At Hope Community School, Southampton, we consider our curriculum to be starting point of the life-long learning journey that children embark on when they begin their Primary School career with us. Our curriculum enables our children to access a wide range of experiences and is rooted in high quality inclusive teaching and learning for all children regardless of age, gender, circumstance or ability. Although we are a relatively new school, opening in 2017, our Christian Values underpin all that we do here – they are at the heart of everything we try to achieve for all pupils.
Please contact us here if you would like to know more about our curriculum.
We have designed a curriculum based on our knowledge of our children and the community we serve, their cultural capital deficits and a clear understanding of the experiences that children need in order to prepare them for the future. Our aim is to provide a broad and balanced curriculum that is tailored to meet the specific needs to the children within our local community that our school serves.
Our curriculum is a progression model which sets out the key skills and knowledge children are expected to learn in each subject area. We have sequenced the curriculum to ensure children build their skills and knowledge so that they have secured the essential skills and knowledge as set out in the National Curriculum. During each child's time at the school, knowledge is repeated in all subjects to ensure that it is securely embedded in the children’s long term memory. Each curriculum subject is led by an expert who oversees the on-going development of their subject. Leaders ensure that subject specific knowledge is progressive and sequential.
Each subject has a progression overview which outlines what children are expected to learn at each stage.
We acknowledge that reading skills are a vital and integral part of the curriculum. A robust reading curriculum from reception to Year 6 broadens children's language and vocabulary. It gives our children access to all areas of the curriculum and promotes enjoyment and love of learning from the earliest age. The school implements a quality phonics programme (Read Write Inc) as soon as children start school and this is built upon from Year 2 upwards as fluency and comprehension skills develop. Each year group learn from a carefully selected range of quality texts from a variety of genres which are selected to develop an inquisitive mind, vocabulary, inference and deduction. All children achieving strong numeracy and literacy skills is a key objective for children in our school.
We realise that we have an extraordinary opportunity to not only develop children who are excellent learners, but who are also going to be valuable citizens - the 'movers and shakers' of their generation. An overarching curriculum ambition for us is that our children will be 'community entrepreneurs' - that is children who have the skills, knowledge and ambition to make positive contributions to the communities in which they live. For this reason we attempt where possible to ensure the context of learning is rooted in local community and that pupils see themselves as problem solvers - 'agents of change'.
The Hope Community School, Southampton Curriculum:
• Provides a unique curriculum designed by the teaching team, developed from the original Educational vision for the school.
• Focuses on learning, with additional community outcomes.
• Creates ‘Community Entrepreneurs’ - children who are empowered to engage with and change their communities.
• Is committed to ensuring excellent academic outcomes by the end of each key stage.