An Overview of the WHOLE Curriculum at Woodland View
Inspire, Enjoy, Achieve
Our school motto is Inspire, Enjoy, Achieve. We aim to provide a curriculum that embodies our motto through a careful balance between challenge and support, using engaging resources, modelling great examples, giving exciting learning experiences and providing opportunities for effective self-reflection and teacher feedback.
We aim to Inspire the children so that they Enjoy their learning and Achieve their potential.
The Core Curriculum
We believe that it is important that, at the heart of our curriculum, are our core areas of English and Maths. Our children will discover a range of carefully planned concepts and be exposed to incredible texts which will allow them to leave our school ready for the next phase of their education.
Our Early Years Curriculum is carefully planned to ensure our children have the best start in life. Children in the Early Years learn through play, by adults modelling, by observing each other and through adult-guided learning.
Please click the links below find out how our core curriculum embodies the Inspire, Enjoy, Achieve approach.:
The Wider Curriculum
Our wider curriculum is underpinned by four highly relevant world issues, known as the four Cs. These are: Culture, Communication, Conflict and Conservation. These Cs are important issues within our school community and create a purposeful and meaningful backdrop to our delivery of the National Curriculum.
More about why our 4Cs have been selected can be found here.
Our wider curriculum includes science, geography, history, art, design technology, physical education, computing, music, religious education, PSHE, outdoor learning and languages. We value the performing arts immensely and encourage our teachers and children to develop their own interests and learning ventures.
Classes study a new theme each half term, meaning they cover 6 themes a year. Their current theme is displayed on their classroom door so that children feel as though they are immersed in their theme on arrival. Also, they can see what all of the other classes are learning about too! Inside classrooms, theme displays capture the children’s interest by doing such things as offering key information, showcasing work and asking intriguing questions.
Please visit our wider curriculum mapping documents and theme information to see how we deliver the national curriculum and go further by providing inspirational learning experiences to give further enjoyment and maximise achievement. Content and skills have been carefully mapped to ensure progress across year groups and Key Stages.
Our School Values
Our school values of Respect, Cooperation, Kindness, Honesty, Courage and Creativity steer us through our 6 themes each term; therefore they too have an important impact on the delivery and content of our wider curriculum.
We deliver PSHE lessons and lead focus assemblies on the current school value, British Values and the different celebrations in and around our community. Additionally, we celebrate achievements linked to our values in weekly Celebration Assemblies. Our terms end with a spectacular Values Awards ceremony where two children from every class are rewarded with demonstrating the focus value by walking the red carpet, under the lights, to celebratory music before collecting their award from a member of the Senior Leadership Team.
To find out more about how our school values underpin our ethos, please click here.
Long Term Memory
We know the importance of children knowing more and remembering more over time; therefore we have designed our school curriculum to ensure that key knowledge across subjects is revisited and built on over time.
Our cross curricular themes link subjects through the teaching of concepts. This means that knowledge is not just surface level; key facts and content are reinforced across subjects and lessons throughout the learning of a theme.
Our Inspire approach gives children memorable learning experiences which means they are more likely to remember what they have learnt over time. These experiences are often blogged and available for families to see on the school website. Each year group also has a performance unit where they create a performance based on what they have been learning; this is not only watched by parents but the whole school community too. We regularly create inspirational learning memories for the children with external guests and trips - capturing the children’s interest and imagination even more!
In our bespoke exercise books we display the learning journeys and key vocabulary for each theme so that teachers and children can revisit these through a term, allowing them to discuss where they have been with their learning and where it is headed next! Both our wonderfully stocked library and our classrooms have a range of fiction and non-fiction books which closely link to our themes allowing children to delve deeper in their learning.
We use a range of methods to regularly revisit facts from previous themes from both the children’s current year and previous years. As part of this, we use Kahoot Quizzes which have been specially designed to match the key learning from a theme.
In our Studio, our history timeline graphic spans 3 walls and incorporates the key historical events and figures taught in our themes. Alongside this, our map graphic spans 1 large wall and shows world and local maps, incorporating key geographical features and countries that are studied through our themes. Regularly revisiting these graphics allows our children to further embed key knowledge over time.
Sharing the children’s learning with our wider school community is so important; therefore we offer opportunities for parents to share in their children’s learning through our Open View session and our Achieve with Me sessions. During our Open View session (in the summer term) children show their parents the work they have done throughout the year. This enables children to revisit key learning and describe it to their parents. We give parents questions to help steer their conversations towards reviewing specific aspects of the work. Our Achieve with Me sessions are an opportunity for parents to learn alongside their children and find out more about what actually happens in school!
School Facilities - Our Seven Wonders and more!
Our wonderful array of school facilities enable children to learn in a variety of ways through inspiration and enjoyment. There are seven key facilities (although there are also many more) and these are named our Seven Wonders. These include:
The Woodland Workshop
As a base for outdoor learning, our Woodland Workshop is stocked and set-up to have everything needed to inspire and interest the children as they learn outside of their classroom.
The Pond Area
A large pond area within the school grounds. Safely enclosed. Perfect for outdoor learning, science investigation and pond-dipping.
The Fire Pit
Perfect for teaching about fire safety, story-telling, the Great Fire of London or cooking some marshmallows. Children can fully engage, in safety, in this special area.
Now Press Play
From immersing the children in a well-known fairy tale to being part of the Roman army, these immersive headphones can take the children on such a vast range of journeys to support and enhance their learning.
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Timeline and Wall Art
Our history timeline graphic spans 3 walls and incorporates the key historical events and figures taught in our themes. Alongside this, our map graphic spans 1 large wall and shows world and local maps, incorporating key geographical features and countries that are studied through our themes.
3d Printer
Our 3d printer allows us to print and design objects relevant to our curriculum. Keeping us at the cutting edge of technology.
The Immersive Room
From a snowy forest to a hot air balloon ride, from the deepest ocean to a trip back in time to The Great Fire of London, there is no limit to the places we can take our children.
Combined with our Now Press Play Headphones and green-screen wall, we also have the makings of a mini-recording / studio.
Other Fabulous Resources:
Outdoor Sport Spaces and Equipment
Our MUGA, gym equipment, adventure trail, tyres and daily mile track allow children to stay fit and healthy, not only through play, but when teachers utilise these facilities during lessons.
Spaces for reflection
Our Values Chairs, Creativity Cabin and George’s Garden allow for teachers to plan reflective sessions for the whole class or small groups.
The IT suite
With a desktop computer for every child in a class, and iPads too, technology is used to enhance learning across subjects. Our 3D printer also further enhances children’s IT experiences in school.
Subject Leaders
Every subject has a Subject Leader who takes a proactive role in ensuring that their subject is successfully taught across school. They play a pivotal role in creating aims for their subject and tracking the development of knowledge and skills across year groups and Key Stages. They visit lessons across school, look at work, track data and talk to pupils to help them understand the successes of their subject and areas for further focus. The passion they have for their subject, CPD opportunities and support from the Senior Leadership Team, enable them to lead their subject successfully and therefore positively impact the quality of education at Woodland View.
