At Hamsterley Primary School our school vision statement is “Opening Minds, Unlocking Potential, Celebrating Success Together”.
- We provide all our children with a broad, balanced and creative curriculum matched to the individual needs of each child.
- We work with our children in developing our curriculum, and they have a voice in choosing topics each term.
- We believe strongly in experiential learning and putting our learning into context.
- We are a UNICEF Rights Respecting School, and we embed the teaching of rights and responsibilities and of global awareness in all of our curriculum.
- The Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of our pupils lies at the heart of all that we do.
Children in the Foundation Stage work within Class 1, but their learning is based on the learning goals of the Foundation Stage curriculum. This curriculum is very practical and lots of learning takes place through play, and we focus on developing social skills as well as more academic skills.
As we have Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 in Class 1, and Years 3 to 6 in Class 2, we do not specify what content is taught in each Year group. Instead, across the school all lessons take place within a flexible timetable. English and Mathematics are usually taught during the morning sessions, and we cover the New National Curriculum requirements. Our afternoon lessons tend to focus around a single topic (chosen on a four year rolling programme), but we plan to ensure that we develop the children’s skills and knowledge as laid out in the New National Curriculum in Art, DT, History, Geography, and Music though the topic.
ICT is used as a tool in most lessons, and we have a very high computer:child ratio which allows us to develop our children’s Computing skills to a very high level, including programming skills, presentation skills and creating animations.
Children in Class 2 have the opportunity to learn an instrument with tuition from the Durham Music Service, and all children in Class 2 learn the ukulele. We are very proud of our singing and drama in school, and our termly concerts are a highlight of the school year.
The children access at least 2 hours of quality PE each week. All children go swimming every fortnight, and are taught PE by trained PE coaches. We start every morning with at least twenty minutes of ‘wake up’ activities, provided by CyberCoach.
French is taught throughout the school in a fun and interactive way, often linked with the current curriculum topics. In KS1 the foundations are laid for achievement against the language objectives in the KS2 language framework.
Our RE curriculum is based on the Durham SACRE guidelines. An act of daily worship is carried out each day. This is non-denominational but mainly reflects Christian teaching and values. Parents should note that pupils may be withdrawn from Religious Education and Collective Worship. If this is necessary this must be discussed with the Head teacher.
First hand experience is an essential part of the learning process and we aim to take our children out of school on trips and visits at least once each term and invite interesting people into school to work with the children. We work with another local small school to take our older children on a residential weekend each year, most recently to York, Edinburgh and Robin Wood.
Our pupils are expected to carry out some learning at home each week. However the type and amount varies considerably with the age and ability of the child. All pupils may be asked to learn spellings, tables and read on a regular basis. They also have a homework file in which their weekly homework is stored. Each term we ask children to do some project work at home – we get some wonderful projects, including scale models of the Titanic, family histories from World War II, and even a display mounted jigsaw.
Curriculum Plans
Please see the Curriculum in Action in the Classes section of our website.
Key Stage 1 Subject Overviews 2020/2021
Class 1 Autumn 2nd half Planning overview – 2020
Key Stage 2 Subject Overviews 2020/2021
Archived Subject Overviews
You can view our archived subject overviews on our website.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
At Hamsterley Primary School, we believe that inclusive education means providing all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers. The Curriculum is all the planned activities that the school organises in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. Further information can be found in the SEN Information Report. If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail please contact the school to arrange an appointment.
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