WPS Curriculum
WPS Curriculum Intent
Our curriculum puts the child at the centre of our caring, sharing, achieving school, where positive relationships, based on mutual trust and respect are at the heart of everything we do. Our ambitious curriculum has been designed to take account of the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and the Primary National Curriculum. It exposes our children to enriching experiences, immersing them in progressive knowledge and skills; equipping them with personal characteristics required to succeed in life. The creative arts are important to our curriculum delivery and ensure that our children are immersed in vibrant experiences, allowing each of them to express themselves as an individual. The key principles behind the design of our curriculum are for our children to:
- be confident, independent and resilient; displaying a thirst for learning
- be kind; showing empathy and compassion whilst valuing diversity
- achieve academically across the entire curriculum, meeting at least the national expectation by the end of their primary education
- be culturally knowledgeable about our country and our world
- have aspirations for the future and know that these can be reached through hard work and determination
- be well prepared for the challenges of the secondary school
- Ultimately, we want all of our children, to be the best they can be, making a positive contribution to the world they live in whilst upholding our school motto of “Better never stops.”
Curriculum Implementation
- Children are expected to work hard and demonstrate positive learning behaviours to both maximise their own individual learning potential as well as contribute to the school and wider community. Our Passport to Learning Cards and our school values allow us to reward the behaviours we strive to develop. We have high expectations of attendance, academic achievement and children’s behaviour. We are committed to working in partnership with parents as we believe that when home and school work closely together we get the best outcomes for our Children.
- PSHCE lies at the heart of the curriculum we deliver and enables us to to closely meet the needs of our pupils. Our PSHCE framework, focuses on well-being, positive self-awareness, relationships and the wider world, was written after consultation with the school Our children have access to a wide range of opportunities which promote personal safety and pupil voice with all children being actively involved in whole school decision making through the School Council and many positions of responsibility. Our curriculum recognises the importance of pupils’ physical and mental well-being in shaping their long term life-style choices.
- We believe that our fundamental task is to teach our children to speak clearly and articulately and to read and write effectively. Reading across all curriculum areas is a priority to extend and deepen pupils understanding and use of We want pupils to develop a love of reading during their time at Woolton Primary School and be exposed to a range of classic and contemporary literature. The use of the Blaise the Bus, Giant Book Building, class Libraries and class shared texts are pivotal to this.
- In order to raise aspirations and equip children with a real belief that they can achieve anything if they are prepared to work hard, it is important that we prioritise experiential learning within our curriculum. Visitors are regularly invited into school, educational and residential visits are carefully chosen to deepen understanding and we make the most of our beautiful outdoor learning environment to enhance hands-on learning
- Children from across the school have access to a wide range of extra-curricular activities including sport and music.
- Continuing Professional Development for all staff is a priority to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver the highest standards across the entire Music, art and sports specialists work alongside teaching staff to enhance curriculum delivery. Subject Leaders have the necessary expertise to play a pivotal role in both the design and delivery of their subject area; ensuring a clear progression of both skills and knowledge across all year groups, underpinned by a robust assessment system. They can articulate how learning is re-visited and developed year-on-year, to ensure a real depth of learning right across the school.
Impact
- Our children demonstrate confidence, independence, resilience and a real thirst for
- Our children are able to form meaningful relationships based upon mutual respect and trust, recognising and celebrating difference, not only within the school community, but in the wider world as well.
- Our children have access to a wide and varied curriculum, allowing each of them to excel as individuals and be the best they can be.
- Our children achieve at least the expected standard across the entire curriculum by the end of Key Stage
- Our children are well prepared to access the challenges of the secondary school
- Our children have aspirations for the future and know that these can be realised with hard work and
- Our children grow up being able to make a positive contribution to the world in which they
Opening Worlds Curriculum
At Woolton Primary School we have adopted the Opening Worlds Humanities Programme as a part of the School Improvement Liverpool initiative to adopt the Programme to teach History, Geography and RE. We chose to adopt this scheme as it gave us the content and resources to introduce a knowledge and skills rich curriculum in the three subjects with language and reading at its heart.
Year 3 began teaching the Programme in 2021/22 academic year with Y4 adopting in 2022/23 Y5 in 2023/24 and Y6 in 2024/25.Year groups without Opening Worlds will continue to be taught our existing curriculum in each subject. This is a high quality curriculum, that will ensure children will receive a good education in History Geography and RE whichever Year group they are in.
Opening Worlds is a knowledge-rich humanities programme for teaching history, geography and religion in Years 3 to 6. We provide curriculum resources together with training, support and ongoing programme-related professional development for primary school teachers. Because of its rapidly discernible effects on literacy and its highly inclusive approach, Opening Worlds quickly gained appeal in schools tackling under-achievement in areas of considerable social disadvantage
- thoroughness in knowledge-building, achieved through intricate coherence and tight sequencing
- global and cultural breadth, embracing wide diversity across ethnicity, gender, region and community
- rapid impact on literacy through systematic introduction and revisiting of new vocabulary
- subject-specific disciplinary rigour, teaching pupils to interpret and argue, to advance and weigh claims, and to understand the distinctive ways in which subject traditions enquire and seek truth
- well-told stories including beautifully written narratives and nurture of teachers’ own story-telling art
- a highly inclusive approach, secured partly through common knowledge (giving access to common language) and partly through thorough high-leverage teaching that is pacey, oral, interactive and fun
- efficient, effective use of lesson time, blending sharp pace, sustained practice and structured reflection
- rapid improvement of teachers’ teaching through systematic training in the Opening Worlds evidence-informed, high-leverage techniques.
Expectations for Maths in the new national curriculum
Teaching calculation at WPS
WPS Calculations Policy 2023-26
WPS Curriculum Maps
English Plans
Grammar, spelling and handwriting information
Maths Plans
Science
Progression in History
Geography Curriculum Statement
Geography Skills Progression Map
PE
Design Technology Curriculum Statement
Design Technology Curriculum
Progression in Design Technology
Computing Curriculum Statement
Computing Curriculum and overview
Art and Design Curriculum Statement
Art Curriculum
RE updated
Spanish Curriculum and Progression
PSHCE
Progression in Online Safety- September
EYFS Curriculum Intent
Opening Worlds Curriculum Y3 and Y4 History Geography and RE
Phonics at WPS
From September 2012 we started to use the Read Write Inc approach to teaching phonics. Read Write Inc is mainly taught in our Early Years Foundation Stage, Y1 and Y2 classes. All children take part in small group, daily phonics lessons with children in Y2 moving on to daily comprehension skills lessons also using the Read Write Inc approach.
You can follow the link to our WPS information page to find out further information.
Please click on the blue link below:
WPS Calculations Policy September 2023
We updated our School Calculations Policy to reflect the requirements of the National Curriculum 2014.
This policy was revised in September 2023.
The policy details the methods used to teach mathematics across school and ensures a consistent approach in our teaching methods. All staff have received training on the use of this policy.
Calculation workshops for parents and carers are held annually . These are a great opportunity for you to find out about the methods we use to teach maths, especially calculations.
WPS Calculations Policy 2023-26
WPS Marking and Feedback Policy 2023-26
The WPS Marking and Feedback Policy was updated in September 2023. The policy explains how teachers mark children’s work and give children specific feedback on how to improve. The overall aim of the Marking and Feedback Policy is ensure children know the next steps in their learning and what they need to do to improve. It also aims to recognise the achievements children have made and to celebrate their progress.
Please click on the blue link below to view this policy: