Our Curriculum Vision

At Winnersh Primary School, where learning is an adventure, our values - embrace challenge, show respect and get involved - are at the core of all that we do and underpin our teaching and learning. The school’s curriculum aims to be balanced across all subject areas, and promotes the development of the whole child to prepare them for the opportunities, experiences and responsibilities of life beyond primary school. To ensure that all pupils are successful, the learning has been organised so that knowledge is built upon termly, annually and between year groups and topics.  

By the time the children leave us, we want them to feel empowered to continue their own personal learning journey in all areas of the curriculum. In all of the year groups, pupils are taught through half-termly or termly topics.  We know that children learn best when they are able to immerse themselves in engaging opportunities, so we make sure that they all share a wide range of curriculum enhancement activities. Through exposing them to varied experiences and a diverse range of experts both in the classroom and during off-site visits, we aim to foster in our children curiosity, a willingness to take risks and embrace making mistakes, and the confidence to express themselves. These experiences are woven into each year group’s planning in a cross-curricular fashion, however, teachers always make it clear to pupils which subject they are learning and what each encompasses. All of our pupils have access to high quality resources, such as language-rich and diverse texts which inspire and motivate them to write and read to further their knowledge; tools and materials to cultivate their creativity in art and design technology; a variety of musical instruments with which they can express themselves melodically; mathematic and scientific equipment to support problem solving and investigation; access to PCs and iPads to ensure that they are technologically literate and know how to keep themselves safe online, and, where appropriate, assistive technology so that all pupils can achieve their learning goals independently.

Our curriculum design means that topics are the driver for the majority of our teaching and learning: lessons are linked to a termly (or half-termly in Key Stage 1) geography or history-based topic which connects all parts of the curriculum. The way that our curriculum is organised ensures that children are given time to reflect on their learning and to revisit earlier topics, as well as opportunities to make links between all subjects and build on previous skills and knowledge. At the beginning of each lesson, children answer and discuss ‘last week, last term, last year’ questions so that they are constantly retrieving prior learning, and are encouraged to identify at least one piece of new learning at the end.

We know that each child at Winnersh Primary School is unique and different, and firmly believe that all children should be given opportunities to succeed. We celebrate and value diversity in learning, ensuring that every child is commended for their individual successes. We want our children to see themselves reflected in and represented by the diverse, positive role models we show them both in the classroom and in society, so that they believe that they can achieve anything.