Curriculum Intent Statement
Whole school Intent
Intent:
Our curriculum considers the school’s unique Christian distinctiveness and is designed to meet the needs of every pupil, encouraging them to ‘Let their light shine!’.
Make your light shine, so others will see the good you do and will praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
At Waterhouses CE Primary Academy and Nursery we believe that behaviour and wellbeing in school is inextricably linked with pupil’s academic achievement and children with greater levels of emotional, behavioural, social, and school wellbeing, on average, have higher levels of academic achievement and make more progress in primary school. (Gutman & Vorhaus, 2012 & Bennett,2017). Our curriculum ensures children are happy with a focus on their well-being and self-esteem. We provide a broad, engaging curriculum with a focus on the reding and the development of language and communication in every aspect of school life,
Implementation:
Curriculum skills are taught progressively across mixed year groups, leading to knowledge building over time and providing opportunities for children to revisit key skills over time. The curriculum ensures all subjects place a high emphasis on developing vocabulary, speech and language skills. We also recognise of developing children’s speaking and listening skills and our curriculum provides opportunities on a regular basis across all subjects.
Our curriculum enables children to build on prior knowledge whilst working towards clearly defined end points through sequential lessons, building on key knowledge, skills and understanding that are subject specific but make curriculum links where appropriate. Children use subject specific books that have been introduced for the 2022/23 academic year and will provide a subject specific learning journey through their time at Waterhouses.
The school’s Christian distinctiveness ensures that the community and wider area surrounding Waterhouses are important to our school, and this is reflected in our curriculum where opportunities to work with the community are incorporated into all aspects of the curriculum. This provides opportunities such as: trips, school events involving parents, assemblies, and fundraising events. All trips booked for the children will be of high quality and the intention of such trips is to provide the children with experiences that enhance their learning. Parents do have the right to withdraw children from all or part of R.E.
Impact:
Our curriculum places the children at the centre of all we do. At Waterhouses CE Primary Academy and Nursery everything we do is with the child in mind, and the strong relationships built between pupils and staff which create a positive atmosphere for learning. Pupils progress and successes are measured through ongoing assessment (formative and summative) during the year. Work is planned to address misconceptions and gaps in learning are quickly identified to ensure that the curriculum effectively meets the needs of all pupils and will adapt and evolve to meet their needs.
Our curriculum will ensure children at Waterhouses become confident, resilient and independent learners who are able to confidentially express their opinions and beliefs. We also believe our curriculum will lead to the key development of language and communication skills which our children require to succeed in life.
Children will leave Waterhouses will the knowledge and skills to succeed academically and equally as importantly, socially and emotionally for the next stage of their learning journey.
Please email office@waterhouses.staffs.sch.uk to learn more about our curriculum.