National Curriculum

The National Curriculum

At Whitley Lodge, we offer a broad and balanced curriculum that is ambitious and incorporates all National Curriculum requirements. Through our curriculum, we aim to excite, engage and inspire our children by providing them with rich and varied learning opportunities. Our curriculum delivers opportunities for all children to gain transferrable skills whilst also acquiring relevant knowledge; supporting them to become well-rounded, informed individuals ready for the next stage of their learning journey.

Two-year Curriculum Cycle

After our Reception year, classes are organised into mixed-age classes with 45 children in each cohort with approximately 30 children in each class. For this reason, we have carefully planned and developed a two-year rolling curriculum for science and the foundation subjects, which is based on the National Curriculum requirements and the essential knowledge we believe to be important. We have designed our curriculum so that key concepts are revisited to ensure knowledge ‘sticks’ and skills are progressive and transferable. Units of work have been thoughtfully sequenced to ensure that children can build on their prior knowledge and skills and deepen their existing understanding. Children will have covered the National Curriculum objectives by the end of each key stage.

Key Stage One Curriculum Overview – Cycle A/Cycle B

This section is being updated.

Key Stage Two Curriculum Overview – Cycle A/Cycle B

This section is being updated.

Special Educational Needs

All class teaching is aimed at achieving the potential of every individual child. Some children have special educational needs, which we endeavour to cater for by planning appropriate programmes of work. Parents are always informed if their child is being monitored to assess the level of support needed.  A learning support teacher and / or teaching assistant support these children both in the child’s own classroom and in small groups intervention sessions.

Sex Education

Sex Education is not taught as a formal subject but the staff will endeavour to answer children’s questions, which may arise, honestly and sensibly, on an individual basis.

Health Education

We are a health promoting school and recognise the link between physical and mental health.  We make opportunities to teach children about personal hygiene, personal safety both in and out of school, about how their bodies and other living organisms work and grow. Whitley Lodge has been presented with a Healthy School Award for many successive years.

Equal Opportunities

Whitley Lodge First School has a commitment to developing a non-sexist and non-racist education system.  We do not discriminate on any basis.  We do value all children as individuals in their own right.

Homework

Homework is set weekly in Key Stages 1 and 2 via the online learning platform Seesaw. The homework set reflects current learning and is used to provide consolidation of key objectives or to pre-teach upcoming curriculum content.

In Key Stage 1, there is one piece of set homework a week which alternates between a literacy or a numeracy activity. In addition, the children are encouraged to read their phonics reading book. Year 2 children have lists of spellings to learn across each half term and these are covered in a variety of ways during daily spelling lessons.

In Key Stage 2, there are two pieces of set homework, one for literacy and one for numeracy. Children are always encouraged to read at home. The children also have weekly spellings and times tables facts to learn for quizzes in lessons during the following week.

Occasionally, in both Key Stages, topic-based homework might be set to ensure a variety of learning is represented by the tasks set.

We have produced policies and schemes of work that support each subject.  Each teacher has responsibility for a curriculum area.  The curriculum leaders review and update our documentation as and when necessary.