Curriculum Intent

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” (Aristotle)

 

Curriculum is the totality of a child’s experience at Woodlands Primary School. We value each child as an individual with a unique potential for learning.

 

Therefore we have devised an engaging curriculum plan based upon programmes of study with careful consideration of the needs of our children. We maintain our belief that learning is lifelong and that the skills and attitudes we instill in the early stages of our children’s lives should stand them in good stead for the future.

 

Our personalised, inclusive curriculum engages our pupils in challenging and interesting learning, which promotes our core values of Aspiration, Resilience, Respect, Kindness and Community.

 

Our values show that we place an emphasis on individual achievement whilst building an awareness and understanding of others. The school is a caring community that values personal, social and emotional development as well as academic and creative achievement.

 

Learning at Woodlands Primary School is about integrating these values with skills, understanding and knowledge. We prepare children for their futures by celebrating and developing all three.

 

We are passionate about learning and use practical experiences to immerse children in everything they do, whilst teaching the next steps needed for each individual to make progress e.g. using individual Success Plans for many of our children.

 

Our curriculum evolves each year to ensure it is suitably adapted to every class. Using a cross-curricular approach, each term is based on a topic and exploits the links between areas of learning; we know that this is how children learn best.

 

Our curriculum strives to challenge and support all pupils to reach their full potential in all subjects. We develop their strengths and support them to progress in areas that they find challenging.

 

We believe in creating strong foundations of knowledge, understanding and skills for all of our pupils, allowing them to build on their learning. We track the performance of all, enabling us to challenge lack of progress and support when needed, closing gaps in attainment.

 

Our curriculum intends to cater for the needs of the whole child, and it strives to broaden our pupils’ horizons and to enrich their lives, nurturing their interests and talents in an ever increasing, outward-facing design as their confidence, independence, maturity and global awareness grow.

 

To summarise, our broad and balanced curriculum has two primary aims – to ensure that all of our pupils, irrespective of their background or level of need, are equipped with essential knowledge, skills and understanding so that they are prepared for the responsibilities and experiences of current and later life (to be confident and productive citizens), and to provide high quality opportunities and rich, meaningful experiences that promote their positive spiritual, moral, social, cultural, emotional and physical development in the here and now.

 

An integral part of our curriculum design is reflecting on the ways we want our pupils to approach the curriculum: as thoughtful, wise, tolerant and respectful learners who enjoy learning from and supporting each other. We want our curriculum provision to prepare them for their next stage in education at Woodlands and beyond, and to navigate them through the world of work and career choices.

 

A significant focus is supporting and super-charging children’s vocabulary hoards and honing in on their reading skills, as well as deepening their conceptual understanding and sharpening their critical thinking skills.

 

We want our curriculum to excite our pupils’ interest, engender high levels of curiosity and endeavour, inspire collaboration and creativity, and to motivate our pupils with resilient attitudes and the determination to succeed.

 

We also recognise that our pupils are all part of a global community; we want to help them to gain a sense of place and understanding that they have a role in its future. It celebrates diversity to emphasize unity, yet it is rooted in authenticity and context to Woodlands, Bemerton Heath and Salisbury so that learning is relevant.

 

Our Curriculum Intent sets out what we want our curriculum to achieve for our pupils. We believe it is both ambitious and far-reaching, yet we are aware there are some aspects we will need time to embed.

We are excited to be on this journey of continually shaping and improving our Woodlands curriculum.

 

Rights-Respecting: All decisions are made in the best interests of the child and are framed by the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) and UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights).