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18/03/24

Y6 cyclists enjoyed a fantastic start to bikeability! Team Shakespeare learnt how to stay safe by controlling speed, looking over our shoulder for approaching traffic and how to signal to other road users a desired direction of travel. pic.twitter.com/yNKr3ctiyf

18/03/24

Y6 cyclists enjoyed a fantastic start to bikeability! Team Shakespeare learnt how to stay safe by controlling speed, looking over our shoulder for approaching traffic and how to signal to other road users a desired direction of travel. pic.twitter.com/grLClqOlUT

18/03/24

Y6 cyclists enjoyed a fantastic start to bikeability! Team Shakespeare learnt how to stay safe by controlling speed, looking over our shoulder for approaching traffic and how to signal to other road users a desired direction of travel. pic.twitter.com/nX2FE6OwVl

14/03/24

In DT, Year 2 have been experiencing different ways of joining fabric. They used staples, safety pins, sewing and gluing. pic.twitter.com/DILMMrnbon

14/03/24

Year 5 having great fun at the hockey festival pic.twitter.com/DaTjFGNt7o

13/03/24

Why not read a. Exciting science book this week in celebration of science week. We started the week with the mind-blowing book ‘Atoms’ (one of our beautiful new library books) and here are some further recommendations. pic.twitter.com/IgTGrIvliG

13/03/24

Our fantastic school choir performing at the Scholars’ Education Trust annual music concert. pic.twitter.com/QyiTeMpGRd

13/03/24

Year six basketball players deciding whether to pass or not in their tactics unit. pic.twitter.com/ZxfcsTZvSO

13/03/24

One of our wonderful year six pupils delivering a session on dyslexia and neurodiversity in advance of Autism Awareness Week. Amazing confidence and engagement with her audience and I particularly loved the book recommendations section! pic.twitter.com/qrO37QBJsf

13/03/24

Happy International Women’s Day to all our lovely girls, mums, aunties, grannies…Why not read one of these books about women who have changed the world…

13/03/24

A little late - but photos from Team Dahl's World Book Day trip to . We explored their wonderous library, solved riddles and delved into the mysteries of their cataloguing system! (2)#English pic.twitter.com/UIjtQNRGQ7

13/03/24

A little late - but photos from Team Dahl's World Book Day trip to . We explored their wonderous library, solved riddles and delved into the mysteries of their cataloguing system! (1)#English pic.twitter.com/yNfHmmfjOJ

12/03/24

Ladybirds have been investigating shadows this week as part of . We also added holes using a hole punch to see how this affected our shadows. pic.twitter.com/q5i3xR8Ame

12/03/24

Year 3 Investigating the motion of pendulums as part of pic.twitter.com/M5R8YtgjNq

11/03/24

Wishing the SET Muslim community the blessings of the holy month pic.twitter.com/McyutIKdIT

11/03/24

Y5 & Y6 keen writers were treated to a day of poetry, short and creative story writing. We were inspired by Simon Lamb’s ‘A Pocket Poem,’ Kit Wright’s ‘Magic Box’ and Harris Burdick’s picture stories. A fantastic day for our children to showcase their writing talents. pic.twitter.com/ERXPJ2GIcF

08/03/24

Happy International Women’s Day to all our lovely Harpenden Academy girls, mummies, aunties, grannies…Why not read one of these fantastic books about women who have changed the world…#reading pic.twitter.com/WYZFJBkiyY

08/03/24

What a wonderful morning already celebrating World Book Day: watching Gandalf teaching a lesson and receiving a visit from Harry Potter to share his book review! pic.twitter.com/7k8gldtIb8

07/03/24

Year 4 creating movie trailers for our class text Coming to England by pic.twitter.com/G2wejV5OGX

07/03/24

Book swop in Y6 went down a treat! pic.twitter.com/0AEbjKcHul

07/03/24

Ladybirds loved using the library today to choose books and enjoy them with their friends. pic.twitter.com/6ezryjUYvL

07/03/24

Year six reader enjoying their Drop Everything and Read session! pic.twitter.com/rPdCWUTY3O

07/03/24

Ladybirds have loved coming to school as their favourite characters today. Can you guess who we are? pic.twitter.com/vP5MrIQv6U

07/03/24

Elmer Class enjoyed a book themed PE lesson this morning. They made letters out of their bodies and did a book themed relay. pic.twitter.com/NgIu7U32In

07/03/24

Potter Class have been enjoying reading books for pleasure in the library this morning. pic.twitter.com/1AQeUzXo3u

Our Creative Curriculum

Our school’s curriculum is all the planned activities that we organise in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. We offer children broad, balanced, adapted and relevant curriculum which recognises individual developmental needs and takes account of National Curriculum subjects.

We aim to provide children with the ability to meet the unknown challenges of the twenty-first century. We focus on developing children’s learning capacity so that they can become positive, responsible citizens who can work and co-operate with others while at the same time developing their knowledge and skills, in order to be the best they can be.

The aim is for our curriculum to be the best for our children at Harpenden Academy. We want it to be exciting, interesting and engaging so that children are curious and want to learn. We want children to come home from school excited about what they are learning about. We also want our curriculum to be about raising standards.

Our curriculum is primarily skills based, with a focus on improving key subject skills as well as embedding knowledge into the long-term memory. This is so that children gain the subject knowledge, skills and understanding appropriate to their stage of development. Each subject is broken down into key concepts that are revisited throughout the primary curriculum.  We do this by following three simple principles. The what, why and how of the curriculum planning:

WHAT

As an Academy we are not required to teach the National Curriculum, so in its place we have created an effective school curriculum which is based upon our curriculum drivers of diversity, first-hand experiences and communication and our values, as well as reflecting the breadth of National Curriculum subjects.  Teachers plan engaging experiences for the children to learn first-hand through trips, visitors, use of the local community and practical learning.

WHY

So that children learn and get better at using key subject skills and have transferrable knowledge that can be applied across the curriculum.

HOW

We aim to make learning real and relevant to the lives of our children. The curriculum is frequently reviewed to ensure that it meets the current needs of our children.

Our Curriculum has been organised so that there are meaningful cross-curricular links, which incorporate the key skills and subjects set out in the National Curriculum. We encourage writing across all curriculum areas and find real-life learning examples to enhance our curriculum. We also teach the skills and knowledge for subjects discretely:

MATHEMATICS

We enhance the Maths scheme called ‘Maths No Problem’ which teaches the skills of reasoning, maths fluency and incorporates the use of resources, problem solving and group work.  The maths scheme is child-centred and fun to teach and was assessed by the DfE’s expert panel, which judged that it met the core criteria for a high-quality textbook to support teaching for mastery.

ENGLISH

We follow the Talk for Writing approach, developed by Pie Corbett, supported by Julia Strong, this programme is based upon the principles of how children learn and is powerful because it enables children to imitate the language, they need for a particular topic orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own version.  Phonics (Bug Club), Spellings, Guided/Shared Reading and handwriting are taught as discrete subjects as they build up basic skills.

SCIENCE

Since embarking on our journey with Empiribox our Science skills, knowledge and understanding have flown. Every week children are enthralled with practical, first hand investigations in which they develop and apply their scientifically thinking skills.

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY

History and Geography expectations are set around the Chris Quigley Essentials “mile stones” approach.  We use resources and expertise from the Historical Association and The Royal Geographical Society to ensure that subject-specific concepts are built upon year on year to support children in their discussions as they become Historians and Geographers.

COMPUTING

As Computer Scientists the children will learn the key concepts of Computing through the ‘Switched On Computing’ scheme which prepares children to be technologists of the future.  We enhance this scheme and embed eSafety teaching across the curriculum. 

PSHE

PSHE is at the heart of our curriculum at Harpenden Academy.  Our Values, as well as the British Values complement the ‘Jigsaw’ scheme which we use in school.  Our Mental Health lead champions pupil, staff and parent well-being continuously.

MUSIC

We follow the scheme ‘Charanga’ which is a complete scheme to teach the national curriculum for music.  It incorporates a vast library of songs, topics, instrument courses and creative apps, in also provides in-depth support for assessment, SEND and personalised teaching and learning.

PE AND SWIMMING

PE in KS1 & KS2 is taught by the  class teachers.  Physical fitness and physical awareness are important in developing a healthy lifestyle. A range of dance, gym, sports and swimming will be covered.

Swimming is taught by specialist staff at the local swimming pool.

MFL - SPANISH

We follow the Twinkl scheme of work which allow us to cover the content of the National Curriculum programmes of study. Children are given a balance of speaking and listening opportunities as well as the chance to develop their reading and writing skills. Furthermore, children are provided with an introduction to the culture of Spanish-speaking countries and communities. It aims to foster children’s curiosity and help deepen their understanding of the world.  

RE

Religious Education (RE) is a necessary part of a broad and balanced curriculum. As RE is not nationally determined, we use the Discovery R.E curriculum to ensure that all children are learning about the five main religions throughout their journey at Harpenden and have the chance to explore these through an enquiry-based approach. Christianity is taught in every year group, with Christmas and Easter being taught each year developing children’s learning in a progressive way. The scheme also supports the SMSC curriculum and is underpinned with British Values.

 

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