Beyond the Curriculum
Across the Greenwich South Hub, our mission is to ensure every child continuously improves through an ambitious, knowledge-rich curriculum that is brought to life through three key drivers: character skills, executive functions and mental strength.
Why Executive Functions Matter
Executive functions are the skills that help children organise, plan, meet goals, manage emotions and stay focused, despite distractions. They are essential for success in the classroom and for life beyond school—supporting children to become independent learners who can persevere, collaborate and thrive.
We know that children’s brain development is shaped by experience: the more children practise these skills, the stronger the pathways become. That’s why we teach executive functions explicitly, repeatedly and in increasingly demanding contexts as children progress through school.
The Executive Functions we Teach
In our schools, we deliberately teach and practise these core executive function skills:
Big Outcomes: Executive Functions in Action
A key feature of our curriculum is Big Outcomes—opportunities for children to share learning with a real audience. These projects combine knowledge recall with the executive function skills needed to plan, prepare, deliver and evaluate. Big Outcomes help children see that learning has purpose, and that their developing skills matter for their community and the wider world.
Big Gardening Project: Executive Functions in Action
Our Big Gardening project is one of the ways we bring Our BIG CURRICULUM to life. When children grow food, care for living things and create dishes for our Kids Café, they experience learning with purpose and have the opportunity to apply and develop executive functions.
Kids Cafe: Executive Functions in Action
Our Kids Café give children the exciting opportunity to harvest their own home-grown produce and transform it into a tasty dish during their Design and Technology lessons. This hands-on experience allows pupils to plan, prepare and evaluate their cooking, developing important executive function skills such as organisation, problem-solving, sequencing and self-regulation. By following recipes, managing ingredients and working collaboratively, children build confidence and independence in a meaningful, real-life context. Sharing their finished dishes with parents and carers not only celebrates their achievements but also strengthens home–school connections, giving children a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Big Charity Partner: Executive Functions in Action
By giving each year group one clear fundraising event per term, as well as whole school events, we create a simple structure that allows everyone to take part without pressure. This approach helps our children learn that helping others is part of who we are at Greenacres and part of what it means to belong to a community and the wider world, it teaches empathy, pride and responsibility in a way that feels real and relevant. Our children have the opportunity to develop the executive function skills needed to plan, prepare, deliver and evaluate whilst helping others in their community.
