Our Curriculum

Please see our Curriculum Policy in the Policies and Procedures section of our website for further information.

Our Vision for an Outstanding Curriculum

Our curriculum has been designed to meet the needs of the children in our community. In doing so we have carefully considered questions such as:

• What are the starting points of our pupils?
• What do our children need to learn and what skills do they need to develop?
• How can we prepare our children for their next steps?
• What are the local factors that influence our children’s opportunity, development and understanding?
• How can we add to the skills, knowledge and opportunities the children receive outside school?

We recognise that we are part of the community of Woodhouse Estate and that the children in our catchment arrive at our school often having development and experiences below those of children typical for their age. We want to provide opportunities and learning that help to broaden the opportunities and aspirations of our pupils and have devised a passport of experiences that will be offered to our pupils ‘on their pathway to success’. Our curriculum development has been built on research, particularly on how children learn and remember, as well as designed to inspire and motivate and provide our children with a life long love of learning and with the skills and knowledge required to be successful and happy adults within their community.

At Woodhouse Primary Academy we have higher than average numbers of pupils with SEND and depravation. We have carefully considered our curriculum design in order to allow learning and enrichment opportunities for all of our pupils. We have identified the challenges that our pupils face when joining our school from our two-year old provision to our primary school leavers and have developed a curriculum which has been planned to maxmise development of listening and attention skills, communication skills, reading and basic numeracy as well as fine motor development. Our English Reading spine has been designed in order to promote our children’s understanding of our school values, British Values, protected characteristics and diversity. From here we have sequenced our other curriculum subjects to provide an ambitious, diverse and exciting curriculum for all.

Our Values

Our school values are interwoven throughout our curriculum and are promoted at every opportunity by staff. We believe that these values will help to equip our children with the ability to succeed in life.

Ambition

We ask our children to be ambitious in all they do. Nobody is the finished article and if we continue to be ambitious and resilient we will continue to improve. Equally we want children to be inspired by our curriculum, which is ambitious and has been designed to ensure that it stimulates interest and enjoyment

Determination

 We ask our pupils to show determination to succeed and develop academically and personally. Concentration, pride and focus are essential to this.

Resilience

We promote the development of a ‘Growth Mindset’ for all pupils and model and foster resilience to overcome problems or work that they initially find tricky.

 Respect

We want children to appreciate and respect modern British values of democracy; the rule of law; individual liberty; mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith. Visits and visitors enrich our curriculum and further inspire children’s interest. We want to create curious learners who ask questions and explore their interests. We also want our children to show respect towards their community and opportunities to teach and promote this are planned across the curriculum.

Communication

We want our pupils to be confident communicators and be able to develop their communication skills so that they can express their thoughts, feelings and ambitions. Inspiring a passion for reading is important to developing all these interests and is a key focus at Woodhouse Primary Academy. Discussions in class and groupwork activities help to develop communication skills as well as enjoyment, thoughtfulness and consideration.

Confidence

Confidence is promoted throughout the curriculum through competitions, external visits, enrichment trips, performances and opportunities to represent the school in the school council and in external activities and competitions. We want to empower our pupils with confidence and

Kindness

We value kindness in every aspect of our school and expect and promote kindness and the power it has. We have designed our curriculum to enable our pupils to reflect upon their interactions with others and in order to help develop empathetic and kind individuals.

Our school rewards and behaviour system is also built around these values as we believe that promotion of these values will help prepare our pupils for life in modern Britain.

We have carefully considered the needs of our pupils in designing our curriculum, Each subject is developed by subject leaders, building on previous knowledge and learning, from Early Years to Year 6 and identifying key knowledge and skills we want our children to develop in order to succeed at each step of their learning. Our Subject Leaders ensure their knowledge and skills are high through professional development and networking opportunities. The leadership team have undertaken training to support staff to understand well how to reduce cognitive load and strengthen recall through spaced retrieval exercises. Classroom layouts and display, homework and ways of working are all thoughtfully designed to aid the development of key vocabulary and knowledge retention.

The curriculum is monitored closely to ensure it meets both the EYFS Framework and The National Curriculum Subject leaders are proactive in delivering guidance and developments in their subjects. Leaders ensure that each curriculum area is given a high priority and that progress and standards in each are high.

Children’s interests are pursued and pupil voice helps shape the curriculum. Teachers and subject leaders look at ways to inspire pupils in each subject, by using quality teaching, texts, other resources, visits and visitors to stimulate learning. Giving learning a clear purpose for their learning and links to their local community allows children to make connections and understand their work more fully.

Children feel very much part of the community and enjoy learning more about the culture of our area, and learning how that we are part of the wider region, country and world. They are, without doubt, ready for the next stages in their learning and well prepared for life in modern Britain having developed good social skills, moral values, spiritual reflectiveness and cultural awareness.

At Woodhouse Primary Academy we believe that inclusive education means providing all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers and our curriculum is focussed on supporting all of our learners to make progress and achieve. We have an inclusive culture at Woodhouse which is promoted through Quality First Teaching, Adaptive Teaching and targeted interventions.

At Woodhouse Primary Academy our Curriculum has been designed and is implemented in order to allow each child who comes to our school to begin their journey on their ‘pathway to success.’

Should you wish to speak with us directly about the curriculum, please contact us through the usual communication channels to arrange an appointment with Ms Norman.