Curriculum Statement

Intent

At Wheeler Primary School our values permeate all areas of school life and are reflected by the school’s simple motto ‘BRILL’ this stands for – Being Respectful, Responsible and Resilient in Learning and Life. We deliver a broad and balanced curriculum which inspires children and allows them to become immersed in meaningful learning, while ensuring that there is a clear progression of knowledge across the school.

We have a bespoke approach to ensuring children develop character traits and are well prepared for life beyond Wheeler. This is realised through our Bag for Life approach which permeates all elements of school life and bridges school and home life. We take our responsibility to prepare children for life in modern Britain and ensure that the fundamental British Values are introduced, discussed and lived out through the ethos and work of our school.

The curriculum is all the planned activities that we as a school organise in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. It includes, not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also the range of extra-curricular activities that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of our children. It also includes the ‘hidden curriculum’, or what the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave. As a restorative school, we aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people, who can work and cooperate with others, whilst developing knowledge, skills and attitudes to learning, in order that they achieve their true potential.

Our two curriculum drivers are:

Implementation

We plan from the National Curriculum to ensure breadth and balance. The five pillars of the HCAT Signature and the Wheeler Way documents for each subject at school level, shape both the planned content and the delivery.

Our curriculum is taught through discrete National Curriculum subjects, however there may be occasions when some subject content or themes may overlap and allow for connections to be made. This will allow transference of knowledge and application of vocabulary.

Each subject has a clear intent and organising concepts that support decision making in curriculum design.

Key concepts are identified in each subject which allow for children to come back to recall and rehearse over time and deepen their knowledge.

Substantive and disciplinary knowledge is sequenced to support children to know and remember more over time.

Knowledge organisers are used to support accurate oral rehearsal in classrooms and embed knowledge.

Checks in learning are mapped out on MTPs with specific questions and exemplar responses for clarity and consistency.

Impact

We measure the impact of our curriculum in the following ways:

• Formative assessment takes place throughout the sequences through questioning in the classroom.
• Checks in learning take place through pupil interviews predominantly. Pupil interviews are carried out by Subject Leaders and the Senior Leadership Team. These interviews check that pupils have the key knowledge intended by the Subject Leader as written in the MTP.
• Low stakes multiple choice quizzes are completed by pupils at the end of each sequence to ensure pupils can recall the key knowledge intended in the MTP. 
• Curriculum lead supervises staff and monitors and refines the curriculum on an ongoing cycle. MTPs are reviewed termly by teachers and Subject Leaders, where they make any changes together to ensure that key knowledge is retained and embedded by pupils, using the quizzes to help guide the areas to refine.