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EYFS
In the early years at Wilby, we want our children to be happy, confident, well-rounded individuals with a love for learning. The adults within early years are role models for learning and provide high quality interactions to move learning forward by supporting and extending the children.
Our children have the opportunity to learn through play with the use of high quality, open-ended resources. Learning should be fun, engaging and suitably challenging for all our children. At Wilby, we value the importance of safe and stimulating indoor and outdoor environments and believe that they offer children the opportunity to develop their thinking and problem solving skills alongside their learning in each of the seven areas: Communication and Language; Physical Development; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Literacy; Mathematics; Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.
We have chosen the themes of Marvellous Me, Terrific Toys, Helpful Heroes, Joyful Journeys, Amazing Animals and Let’s Grow to focus on during the year, although we have the flexibility to build on each individual’s wants, needs and interests within our early year’s curriculum.
At Wilby we are committed to providing the best possible start to the children’s school life, teaching them skills and giving them experiences which will ensure their well-being now and success in the future.
Early Years Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Reception curriculum map | Download Preview |
Maths
For our maths curriculum, we use White Rose Hub reception and mixed-age planning. This planning allows us to ensure the National Curriculum is being covered but most importantly being mastered. The blocks range from 1 to 5 weeks allowing teachers to ensure mastery and for children to deepen their understanding. Our lessons are structured to allow children to have support where needed and challenge is provided for all children to enable all children to reach the ambition of being successful mathematicians.
Alongside this, our maths curriculum includes daily counting practice to ensure that children have this fundamental skill. Children will progress from counting whole numbers in sequence to counting in larger steps and then fractions. Daily Rekenrek practice provides children with a visual and manipulative representation of the structure of numbers to 10 and 20. In key stage 2, children will also have regular practice of times tables facts which can allow children to make connections across other areas of maths.
As a school, we have developed calculation policies which both ensure progression and allow for all children to be successful in calculation at their own level. During the year, children in key stage 1 and key stage 2 have their own calculation booklet which can be referred to showing their individual methods.
To increase children’s exposure to and progress in maths, the children have a short maths session during morning registration and afternoon registration. Throughout the week, the morning session revises work from last term, last unit, last week, last lesson and a tricky area from the week to allow for regular recall of previous learning. The afternoon session focuses on new teaching to allow for pre-teaching for future learning to take place.
You can find our maths curriculum, vision for maths, whole school policy for calculation here and our progression in maths below.
Maths Curriculum Documents
English
Phonics
At Wilby phonics is taught following the Little Wandle synthetic phonics program. This is a comprehensive programme that teaches the GPCs alongside progressive blending skills with word cards. The programme is regularly assessed and children’s gaps in learning are quickly identified. These gaps are then taught in groups or 1:1 through daily keeping up sessions. Alongside these sessions the children are given accurately matched reading books that go alongside the scheme. All staff have been trained to deliver the sessions and the scheme provides a consistent approach that reduces cognitive load. The scheme’s support material uses consistent mnemonics and key phrases that aid children with embedding learning and all support material is consistent which further reduces cognitive load. Each lesson reviews previous learning as well as teaching new learning so that children get regular opportunities to deepen their learning. Little Wandle also teaches tricky words from both letters and sounds and the common exception words and supports handwriting by using letter formation phrases for both lower case and capital letters.
Reading
Children in Reception and Key stage 1 are given a reading book that is accurately matched to their phonic ability. The Little Wandle scheme uses regular half termly assessments to guide teachers to the correct reading level. The children have at least three taught reading sessions a week. These sessions are taught in groups and cover three aspects of reading: fluency, prosody and comprehension so from their first experience of reading children are taught to develop all the skills required to succeed and enjoy reading.
Once the children have completed the Little Wandle reading scheme they become free readers. At Wilby, we aim to teach all children to read and be readers. As a free reader the children are encourage to choose books that inspire them and that they will enjoy. To ensure rigour and that the books are well-matched class teachers and LSAs read regularly with all children. Children that are free readers have 5 whole class reading sessions per week using a high quality text. The sessions are a whole class shared reading, lesson on key vocabulary, guided sessions where children work on their individual needs, a comprehension lesson and a session on reading for pleasure. This process teaches key reading skills and ensures time is given to the enjoyment of books. Classes also experience a range of texts as class readers to further again to provide the essential time to share a love of books and develop the children’s cultural capital.
Writing
At Wilby we use talk for writing, this ensures children have a secure model on which to base their writing. The children are then taught to use this model to innovate and invent their own texts. It ensures they are taught a wide variety of genres and have the opportunity to experience and use a hugh quality text. The genres are built on throughout the years so that each year children can add to their previous learning and develop their skills within the genre.
Each class also teaches a range of basic skills. The children who need it have daily handwriting sessions, as this is a skill that has been heavily impacted by home online learning. Discrete grammar skills are reinforced using golden sentences. This ensures children develop a secure understanding of the organisation of sentences. The golden sentences approach allows for easy differentiation and give the children the opportunity to reflect on and analyse their writing so they can make improvements. Basic writing skills have also been affected by home online learning so the daily practise of these skills have been made a priority.
Once children have completed the Little Wandle phonics scheme, Spelling is taught following the sequence of lessons on the spelling shed scheme. Spelling shed has been chosen as it closely matches expectations of the national curriculum. It allows teachers to personalise learning and add any spellings that may be pertinent to the class, group or individual child. It also allows children to practise at home online in an engaging and challenging format.
All these separate elements combined allow us to ensure children are making progress in all the English key concepts outlined in the English vision.
You can find our whole school curriculum vision for English and our progression of knowledge and skills for Reading and Writing below.
English Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Whole School Reading progression document | Download Preview | |
pdf Whole School Writing progression document | Download Preview |
Phonics
At Wilby CE VA Primary School, we aim to develop confident, fluent and passionate readers and writers from an early stage. We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised which is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP). This is a process that first teaches the letter sounds, building up to blending these sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words.
Reading underpins children’s access to the curriculum and it clearly impacts on their achievement. There is considerable research to show that children who enjoy reading and choose to read benefit not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. To be able to read, children need to be taught an efficient strategy to decode words. That strategy is phonics. It is essential that children are actively taught and supported to use phonics as the only approach to decoding. Other strategies must be avoided. Phonic decoding skills must be practised until children become automatic and fluent reading is established.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised
At Wilby CE VA Primary School we use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised programme as our phonics programme. Fluent decoding is only one component of reading. Comprehension skills need to be taught to enable children to make sense of what they read, build on what they already know and give them a desire to want to read. Reading increases children’s vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Furthermore, children who read widely and frequently also have more secure general knowledge.
Reading Practice Sessions
Children are given regular opportunities to apply the phonics they have learned by reading fully decodable books. The phonic progression in these books must match the progression of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Reading practice sessions take place at least three times a week. Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory.
The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
- decoding
prosody – reading with meaning, stress and intonation
comprehension – understanding the text
Resources
In order to ensure a successful reading practice session, prior preparation is key. The following resources are prepared in advance of the sessions:
- grapheme cards
- word cards
- tricky word cards
- pages from the book which will be used to model prosody
- comprehension questions
- reading books
Content and Structure
The reading practice sessions have a clear structure:
• Pre-read: Revisit and review
• Reading practice: Practice and apply
• Review: Pacey review of any misconceptions and explanation of what is expected for home reading.
Pre-read: Revisit and review
It is important to start every reading practice session with a ‘revisit and review’. This will enable the children to bring the GPCs they have learned to the forefront of their memory. This makes it easier for them to automatically recall the words and set them up to succeed when they read the book. This part of the session is short and pacey. It provides the ideal opportunity to:
• revise the graphemes the children should already know
• practise fluently reading three or four words from the book, applying their phonic knowledge
• revise the tricky words that appear in the book
• Teach the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
Reading practice: Practise and apply
‘Practise and apply’ is the main part of the reading sessions. The specific content will vary according to the key reading skill being taught. When the focus for the reading practice session is decoding, each child reads the book independently, applying their phonic skills. The session which focuses on prosody, should begin with an opportunity for the children to read the book independently to practise their fluency, followed by the teacher/teaching assistant working with the reading group on how to develop prosody and practise this skill. In the third session, the focus is on comprehension. When the children are reading independently, the teacher/teaching assistant moves round the group, ‘tapping in’ to listen to each child read for two or three pages, depending on the length of the text.
Review
At the end of the reading practice session, it is important to leave a few minutes to pick up on any common misconceptions and explain the home reading practice.
Support for parents
Early Years Curriculum Documents
This link will take you to the parents section of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds website; there are some really helpful videos on here.
Science
For our science curriculum, we have considered the experiences of our school intake and felt that they needed to be able to develop their knowledge of the main fields of science and be confident in linking these to encounters of their own. We felt the curriculum should ask questions of the children and provide them with the opportunity to answer these questions effectively, through research and experimentation, immersing them in real life experiences, and using their previous knowledge, built throughout the school years, to support their ideas.
Due to our school structure of mixed-age classes, we follow a 2-year cycle. We endeavour to offer a basis for the children to develop their communication skills, via in depth investigations, research and experiments, discussion and hypothesis, presenting and writing our findings and conclusions, using various resources.
We have designed our science curriculum to introduce pupils to diverse areas of science, studying various hypothesise, scientists, inventions and achievements. Children will be able to recognise and discuss similarities and differences, and gain a chronological awareness of how science develops through history, throughout their time in the school. We have considered how it offers a range of ancient, through to recent, scientific achievements and discoveries that the children can relate to, using modern knowledge and experiences. The achievements provide opportunities for the children to observe the ambition and resilience of many historical scientific figures, to provide them with a stimulus to drive their own thoughts on the contributions they can make themselves in the future.
Diversity is a key element of our science curriculum, with the importance of male and female representatives, different races and cultures, and people from various areas of history and life, being a prominent factor.
We want all our learners to leave Wilby CE VA Primary School with a curiosity and passion to hypothesise, discuss, test their theories and draw conclusions within the areas of biology, chemistry and physics, and to ensure that they question all relevant information gained for validity and importance. These skills will provide the children with a secure grounding to develop their knowledge and interests further in science in Secondary school and beyond.
Science Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Science Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
Computing
For our computing curriculum, we have considered the experiences of our school intake and felt that they needed to be able to develop their knowledge of the main fields of computing and be confident in linking these to encounters of their own. We felt the curriculum should ask questions of the children and provide them with the opportunity to investigate these effectively, through hands-on activities and experimentation, immersing them in real life experiences, and using their previous knowledge, built throughout the school years, to support their ideas. Due to our school structure of mixed-age classes, we follow a 2-year cycle based on Purple Mash schemes of learning.
We have designed our computing curriculum to introduce pupils to various elements of technology, looking at coding through to presenting data via spreadsheets, charts and databases. Children will be able to recognise and discuss similarities and differences, and gain a chronological awareness by developing their technological understanding, throughout their time in the school, alongside considering how technology has such an impact on modern life. We provide opportunities for the children to observe the ambition and resilience of many technological figures, via our topic work, to provide them with a stimulus to drive their own thoughts on the contributions they can make themselves in the future.
Online Safety is a key element of our computing curriculum, with opportunities presented to the children to consider how to ensure they are safe online, considering the SMART acronym, with safety being a prominent factor throughout each term across the school. As a Primary school, we also safeguard the children by teaching the importance of ensuring that content is age appropriate and advising them not to access inappropriate sites, videos or programs.
We want all our learners to leave Wilby CE VA Primary School with a curiosity and passion to use technology to develop their learning and understanding, and to ensure that they question all relevant information gained for validity and importance. These skills will provide the children with a secure grounding to develop their knowledge and interests further in computing in Secondary school, every-day life and beyond.
Computing Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Computing Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
Religious Education
For our RE curriculum, we have ensured that not only do children learn about varied world religions, but we also have the opportunity to celebrate and foster awareness of different cultures and faith groups within our community and the wider world.
RE at Wilby is taught in accordance with the Northamptonshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. Pupils learn about Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism, as well as exploring secular life stances such as Humanism, where appropriate. Due to the structure of our classes, we follow a 2-year rotational curriculum.
As Wilby CE VA Primary is a Church of England Voluntary Aided school, Collective Worship is of a broadly Christian nature and is flexible enough to match the ages, aptitudes and backgrounds of our children. In addition, our collective worship promotes our school vision and values and aims to develop the children’s love and concern for others as well as their own self-worth. Representatives from local churches regularly attend to conduct worship.
Religious Education Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf RE Progression Chart | Download Preview | |
pdf RE Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
PE
At Wilby we believe that PE and Sports are an integral part of every child's education and development. We feel that all children should have access to quality PE provision, with the intention of increasing the amount of young people taking part in regular sporting activity throughout their lives. Striving to be the best that you can be is vital within our lessons and is fundamental to our school values and our beliefs. Children need to challenge themselves but look for that next manageable target and relish themselves when they reach it.
We always work hard to provide a wide variety of fully funded, part-funded or paid sports clubs for the children, which take place after school on four days per week. These allow children to learn new skills and practise them with their peers. Our children also take part in inter-house house competitions each term and we strive for every child to take part in at least one competitive tournament each academic year with other schools across the county.
Our children have a PE afternoon per week and a PE morning with a specialist coach each fortnight where they are introduced to new sports such as curling, and are prepared for taking part in competitive sports. Our children have access to high quality resources to support their learning.
Physical Education Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf PE Progression | Download Preview | |
pdf PE Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
History
For our history curriculum, we have considered the experiences of our school intake and felt that they needed to be able to link historical experiences to those of their own. We felt the curriculum should ask questions of the children and provide them with the opportunity to answer these questions effectively, through research, immersing them in real life experiences, and using their previous knowledge of other historical eras to support their ideas.
Due to our school structure of mixed-age classes, we follow a 2-year cycle. Throughout the 2 years, each class will be researching two periods of history in depth annually.
Our history curriculum is designed to introduce pupils to diverse areas of history, from different cultures, countries and eras. The key threads that run through our history learning are chronology, significance (people and events) and comparing and contrasting. Children will be able to recognise and discuss similarities and differences, and gain a chronological awareness of how history develops, throughout their time in the school. We have considered how our curriculum offers a range of ancient, through to recent, historical achievements that the children can relate to, using modern knowledge and experiences. The achievements provide opportunities for the children to observe the ambition and resilience of many historical figures, to provide them with a stimulus to drive their own thoughts on the contributions they can make themselves in the future.
Diversity is a key element of our history curriculum, with the importance of male and female representatives, different races and cultures, and people from minority areas of life, being a prominent factor.
We want all our learners to leave Wilby CE VA Primary School with a curiosity and passion to research important events, people and places and to ensure that they question information gained for validity and importance. These skills will provide the children with a secure grounding to develop their knowledge and interests further in history in Secondary school and beyond.
History Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf History Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
Geography
For our geography curriculum, we have considered the experiences of our school intake and felt that they needed to be able to consider the world around them, including places that they may or may not experience personally. We felt that the curriculum should ask questions of the children and provide them with the opportunity to answer these questions effectively, through research, immersing them in real life experiences of others in various areas of the world. This will also incorporate using their previous knowledge of the world and their local area to support their ideas using various resources, such as maps, aerial photography, diagrams and first-hand accounts. Due to our class structure of mixed-age classes, we follow a 2-year cycle.
We have designed our geography curriculum to introduce pupils to diverse areas of the world, incorporating different cultures, countries and climates. Children will be able to recognise and discuss similarities and differences, and gain an awareness of how the world continues to develop, throughout their time in the school. We have considered how it offers a range of European and worldwide details, through to local and national information that the children can relate to, using some of their own knowledge and experiences. This provides opportunities for the children to observe the ambition and resilience of many prominent figures and different cultures, to provide them with a stimulus to drive their own thoughts on the contributions they can make themselves in the future to the world around them, including the environment and further afield.
We want all our learners to leave Wilby CE VA Primary School with a curiosity and passion to research important matters that affect people and places and to ensure that they question information gained for validity and importance. These skills will provide the children with a secure grounding to develop their knowledge and interests further in geography in Secondary school and beyond.
Geography Education Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Geography Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
Music
For our music curriculum, we use the Charanga music scheme. We made the decision to move to this scheme as we wanted to broaden the range of music our chidlren are exposed to as they learn the skills both to appreciate and make music.
Due to the structure of our classes, we follow a 2-year rotational curriculum. Throughout the 2 years, each class will have 3 lessons that are designed to meet each year group they contain, as well as completing the Reflect, Rewind and Replay unit throughout an academic year which focuses more upon the transcription aspect of the music curriculum. Each year a class will have 2 lessons that match one of the age groups and 1 that will match the other. For the second rotations, this will be swapped over to ensure the steps have been met. Where possible our curriculum matches with topics within classes.
Our music curriculum is designed to introduce pupils to a diverse style of music, from different cultures and countries to recognise similarities and differences, and recreate their own versions. We have found that many of our children do not encounter music often within their lives outside of school. Therefore, in our curriculum it was important that the pupils experience both British and non-British artists and both modern and classic music.
Music Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Music Curriculum Map | Download Preview | |
pdf Whole School Music Progression | Download Preview |
French
Intent
Our Modern Foreign Languages curriculum enables our children to develop their unique potential within a secure and caring environment. Our children are given every opportunity to build their cultural capital and threshold concepts in French to enable them to be successful citizens in our ever-changing world and in their future lives. Our approach to French aims to develop children’s confidence in their own abilities and independence helping them become successful linguists, eager to learn more and build a love for the subject.
Implementation
Our children in Key Stage 2 will have access to a high-quality foreign languages curriculum using the Language Angels scheme of work and resources. This will progressively develop pupil skills in foreign languages through regularly taught and well-planned weekly French lessons which will be taught by a teacher.
Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language.
Lessons offering appropriate levels of challenge and stretch will be taught at all times to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language they are learning.
Early Language units are entry level units and are most appropriate for our Year 3 and 4 pupils or pupils with little or no previous foreign language learning. Intermediate units increase the level of challenge by increasing the amount and complexity (including foreign language grammar concepts) of the foreign language presented to pupils. Progressive units are the most challenging units and are suitable for Year 6 pupils or pupils with a good understanding of the basics of the language they are learning. Grouping units into these Teaching Type categories ensures that the language taught is appropriate to the level of the class and introduced when the children are ready. Children will be taught how to listen and read longer pieces of text gradually in the foreign language and they will have ample opportunities to speak, listen to, read and write the language being taught with and without scaffolds, frames and varying levels of support.
Units are progressive within themselves as subsequent lessons within a unit build on the language and knowledge taught in previous lessons. As pupils progress though the lessons in a unit they will build their knowledge and develop the complexity of the language they use.
Impact
Formative assessments take place in every lesson to enable children to work to their potential and is used to support teaching and learning and inform future planning. Teachers will aim to assess each language skill (speaking, listening, reading and writing) twice throughout each academic year to be able to provide reference points against which learning and progression in each skill can be demonstrated. Children collect examples of their written work in a French folder; therefore, will have a portfolio of work by the end of the year.
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf French Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
PSHE
For our PHSE curriculum, we have chosen the Jigsaw scheme, which provides a comprehensive Programme for Primary PSHE including statutory Relationships and Health Education. Jigsaw provides children with relevant learning experiences to help them navigate their world and to develop positive relationships with themselves and others.
The Jigsaw structure also means that all the children from Reception to Year 6 will be learning about the same areas at the same time: Being Me in My World, Celebrating Difference, Dreams and Goals, Healthy Me, Relationships and Changing Me. This connection between the areas throughout the school allows for whole school to come together with their learning, for example in worship.
Jigsaw provides a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health with a focus on allowing children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.
PSHE Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf PSHE Progression Map 2022 | Download Preview |
Art
For our art curriculum, we have ensured that not only do children experience a range of skills and media, but they also get inspiration from a diverse range of artists, both contemporary and historical, even spanning back over 40,000 years to the oldest cave paintings.
Due to the structure of our classes, we follow a 2-year cycle. Throughout the 2 year cycle, each class will experience a range of media and create both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art. Where possible we have also chosen art works or artists that fit with our topics such as mosaics during our Emperors and Empires topic and portraits and poses during our Magnificent Monarchs topic.
Our art curriculum is designed to introduce pupils to diverse styles of art, from different cultures and countries to recognise similarities and differences, and recreate their own versions. In our curriculum it is important that the pupils experience both British and non-British artists and art throughout history in order to inspire the artists of the future.
Art Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Art Curriculum Map | Download Preview |
Design and Technology
For our design and technology curriculum, we have ensured that children experience a range of skills across the areas of design and technology: structures, textiles, mechanisms, food, control and electrics.
Due to the structure of our classes, we follow a 2-year cycle. Throughout the 2 year cycle, each class will learn techniques and skills which build on their learning in the previous cycle. Where possible we have also chosen products that fit with our topics to ensure engagement with the learning and a purpose for the product, such as seasonal soups in our Sow, Grow and Farm topic and Taxis in out Bright Lights, Big City topic.
Our design and technology curriculum is designed to teach pupils a wide range of techniques using varied materials. This allows them to use creativity and imagination to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems with a consideration for resourcefulness and how their designs could make a difference in the world.
In our curriculum it is important that the pupils experience designs from across the globe, so to facilitate this, children will explore the varied examples of products and designs during their learning.
Design & Technology Curriculum Documents
Title | Description | Download |
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pdf Design Technology Curriculum Map | Download Preview |