Our Curriculum and approach
At Wesley Methodist Primary School we have designed our curriculum with the intent of ensuring every child has every opportunity to build solid foundations to become aspirational, ambitious and creative citizens of the world. We have recognised our school context and use this information alongside our school vision and ethos to direct our approach of teaching and learning.
Our vision "Shine like stars as children of God" embodies all that we are and underpins all that we do. We aim to provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum, which is rich in knowledge and skills driven, that will lead to sustained mastery for all with unlimited aspiration.
Our curriculum sets out:
- A clear curriculum map of the breadth of topics to be covered for each year group. This ensures each teacher has clarity about what to cover. As well as providing the key knowledge within the subjects, it also develops pupils’ cultural capital.
- The key concepts that will be taught through each subject area. These are the key skills that are developed within subjects, which are then revisited within the teaching of a range of topics and a range of contexts. This enables children to make links within learning.
- Progression within the skills identified within each ‘milestone’. We follow a milestone curriculum where key concepts are learned through a Basic (Milestone 1), Advancing (Milestone 2) and Deep (Milestone 3) understanding.
- Criteria for depth of understanding. Each milestone spans over a two-year period so that key concepts are repeated regularly. This ensures key knowledge enters children’s long-term memory (research based evidence supports this).
We understand that intelligence is not fixed and that potential is great, therefore we set high, yet realistic expectations of the children regardless of their background, race or gender. We know there is a wide range of intelligences and that all children have something to offer the world. We ensure that all of our children know this to ensure that their confidence and self-esteem - a crucial factor in their learning and happiness - continues to grow whilst at Wesley. It is important, therefore to engage the children in as wide a range of activities and experiences as possible, and to acknowledge that learning involves our feelings and emotions as well as our ability to think and act. We know that learning takes place and is effective when children are given opportunities to think for themselves and are free to ‘have a go’, in a risk-free environment.
At Wesley, we are clear on the importance that children know what they are learning and why, and how each piece of skill and knowledge they acquire fits into their ‘big picture’. This helps children to know what to do to get better, and it is in a positive, nurturing ethos that children understand the skills they need in order to learn. Therefore, we have built in a range of opportunities for our children to access a variety of retention and knowledge strategies to support them in knowing and remembering more of what they have been taught.
