Curriculum

The Essentials Curriculum

Our curriculum is underpinned by the Essentials Curriculum by Chris Quigley.

Basic Principles

  1. Learning is a change to long-term memory
  2. Our aims are to ensure that our pupils experience a wide breadth of study and have, by the end of each key stage, long-term memory of an ambitious body of procedural and semantic knowledge

The Essentials Curriculum sets out the essential characteristics (vision), breadth of study (coverage), threshold concepts and milestones (assessment) which are required for all subjects. Furthermore, it provides progress measures for all subjects including personal development.

Curriculum Model

1. Curriculum drivers shape our curriculum breadth. They are derived from an exploration of the backgrounds of our students, our beliefs about high-quality educations and our values. They are used to ensure we give our pupils appropriate and ambitious curriculum opportunities. At WHCS we have chosen the following curriculum drivers:

Possibilities – ‘With God, all things are possible’ Matthew 19:26

Environment – Wonder

Diversity – Harmony

Mindfulness – Compassion & Strength

2. Cultural capital gives our pupils the vital background knowledge required to be informed and thoughtful members of our community who understand and believe in British values.

The Essentials Curriculum provides us with a coherent, progressive and appropriately sequenced curricular structure to enable our pupils to develop subject-specific knowledge and skills to prepare them well for the next stages of their education. The curriculum builds progressively on from the learning in the Foundation Stage. The milestones (KS1 = 1, LKS2 = 2 and UKS2 =3) complement our mixed-age class structure. The curriculum is aligned to the National Curriculum and goes beyond National Curriculum requirements in each milestone to ensure repetition of skills and knowledge.

The importance of developing the depth of children’s learning is a fundamental part of the Essentials Curriculum. Children are given increased cognitive challenge, allowing them to apply their learning independently in a range of contexts to achieve mastery and learning at greater depth.

National Curriculum 2014

At Key Stages 1 and 2 all pupils must study the following subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, Computing, Design and Technology, History, Geography, Art, Music, Physical Education and Religious Education.