Curriculum Intent Statement:

At Walton, we will provide an exciting, broad, inclusive Curriculum, which includes specific drivers which we deem important to our children (Walton Drivers), supporting children with a therapeutic approach to any barriers to learning.  Children use collaborative learning (such as Kagan methods) across the Curriculum to support their learning.

The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of skills, knowledge, concepts and values, mostly derived from the National Curriculum. We provide enhancement opportunities to engage learning and believe that school should be a happy time in our lives, where we have the ability to investigate and inquire. There is equity for all and children leave with a thirst for knowledge.

We believe that strong links between home and school are essential for a child to flourish, therefore many events involve parents, family and carers. Our dedicated team prides itself on knowing our children and families well, working together to provide our children with the best possible futures, in a happy, secure, caring environment.

We want all of our children leaving with a love of learning, aspiring to be the best they can be. They will be responsible global citizens, mindful of their own wellbeing, able to make a positive contribution to our Society.

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. EYFS September 2014

Implementation:

Our Curriculum is based on:

Development of Vocabulary/ Oracy skills –

Kagan methods for Collaborative Learning are used across the Curriculum. A small group of pupils (usually 4) is responsible for its own learning and the learning of all group members. Pupils interact with each other in the same group to practise skills, learn subject matter, solve a problem, complete a task or achieve a goal.

Talk for writing style mapping in writing across the Curriculum - Children are given the opportunity to orally rehearse and use the framework of Imitation, Innovation and Invention.

Development of thinking skills –

Children have a greater involvement in their work, the same starting point may allow differing responses and no cap is placed on learning. 

Time for pupils to reflect and review on their learning is key, they are given next step thoughts to respond to.

Reading across the Curriculum -

Reading is given high priority across the school with specific areas designed in each classroom, class readers and various additional resources being provided for children.  High quality texts are provided to be shared with classes and new stock regularly purchased in line with requests from children.

Children are encouraged to read a wide variety of texts.

Phonics and Early Reading at Walton-

Our Reception, Year 1 and 2 children all take part in daily phonics lessons following the Read, Write Inc phonics programme. This is continued for those few children who require extra support further up the school. Within the Read Write Inc lessons the children learn to decode letter- sound correspondences quickly using their phonic knowledge and skills which acts to allow them to both read and write at an age-appropriate level. The children are further supported in their reading development by completing daily “sight words” in class which allow them to learn to read common exception and high frequency words by sight in addition to those within their RWI sessions.

The books that the children read are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and common exception words and this allows them to gain confidence in their own reading abilities. Our children learn to read common exception words, understand what they are reading and read with increasing fluency and expression. Alongside the books read as part of their phonics programme, all children also make use of our school library to enjoy and borrow books of their choice for “reading for pleasure” and enjoy protected class story time each day. There is also a weekly reading assembly and we also hold a whole school “Drop Everything and Read” session on a Thursday afternoon to further nurture a love and enjoyment of reading. It is our aim that through the teaching of phonics and exposure to a variety of different genres of texts throughout the curriculum, our Walton children will rapidly become confident and increasingly fluent readers who are working at or above ARE by the end of Key Stage one.  They will be able to read unfamiliar words using their decoding skills and will be able to apply this to access a huge variety of texts, written tasks and writing in the world around them.

Learning experiences -

We know that giving pupils the opportunity to develop new skills and try new things helps them to grow in confidence, have more knowledge of the world around them and know what is available to them in an ever changing world. We believe the benefits of introducing the children to a new skill, hobby or passion can be huge.

We offer a variety of experiences, led by our Adventure Ambassador, which include the well-loved Grow, Cook, Eat, educational workshops, visits, , residentials, Beach day and Enterprise week.

Additional special days take place to introduce new topics (Our Wow days), which will be extending to Brilliant beginnings, marvellous middles and Fabulous finishes.

Individual subject days also take place, such as Maths and Science Day, e-safety day and art week.

Outdoor Learning -

For many of our children, Outdoor learning (Forest school) is playing a particular part of supporting learning at school, helping them to develop a sense of belonging and ownership of our school grounds and the wider area. 

Aspirations -

We want our children to know what is out there- to broaden their horizons. We want them to know that achieving well at school and following their own career path is not bound by background or gender and that they should expect equity. We provide visitors to the school in the form of local businesses, for example, Tesco’s and Aldi and regular author and athlete visits. Assembly themes will cover achievements of others. Children are given the opportunity to take more responsibility and learn about democracy through school council, head Boy and head girl roles, Playground Pals and other allocated job roles.

We also provide children with specific Curriculum time to learn about being mindful, looking after their own well-being every day. This is provided through Mindfulness activities and specific pieces of work completed with our excellent Pastoral support team.

Impact -

At the end of their Walton Learning Journey, the vast majority of children will show good recall and fluency of the content taught. They should be able to make connections and apply their knowledge. Some pupils will have a greater depth of understanding. We will track and monitor progress carefully using a variety of methods including book scrutiny, lesson dips and pupil voice to ensure pupils are on track for meeting age related expectations in all subjects.

A voice for the child:

Children are not the people of tomorrow, but are the people of today.
They have a right to be taken seriously, and to be treated with tenderness and respect.
They should be allowed to grow into whoever they are meant to be.
‘The unknown person’ inside each of them is our hope for the future.

Janusz Korczak (1879 -1942)

Curriculum Maps

Please click one of the buttons below to view the mapping for your children’s class.