Overview
At West Kidlington Primary and Nursery School, our mission is for children to- "Be kind and give their best."
How do we achieve this? Please keep reading!
Be curious Learners
- Alongside being interested and interesting; we aim to develop pupils' social and emotional skills, such as perseverance and resilience so that they are well-equipped to be life-long learners. We want our pupils to always be curious to find out more and apply their knowledge and skills in new contexts. This will lead to them knowing more and remembering more resulting in a readiness for each next stage in their learning.
Seek Important Futures
- Developing the whole child is at the centre of everything we do, and our intention is that the curriculum extends opportunities, breeds ambition and raises aspiration by opening children's eyes to the world beyond their immediate environment. We strive for our children to be effective communicators both orally and in writing so they can break down barriers that may lay before them.
Become Proud Citizens
- Through our values-based approach, the curriculum encourages our pupils to be tolerant, kind and respectful citizens who have a sense of belonging through an awareness of different individuals and groups. Our ambition is for our children to make positive contributions to their community and beyond and continue this as they move into adulthood.
In order for us to ensure our pupils "are kind and give their best" we promote 6 Golden Threads that underpin and weave through everything we do at the school. We believe these threads enable children to have the essential knowledge and skills that they need to be educated citizens.
Curriculum that promotes mistakes lead to learning
Purpose - has to be a reason to learn
Giving your best - taking pride
Children to create their own learning at home
Memorable / Unpredictable / Exciting lessons
Learning must be simple but effective
Curriculum and Values based Intent
"Our pupils will be tolerant, respectful and proud citizens who have a sense of belonging through an awareness of different individuals and groups."
Our 6 core school values are taught explicitly and underpin everything we do within school. These values unite our multicultural and frequently changing school community, helping everyone to make their own positive contribution in an ever-changing modern world.
Language and vocabulary rich intent:
Our pupils will be good communicators both orally and in writing and will develop a breadth and depth of vocabulary that will help them close the word gap.
It is our intent that our curriculum provides children with a wide range of ambitious and subject specific vocabulary. This will give them the tools with which to communicate their learning effectively both orally and in writing.
Knowledge and skills-based intent
We want our children to leave West Kidlington with the knowledge and skills needed to equip them for the next stage of their education. We want our pupils to develop the social and emotional skills needed to develop a growth-mindset. It is paramount they can read and write fluently, be fluent in key maths concepts and be effective communicators both orally and in writing. We also want our children, to leave West Kidlington with a good knowledge and understanding of History and Geography so they are clear in where they are and where they have come from.
Progression led intent
"Practice makes Permanent" Our children will Do more, Know more and Remember more. We know that children will acquire and retain new knowledge more easily when there is prior knowledge to build upon and links can be made. It is our intent that our curriculum encourages these connections and builds progressively over time; alongside developing the social and emotional skills that enables a growth-mindset.
By having and depth knowledge and well-rounded skills grows our children into motivated learners.
Opportunity and Experience rich intent:
Children will be exposed to a wide range of supported opportunities and experiences which will accumulate advantage over-time.
Learning is most effective when it is enjoyable; purposeful and inspiring. By making our curriculum relevant and engaging, learning is enhanced as it grows curiosity and excitement encouraging our children to seek meaningful futures. We want our children to create their own homework!
Curriculum Implementation
Values based implementation:
Our values are: Peace, Unity, Responsibility, Respect, Kindness and Resilience.
We teach these in the following ways:
• Through daily reminders from all members of the school community.
• Staff visibly and explicitly demonstrating the values in their relationships with children and each other
• In whole school and class assemblies.
• Through PSHE and RE sessions
• Weekly celebrations recognise those who have demonstrated one of the values.
• Inviting visitors into school as role models
• Reflecting on the behaviour attitudes of characters in books, in history, science and the arts in relation to the values.
• Whole school displays and in all classrooms.
The following positions of responsibility give children the opportunity to demonstrate the values and learn from each other.
-Mental Health Leaders
-School Council
-Rewards that require the whole school to work towards - promoting collaboration (Quality Counters)
-Play Leaders
-School Responsibilities
Language and Vocabulary rich implementation
The school have a number of systems; routines and processes that encourage the daily development of Oracy skills. In every subject, the key language and vocabulary needed by children to communicate their learning is identified and explicitly identified on planning and lesson slides.
Vocabulary is explicitly taught through a "Word of the Week" curriculum that is planned from carefully selected Tier 2 vocabulary. New words are taught through all subjects.
Vocabulary in all subjects is displayed on working walls to support learning and scaffold responses.
Language frames/ stems are use across the curriculum to support and encourage high-quality talk, discussion and debate. Specific "purpose of language of function" frames (i.e. opinion/compare and contrast) have been allocated to each subject to enable children to "talk like and expert"
Children are given regular opportunities to display their understanding through talk.
High quality texts are used to provide a wealth of vocabulary and to give context to learning.
Teachers are encouraged to be passionate about language and model effective use of vocabulary within their teaching.
Knowledge and skills-based implementation:
In all subjects, the national curriculum is our starting point for deciding upon the knowledge and skills that children will be taught in each year group. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that, where possible, learning is relevant to our diverse community and rooted in our local heritage.
Often, cross curricular links are made to make learning experiences more meaningful and to give context to the knowledge acquired and skills taught.
High quality texts are chosen that will motivate learners and provide scope for teaching the appropriate knowledge and skills. Where it is not possible to make cross curricular links, other visual stimuli and experience are used to make the knowledge and skills being taught as accessible as possible.
A range of retrieval strategies are used throughout each day and week to support the "regular return" to prior knowledge and understanding. These include; low stakes quizzes/tests; challenge grids, multi-choice hinge questions and exit/entrance tickets. By regularly revisiting to prior knowledge, supports children in their securing of information in the long-term memory.
The national curriculum is our starting point for knowing what to teach when.
In maths, the "Can Do" sequence, manageable steps ensure that children have the building blocks on which to pin further learning.
In writing, exemplification documents, WAGOLLS and progression grids are used to ensure that skills build appropriately across year groups. Within year groups, teachers sequence planning in small manageable steps to ensure that children develop skills within a unit and over time in order to produce learning at the required standard.
In the foundation subjects, subject leaders have sequenced units of work to ensure there are opportunities for children to make links. Teachers explicitly refer back to past learning through "where does this fit in?" slides in every lesson. Learning is sequenced to ensure that prior learning can support what comes next.
Experience rich implementation
Our curriculum is to designed to ensure that our children (many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds) understand what it means to belong- to our school community, our local area, and our wider location. Where possible, topics have been chosen that are relevant and meaningful to our school community.
Sitting alongside our academic curriculum the school has developed an "Enrichment Curriculum" that lays out a number of experiences and opportunities that the children are exposed to as they move through the school. These not only allow a series of experiences that are linked to our curriculum and therefore enhances learning but also opportunities that provided enriching activities that our children may otherwise not experience and which we will stimulate and inspire a lifelong curiosity in the world around them.
Each term, the school runs hook days that provide activities that lay the foundations/give context to the learning that is to come.
We want our children to have the skills and attitudes to make a positive contribution as proud and valued citizens within their community. We measure this in the way our children respond to one another and to adults within the school. We also observe the way in which they take on responsibilities, support one another and handle new situations.
Language and vocabulary-based impact
Our children need the oracy tools and skills with which to communicate effectively both orally and in writing. We acknowledge the need for vocabulary and language to be explicitly taught. Working walls, planning and pupil voice are evidence of tier 1.2 and 3 vocabulary being modelled by adults and used by learners.
Knowledge and skills-based impact
We want our children to be interested in and knowledgeable about the world in which they live and to be engaging in the way they communicate this. Planning documents show the knowledge and skills being taught. Pupil voice conversations, samples of work and results from quizzes and assessment enable us to measure the knowledge and skills that our children acquire.
Progression Led impact
It is our intent that our curriculum encourages connections and builds progressively. Our curriculum maps, and planning and lesson slides demonstrate this sequence. Planning scrutiny and book looks evidence how knowledge and skills are built upon over time.
Experience led impact
Learning must be enjoyable and our children are entitled to engaging lessons that bring learning to life. Our Enrichment Curriculum ensures a breadth of experiences during their time at school. Use of artefacts, lesson Hooks, quality texts and visual stimuli are evidence of this happening in classrooms.