Our Approach to Learning

At Wolvercote our curriculum is designed to create a love of learning, ensure opportunities to explore a passion for creating and develop a culture of caring. 

Throughout the school a rigorous, progressive programme of knowledge acquisition is underpinned by an approach that allows all pupils to explore, interact with and apply that knowledge in a wide variety of ways. Knowledge is interwoven with key strands of personal development learning that supports a growing understanding of self-regulation, good health and meta-cognitive skills . 

The provision for each phase is carefully planned to take into account the age and developmental stage of the children it supports. Each step builds upon each other ensuring that whilst children are well prepared for the next steps their current provision is tailored to meet their needs at that moment in their journey. 

Mixed Year Groups

We are lucky enough to be able to sustain three mixed year group classes in each phase from Year 1 onwards. This approach provides lots of advantages to our children:

•  Children only move classrooms and teachers every two years, providing them with security and consistency. 

• We regularly remix combinations of children so by the end of their journey in the school the children have had the opportunity to befriend and work with many of the other children. 

• Older year groups in a phase are encouraged to take a mentoring, supportive role for incoming pupils and the younger children in a year group have access to peers who can help them navigate a new year group.

Our curriculum is planned on a two year cycle so that all children access all the knowledge and skills they need before moving onto a new phase. Although this may happen in a different order for different children we ensure through careful planning and adaptive teaching that children meet knowledge at an appropriate time and in a progressive manner.

Teaching

The bedrock of our teaching is our Core Principles. These ensure that all children receive consistent provision whilst allowing teachers to be flexible and adapt to the changing needs of the children in their classes. The core principles are outlined in our Teaching and Learning Policy.

Please find links below to our At a Glance documents which outline how we apply these principles in individual subjects.

For more details or to learn how we support every child’s journey, please contact Mrs. Hayes, our Curriculum Lead, via the school office at office@wolvercoteprimary.org.