Our Curriculum

Curriculum Intent

 

Learning Today, for Tomorrow

Belong, Resilience, Respect, Inclusion, Kindness

 

• At Willow Wood, we strive to give each and every child the social and academic tools they need to reach their full potential.

 

• We have designed a broad and exciting curriculum that is well planned to be coherent and is sequenced so that all pupils learning is built upon what has come before.

 

• Unlocking the door to learning and the wider world, through developing confident and skilled readers lies at the very heart of our curriculum intent. High quality texts, across all year groups, alongside key questions, deepen understanding and provoke thinking about the wider world that our children live in.

 

Curriculum Implementation

• In maths this year, for a time limited period, we have ‘stripped back’ our curriculum to focus on the key skills and knowledge that children need to become fluent and confident mathematicians. Our greater focus on aspects such as number, fractions, decimals and place value will ensure our pupils catch up on core elements of the curriculum missed during the recent pandemic.

 

• The teaching of reading is at the very core of our curriculum. Phonics is taught following a newly introduced scheme called Little Wandle (September 2022).’.

 

• We use ‘Steps to Read’ as a planning support for whole class Shared Reading. Through carefully crafted units of work. teachers teach all aspects of word reading and comprehension through high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. These units of work also help to provide curriculum knowledge for foundation subjects. Steps to Read provides a clear teaching sequence to reading sessions that explicitly teach reading skills and strategies in a cumulative way through evidence-based approaches. The primary aim of Steps to Read is to teach reading comprehensions skills and strategies explicitly.

 

• We use ‘Read to Write’ to teach writing across the school. This further emphasises the use of high quality texts to support our pupils learning. Teaching writing through Read to Write empowers teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through high-quality literature. Detailed units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum; also signposting wider curriculum enrichments.

 

• PSHE teaching is centred on a values-based and ‘Growth Mindset’ approach. We follow a curriculum from ‘SCARF’ that places pupils well-being at its centre. As a result, pupils focus on the crucial skills and positive attitudes that are critical to ensuring children are effective learners.

 

• Science at Willow Wood builds progressively on what children have previously been taught; promoting and nurturing curiosity. Our curriculum encourages children to ask questions and develop the skills needed to answer those questions. Children are encouraged and challenged to investigate problems, learn how science works and discover why science matters.

 

• At Willow Wood we follow the Cheshire West Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. We use Religious Education to support our children to develop a deeper understanding of the world, its religions and how this shapes the contemporary society we belong to.

 

• The Foundation subjects of History, Geography. Art and Design, Design and Technology, Computing, Music and PE are generally taught as separate subjects. However, we often make links between subjects where these make sense and serve to deepen learning. Where links can be made, we often use quality literature during our reading or writing sessions to further enhance learning in these subjects. Keeping safe, when online is given a very high priority in our computing curriculum. We also have a specific online safety curriculum (Digital literacy and citizenship) that can be viewed alongside the rest of our curriculum on the curriculum overview page.

• No Outsiders is part of our curriculum that promotes the message that ‘all are different; all are welcome’. No Outsiders prepares our young people  for life as global citizens and strongly promotes community cohesion through understanding and acceptance of difference.

 

• Spanish is taught weekly across KS2 using the Primary Language Network Virtual Learning Environment. Learning is progressive, creative, purposeful and memorable for all learners. 

 

• We create a climate for learning which develops each child’s unique and full potential through a rich range of teaching and learning experiences. Teachers aim to stimulate the natural curiosity of every pupil and learning in the outdoor environment, as well as indoors, is important to us. Whenever possible we provide opportunities for learning by direct experiences as we consider this to be the most exciting and effective way to learn. We also love going out on visits to learn, including residential visits in Y3, Y5 and Y6, and inviting visitors and experiences into school.