At our school, the National Curriculum is statutory. It lays out the range of subjects we must teach and sets the standards pupils are expected to reach at the end of each key stage of learning. Our School Curriculum incorporates the National Curriculum and goes beyond it. Alongside our core curriculum, we have a co-curriculum which extends the learning in the National Curriculum to meet the particular needs and interests of our pupils and families. It is a curriculum designed to work for our community, and is therefore also a curriculum under constant review to reflect the changing needs and interests of our school community in an ever changing world.
Curriculum Intent
Every child at Whitehouse Primary is recognised as a unique individual: we celebrate individuality and welcome difference within our unique school community.
It is our aim to provide our children with a curriculum that is aspirational for all with every child’s ability to learn underpinned by the good teaching of basic skills, knowledge, personal wellbeing, individual challenge and values that will prepare our children for life beyond primary school.
Our School Curriculum is designed for:
1. Learning: we teach our pupils to learn well, be inquisitive and understand themselves as learners.
Learning happens when there is a relationship between teacher, pupil and the tasks children engage with. We view the quality of teaching, questioning and depth of challenge in our classrooms as fundamental; alongside the positive attitudes and behaviours our pupils bring to their learning. The extent and quality of pupils’ active engagement in lessons and around school is crucial alongside their understanding that the learning happens in their brains and their bodies. Our curriculum enables children to understand what effective learning is, understand themselves as learners and develop their capacity to make the most of learning in school through metacognition and growth mindset lessons.
2. Wellbeing: we teach our pupils how to lead happy, healthy and constructive lives, in which they can aspire and experience success.
Wellbeing, in terms of both physical and mental health, is essential for effective engagement with school and wider life. Our pupils need to feel secure in themselves and their environment and relaxed but alert to learn. They need to believe in themselves as successful people and aim high in order to make great progress. We create a nurturing, happy, creative environment in which our pupils can thrive. We teach them about wellbeing and how they can be happy, healthy people and develop interpersonal skills, resilience and a growth mindset.
3. Ambition: we ensure a broad and balanced knowledge of the world.
The National Curriculum is an entitlement and we ensure all pupils access it fully throughout their time at Whitehouse Primary. We provide wide-ranging and coherent knowledge across the curriculum to equip our pupils for success in secondary school and their adult lives. We aim to ensure a breadth of experience and knowledge that closes gaps in cultural capital between different groups of pupils and provide opportunities for our children to develop critical thinking, leadership and independence. We want our pupils to learn about the wider world and offer a broad range of possibilities in their lives, so they can aspire with purpose and ambition.
Pupils need opportunity to develop lines of personal interest and expertise. We provide a broad, coherent core curriculum that aims at sustained mastery for all and a greater depth of understanding, in all subjects, for those who are capable. We also provide a co-curriculum, which provides the opportunity to deep dive into subjects and topics as well as offering the opportunity for STEAM challenge and enrichment.
4. Aspiration: we ensure high levels of competence in the core subjects of English and maths.
Effective use of English and fluent mathematical knowledge are prerequisites for success across the curriculum. In particular:
a. The ability to understand the ideas of others and communicate one’s own thoughts is central to learning in school. The quality of collaboration in our classes is dependent on pupils’ standards of English.
b. Language acquisition: the ability of pupils to consider and communicate broad and abstract concepts is dependent upon both their vocabulary and the sophistication of their grammar.
c. Learning in school and more broadly in life is hugely dependent on the ability to read. A very large amount of information in our society is communicated in written form.
d. Numerical fluency is core knowledge required by all subjects across the curriculum. Maths develops the skills of reasoning, deduction, problem-solving, representation and logical connection, which are crucial thinking tools for wider learning.
Our curriculum enables our pupils to become sophisticated and flexible users of English and maths, as well as highly competent readers and writers.
5. Acceptance and Belonging: we teach our pupils to have an understanding and respect for others; be empathetic and build healthy relationships.
We want our children to live well in a diverse world and be inclusive, confident, responsible members of society who have a positive sense of self and feel empowered to make their own decisions.
Diversity and difference is a defining characteristic of the wider world. At Whitehouse, children learn how to live and work positively in the context of difference as part of our community. We use a rights respecting and team working ethos/approach to promote caring, responsible and respectful members of the school community, which we believe reflect the values and skills needed to become well-rounded and successful members of society. Children leave Whitehouse with a sense of acceptance and belonging to a community where they are valued; where they value others and where they feel able to challenge the values of others.
Subject Intents and Implementation
