The Curriculum by Year Group

Our curriculum clearly sets out what knowledge, skills and themes are taught across all subjects and year groups. These are repeated and built on within and across year groups, allowing for progression within the various areas of learning. The school has adopted the KAPOW schemes of work for the wider curriculum. The subject leaders and class teachers adapt the scheme to  create a school curriculum for Hill Mead pupils. 

Each Year Group follows a planned curriculum. Hill Mead’s teachers deliver lessons clearly and confidently, assessing the children’s understanding as they go and addressing misunderstandings or errors as they arise. Children receive immediate feedback from their teachers that helps them to progress across the curriculum subjects.

For the wider curriculum, the school uses Kapow schemes of work as a structured foundation. These schemes provide progressive sequences of learning that develop both substantive knowledge (the important facts, concepts and vocabulary pupils learn) and disciplinary knowledge (the subject-specific skills and ways of working pupils develop). Subject leaders and teachers adapt and refine the schemes to ensure they are ambitious, inclusive and responsive to the needs of Hill Mead pupils and our local context.

Curriculum plans map knowledge and skills progression clearly across year groups. Teachers deliver lessons with strong subject clarity, modelling key concepts and vocabulary explicitly. New learning is linked to prior learning so that pupils make meaningful connections and deepen their understanding over time.

Assessment is integral to teaching and learning and is used to check understanding, inform next steps and address misconceptions promptly. Formative assessment strategies are embedded across subjects and include:

• hinge questions (show what you know) during lessons to identify misconceptions in real time

• exit tickets to check what pupils have secured by the end of a lesson

• knowledge catchers to record and organise key facts, concepts and subject knowledge

• recap and recall slides to support retrieval practice and strengthen long-term memory

• Goldilocks words to explicitly teach and secure tiered subject vocabulary

Teachers use this assessment information in real time to adapt teaching, provide precise feedback and ensure pupils keep up with the intended curriculum. This responsive approach supports strong progress and secure understanding across all curriculum subjects.

Year Group Curriculum Maps