Curriculum Intent

The curriculum at Henham and Ugley is driven by purposeful learning that ensures that our children’s learning has real relevance to themselves and the wider world. It enables them to explore real life issues, develop a social conscience and through this contribute towards changing this. This is fundamental to the way the curriculum at Henham has been designed and shaped.

Each half term children study a new project that is driven by an essential question. Examples of these include: What will be the next dinosaur? Is life fair? Where does exploration lead?

This culminates in a legacy outcome where children hope to ‘make a difference, have an impact and leave a legacy.’ This approach to learning means that children take a real ownership for their learning. It also enables them to develop their economic understanding, calculate risks and use this to make a difference to others.

We know that the first stage in learning is motivation, as supported by the field of neuroscience. Our curriculum has therefore been designed to spark children’s natural curiosity and our approach of open ended investigation and discovery is at the very heart of it. This approach of purposeful exploration and investigation increases children’s creativity and brain plasticity which, in turn, helps them to become open to new ideas and be more creative in their own thinking. Our curriculum approach ensures that all children, including those with disabilities and SEN, can fully access their learning and achieve.

Research and, indeed our own practice, shows us that children who are more confident of their learning have the ability to learn faster and learn better. They concentrate more, think harder and find learning more enjoyable. They do better in their tests and assessments, as our school data shows. Through our approach to learning our children really develop their characters too.

The school’s ethos is driven by our six core values: Amazement, Community, Equality, Self-Motivation, Enquiry and Reflection. These shape our school and ensure that we are always striving to be ‘my best always.’ Each value is at the heart of daily learning. These help to prepare our children for an uncertain future. Today’s schools need to be educating, not just for exam results, but for lifelong learning. To thrive in the 21st century children need to have learnt how to be tenacious and resourceful, imaginative and logical, self-disciplined and self-aware, collaborative and inquisitive. Our ‘pioneering’ approach to learning enables us to achieve this.

The National Curriculum – Key Stages

We follow the National Curriculum (2014). Years 1 and 2 follow Key Stage 1 (KS1), and Years 3-6 follow Key Stage 2 (KS2). These comprise of core and foundation subjects. EYFS (Reception) follow the Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage which was updated in 2020, and Development Matters. A detailed guide to the new National Curriculum, introduced in in 2014, can be downloaded here

Core subjects:

  • English
  • Maths
  • Science

Foundation subjects:

  • Art
  • Computing
  • Design and Technology
  • Geography
  • History
  • Modern Foreign Languages (French)
  • Music
  • Personal, Social and Health Education PSHE
  • Physical Education PE
  • Religious Education

To find out more about our curriculum, click on the subjects individually

Below is our Statement of Intent for the curriculum:

Curriculum Statement of Intent

Statements of Intent for the core areas of the curriculum:

English curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact overview statement Maths Statement of Intent

Early Years Foundation Stage Statement of Intent:

EYFS Intent Implementation and Impact Statement

Please see below for an outline of the National Curriculum expectations for all year groups.