At Hilderthorpe Primary School, our vision is for all children to be ‘Aiming High ~ Reaching Higher’. We recognise that all children are individuals with their own strengths, gifts and talents and we are committed to supporting all our children: realising that all pupils need to be stretched and challenged.

This diagram outlines the concept of greater depth in the national curriculum:

Shallow Learning
  • Surface learning
  • Temporary, often lost
Meeting Expectations
  • With support, being able to meet the expectations outlined in the National Curriculum
Mastery
  • Obtaining a greater level of understanding and being able to apply learning in different contexts
Working at Greater Depth
  • Learning to be transferred and applied to different contexts
  • Children can explain their understanding to others

At Hilderthorpe, we are confident that we provide a rich and varied curriculum that can be accessed by all, regardless of ability, across a range of subjects, Our teachers assess learning and achievement continually which enables them to identify children who are excelling or have the potential to excel.

For information of greater depth within specific subjects, please see our Teaching and Learning page.

There is a misconception that for your child to be working at mastery or greater depth, that they are required to move onto working from content in the next year group. This is not the case. The following table outlines the characteristics of what to expect from a child working at mastery and greater depth in the National Curriculum.

Independence
  • Apply the skill or knowledge without recall to the teacher
Fluency
  • Apply the skill and knowledge with a high level of confidence and show good resilience when the task seems demanding
Application
  • Apply the skill and knowledge to a range of different contexts, including other areas of the curriculum
Consistency
  • Consistently use their skills, knowledge and understanding
Synthesise
  • Organise ideas to make connections with other areas of learning and new areas
Re-visit
  • Return to this aspect of learning after a break and still feel confident that they can work on the skill and knoweldge without difficulty
Explain it
  • Able to explain to others their understanding and perhaps be a learning buddy to others

Critical Thinking and Growth Mindset

Children at Hilderthorpe are encouraged to understand that they play an important part in their own learning. To help them with their learning, we demonstrate a growth mindset and use critical thinking skills. This helps the children at our school to master all aspects of the curriculum by positively developing learning behaviours and providing problem solving techniques. Critical thinking not only helps prepare the children at our school for the curriculum but also equips them with the skills necessary to tackle challenges and make empowered, informed choices in their daily lives.

Adults at Hilderthorpe deploy critical thinking techniques in all subjects. This creates an excellent learning environment that encourages children to take on new challenges, collaborate with both adults and children to deepen their learning, and to understand that hard work is vital for success. All these work alongside the classroom resources that the children in school independently use everyday.

Useful Links

Mindset Works - A Growth Mindset At Home

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Oxford Learning - Developing a Growth Mindset

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CBeebies - Growth Mindset: Help Your Child Try New Things

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