What will your child learn at school each day? Find information about our curriculum subjects here.

A solid foundation for your child's future...

Curriculum Intent

At Wantage Primary Academy we recognise the importance of securing knowledge, rehearsal and working hard to become confident and resilient thinkers and learners.

At Wantage Primary Academy, children will be immersed in a learning environment that will enable them to be equipped to be successful in a rapidly changing world.  They will learn to be resilient, creative and have a growth mindset.  They will learn that struggle and challenge are vital parts of the learning process and will be able to cope with, and adapt to, change.  They will have clear sequential learning and hands on experiences and we will continue to foster the natural insatiable curiosity that they are born with into sustaining a life long love of learning.  This will start right from our nursery class and continue into Year 6.  

Our curriculum is broad and our commitment to building firm foundations and encouraging academic mastery is unswerving. We work on the premise that great teaching, based on formative assessment, particularly great questioning, AfL and retrieval practice, is key. Precise assessment, teaching that closes any gaps and thinking about ability differently are all part of our approach. Our curriculum is well-planned, progressive and sequenced effectively to ensure pupils know more - do more – remember more.

We intend that each child challenges themselves every day, taking risks, learning from mistakes and persevering towards their most ambitious goals. Our children will be encouraged to aim as high as they can whilst also enjoying their childhood and benefiting from a variety of broad opportunities and experiences.

Our curriculum and approach to learning and teaching has been designed to meet the needs of our pupils.  Our intention is that children are taught to read, write and use mathematical skills from their individual starting point as rapidly as possible.  We have high expectations for all our children. 

We engage interest and provide vocabulary in context to support all learners (especially SEND and EAL). We provide clear retrieval and instructional practice to ensure learning ‘sticks’ by building neural pathways and schema in the long term memory.      

We intend that our curriculum is ...

• a curriculum where all children are able to learn and are successful and make as much progress as possible
• a curriculum that provides the children with the knowledge and skills to know more, remember more and do more
• a curriculum that prepares children for the next stages of education and life in society
• a flexible curriculum that assesses progress and provides intervention for both academic and emotional needs

What subjects will my child learn?

Implementation

Our Curriculum delivers the National Curriculum 2014 and beyond. It is designed to be exciting for children and staff with stimulating topics which the children become fully absorbed. It enriches our children as learners and leaders for the future, offering them unique, bespoke opportunities over their seven-year primary journey and preparing them for the future.

High-quality texts lie at the heart of the school’s curriculum and these are used to engage children in the topic at hand. 

We have a unique star challenge system which is used across the whole school and in all subjects to provide all of our children with challenge in every area of the curriculum. Our star challenge enables us to lift the lid on learning. In every lesson, the children to make autonomous decisions, selecting the level of learning right for them for that particular lesson. We model and scaffold the children as learners so that they are able to know how to make the right choices for them to ensure they have the chance to excel. We do not have fixed ability groups, instead the level of star indicates the level of learning the child takes per lesson, there is the opportunity to attempt more than one star, to explore greater depth and to be supported to achieve.

Interwoven throughout our Curriculum is our British Values and SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) development of our children. Our weekly celebration assembly ensures we celebrate all of our children’s effort achievement both inside and outside school. See Personal Development for more information of enrichment offered.

Impact

We believe in ‘learning for life’ and this can be seen throughout our curriculum and in books and through discussions with pupils.

Through our approach, children at Wantage Primary Academy achieve highly. Our curriculum and environment fosters pupils who are respectful, polite, and honest and contribute to the community in a positive manner. As a school, we are determined that our children will leave us as confident, ambitious, independent and well-educated young people, ready for the next part in their education and we will work closely with secondary schools to ensure a smooth transition.

Our teachers continually use assessment of the children’s responses and the work they produce to measure impact. A regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review is in place. This includes book scrutinies, learning walks and lesson observations to measure the impact of teaching and learning, as well as pupil voice to gauge children’s engagement and enjoyment of the curriculum.  Teachers and leaders also have the school’s curriculum assessment data to support judgements on the impact our curriculum is having.

Curriculum enrichment

At WPA we believe that the academic life of our pupils and staff should include much more than what happens in the mainstream curriculum. As our school day runs longer than most, we are offer a wide range of experiences and challenges that enrich our curriculum. This is to ensure that our pupils are inspired to learn outside of the classroom and develop the skills required for the world beyond their primary education. All children at WPA have access to a wide range of after school and in school clubs that enrich and enhance their learning across the curriculum.

Furthermore, each year group organises a variety of enrichment activities and experiences over the course of the academic year to extend pupils learning and experiences of a modern British society. Subject leaders develop activities that provide whole school enrichment and collaborative working across year groups. Enrichment events and events to promote cultural capital are shared with parents through our website and newsletters.

Our learning environment

Our classroom environments both support and enrich the learning of all children.  As well as being vibrant and welcoming, the classroom environment is a learning resource, the second teacher, a way of engaging children and building the class community.  Our classrooms create a sense of ownership and be used to support and promote learning, as well as celebrating children’s work.

We use the classroom environment as an interactive resource which supports teaching, learning and assessment. Each classroom is to be filled with theme-based challenging questions that will be changed regularly. Our working walls show clear progression and are exemplary reference points for our pupils. 

At Wantage Primary Academy, we believe that a well organised and stimulating environment has a direct impact on the quality of teaching and learning, and therefore supports raising standards.  It enables pupils to develop independence as learners, building on good Foundation Stage practice and moving beyond. We provide consistent expectations for all pupils in order to support them, whilst challenging them to give their very best. We develop a shared sense of what high standards look like.

If you require further information about WPA's curriculum, please contact the school office.