Our Curriculum

We intend that world-class Teaching & Learning creates an excitement in, passion for, and foundation of academic knowledge and skills and the intellectual capital to live a choice-filled life. We want our network of supportive adults to help children to develop strong values and behaviours alongside a rich curriculum of music, sport, and arts education to develop their social capital to live in an emotionally healthy way and we provide a wide variety of life-changing experiences which develop the children’s cultural capital and help them to find the things that they love.

We believe that learning is a process of Ignition and Deep Practice, based on the work of Professor K. Anders Ericsson Children learn best when they are inspired and motivated and where they have equality of opportunity and experience grounded in high levels of knowledge and vocabulary – we plan this explicitly within our curriculum as Ignition Days. Learning is a result of this Ignition motivating the children to access work with higher expectations of pitch and challenge, for longer, than they would normally be prepared to – we call this Deep Practice.

Where appropriate, we link learning in reading, writing, history, science, art and geography so that knowledge and vocabulary is learnt in context and constantly reinforced and therefore remembered and understood. All our learning is Inclusive of the children in our Resource Provision and the high number of children we teach with Education, Health and Care Plans and those with SEND, such that where possible they can access mainstream education with their peers, with work personalised to their needs. We intend that learning at Handforth Grange is fun and exciting and very challenging and that children be proud of their achievements and well-prepared for later education and later life.

Due to having mixed-year classes, our foundation subject curriculum follows a 2-year cycle, with clearly defined Cycle A and Cycle B. For the Academic Year 2023-24 we are following Cycle B.

Information about our Curriculum can be found within each of the Subject pages listed below. If you require further information about our Curriculum, please contact the school office.