Curriculum Overview
At Whinfield Primary School the children access an exciting, broad and balanced curriculum. We aim to identify and remove barriers to learning and provide suitable learning challenges that respond to diverse needs. This encompasses a variety of exciting, first-hand experiences to enable children to acquire appropriate skills, knowledge and understanding preparing them for today’s world.
Leaders at all levels have spent time carefully looking at the curriculum and adapting it to meet the needs of the children at Whinfield. It is clear what pupils need to know and be able to do. The curriculum is planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and staff take time in lessons to ensure that key knowledge and vocabulary is recapped and reviewed prior to moving on.
The curriculum remains as broad as possible.
Subject leaders keep a regular check on the Intent of our curriculum and, after speaking with staff amend as necessary as embedding an effective curriculum takes time. Teachers work hard to ensure that pupils learn more and remember more through their day to day teaching, using assessment as appropriate. Pupils make progress and are able to apply knowledge learnt.
In Reception classes they follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.
Years 1 to 6 children follow the National Curriculum. This includes the core subjects: English, Mathematics and Science and the foundation subjects: Geography, History, Art & Design, Music, PE, Design & Technology, Computing and PSCHE. Children in KS2 are taught a Modern Foreign Language, we have chosen to teach Spanish.
Curriculum overviews are published on this website.
Gem Curriculum statement.
How is the curriculum enhanced by our GEM values?
Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum. Our pupils are offered a very wide range of experiences to extend their understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. Skills, attitudes and values are developed in all year groups to prepare the children for the next stage of learning and enable them to be successful members of the community.
GEM values underpin everything we do at Whinfield. It starts with pupils understanding how important these skills are if they want to be the best they can be. GEMS are used to support pupils in becoming effective learners and enable them to recognise and develop key life skills using their GEM power. By having a framework to describe successful learning, we are able to talk with children about specific aptitudes that lead to high quality learning in the classroom.
The core GEM values we use are:
Resilience (emerald)
Problem-solving (diamond)
Kindness (ruby)
Concentration (sapphire).
In addition to these values, we have:
Conduct (amethyst),
Collaboration (topaz)
Telling the truth (pearl).
These values are key to the ethos of Whinfield. We make meaningful connections across subjects and use the GEM values to support these links. The school expects everyone to develop and show a sense of responsibility and self-discipline whether alone, together, at work or at play and to support policies on equal opportunities. We actively promote British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs to prepare our pupils for life in modern day Britain. We also provide opportunities for our pupils to learn about the contribution of Britons to innovation, excellence and changes in the world.
Using GEMs is a metacognitive approach to teaching and learning. It encourages and enables children to reflect on themselves as learners and explicitly identify and practise the skills needed in order to be successful. Gem Powers are used in every classroom in all subjects and help the children understand which skills they need to carry out different learning tasks successfully. The children become aware of themselves as learners and we teach the children to get better at the skills they need to develop. The children learn to identify how to use the different powers and which ones are needed for different tasks. Each subject states how our GEM values enhance the teaching and learning in that subject by their inclusion in each lesson. This may be
in an overt way e.g. science, where children are expected to work as part of a group to develop a scientific experiment which promotes co-operation or in a more subtle way, via teacher questioning.
The intertwining of the curriculum with the GEM values ensures that all children have the opportunity to become both an effective learner and a well-rounded individual ready to face the challenges of their next stage of education
Cultural capital
As a school we endeavor to equip our pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
The national curriculum says:
‘It is essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.’
We thread Cultural Capital throughout the whole curriculum.
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