Our Community Curriculum
Learning through enquiry and with creativity
At Heathbrook we create a thriving community of life-long learners within an emotionally enabling, creative environment. Our offer of rich, varied and purposeful experiences enables our children to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding to achieve their dreams and exceed expectations. Through working in partnership with pupils, parents, carers, governors and local partners, learners are engaged, their imaginations stimulated and individuality cherished.
To view our Curriculum Overviews, please click here. Nursery Reception Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
For more information about our Community Curriculum, please email deputy headteacher Marion Guertin: mguertin@heathbrook.org
Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact
Find out more about what we want to achieve, how we deliver our curriculum and the outcomes we expect for our pupils by reading our Curriculum Policy.
Be the Best you can Be! Values
At Heathbrook we use these intrinsic values we have developed through the Be the Best you can Be! programme to instil the skills of self-empowerment in order to maximise learning:
- Respect – which looks like… being thoughtful, having consideration for learning and other learners, being appreciative, trusting yourself and others, showing a love of learning, staying and keeping others safe
- Readiness – which looks like… being motivated & ready to learn, being curious, setting learning goals, being ready to make mistakes, believing you can achieve, self-managing own learning
- Responsibility – which looks like… showing self-awareness in learning, having ownership of learning (becoming an independent learner), displaying a sense of agency, working as part of a team
- Resilience – which looks like… persevering, making mistakes, managing emotions, being in flow, managing distraction, demonstrating a growth mindset (rather than a fixed one)
- Resourcefulness – which looks like… making connections, learning creatively, imagining, being flexible, questioning, using thinking skills, applying what has been learned, magpie-ing (using someone else’s ideas)
- Reflectiveness – which looks like… having a positive attitude to learning, monitoring learning, evaluate learning, using meta-cognition skills, planning for learning.
Begin with the Child
In order to best meet the needs of each child, the planning and reviewing of curriculum content begins with the child.
Domain Teams
As collaboration and teamwork lie at the heart of how we learn most effectively, all teaching staff are members of a Domain Team which combine curriculum subjects.
Our Domains are:
- Art and Creativity (involving Art, Design & Technology, Drama and Music)
- Language, Oracy and Literacy (involving Literacy and Modern Foreign Languages – Spanish)
- Mathematics
- Physical and Emotional Health (involving Personal Social & Health Education and Physical Education)
- Place and Time (involving Geography, History and Religious Education)
- Science and Computing (involving Outdoor Learning
Children’s Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development is embedded in our daily teaching and British Values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect & tolerance) are promoted at every opportunity.
Our Four Pillars (Arts, Music, Outdoor Learning and Sport)
We are passionate about what we think is right for pupils at our school and seek to develop a love of learning in its widest sense. Through providing exceptionally varied opportunities and experiences in the school and further afield we enable pupils to understand, communicate with and respond to the world.
Our progressive outdoor learning curriculum, Natural Thinkers, takes place in our exceptional and extensive gardens and gives all pupils a deep first-hand connection with nature.
Our creative curriculum offers pupils the opportunity to enquire and develop their own thinking. The Art Studio gives pupils the opportunity to design and invent. Dance and drama performances are presented for the wider community. Partnership with London’s Southbank Centre provides unlimited and unrivalled opportunities for pupils to experience first-hand, creativity at the centre of the country’s capital city. A recent inspector from Artsmark (a national organisation judging arts provision in schools) said, “I’ve been to lots of schools and never seen the depth and commitment to arts provision I’ve seen here.”
Music is vital for the spiritual development of pupils. Pupils sing, compose and play to a high standard throughout the school. The school orchestra is well established and thriving, representing strings, woodwind and brass instruments. The school choirs perform for the local community.
All our pupils represent the school in sporting events – locally and nationally, enhancing their physical and emotional wellbeing.
Knowing each child and having strong relationships with our families lie at the heart of everything we do.
Core Skills
Our Curriculum Team have identified five core skills for learners.
Racial Justice Champion
At Heathbrook we take pride in creating an environment where every opportunity is offered to inspire children to learn.
Our commitment includes:
- Having a Racial Justice Champion on our Senior Leadership Team
- Regularly reporting to governing body about Racial Justice Champion work
- Completing and regularly reviewing the Lambeth Schools Partnership anti-racist framework and sharing the results for governors to scrutinise
- Setting stretching attainment targets, leading ‘difficult conversations’ and ensuring a whole school focus
- Securing the accountability of ethnic minority achievement through curriculum review and data monitoring
- Supporting transition arrangements for all vulnerable young people in our community
- Engaging and involving ethnic minority pupils and parents by seeking and hearing their views about school and providing support to make improvements where possible.
As part of our commitment to our community and partnership with the Lambeth Schools Partnership, we are proud to be a key part of the ‘Raising the Game’ initiative. Raising The Game is focused on tackling any academic attainment gap and/or disproportionately high exclusion rates that Black Caribbean pupils face locally. Providing a diverse curriculum is a vital component of Raising The Game, a project aimed at tackling any academic attainment gap and disproportionately high exclusion rates that Black Caribbean pupils in the borough face.
Diversifying the curriculum across the whole school focuses on the importance of improving educational outcomes for all children and young people across Lambeth. This involves incorporating stories, facts and information reflecting cultural history and experiences. This inspires pupils to have a stronger sense of pride about their heritage and identity.
Learning Agreement
The following responsibilities have been recognised by children, parents, governors and staff in our Learning Agreement which is signed by each child, a parent/carer and their classteacher each September:
