At Castle Hill we aim to encourage children to be the best that they can be. We encourage not only personal effort and achievement but also respect and understanding of those around them. We actively promote and encourage five CORE VALUES that we believe are the cornerstone to successful life learning: Respect, Tolerance, Perseverance, Teamwork and Honesty.
We believe we offer all our children an outstanding education.
Our curriculum is designed for our children in our community. It is bespoke!
At Castle Hill we intend to offer our children a wide-ranging learning adventure that builds year on year in terms of knowledge, skills and experiences.
English and Maths are the key building blocks. In English, early phonics is taught through the Read Write Inc programme, and writing is taught using the strategies of Talk4Writing (Pie Corbett), enabling children to become confident readers and writers. In Maths, we focus on quick recall of facts and tables, and develop skills in reasoning, all of which can be applied to problem solving.
Our intention, when teaching the wider curriculum, is to give children creative opportunities that engage and inform, that are personalised and customised, designed to build on our children’s experiences, background and community. Our School Values and our curriculum promote Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development, providing the inspiration to raise aspirations and prepare children for a future of employment.
Children are able to make choices about what they learn and how they present it as well as being encouraged to choose the level of challenge that suits them. We want our children to become confident learners who can collaborate with their peers, be responsible for their own learning, appreciate creativity and achievement, and recognise the importance of perseverance. We broaden and deepen our learning for all our children with activities such drama workshops, handling artefacts, speaking to experts etc.
We have links with the local library, museums, church, schools, beach (through Beach School trips), local businesses and our Community Warden. Our classes are named after places of interest in Kent and all children enjoy a trip to their namesake village, town or city each year. These visits are always closely linked to the curriculum. We aim to develop our children’s sense of belonging to and responsibility for our communities, both in Shepway and in Kent.
