Curriculum
Curriculum Statement of Intent
Our curriculum is based on the belief that children learn best through creative, engaging and memorable experiences. Our aim is to develop lifelong learners with a passion and sense of enjoyment in learning.
We are committed to meeting the statutory requirements of the primary National Curriculum and seek to provide opportunities which best meet the learning and developmental needs of the pupils in our school. However, we consider the ‘curriculum’ to be more inclusive – that is:
‘Everything that happens in school and takes place through school.’
To this end, when designing our curriculum, we consider four key filters:
Plan and deliver ENGAGING and MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES.
Provide opportunities to apply skills in a range of PRACTICAL and PURPOSEFUL CONTEXTS.
Promote a LEARNING CULTURE where Independence and ‘Learning to Learn’ skills are at its heart.
Enable children to make MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS with the WIDER WORLD.
Planning in this way ensures that we maintain a clear focus on making the children the centre of their learning. It is what makes our curriculum distinctive and bespoke to our school and the community it serves.
Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our school community. The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values. We constantly provide enhancement opportunities to engage learning and believe that childhood should be a happy, investigative and enquiring time in our lives - where there are no limits to curiosity and there is a thirst for new experiences and knowledge.
The curriculum is also underpinned by our school’s Values (Creativity, Courage, and Compassion). These are explicitly taught and frequently referred to through all areas of our curriculum, and embody the way we want our children to learn. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils and their understanding of the universal values of our society are woven through the curriculum.
Furthermore, as a Church of England school, we encourage children to develop a strong sense of moral purpose in addition to a respect for religious and moral values, and an understanding of other cultures, religions and ways of life. This helps our pupils to better understand the world in which they live.
We will continuously develop our West Tytherley version of the curriculum which will deliver an engaging learning experience for our young learners. As we work on each topic for the first time, we are continually reflecting and refining it for next time. As we have mixed year group classes, it is important to build in this flexibility, as each topic is visited on alternate years rather than every year.
Our teachers have developed progression documents, based on the outcomes, skills and knowledge we expect children to gain through our personalised curriculum. Year groups have long-term plans which outline the learning journeys for each subject, building on previous years. Learning is revisited over the course of the year, deepening their understanding each time and ensuring that the children commit the knowledge they have gained to their long-term memory. Teachers use these documents to plan and assess children’s learning strategically throughout the academic year against age related expectations.
We are in the fortunate position of having fantastic local resources around us which fit with the curriculum and ensure that the children’s learning is rooted in their immediate environment. We have identified what the school does best - how we can use the locality and the skills of the teachers to motivate our young learners. If you would like to find out more about the curriculum taught at West Tytherley please contact the Executive Head Teacher through the school office.