Curriculum
Curriculum
Our Curriculum Intent
At Woodlands Primary School, our curriculum is ambitious, inclusive and designed to give every child the knowledge, skills, experiences and confidence they need to thrive.
We believe that a child's starting point, background or additional need should not determine what they are able to achieve. Our curriculum therefore combines high expectations with carefully considered adaptation and support, enabling all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged and those with SEND, to access a rich and meaningful education.
Our curriculum reflects our school values of respect, resilience, empathy, self-awareness, passion for learning ("botheredness"), excellence, communication and teamwork. These values are woven through school life and help our pupils to become thoughtful, confident and responsible members of their community.
An ambitious curriculum for all
Our curriculum is broad, balanced and carefully sequenced from the Early Years onwards. It identifies the important knowledge, concepts and vocabulary that pupils need to learn and provides opportunities for them to revisit, connect and apply their learning so that knowledge becomes secure over time. We want children not simply to complete activities, but to know more, understand more and be able to do more as they move through the school. Teachers are clear about what pupils need to learn and use assessment as an integral part of teaching. Assessment helps us identify what pupils have understood, where misconceptions or gaps remain and what needs to happen next and to scaffold this we use Test Base. Where pupils are at risk of falling behind, teaching and support are adapted so that barriers to learning are addressed as early as possible.
Reading at the heart of our curriculum
Reading is fundamental to children's success and sits at the heart of our curriculum. Children develop the foundations of language, communication and early literacy from the beginning of their time at Woodlands. Read Write Inc. provides a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics and early reading, with additional support provided quickly where pupils need it. As pupils become increasingly fluent readers, they encounter a rich range of high-quality texts across the curriculum. Carefully chosen literature supports the development of vocabulary, comprehension and knowledge while also enabling pupils to encounter experiences, perspectives and ideas beyond their own. Alongside teaching pupils how to read successfully, we want every child to experience the pleasure, curiosity and opportunity that reading can bring.
Mathematics
Our mathematics curriculum develops confident and resilient mathematicians who can reason, solve problems and explain their thinking. Our curriculum is informed by First For Maths and teachers use professional judgement and assessment to ensure that learning is appropriately sequenced and responsive to pupils' understanding. Pupils develop secure mathematical knowledge and fluency alongside the ability to apply their learning in increasingly complex contexts.
Inclusion is everyone's responsibility
Inclusion is not an additional part of the Woodlands curriculum: it is fundamental to how our curriculum is designed and delivered. Our mainstream classes, Specialist Inclusion Base provision form one school community. We maintain ambitious expectations for pupils while recognising that children may require different approaches, adaptations, resources, environments or levels of support in order to achieve them. Expertise is shared across our school. Practice developed within our specialist provision strengthens teaching within mainstream classrooms, while pupils accessing specialist provision have meaningful opportunities to learn, participate and belong within the wider life and curriculum of the school. We recognise that successful inclusion does not mean that every child does the same thing, in the same way, at the same time. It means identifying and removing barriers while protecting every pupil's entitlement to a high-quality education.
Language, communication and vocabulary
We recognise that children's language and vocabulary are fundamental to learning. Teachers deliberately develop pupils' spoken language and subject-specific vocabulary across the curriculum. This is particularly important for pupils who may have had fewer opportunities to develop language before starting school, pupils with SEND and pupils who speak English as an additional language. Through discussion, questioning, reading and explicit teaching of vocabulary, we enable pupils increasingly to articulate their ideas, explain their thinking and participate confidently in learning.
Experiences that broaden horizons
We want our curriculum to extend beyond the classroom and have always been committed to enrichment. Visits, visitors, practical experiences, residential opportunities, enrichment, sport, music, performance and engagement with our local community enable pupils to connect what they learn in school with the wider world. These experiences are deliberately inclusive. We seek to ensure that disadvantage or additional need does not prevent children from accessing the opportunities that enrich childhood and broaden horizons.
Personal development and preparation for life
Academic achievement is important, but education at Woodlands is about more than academic outcomes. Through our curriculum and wider school experience, pupils learn about themselves, other people and the society in which they live. We develop character, resilience, independence and the ability to work successfully with others. Pupils learn about democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law, mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is supported across the curriculum and through the wider life of the school. We want pupils to understand that difference is part of life, that everyone deserves dignity and respect, and that they have both the capacity and the responsibility to make a positive contribution to their communities.
Knowing our children and knowing our curriculum
Our curriculum is continually evaluated, this year we are seeking to review our phonics scheme and last year we reviewed our maths curriculum, for example. Teachers, subject leaders and senior leaders consider what pupils are learning, how well they remember and apply that learning, and whether the curriculum is working equally well for different groups of pupils. Assessment, pupil work, discussion with pupils, lesson visits and professional dialogue help us identify where provision is strong and where it needs to improve. Governors hold leaders to account for the quality, ambition and inclusivity of the curriculum and for the outcomes achieved by pupils.
Our ambition
By the time pupils leave Woodlands, we want them to be knowledgeable, articulate, curious and compassionate young people. We want them to have secure foundations in reading, writing and mathematics; rich knowledge across the wider curriculum; confidence in themselves as learners; and an understanding of the diverse world in which they live.
Above all, we want our pupils to leave Woodlands believing that they belong, they can succeed and their contribution matters.
Our curriculum therefore seeks to ensure that every child is:
- safe, valued and respected;
- challenged and supported to achieve well;
- given access to a broad range of knowledge and experiences;
- encouraged to be curious, resilient and independent;
- supported to develop healthy and positive relationships;
- prepared for the next stage of their education; and
- empowered to make a positive contribution to their community and to modern Britain.
