The future begins here!
Our curriculum ensures learning is effective, exciting and above all, allows the children to explore the world they live in and prepare for the opportunities and challenges of life in the 21st century.
Whitburn Village Primary aims to provide a curriculum that is engaging, balanced and relevant. While emphasis is placed on children learning core skills of English and Maths, we place great value on developing the ‘whole child’ and provide an engaging programme of study in all curriculum areas. The whole school team aspires to create a truly outstanding school built on secure foundations of excellent teaching, a memorable and creative curriculum and consistently high academic attainment and progress for all of our learners.
We are required to base our teaching on the National Curriculum for England which sets out clear, full and statutory entitlement to learning for all pupils. It determines the content of what will be taught, and sets attainment targets for learning. It also determines how progress will be assessed and reported.
Our drive is to have a curriculum which meets all statutory requirements of the National Curriculum and allows children to explore the world they live in and prepare for the opportunities and challenges of life in the 21st century. Our unique school is part of our wonderful Whitburn Village community and is close to beautiful countryside, coast and plays an integral part in the life of the village. With that in mind, we have a strong focus within the curriculum on our locality and surrounding areas.
We follow the Learning Challenge Curriculum for Foundation subjects which is built around questioning and helps to ‘hook’ the children into their learning. We aim to create deep learning opportunities through our curriculum and the use of questioning so that every child is curious and challenged.
Our high expectation of children begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Children begin Whitburn Village Primary in our Nursery when they are three years old. Nursery and Reception children are regularly assessed throughout the year using Development Matters, and do well in meeting their Early Learning Goals by the end of their Reception year. These assessments are used to identify key subject areas to inform planning, and to create a bespoke intervention programme for focus children who need to be targeted for specific learning. Pupils begin early phonics lessons in Nursery becoming more formalized in Reception, and these continue through into Key Stage 1 (KS1) and sometimes into KS2. There is a focus on exploratory play in the Early Years based around the children’s interests, core texts and key skills. In Reception, all pupils take part in a daily Literacy, Maths and a Phonic lesson as well as individual reading sessions. We use the ‘Read Write Inc’ scheme.
In KS1 and KS2, children continue their learning journey, taking part in Maths and English lessons every day. In Year 1 (Yr1), children continue to have daily phonics lessons whilst in Yr2, children access daily Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) lessons, which are linked to their learning in writing, to allow them to apply and deepen their basic skills. The phonics scheme we follow is Read, Write Inc. and our book scheme is Book Banding
In Yr6, focus gradually shifts to the end of Key Stage assessments as children are prepared for these tests and the transition into Yr7.
All children in KS1 and 2 access the wider curriculum through discrete lessons, although links are made between curriculum areas when appropriate. We follow the South Tyneside Agreed Syllabus for R.E.
If you wish for your child not to take part in the RE curriculum, you will need to contact school.
We enrich our pupils with a wide range of before school, lunchtime and after school clubs. Opportunities for all children to attend are provided.
For a full analysis of our curriculum and a breakdown of each year group’s curriculum, please see the relevant Curriculum Overviews.
For further details about the implementation of the curriculum, please contact school for the relevant subject policy documents or contact Mrs Littlewood (curriculum lead).
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