Long Term Plans
Please click below to read our long term plans. Termly plans can be found on each class page.
Curriculum
Our vision, 'Where everyone grows' is rooted in 'I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full' (John 10:10). We believe that education must equip people of all ages with the skills to maximise their engagement with the world around them and education must develop academic, spiritual, emotional and personal growth.
Our vision is to help children develop a sense of respect, tolerance and self-confidence. We encourage and support children to achieve their full potential and to develop a life-long passion for learning.
As a church school at the heart of our local community, Christian values underpin our work with the values of respect, trust, compassion and perseverance fundamental to our relationships and our commitment to ensure equality for all pupils.
Our curriculum is designed with these intentions at its heart.
We aim to make St. Hilda’s CE (VC) School a happy and exciting place to learn. We believe that this will encourage the children to do their best and be willing to embrace the opportunities that we offer. They are introduced to a wide range of themes which we hope will set them on the path of “lifelong learning”.
The teachers use the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and National Curriculum to plan their lessons, making sure that our cycles of planning cover all of the areas of development and programmes of study in the current documents. We draw up long term plans, which are in place before the start of each school year, medium term plans for each half term and detailed weekly plans.
The core subjects are those set down in the National Curriculum, i.e. Mathematics, English, and Science. The other “foundation subjects” are RE, History, Geography, ICT, Design Technology, Music, French, Art and Physical Education at all stages.
Whilst we ensure that all areas of these subjects are part of our curriculum, we plan in a themed way, working across subjects and enabling children to enjoy exciting and purposeful activities which encourage them to achieve high standards.
Curriculum Drivers (April 17)
Following the introduction of the new Primary Curriculum (2014) we have reflected and taken the opportunity to customise our curriculum content with the aim of providing ever more relevant and appropriate learning experiences for the children of Hovingham and St Hilda’s, Ampleforth Primary Schools Federation specifically.
We will plan for and deliver this curriculum with consistency across the school so that over time there is a real impact on academic standards and our children’s personal development.
Drawing on the knowledge and experience of our staff, with consideration of our aims and values, and by carefully analysing the needs of the children of Hovingham and St Hilda’s, Ampleforth Primary Schools, the following Curriculum Drivers have been developed:
- Emotional Awareness
- Knowledge of the World
- Enquiry
What do we mean by Emotional Awareness?
- being aware that children have different needs;
- teaching empathy;
- helping children to acquire the essential skills required to be a good learner;
- helping children to be a good friend, sociable, a member of our community;
- understanding and exploring different feelings and emotions;
- addressing spiritual and moral values.
What do we mean by Knowledge of the World?
- coverage of the National and the School Curriculum;
- participation in our Local Community;
- promoting cultural awareness and celebrating diversity;
- relating learning to real life contexts;
- investigating the impact of important individuals in our world;
- discovering how and why things work;
- environmental awareness;
- using technology and connectivity.
What do we mean by Enquiry?
- encouraging children to be inquisitive and questioning;
- encouraging children to be resourceful and independent in their learning;
- providing opportunities for independent thinking and application of skills;
- developing collaborative learning;
- encouraging ‘risk taking’;
- requiring perseverance and improvement through evaluation;
- nurturing problem solvers.
We recognise the importance of out of school learning and organise visits into the local area and beyond to enrich the curriculum for our children. The children in years 4, 5 and 6 are offered the opportunity to take part in an outdoor activities or city residential visit each year.
The quality of our curriculum was recognised by OFSTED in the most recent inspection. “The school has worked successfully to improve the curriculum. There are good, enriching opportunities for pupils to nurture their individual skills and interests and broaden their horizons.”
We also organise a range of lunchtime and after school clubs. These vary from term to term, depending on the time of year and likely weather conditions.
Secrets of Success
The Secrets of Success are an idea developed by Chris Quigley. Hovingham and St Hilda’s, Ampleforth CE VC Primary Schools Federation has embraced and adapted these ideas to promote personal development and positive attitudes to learning. We are committed to developing the ability of children to learn effectively, so they are equipped to fully embrace and succeed in our ever-changing society.
We are working hard to ensure our children have excellent attitudes and behaviour towards their own learning. We want them to be highly motivated and engaged, to have high expectations of themselves and be ambitious wanting, to achieve success.
We want to remove any barriers to their learning and develop their brain power. Learning brains make smarter decisions and happier societies!
There are 8 Secrets to Success…… Success isn’t just about money!
What is Success?
Success is about happiness, choices and feeling good about yourself. Successful people feel good about:
- HOW HARD THEY HAVE TRIED
- WHO THEY ARE
- WHAT THEY SPEND THEIR TIME DOING
- THE CHOICES THEY HAVE MADE IN THEIR LIVES.
HERE ARE SOME THINGS OUR CHILDREN KNOW…
- YOU ARE NOT BORN SUCCESSFUL.
- EVERYONE HAS SETBACKS AND FAILURES
- THE FIRST STEP TO SUCCESS IS CHOOSING…. ASKING DO YOU WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL?
1. Try New Things
If you never try- you might never find things you are successful at. If you love what you are doing you get energy and are motivated. We all need to ensure children try new things, take risks, give things a go!
2. Work Hard
We need to teach our children that whatever they choose to do in life – they do it to the very best of their ability. Success is not easy- there is no overnight success just hours and hours of work.
The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. Work is GOOD. HARD work is even better!!
Successful people don’t make fun of work because they know it leads to success.
They have a good attitude to work. In fact successful people have fun working.
3. Concentrate
Children need to tune out distractions -day dreaming, peer pressure etc. They need to learn to focus their attention on all the right things. Zero tolerance to temptations. They need to be clear about what they are doing and why. Once you are really clear about what you are doing, it is much easier to concentrate. If you really concentrate you can become an expert. Concentration that leads to success isn’t just about getting on with something- it is about doing the right things well!
4. Push Yourself
Life isn’t easy. There will always be self-doubts and barriers- we need to teach our children to push past them and never give up. Parents and teachers need to push the children- nudging them every step of the way. Children also need to take responsibility for their own choices and actions and have the determination to ‘push past’ barriers and setbacks.
5. Imagine
We all need new ideas to help us to move on and progress. Inventions have revolutionised the world!
Children need to try out, investigate and explore. Improve and get better. They need to have confidence to voice their ideas. Children need to know that they can get better and can imagine how they will feel, what things will be like when they taste success.
If you visualise something so strongly – your brain will work hard to make it happen. Getting the Vision right can be very powerful. However, some children are put off because the distance to cover can look too great- and so just give up. What we need to do is to help them imagine small steps and aspire to get a bit better each week.
6. Improve
Opportunities to try things out and get better. This needs to be built in consistently over time. ‘Use the new knowledge or lose it.’ We are ensuring our children get lots of opportunities to reinforce their knowledge-‘recall for retention.’ Children need to be given lots of opportunities to improve their skills across the curriculum. Learning is not just about being taught something it’s about using it again and again, getting better at it each time.
7. Understand Others
To be successful you need to communicate and cooperate with others. Successful people don’t just think about themselves. They are good at listening to others, sharing ideas and making compromises. They can reflect on their work and actions. We need to teach our children about group dynamics, how to communicate and work with others productively.
8. Don't Give Up
Even successful people suffer rejection and criticism. Children need to bounce back- they need to have self-worth and self-belief. We are teaching our children that ‘the barrier’ is not going to stop them- they just need to think of ways to get around it. We need to teach children resilience- it is a tough world but they need to be tested-to see where they went wrong, how to improve and bounce back!
Find out more in Chris Quigley’s article below:
Please click to view Secrets of Success
Click on the link for a copy of the new "Primary National Curriculum 2014"
Click on the link for further information for parents - Depth of Learning Information for Parents
Collective Worship
St. Hilda’s School, being a Church of England school, lays emphasis on Christian worship, following the festivals and celebrations of the Church whilst also including topical events, seasonal festivals, lives of famous people and stories or legends. Acts of worship are held in school every day and the Revd. Sue Bond regularly takes some of these.
Parents, friends and villagers are invited to annual Harvest Festival and Christmas Carol Services held in St. Hilda’s Church, Ampleforth.
Parents have the right, under the Education Act of 1944, to withdraw their children from R.E. and Collective Worship if they so wish.
Religious Education
All County and Controlled schools must provide religious education for all pupils (apart from those withdrawn by their parents) as part of the basic curriculum. St. Hilda’s School has adopted the North Yorkshire Agreed Syllabus and Guidelines for Collective Worship. RE Statement of Entitlement for Church Schools
Sex and Relationships Education
The provision of Sex and Relationships Education in St. Hilda’s School is the responsibility of the Governing Body under the mandate of the 1986 Education Act. It will be dealt with as part of a theme or in response to a child’s query, when it is answered in a factual way in the context of a Christian approach to family life. Puberty and human reproduction are covered for year 5 and 6 children in sessions provided by the school nurse. Parents are consulted and informed of this programme of Sex Education and are given the option of withdrawing their children from these sessions. This has proved to be an effective approach.
Equal Opportunities
The school believes in equal opportunities for all regardless of gender, racial background or disability (physical or intellectual). We recognise that all children must have every opportunity to develop to the fullest extent. The primary objective of this school will, therefore, be to educate, develop and prepare all our pupils, whatever their sex, colour, culture, origin or ability, for life as adults.
Homework
In Key Stage 1 school reading books are sent home with a reading record booklet so both school and parents are aware of progress. Please make sure that you record the book that your child has read and comment in the reading record book, so that the teachers can use that information to help with work in school. Spellings and “tricky words” are also sent home for children to learn to read and to spell.
In addition an amount of homework is given each week to children in Key Stage 2, e.g. learning tables, learning spellings, completing/preparing work, a maths game or task linked to their current theme. It is still important for children in KS2 to read regularly at home and this is a key part of their homework.
Parents can find out more about our curriculum by speaking either with the class teacher or the Headteacher.
