Curriculum Intent

Everything within the school, including our curriculum, is built around our collective vision. Our curriculum is one of the principal ways in which we live out our Christian mission. We want every child to flourish, spiritually, academically and personally, and to leave Warkworth equipped for the journey ahead. We therefore combine high academic expectations with a loving, nurturing environment, recognising the uniqueness and God-given potential of every pupil.

We believe that a broad and ambitious education is an entitlement for every child. Pupils should encounter significant knowledge, ideas, texts, people, places, art, music, science and culture, including those they may not meet through everyday life. This is particularly important for pupils who are disadvantaged, vulnerable or have SEND. Inclusion does not mean expecting less. It means removing barriers so that pupils can participate in, understand and enjoy an ambitious curriculum.

Our curriculum is also shaped deliberately by our context. Warkworth is a rural and coastal community with a dispersed and increasingly mobile intake. Pupils benefit from a strong sense of place and community, but they do not all arrive with the same prior knowledge, vocabulary, experiences or academic confidence. Some have limited everyday exposure to universities, professional pathways, cultural institutions or the wider diversity of modern Britain. SEND complexity has also increased. Our response is to make knowledge, language, aspiration and successful learning explicit rather than leaving them to chance.

At the heart of our curriculum, we aim to:

Respond intelligently to our community. Curriculum content and implementation are reviewed in light of pupil outcomes, SEND, mobility, disadvantage and the changing context of the school, while our underlying ambition remains constant.

Build powerful knowledge over time. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that pupils develop secure knowledge, vocabulary and understanding within and across subjects. New learning deliberately builds on what has come before.

Broaden horizons and raise aspiration. Pupils are rooted in Warkworth but not limited by Warkworth. We deliberately introduce them to worlds, ideas and possibilities beyond their immediate experience and provide wider opportunities that families may not otherwise encounter.

Maintain high expectations for every pupil. Teachers adapt how pupils access learning rather than routinely changing what they are entitled to learn. Scaffolding, modelling and additional support are used to help pupils succeed within the same ambitious curriculum wherever possible.

Develop articulate, thoughtful and knowledgeable pupils. Reading, vocabulary and purposeful talk are central to learning. Pupils are expected to explain, reason, question and increasingly participate in the disciplines they study.

Form character as well as intellect. Our values of Love, Peace and Courage shape how pupils learn, how they treat others and how they understand their responsibility to the wider world. Education at Warkworth is about what children know, but also the people they are becoming.

The Warkworth Way: Our Approach to Teaching and Lesson Design

The curriculum sets out what pupils should learn. The Warkworth Way describes the shared principles through which we teach it.

Our approach is research-informed and rooted in explicit instruction. Teachers provide clear explanations and models, connect new learning to prior knowledge, check understanding carefully, give pupils guided and independent practice, teach vocabulary deliberately and use purposeful talk to deepen thinking. Retrieval and regular review help important knowledge become secure in long-term memory.

We do not expect every lesson or subject to look the same. Teachers make professional decisions according to the knowledge being taught, pupils’ starting points and the disciplinary demands of each subject. However, pupils should experience a consistent set of principles across the school:

• clear explanation and modelling
• purposeful retrieval of prior learning
• carefully sequenced guided and independent practice
• strong questioning and frequent checks for understanding
• explicit teaching of vocabulary
• purposeful pupil talk and oracy
• responsive feedback and correction of misconceptions
• scaffolding where needed, removed as pupils become secure
• high expectations for all pupils

This consistency is particularly important in our context. Pupils join Warkworth with different experiences, prior knowledge and needs. A clear and predictable approach to teaching helps pupils understand what successful learning looks like and enables teachers to remove barriers without reducing ambition.

The Warkworth Way is therefore not a lesson template. It is a shared approach to making ambitious learning clear, memorable and accessible.

Reducing cognitive load

Deliberate decisions are made across the school to reduce cognitive load, such as reduction of visual noise within classrooms (particularly crucial for children with sensory needs) to having tasks be focused on the precise learning intentions e.g. keeping resources, like worksheets, simple. For children to make complex connections and access the challenging curriculum as well as possible, staff seek to reduce cognitive load so that children’s attention can be focused on the most crucial aspects as presented by the teacher.

Keep up, not catch up

We take a keep up, not catch up approach for all children, but particularly bearing in mind those who are at risk of falling behind, who may be disadvantaged or may have SEND. This is based on the principles of asking more (of certain children in the class, both in terms of questions during input and of their efforts in general), giving more (support where necessary), and getting more (out of the children, understanding that children with SEND may need to work harder than their peers in order to reduce and eventually eliminate the attainment gap).

Schemes of Work

Read Write Inc

In EYFS and KS1 we use Read Write Inc. (RWInc). This is a consistent, rigorous and dynamic literacy programme that uses synthetic phonics to help children quickly learn to blend letter sounds together, following an effective, evidence-based programme.

As well as reading, it includes spelling, writing grammatically accurate sentences, writing for different purposes and builds up an adventurous vocabulary. There are also many opportunities to build up skills in speaking and listening. Children get a great sense of achievement and develop confidence in the fast moving yet very supportive sessions.

Accelerated Reader

Accelerated Reader is a computer program that helps teachers monitor children’s independent reading while encouraging a love of books. We use it with pupils in Key Stage 2 and children in Key Stage 1, including Year 1, who are ready to choose their own books and can access the quizzes. Children choose a book that interests them at an appropriate reading level and read it at their own pace. Once they have finished, they take a short computer quiz to check their understanding. Teachers use the feedback to celebrate progress, help children set goals and guide their next reading choices.

White Rose Maths (WRM)

We draw on White Rose Maths to support the structure and sequencing of our mathematics curriculum, medium-term planning and classroom teaching. It is one of a range of resources we use, alongside materials from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), Classroom Secrets and other sources.

Teachers use their professional judgement to select and adapt resources in line with our school’s teaching approach and the needs of their pupils. Our curriculum guides these choices, ensuring that lessons build securely on previous learning and provide appropriate support and challenge.

Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)

PSHE helps pupils develop the knowledge, habits and judgement they need to live safe, healthy and responsible lives. It builds from the foundations established in EYFS and becomes increasingly sophisticated as pupils grow in independence.

Through explicit teaching, pupils learn about relationships, health and wellbeing, personal safety, online safety, money and work, protected characteristics, citizenship and the physical and emotional changes of growing up. We also teach pupils how to recognise risk, seek help, manage emotions, make responsible decisions and contribute positively to their communities.

At Warkworth, PSHE is not confined to one lesson each week. It is reinforced through Collective Worship, character education, pupil leadership, careers education and the wider curriculum. Our Christian values of Love, Peace and Courage provide a clear moral framework, while pupils are also taught to understand and respect the diversity of modern Britain.

The aim is that pupils leave Warkworth increasingly independent, articulate, reflective and able to act with integrity.

I think that last sentence is especially worth keeping because it connects very neatly to the Strong Standard language you have been working towards in Personal Development.

Relationships, Sex Education (RSE)

Please see our dedicated RSE policy and progression of units on our Policies page.

Would you like to know more?

If you have any specific questions about your child’s learning in a particular subject area, contact the school office on 01665 711369 and a member of staff will be happy to assist you.