Curriculum

The World is Our Curriculum

Young children are naturally very curious about the world around them and are 'hard-wired' to learn about it. There is so much going on, so much to see and to experience. Children ask lots of questions and notice things many of us grown-ups do not. This natural curiosity is a powerful motivator and one we aim to capture in our school whenever and wherever we can. We aim to create a 'spirit of enquiry' which builds learning from questions - whether posed by teachers or children.  Questions give purpose and direction to learning.  Teachers can teach children the skills and knowledge to find answers to questions across the curriculum, whether it be through some hands-on, practical learning or through academic study.  Through our invitational learning, we encourage the children to bring their own interests and experiences into their learning too. We believe that when children see a purpose to their learning (and what better purpose than finding answers to your own questions) they learn most effectively.

Our curriculum

Our curriculum builds on the 2014 National Curriculum which aspires to offer pupils, the best that has been thought and said and the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens.

The national curriculum is deemed to be ambitious, offering a broad and balanced curriculum.  We aim to provide rich and memorable learning experiences. We seek to develop the children’s aspirations and ensure that all children are successful and achieve highly in a wider range of areas including academic, physical, moral, spiritual, emotional and creative attainment. 

We want our curriculum to ensure that every child has the knowledge, understanding and skills to achieve well in their next school and beyond. This is why we put a strong emphasis on all children developing the social skills, learning attributes, work ethic and attitudes they will need to be successful. We know that happy, confident children with a strong sense of self-worth are more likely to grow into happy confident adults. The curriculum is structured to promote progression and develop knowledge and skills in each curriculum area which reinforce and complement each other.

At Wicor, we aim to add value through our enhanced science curriculum which offers environmental science, natural history and horticulture.  Why these?  We believe that all children have a close connection with their world, a strong curiosity to learn more about it and an innate appreciation and sense of awe and wonder about the natural world and the wildlife that exists within it.  Parents tell us that our enhanced science curriculum has a positive impact on their children’s lives, often inspiring them to take action or learn more beyond school, whether it be digging a new vegetable bed, organising their domestic recycling or organising a beach clean.  The children talk about their learning with enthusiasm and often feel inspired to pursue their learning beyond the classroom.

A rich web of knowledge is what provides the capacity for pupils to learn even more and develop their understanding. This does not preclude the importance of skill. Knowledge and skill are intrinsically linked: skill is a performance built on what a person knows.”  Amanda Spielman, Ofsted, 2018

As part of our curriculum design, some of our subjects can be taught in an integrated way; in teaching bundles we call modules which can last a few days to several weeks. The subjects that lend themselves best to integrated modules are science, history, geography and art and design. The choice of whether to integrate these subjects is the teachers' and therefore some of these might be taught discretely.  We recognise the importance of keeping subject rigour in modules, ensuring key disciplinary skills are not blurred or blunted in the process.  Equally, there will be aspects of discrete subjects such as data handling in maths or reading information texts that can be effectively taught or applied in modules. 

Other subjects are taught discretely in units, namely maths, music, PE, computing, design technology, Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE), phonics and aspects of reading.  The reason for this is usually down to timetabling resources (PE, computing) or following a scheme (maths, music, modern foreign language, PSHE and phonics.

We believe teachers add value to their teaching if they can be creative, weave in their interests and strengths, and capitalize on current events and issues.  The ability to teach and revisit content several times throughout a year and across a key stage optimizes opportunities for the retrieval, repetition and reinforcement of key concepts and skills in those subjects and increases the opportunities for changes to children’s long-term memory. 

For more specific whole school subject information please look at Subject Information which can be found on the link below.

Our curriculum not only meets the requirements of the National Curriculum (September 2014) but provides a much broader and richer set of learning opportunities and experiences.  All aspects of our curriculum are accessible to all children, irrespective of their ethnic background, gender, disability, religious or linguistic background. We strive hard to meet the needs of all children, including those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those with higher attainment, and the children who are learning English as an additional language.

For detailed information on each year group's curriculum please look at the Annual Curriculum Overviews on the link below.