children to show their creativity through different subjects
• We’re committed to giving children the freedom to express themselves through a variety of channels both in lesson time and beyond the school day.

Healthy

• We are a ‘Healthy School’
• We learn about being healthy both physically and mentally
• We develop the wellbeing of children and adults in the school community
• We promote healthy lifestyles