@ - 19 Nov 2024
A surprise snowy day at Windrush ❄️
Our Curriculum
Windrush Church of England Primary School has an excellent curriculum which provides a first-class education for our pupils. Learning which is engaging, compelling, well planned and purposeful inspires our children to love learning for life. We have a deep commitment to provide a broad, balanced, and rich curriculum that not only enables children to be successful academically, but also to enrich themselves personally and allows them to make valuable and meaningful contributions to society- to be well-prepared for whatever life brings.
Features of our curriculum
Rich in content – It has explicit knowledge to be learnt and understood by pupils clearly identified, combined with first hand engaging learning experiences for children in the context of topics and themes across the curriculum.
A Commitment to Reading, Writing and Maths – Our school nurtures a love of reading and equips pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding to both read and write with fluency. We have high expectations in these areas, from phonics (Read Write Inc.) through to the explicit learning of grammar and rich opportunities to read and write. Similarly, we teach the principles of Mastery Maths, which ensures children have a deep and wide understanding of mathematical concepts and can apply their knowledge to different situations.
Coherent – Our curriculum is well planned and sequenced to ensure there is a progression as the children move through the school. This links to planned known vocabulary, concepts and experiences the children have in each year. There are cross-curricular themes to enable children to develop learning connections.
Assessment – Effective assessment ensures that teachers are able to respond to children’s needs. We use a range of techniques to assess children e.g. ongoing ‘in the moment feedback’ during lessons, comparative marking and whole class feedback, low-stakes quizzes and more formal summative assessments as appropriate.
Values – Our curriculum teaches children the importance of having strong values for living a happy and successful life. We have the opportunity to nurture reflective wisdom that will enable our children to make wise and appropriate choices that will prepare them for life in modern Britain. Our provision will also enable all pupils to develop a positive attitude towards themselves and others, show respect for the world they live in and deal with everyday life situations in a confident and understanding way.
We see it as our responsibility to prepare children for an ever-changing world so they are spiritually, morally, socially and culturally equipped for the next stage of their learning journey. We aim to create an educational environment that allows children to develop the ability to question, reason and gain independence in their learning.
Enrichment activities
As well as an excellent curriculum, our children have the benefit of our additional facilities allowing us to enrich the curriculum and extend their experiences beyond what is expected in a Primary school.
These include:
- A studio which is used for additional music, drama and dance activities.
- Smaller rooms for peripatetic music lessons
- A food technology room where children learn cooking skills and develop an interest in healthy eating
- A forest school where children build their confidence and resilience to different challenges
- Extensive grounds where children utilise sports pitches for a wide variety of team sports and games
As our school grows, we will increase our extra-curricular activities for children to experience. These will include sports clubs, homework clubs, music and arts clubs, plus competitions within the school and in partnership with other local schools.
Health and Wellbeing
Here at Windrush, we take the mental health and wellbeing of our children, families and staff seriously. We use the Family Links resources and training to provide our staff with the knowledge and skills to support the mental health and wellbeing of our children. Parents can access the resources from our website and we aim to provide workshops and training for parents within our school day.
Parent partnerships
Parents and staff work together in an effective partnership to support the child both at home and at school. Parents are kept informed through newsletters, parent consultations, information evenings, PTA events, whole school and class celebrations and the more informal day to day contact during our pupils’ primary school years. We meet parents formally twice a year and send out an annual written report at the end of the school year and an interim report mid-way through the year that will form the basis of the mid-year parents’/carers’ meetings. Curriculum information is on our website and also shared explicitly with parents at the start of a new term so parents know what their child will be learning in order for them to support further learning at home.
Pupils with SEND
A child has special educational needs if she or he has a learning difficulty that requires special educational provision to be made for him or her. This may mean that a child has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of pupils of the same age in, or has a disability that makes it hard for him or her to access facilities within the school. Our school will strive to engender a sense of community and belonging through its inclusive ethos, broad and balanced curriculum for all pupils, systems for early identification of barriers to learning and participation and high expectations and suitable targets for all children.
When a child is identified as needing SEN support, the school will adopt the recommended model for Special Educational Needs as set out in the Code of Practice (DfE 2014). The SENCo and the class teacher, together with the pupil and parents/carers, will consider a range of teaching approaches, appropriate equipment, strategies and interventions in order to support the child’s progress. Outcomes will be agreed and progress reviewed regularly.
Some pupils may have a greater level of need and may require considerable additional support. Provision may include the involvement of specialist support, usually from an outside agency. This may involve more specialised assessments and/or pupil observations. Where, despite the school providing SEN support, a child has not made expected progress, school and parents/carers will consider requesting an Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment by the LA. The LA will expect to see evidence of the action taken by the school as part of SEN support.
Reviews of pupils with SEN support will be held three times a year and led by the class teacher supported by the SENCo. They provide an opportunity for parents/carers to share their concerns and, together with the child and teacher, agree aspirations and outcomes for the pupil.
Enrichment and extended services
As well as an excellent curriculum, our children will have the benefit of our additional facilities allowing us to enrich the curriculum and extend their experiences beyond what is expected in a Primary school.
These include:
- A studio which can be used for additional music, drama and dance activities.
- Smaller rooms which can be used for peripatetic music lessons
- A food technology room where children can learn cooking skills and develop an interest in healthy eating
- A forest school where children can build their confidence and resilience to different challenges
- Extensive grounds where children can utilise sports pitches for a wide variety of team sports and games
- An amphitheatre for outside performances and shows
Windrush Church of England Primary School will commit to running extra-curricular activities after school for children to experience. This will include sports clubs, homework clubs, music and arts clubs, plus competitions within the school and in partnership with other local schools. These will be run by staff and, for some, by external providers. We will expect to link with our other local schools in the initial years in order to ensure a breadth of provision.
Where necessary a nominal charge to parents may be made but children in receipt of PPG grant will get these for free. For sport we will aim to achieve the School Games Gold Mark in the future where at least 50% of Key Stage 2 children will be involved in extra-curricular sport.
Wrap-around care will be in the form of a school-run breakfast club to benefit working parents and after-school care provision all of which will be onsite and run by our own staff.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
Our EYFS provision is shaped by the guiding principles of early years practice. We recognise that every child is unique and will develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. In order to support this our well-trained staff will take the time to develop a relationship with each individual child in order to know how to support them most effectively. Staff will plan a detailed and flexible curriculum that takes into account a variety of learning approaches, including: a focus on play, exploration, being active, creative and critical thinking and using inside and outside spaces equally.
Positive relationships between home and school are vital and we recognise that they enable the children to become stronger and more independent and, to this end, we ensure that opportunities for meetings with families both formal and informal are planned for regularly. Focus children will be selected each week so that a detailed observation of their skills and learning needs are clearly identified and shared with parents.
Our curriculum will focus on the three prime areas of:
- Communication and language,
- Physical development
- Personal, social and emotional development.
These areas are those most essential for a child’s healthy development and future learning. As they continue to develop, the children will be supported to grow further and will develop skills in four specific areas: literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design.
A typical day in an Early Years classroom would look similar to this:
- The first hour and a half: welcome, letters and phonics activities
- Then: child initiated learning or adult focused learning both indoor and outdoor
- Followed by 20mins review of learning with snack
- Next: child initiated learning or adult focused learning both indoor and outdoor
- Before Lunch: story time
- One hour lunch and play
- After lunch: carpet time to include PSHE/Circle time
- Afternoon free flow
- Before going home: tidy time and story
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education (SMSC)
Providing high quality SMSC lessons and learning opportunities will be at the heart of the school’s work. This will enable all pupils to develop a positive attitude towards themselves and others, show respect for the world they live in and deal with everyday life situations in a confident and understanding way. Our school will have clear, long term plans for how and when spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning and development will take place and ensure that events and experiences are planned from EYFS through to the end of Key Stage 2.
Our pupils’ spiritual awareness will be developed through opportunities to learn about and reflect on their own beliefs and those of others, and to develop respect for and a love of learning, about the great diversity within our society and the wider world. Moral development will be taught through an appreciation of right and wrong within the context of the school’s rules, rights and responsibilities and the consequences of pupils’ behaviours and actions. A knowledge of the codes and conventions of conduct agreed by society, both non-statutory and those prescribed by law will enable our pupils to make responsible judgements and develop the ability to discuss, debate and appreciate different points of view about moral and ethical issues.
Our pupils’ social development will be facilitated through engagement with activities that serve others and which will develop their understanding of active citizenship. These elements will be built into the work of the school so that every pupil understands the significance of fundamental British values that underpin the notion of citizenship and so that the school holds a central and highly esteemed place within the local area that it serves because of the ethos that every pupil will embody through their engagement with that wider community. Beyond this the school and wider community will be able to see the positive impact that the pupils are having on the world that they are growing up into – for example this could be in terms of pupils adopting leadership roles in school such as School Council or Sports Ambassadors; through charitable work to raise money or awareness for local, national or global organisations; in hours devoted to volunteering or contributing to the enjoyment of others in nurseries, centres for the elderly and charitable organisations.
Parental Engagement
We know that parental engagement has a large and positive impact on children’s learning and has a significant positive effect on children’s achievement and adjustment. We will proactively seek to develop strong home-school links, so that parents and staff can work together in an effective partnership to support the child both at home and at school. Opportunities for engagement will be provided through curriculum projects, open assemblies, newsletters, parent consultations, information evenings, PTA events, whole school and class celebrations and the more informal day to day contact during our pupils’ primary school years. We will pay particular attention to harder to reach families and offer support and strong communication with these families.
Extra-curricular Activities
Windrush Church of England Primary School will commit to running extra-curricular activities after school for children to experience. This will include sports clubs, homework clubs, music and arts clubs, plus competitions within the school and in partnership with other local schools. These will be run by staff and, for some, by external providers. We will expect to link with our other local schools in the initial years in order to ensure a breadth of provision.
Where necessary a nominal charge to parents may be made but children in receipt of PPG grant will get these for free. For sport we will aim to achieve the School Games Gold Mark in the future where at least 50% of Key Stage 2 children will be involved in extra-curricular sport.
Wrap-around care will be in the form of a school-run breakfast club to benefit working parents and after-school care, provision being made by an external provider as is the case with our other Witney schools.
