Our vision: ‘Better never stops’

Our core purpose is: 

To create independent, confident learners that aspire to and improve every single day and grow to understand their place in the world. We believe that by striving to be better every day the progress we can make in our learning is limitless. Learning at Whitelands is an active process that enables us to further develop our knowledge, skills and understanding.

 Our core values that enable us to achieve this are:

• Resilience
• Aspiration
• Respect
• Curiosity

Curriculum statement

Intent

At Whitelands Park Primary our curriculum is underpinned by our mission to create independent, confident learners that aspire to improve every single day, and that develop a sense of their place in the world. Our curriculum will do this in the following ways:

• To provide a reading rich curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge which is retained and built upon.
• To enrich the curriculum with first-hand experiences so that knowledge is built on real life understanding, and a love of learning is fostered through enjoyment.
• To build experiences into the curriculum that celebrate difference and encourage debate about right and wrong, and fairness. Through these experiences children will learn respect and resilience and be prompted to be curious about the world they live in.
• To provide a supportive and challenging curriculum which builds progressively upon acquired language and skills so that all children can aspire to do their best within a nurturing environment.

General principles

Our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:

• Learn within a coherent and progressive framework
• Build upon first-hand experience and prior knowledge
• See clear links between different aspects of their learning
• Develop a rich and deep subject knowledge
• Experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning
• Use a variety of real-life contexts for children to develop and practise their skills
• Help children to understand how they learn in order that they may become more successful at it.

Purpose

At Whitelands Park we want children to have the confidence to move forward with their learning and know how they relate to and influence the world around them. As a result, we work to help them to be happy and confident about themselves as learners and as members of the school community.

In all other areas of the Curriculum we use the Cornerstones curriculum, which is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 primary national curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. It is based on a child-centred pedagogy called The Four Cornerstones and is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) and Knowledge Rich Projects (KRPs), which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning.

We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides many learning challenges throughout the academic year that require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively. Cornerstones also provide a rigorous skills and knowledge framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These skills and knowledge are tied to activities and are age-related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.

More detailed information about each year group's topics can be found on the 'Class Pages'.