Our Curriculum Intent is based on the following principles...

Every member of our school community has the very highest academic and social expectations for every child.  Our curriculum: 

Fosters ambition and an intrinsic desire to achieve within our learners by ensuring every child has the skills and knowledge they need to succeed across a range of subjects;

Embeds core moral values which leads to a strong social conscience;

Creates a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards learning so that every child believes that they can learn.

In order to enable all of our learners to develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed, make links within and across the curriculum as well as foster an intrinsic desire to achieve based on genuine desire to learn and know more, we deliver our curriculum via an enquiry based curriculum model.  Each enquiry question is bespoke and is based on either school values or academic-based drivers. 

Within each enquiry, we teach a learning journey across a range of subjects in which skills and knowledge are taught progressively both within and across year groups; building on prior knowledge to ensure our learners know and remember more and become true masters of the skills and knowledge they have been taught.

Our Curriculum uses memorable learning experiences to develop cultural capital as part of a rich, relevant and child-centred curriculum which has the principles of high-quality reading, writing, maths are embedded throughout. 

The new Ofsted Inspection Framework (September 2019) states that inspectors will make graded judgements on the quality of education. This includes an evaluation of your curriculum which should be "broad and balanced".  In particular:

• Intent - do you have an ambitious curriculum that provides the knowledge and cultural capital learners need to succeed in life?
• Implementation - how well is the curriculum delivered?
• Impact - do learners develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum and, as a result, achieve well?

Our School Passports!

We are really excited to launch our amazing new school ‘passports’ in order to support all of our learners in developing their deep love of reading alongside mathematic fluency and flexibility which is essential for maths mastery. 

Outdoor Learning at Hurdsfield!

We are extremely proud to provide our in-house Forest School where our children are allowed to:

• "come forth into the light of things [and] let nature be your (their) teacher" (William Wordsworth)

We are incredibly proud to be able to offer our own Forest School provision led by our own, in house qualified Forest School teacher, Mrs Baxter!

Our amazing Forest School provides an exciting element to our school's curriculum offer as it provides our children with opportunities for meaningful outdoor learning.  We are very fortunate to employ a superbly skilled, enthusiastic and passionate Forest School teacher, Mrs Baxter (aka Baxter Bear), who is able to plan and deliver engaging and challenging sessions that are linked closely to the needs of the pupils of our amazing school.

Our Forest School promotes our learners' creativity, independence,  communication skills, resilience, reasoning and problem-solving activities within a completely natural environment.  Over the coming academic year, we are excited to be able to develop our provision even further.  Watch this space to find about the development of our Forest School and our other curriculum objectives as we continue to aim to provide nothing short of the best for our most important asset; our simply outstanding children!

Curriculum Enrichment

At Hurdsfield, we provide a range of exciting curriculum enrichment activities to which we ensure all pupils have access too.  To meet this aim, we provide a range of after school clubs and residential experiences for our pupils.  Our children will have the opportunity to attend the following residential activities:

Year 1: 

A one-night sleepover at school in the summer term.  This residential is designed to have the following impact on our pupils:

• Fostering independence;
• Developing teamwork;
• Enjoyment and fun with friends;
• An understanding of our school 'Behaviour for Learning' values of respect and encouragement.

Year 2:

A one-night residential visit to Castleton.  The residential is designed to have the following impact on our pupils:

• Linking with our schools 'Behaviour for Learning' Code, this residential is about developing our children's understanding of personal challenge in an outdoor learning environment. 
• During the residential, the children will take part in a range of exciting activities linked to building their confidence to be able to tackle new challenges with the encouragement of their peers.

Year 3 to 5:

A two-night residential visit to Robinwood Activity Centre.  The residential is designed to have the following impact on our pupils:

• Embedding the principles of practice, patience, effort, encouragement and learning from mistakes.  This links to our school's ethos and values.
• Problem-solving activities provide our children with the chance to reflect and perfect their personal decisions and those of the collective group.
• Fun, memorable and exciting real-life experiences.

Year 6:

A three-night experience at 'The Wilderness Academy'.  This residential is based on Forest School and the children will be required to set up camp and apply Forest School principles for the duration of their visit.  Teamwork and collaboration are essential to success. This residential is designed to have the following impact on our pupils:

• Foster a growing independence ready for the next stage of learning
• Challenge for all children as they are forced to apply skills in a completely new environment without the prospect of adult intervention at the first sign of 'trouble'.
• The application of our school's ethos that no challenge is insurmountable if you apply the principles of respect, challenge, encouragement, reflection, resilience and being the best human being they can be - global citizenship.