How is our curriculum designed?

At Wyton on the Hill, all members of staff and governors are committed to ensuring that all children should receive what is their fundamental right: a good education.

We believe that a good education is one which gives children the best possible start in life: empowering them to develop as active, informed citizens of the community (both their own and the global community); supporting their development as lifelong learners with a passion for enquiry and understanding; and laying the foundations for both their social mobility and their personal fulfilment.

We know that at the heart of a good education is a well-designed curriculum which builds both knowledge and character.

We are therefore currently reviewing and redesigning our curriculum in the light of educational research, based on three key priorities:

• The acquisition of knowledge (in all subject domains): informed by the aims and purposes of the National Curriculum, key educational research and dialogue with our secondary feeder schools, we must ensure our curriculum covers the ‘body of knowledge’ children will need to acquire in order to ensure that they develop a strong general knowledge base and understanding of the world.

• The application of knowledge: we believe that it is not enough for children to memorise facts and processes; it is essential that we provide opportunities for pupils to apply the knowledge they have acquired in a range of contexts chosen to strengthen, deepen or stretch their understanding.

• Personal development: this aspect of the curriculum is particularly important in our setting, because our school community is subject to constant mobility, instability, separation and loss. We must therefore ensure that our planned curriculum includes a range of opportunities designed to promote pupils’ development both as learners and as members of society so that they can develop the skills, confidence, resilience and self-belief they need to lead successful and fulfilled academic and personal lives.

Based on these three priorities, we are currently redesigning our curriculum in two parts:

• Our Academic Curriculum – which outlines both the key concepts and processes which must be sequenced, learned and remembered and includes opportunities to apply that knowledge.

• Our Personal Development Curriculum – which sets out the range of opportunities we intend to provide for pupils so that they develop as spiritual, moral, social and cultural beings as well as effective learners.

However, the two aspects of our curriculum are not mutually exclusive and often lessons across the curriculum will be planned to include one or more aspects of personal development.