At Hawthorne Primary School, our children are at the heart of everything that we do. Our school values underpin all that we do, putting children at the heart of every decision:

Aspiration – Celebrating Diversity – Creativity – Confidence – Enjoyment – Honesty – Perseverance – Pride – Respect - Responsibility

Every day, we aim to live together harmoniously, laugh a lot and learn. We champion every child to have the knowledge, confidence and aspiration to become the best version of themselves so that they can make a positive contribution in an ever-changing world.

Our curriculum is both knowledge rich and experiential, which has been carefully designed and developed, reflective of the needs and interests of all our children.  Equipping our children with the skills which will support them on their next stage in education and the wider world.

Our principles are: REAL

R -Rich Vocabulary

E – Experiential

A – Aspiration

L – Life Skills

Rich Vocabulary

Our writing is linked to our enquiry: this allows the development of transferable, rich vocabulary that is read in books, taught and then applied within writing. High-quality class texts enable children to be surrounded by rich vocabulary that is captured on working walls and is evident within teacher modelling.

Children are explicitly taught their year group spellings as well as being exposed to topic-specific vocabulary, which is aspirational for the children. Our children, aren’t necessary exposed to rich vocabulary; therefore, this enhances the cultural capital of our children. Furthermore, we use Widget to make vocabulary accessible through the use of dual coding.

Experiential

Within our writing sequence, all children from Nursery to Year 6 will engage in immersive lessons. This can take the form of: drama activities; looking through photos; watching videos; real audiences and purpose with a clear outcome. With carefully planned purposes and text types throughout school, children get the chance to write for a range of purposes and audiences, which ensure they experience a range of different types of writing throughout their school journey.

Aspiration

Through the development of a writing sequence, children are provided with the opportunity and expectation that they not only write in quantity, as well as quality, but also for a prolonged period of time. Within writing, aspiration plays a pivotal role within the writing sequence. This can be seen within the aspirational WAGOLLs that are shared with the children. The staff have then created their WAGOLLs and these have been moderated by the English Lead and improved where needed.

Life Skills

Through the well-planned Long-Term Plan and Subject Maps, children are provided with the writing skills needed to progress to the next step in their education. Furthermore, we strive to try write with an authentic outcome where possible. For example, the children in Year 6 write persuasive letters and create posters to persuade people to donate to Help for Heroes, as part of their enquiry learning in Spring Term.