Our Curriculum

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Intent

Our curriculum is underpinned by our school vision. The curriculum is the vehicle to ensure that:

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Together we will create a respectful, caring and safe learning community that inspires all to achieve and flourish.

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‘Start children on the way they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it’ - Proverbs 22:6

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By designing learning opportunities which build, day after day, month after month and year after year we enable our pupils to leave us with the knowledge, skills and cultural capital required to flourish in the next stages of their lives.

 

We have consulted with parents, children and staff to ensure that we are aware of the barriers to learning our children face, children’s interests and 21st Century skills so that as a school we can ensure that our curriculum is sequenced to provide the knowledge and skills our children require to flourish in later life.

 

When planning our curriculum, our staff consider the end point of each focus – how our children will apply the skills and knowledge built over time for a purpose. This information is shared with children and parents via our school website and updated through our social media accounts and via our school newsletters.

 

As part of our curriculum development, we have unpicked the National Curriculum programmes of study for each subject and looked at the skills and knowledge required to reach the end of key stage requirements. These skills progression documents can be found on our website. Wherever possible, learning is interleaved and woven through subjects to provide children opportunities to be intellectually engaged to ensure children are motivated to learn and achieve a deeper level of understanding in all subject areas. Every child and member of staff fully participates in every area of the curriculum through careful adaptions and modifications where necessary.

 

As a school we have designed, organised and planned our curriculum to ensure every child receives an appropriate mix of academic and personal development which means that in practice our curriculum places equal importance on core and foundation subjects.

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We have designed and planned our curriculum to offer a range of experiences which contribute to every child receiving a full and rich curriculum.  The range of experiences we offer support and champion our culture and ensures that our children benefit from a full range of academic, spiritual, moral, social and cultural activities.  These activities enrich their lives and those of our whole school community and make them proud of their British values and diverse society to which belong and play an active part. We are proud that our curriculum gives our children the skills, confidence and self-belief to lead a happy and fulfilled life by encouraging them to aim high and work towards their goals and dreams in life.

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Implementation

Our focus on subject specific content and the development of skills which build over time and prepare children for the next stage of their education. To enrich learning our own community and locality are frequently used as a starting point. We provide diverse and rich opportunities to develop a range of transferable skills through memorable experiences parents are encouraged to become actively engaged in the curriculum establishing a genuine learning partnership between home and school through their own skills and knowledge as well as attending workshops and occasions.

 

Our medium term plans are updated and reflected on by staff and subject leaders, in addition to this we send overviews and updates directly to parents and guardians to ensure they are aware of the curriculum content their child or children are covering in a particular term. We use knowledge organisers to ensure that each member of staff is aware of the focus knowledge and skills as well as how the learning builds on children’s prior knowledge and where it will lead to later in their time at Woodseaves. These knowledge organisers are adapted to child friendly formats for children to access throughout the subject focus and enable children to self assess their own knowledge and skills.

  

Woodseaves is an inclusive school, we adapt to enable all children to access the curriculum whatever their starting point. Children are taught to use scaffolds to support their learning and develop strategies to increase their independence. Face to face feedback during lessons enable teachers to identify and correct misunderstandings swiftly and, if required, put into place swift intervention to ensure that gaps in knowledge and skills are closed.

 

Every opportunity to develop reading across the curriculum is utilised, with children encouraged to use comprehension strategies explicitly taught during guided reading and applying them in a wide range of contexts.

 

Our staff receive training and development to ensure that teaching across all subjects is effective, teaching is strengthened by the use of specialists in Music and P.E.

 

Impact

To ensure that all pupils develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum, the impact of our curriculum is assessed through triangulated monitoring throughout the academic year.

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Impact is evidenced through:

• Pupil voice – children enjoy their learning and are driven to lean more and apply their knowledge and skills widely.

• Whole school moderation – all staff, including subject leaders, have regular professional discussions about children’s learning across the curriculum. This involved moderating pupil’s books, staff voice and other means of evidencing learning and progress.

• Cross MAT moderation – all staff have the opportunity to meet with other staff in the Multi Academy Trust to moderate and quality assure their judgements. 

• Assessment – staff complete three summative assessment judgements throughout the school year for all subjects. In addition to teacher assessment in all subjects, children in Years 1-6 complete NTS assessments in Reading and Mathematics on a termly basis. 

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If you would like to find out more information about our curriculum, please contact us via the school office at woodseavesoffice@stbarts.co.uk

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