Ash Hill Primary School

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Curriculum Information for Parents

Our mission is growing minds for learning, crafting skills for life. At Ash Hill we consider the pupils and their learning now and their learning in the future. We aim to set them up well for their next stages in life. 

Our Curriculum Pillars 

At Ash Hill Primary School, we have three curriculum pillars. These are the central pillars of our curriculum and everything we do is driven by these principles; 

Belonging: we want the children, the staff and the parents to feel like they belong to our school community. We want the sense of belonging to be central to what we stand for and this highlights our inclusive nature and our ‘everyone is welcome’ approach. We believe that the sense of togetherness and collaboration is key in developing a successful environment for education and our school values of Community Mindedness and Consideration encourage everyone to feel like they belong.  

Joy: we want the children, staff and parents at Ash Hill Primary to experience many moments of joy. We want to encourage curiosity and interests as well as providing moments of awe and wonder within learning. We value hands on, experiential learning and this is woven into our curriculum with the intent of providing meaningful and joyful opportunities for all. We want the children to experience success in learning and to take joy from their own progress and successes and from those experienced by others.  

Becoming: we want everyone at Ash Hill to have belief in themselves and to foster a growth mindset. We have high expectations of everyone and aim to support everyone to reach their full potential. We want children to achieve well and to understand that effort and practice is important. We want the children to be ambitious and to develop aspirations for themselves and to encourage this in others. Our school values of Determination and Resilience support children with building towards their long-term goals. We believe that everyone can. 

Curriculum Intent 

We want our children to experience a well-connected, sequential and relevant curriculum which makes clear links between segments of learning. Our children learn subject specific knowledge and skills within each discrete subject area. Where there are relevant and meaningful links between ideas and concepts then links are made; this may be within subjects or across subjects. We want our children to know and communicate when they are thinking and working as a scientist, geographer, historian, artist etc and foster passions for individual subjects.  

Learning sequences are planned using small steps which build on prior knowledge and skills and these learning sequences can be seen in our Medium-Term Plans for each class. Learning opportunities are planned with our three curriculum drivers in mind: Belonging, Joy and Becoming and these provide the pillars which hold up our curriculum.  

We select learning sequences based on The National Curriculum requirements and the knowledge and skills that we believe our children need at Ash Hill Primary School. 

PSHE and the development of social, emotional, emotional regulation is central to our approach at Ash Hill and we aim to support all children to develop these skills throughout their time at Ash Hill. This is evident not just in our PHSE sessions but also in our routines and norms within the classroom and within our Positive Behaviour Policy. We use a Trauma Informed and Attachment Aware approach and this approach is embedded in our school ethos. The mental wellbeing of everyone at Ash Hill is important and a high priority.  

We want children to become independent in terms of their learning, their thinking and also their self-organisation. Having the ability to articulate their ideas and communicate their thoughts and feelings accurately is important at Ash Hill.  

Reading is a key skill which is our top priority. The curriculum is designed to allow for reading to be the most important skill for children to develop and reading opportunities are timetabled and regular. Ongoing teacher development will centre around learning to read and developing practice. Our school library and Reading Ambassadors help to promote reading for pleasure.  

We value creativity and our intention is for children to experience opportunities to apply their creativity and to make their own creative decisions. Our Arts subjects particularly encourage and enable children to take ownership of their artistic expression.  

Each subject has its own vision statement which is available in the curriculum area.   

At our school, we celebrate diversity and inclusivity, recognising that each student's unique background and perspective enriches our community. We foster an environment where everyone is respected and valued, ensuring all voices are heard. Through inclusive practices and open dialogues, we welcome and support every member of our school family. We aim to create a vibrant and cohesive learning atmosphere. 

ash hill primary school curriculum pillars.pdf

 

 On Monday 3rd February 2025 we held a Curriculum Information afternoon for parents to attend to hear about our updated curriculum and see the curriculum in action in the classrooms. Thank you to the 120 parents who attended. The children and staff all loved having you to visit in the classrooms! For those who couldn't make it, here is the short presentation that was shared with parents before parents visited the classrooms. All of the documents and curriculum information that was shared with parents is available under the curriculum tab on the website.

 

 

ash hill primary curriculum presentation to parents.pdf