Curriculum Intent
We believe that every child will learn to read at our school and that this provides a vital gateway to the curriculum. Our curriculum based upon the National Curriculum is a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum, which aims to inspire the children and develop independent, confident learners. We have high aspirations for our children irrespective of their individual needs and characteristics thus enabling them to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.
Underpinning our curriculum is a values-based ethos, which develops the children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding, to ensure that the children are well prepared for life in modern Britain. Our PSHE scheme (Jigsaw) and weekly assemblies provides children with opportunities to discuss and learn about personal health, wellbeing, safety, relationships, differences and aspirations. Our children realise that everyone is special and unique and we should celebrate differences and different kinds of families.
Beyond the National Curriculum, our school curriculum provides children with cultural capital: varied and inspiring opportunities which allow the children to learn from first-hand experience. We recognise that the children need both a sense of valuing themselves, and developing aspirations for their future and for their community. Visits to the art gallery, Shakespeare North, Kingswood, instrumental lessons and Into University are examples of how we do this.
Physical health and well-being are also key to our school curriculum. A range of extra-curricular clubs give the children an opportunity to access a variety of sports during lunchtime and after school.
Curriculum Implementation
In all that we do we endeavour to provide a high quality of education within a supportive, respectful and engaging learning environment. Our curriculum follows the statutory objectives set out in the 2014 National Curriculum documentation. Our curriculum is inclusive of children with special educational needs. A focus on regular retrieval practice and over-learning of knowledge enables SEND children to retain knowledge, vocabulary and therefore gain a sense of success. Teachers adapt teaching where necessary, make reasonable adjustments and scaffold learning for pupils with SEND, ensuring they have access to the same content as their peers.
Age related expectations combine the acquisition of knowledge and development of skills to create a purposeful and exciting learning journey for every child. Classroom environments stimulate, support retention of knowledge, engage thinking and reasoning and promote high level vocabulary. Both long and medium-term plans and progression maps for each subject demonstrate how the curriculum is carefully sequenced and fulfils its statutory requirements. Yearly subject overviews indicate the topics that the children will cover each term in each subject.
Verbal feedback and marking provides an opportunity for children to reflect on their learning and use feedback to make further progress.
Curriculum Impact
The impact of our curriculum will not only be measured by assessment systems which allow us to measure outcomes against national benchmarks, but will also be measured by how effectively it helps our pupils develop into well-rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens.
Westvale Primary uses regular triangulated monitoring to gauge the impact of the curriculum design. Senior leaders and curriculum leaders monitor individual subjects: reviewing learning, evaluating pupil voice, providing individual feedback to move practice forward, celebrating positives and highlighting areas of development to be prioritised. Our whole school team strengthen our ethos and vision as we work together to reflect upon our curriculum and share outcomes.
If you would like to find out more about our Westvale curriculum, please contact Mrs S Davidson Deputy Head/Curriculum Lead via the school office.
Curriculum – some key vocabulary
Procedural Knowledge: for example, decoding using phonics. The goal of procedural Knowledge is procedural fluency.
Substantive knowledge – (Established facts) It’s basically the specific, factual content for the subjects (established facts e.g. the Earth is a planet on which we live), which must be connected into a careful sequence.
Disciplinary knowledge – (Methods of working) This is best described as the action taken within a particular subject to gain knowledge i.e. how we gain substantive knowledge. For example, in history this might mean using evidence to construct a claim. Meanwhile, in science it might mean testing hypotheses. In music, it might mean reading and writing notation. As you can see, it really is quite distinct within each domain. This is best described as the action taken within a particular subject to gain knowledge i.e. how we gain substantive knowledge. For example, in history this might mean using evidence to construct a claim. Meanwhile, in science it might mean testing hypotheses.
Concepts: an idea, especially an abstract idea.
A concept is what we think with. It is a classifier that helps to organise thinking and make sense of the world. It is a generalised idea about a class of objects, situations, actions, or processes. For example, we have a concept of ‘chair’, but we know there is a huge variety of types of chairs – arm chairs, dining chairs, metal chairs, wooden chairs, red chairs etc. https://geography.org.uk/
Examples of concepts: sacrifice in RE; chronology in History; weather in Geography.
