Our Curriculum | Wargrave Church of England Primary & Nursery School

Our 'I am...' within our Christian vision is also a strong part of our ambitious, aspirational curriculum, allowing children to see their future through their learning:

I am an author; I am a mathematician; I am a scientist... the list goes on!

We also want to instil spirituality through our curriculum through providing experiences to develop 'Awe and Wonder' - these are those memorable 'WOW' moments in some learning episodes and those mindful moments where children, beginning at the very foundations of the learning, take time to really notice the world around them.

What do we mean by ‘Awe and Wonder’?

Do you remember that feeling as a child of seeing something so amazing that you said "Wow!"? That is awe and wonder.

At Wargrave, we feel that this magical feeling should be fostered and actively promoted throughout the curriculum for all children and adults.

The world around us is a very special place and as a Church of England school, we believe that God's creation is something to be explored and celebrated at every opportunity.

We are privileged to be able to play an active role in the spiritual development of our pupils and encourage reflection, enquiry and a sense of 'something other'. This is throughout our teaching of the curriculum: from exploring natural phenomina in science, taking opportunities to reflect in RE, looking at how life has changed in history, to finding out about our wonderful world in geography - there are so many ways that children are spiritual. We encourage children as ask 'big questions' and reflect on themselves, others, the world and beyond.

Curriculum relevance

We have worked hard to develop a curriculum that is relevant to the Wargrave child, rooted in local heritage. Subject leads have developed links to local associations and have seen the value of allowing children to use their enquiry skills to explore what is 'on the doorstep' as a starting point; we particularly love our work on 'The Wonders of Wargrave' and plan to continue enhancing children's knowledge of their immediate surroundings before exploring further afield. This, we feel, gives more abstract learning a context. Our curriculum is inclusive, ensuring all children are provided with ways to access learning in a way that enables it to be meaningful to them. As a school, we are also very keen to develop children's understanding of the British Values and the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 are embedded organically in our curriculum through choices of texts, visits from people in the local community and marking events such as awareness days.

Our Curriculum has been designed by the staff and children to provide a bespoke, unique and exciting learning experience which, through the nurturing of curiosity, aims to support our children to know more and remember more!

Within this broad and balanced approach, we place an important emphasis on developing resilience and perseverance and promoting wellbeing and health, with reading at the heart of everything that we do.

Our ‘knowledge-engaged’ approach to subject disciplines, provides opportunities to build upon both knowledge and skills. Subjects are discretely taught and focussed upon progressively developing pupils’ knowledge, skills and vocabulary; these are attributes which our pupils can then take on through every step of their academic journey. We make use, where necessary, of evidence-based programmes and schemes as starting points (see below) but allow our teachers professional ownership to make use of long term plans from subject leads to develop sequences of lessons that meet the needs of the cohort within which they teach.

All subjects are centrally driven by our Christian values and ethos - I am Truth, Friendship & Respect, which permeate throughout everything that we do. The purpose of our curriculum is to ensure that our children are successful in life and learning, no matter what their starting points and barriers to learning may be. As a school, our curriculum sets high expectations for each and every child, meaning that we are relentless in our commitment to provide rich learning experiences which gives our children hope and ambition for the future.

We believe that all our children are provided with their own talents which they can use to harness their achievements and aspirations. All children are different and have their own journeys ahead of them, which is well-respected in a school that values diversity; as a school, we endeavour to work hard to bring out the best in each and every one of our children.