Curriculum Overview

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Our curriculum ensures learning is effective, exciting and above all, relevant to the needs of our children.

Whitehills Primary School aims to provide a curriculum that is engaging, balanced and relevant. Reading is viewed as a priority as without the ability to read, learning becomes more challenging for all pupils. For this reason, the school has a library and librarian. While emphasis is placed on children learning core skills of English and maths, we place value on developing the ‘whole child’ and provide an engaging programme of study in all curriculum areas. Speaking and listening skills are enhanced throughout the school with effective use of talk partners and a focus on the exploration of vocabulary in all aspects of the curriculum. This has been a focus as our cohorts are becoming increasingly diverse.

Our curriculum aims to support the pupils’ knowledge of ‘continuity and change’ to enable them to develop a better understanding of the world around them. Diversity and equality have been important influences of our curriculum choices as we strive to ensure pupils are informed members of their community. We also promote ambition in our learning as well as our out of school activities, celebrating success and drawing attention to the qualities needed to achieve this. These curriculum drivers align with our values of respect, responsibility and hard work.

Our high expectation of children begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Children begin Whitehills Primary in Reception where baseline assessments are used to identify key subject areas to inform planning and children who need to be targeted for specific activities. Pupils begin phonics lessons, using Essential Letters and Sounds, in Reception and these continue through into Key Stage 1 (KS1). In maths, there is a strong focus on pupils’ development of number sense, through the use of the programme ‘Mastering Number’. There is a focus on exploratory play in Reception based around topics and core texts, which children access both on a morning and an afternoon through continuous provision, where resources are carefully selected to support their development in all areas of the curriculum.

Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

As pupils move into Year 1, they continue with phonics lessons, with the addition of reading lessons later in the year to ensure pupils develop the skills required to ‘think as a reader’. Children are provided with a book to take home, initially, to practise the sounds they are able to read, and then using book bands at the child’s level of reading, until they reach the level of a ‘free reader’, usually around Year 4. Reading lessons aim to develop children’s ability to identify and engage with a text at a high level, identifying the main ideas, questioning and predicting as they read and being able to summarise what they have read effectively.

Writing lessons include a focus on handwriting (using Kinetic Letters) and development of pupils’ knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG). The school uses the ‘Talk for Writing ‘ approach, providing pupils with high quality model texts to explore before expecting them to write in a range of genres and for a range of purposes.

In maths, pupils in Key Stage 1 develop their number sense through ‘Mastering Number’ in addition to following the White Rose Maths scheme of work for the wider maths curriculum. In Key Stage 2, they continue with White Rose Maths. We aim for pupils to master all aspects of maths, becoming fluent in their recall of number facts, efficient in their approach to arithmetic and be able to reason and problem-solve with confidence.

In the afternoon, children access the wider curriculum of: