Kings Hedges Curriculum
'Kings Hedges Education' (our curriculum) is ambitious and designed to give all pupils the knowledge, skills and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. The curriculum and its delivery are designed to support pupils to remember long term the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts so that they can apply their knowledge and skills with increasing fluency and independence. King's Hedges Education (KHEd.) is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment. Our ambitious curriculum is designed and delivered to meet the needs of all pupils.
Intent
At King’s Hedges Educational Federation, we believe it is every child’s right to be successful throughout life. We have the highest aspirations for all pupils, regardless of background or starting point. We recognise that many of our children face disadvantage, and we are determined to remove barriers so that every pupil can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Our curriculum is designed to provide all pupils with a broad, balanced, and ambitious education. It ensures they develop secure knowledge, transferable skills, and the confidence to apply these across contexts. We aim for all children to transition to secondary school and beyond as well-rounded, resilient, and articulate learners.
We achieve this by providing excellent learning experiences rooted in care, creativity, and challenge.
At the heart of our curriculum offer are the following principles:
- Strong foundations in reading, writing, and mathematics are central to our curriculum. These fundamental skills are taught systematically and effectively so that all pupils can access the wider curriculum with confidence.
- We ensure pupils become fluent readers as early as possible, enabling them to develop a lifelong love of reading.
- We teach pupils to write fluently and purposefully so that they can express ideas clearly and creatively.
- We promote fluency and confidence in mathematics, enabling pupils to apply their skills to problem-solving and real-life contexts.
- An ambitious, knowledge-rich curriculum is carefully constructed to reflect our local context while broadening pupils’ horizons. It develops pupils as informed, confident communicators who can make meaningful connections between their learning and the wider world.
- Personal development is embedded throughout our provision. Social skills, moral values, equality, and respect for diversity are integral to our curriculum. We are committed to the belief that every moment in school contributes to pupils’ character development and future success.
Through this approach, pupils gain the academic and personal foundations needed to be successful, lifelong learners who contribute positively to society.
'The school has a well-designed and typically well-taught curriculum. Because the curriculum is well organised, pupils learn in a logical order and build a useful bank of knowledge over time. The school has identified the exact knowledge pupils must learn.'
OFSTED 2024
Implementation
Our curriculum is implemented through carefully sequenced and coherent programmes of study that build on prior knowledge and lead to clearly defined end points. It is designed to secure fluency in key concepts, deepen understanding, and promote long-term retention.
We teach through ‘Themes’, which integrate subjects in meaningful ways while maintaining subject integrity. Core knowledge for each theme is outlined in Knowledge Organisers, which support progression and retrieval across year groups.
Our approach to implementation includes:
- Building on prior learning and making purposeful links to ensure cumulative knowledge and skills;
- Teaching essential vocabulary and core concepts to enable all pupils to access learning successfully;
- Interleaving and revisiting key content to embed learning securely in long-term memory;
- Using high-quality modelling and the ‘My turn, together, your turn’ approach to reinforce accurate use of knowledge, pronunciation, and subject-specific vocabulary;
- Providing enriching experiences such as ‘Big Bang’ events and educational visits to create emotional engagement and meaningful contexts for learning;
- Applying adaptive teaching strategies to ensure every pupil, including those with SEND and those working at greater depth, achieves ambitious outcomes;
- Using Assessment for Learning and regular retrieval practice to identify misconceptions, check fluency, and strengthen recall;
- Ensuring well-paced lessons that build cumulatively and prevent cognitive overload;
- Making explicit the Learning Intentions (LI) and Success Criteria (S/C) so that pupils understand what success looks like;
- Making deliberate, meaningful cross-curricular links to strengthen conceptual understanding across subjects;
- Carefully planning timetables to maximise learning time and ensure that every minute contributes to progression and retention.
Teachers deliver lessons that are purposeful, inclusive, and focused on securing depth of understanding, not superficial coverage. High expectations and consistent pedagogical approaches ensure that all pupils know more, remember more, and can do more over time.
'Pupils thrive within the school’s positive ethos and appreciate the recognition they receive for demonstrating the school’s values. They proudly receive house tokens for good conduct. The school provides strong support for pupils that find it hard to manage their feelings and behaviour. These pupils learn how to discuss their emotions and behave well.'
OFSTED 2024
Impact
The impact of our curriculum is evident in pupils’ outcomes, their personal development, and their readiness for the next stage of education.
Through our King’s Hedges Education offer, the majority of pupils — and an increasing proportion each year — meet or exceed age-related expectations (ARE).
We measure the impact of our curriculum through:
- Statutory assessment outcomes, including end-of-Key Stage tests, phonics screening, Early Years Foundation Stage (GLD), and Year 4 multiplication checks;
- Internal assessment systems, combining standardised testing and teacher assessment to track attainment and progress termly across subjects, year groups, and key cohorts;
- Pupil work scrutiny, lesson observations, learning walks, and pupil voice activities, which triangulate evidence of learning, progression, and engagement;
- Responsive feedback and marking, where pupils address Improvement Points to correct misconceptions, fill knowledge gaps, and consolidate learning;
- Regular professional dialogue through Excellence for All fortnightly meetings, ensuring rigorous monitoring and accountability for teaching and learning quality;
- Pupil outcomes, reflected in their ability to articulate learning, make cross-curricular links, and demonstrate curiosity, confidence, and independence;
- Behaviour and attitudes, showing resilience, reflection, and kindness, underpinned by a strong sense of belonging and responsibility;
- Positive destinations, demonstrated through pupils’ readiness for secondary school and smooth transition into the next phase of education.
Ultimately, the impact of our curriculum is that pupils know more, remember more, and can do more. They leave our school equipped with the knowledge, skills, and character needed to lead successful, fulfilling lives.
More information on each year group's curriculum is available via the links above. This is organised by subject. Knowledge Organisers for each theme are e-mailed to parents at the start of that theme.
