Our Curriculum Vision 

We want our children to be: 

• Resilient and confident  

• Independent 

• Engaged and motivated 

• Curious 

• Tolerant and caring 

• Happy 

At WVIS our curriculum is designed to…….. 

• use concrete experiences because children learn by doing 

• promote curiosity in a topic/subject so the children are motivated to learn more 

• frame a lot of our learning across the curriculum around topics so that children make connections across the different subjects. We want the children to learn in a broad and balanced curriculum so their learning isn’t narrowed and so children experience learning beyond English and Maths. 

• make connections between knowledge they already have and new learning. 

• encourage the children to try new things and to ask questions 

• encourage collaboration and discussion 

In Early Years, we provide continuous provision across the 7 areas of learning, centred around a whole-class topic.  Each day, after whole-class direct teaching time, half the class continue their learning outside and half the class remain inside.  In both learning areas, there is one adult-led learning activity as well as a range of child-initiated activities.  Each day there is a focus for independent learning to apply knowledge and skills. We encourage the children to be curious and ‘have a go’, with a strong emphasis on talk and cooperation. 

We support the children to make a successful transition from Year R to Year 1.  We want the children to use their knowledge, understanding and skills in English and Maths to help them learn across all subjects. In Year 1, our learning becomes more formal; we still teach with a topic focus, but our lessons are structured into discrete subjects, meaning that the children have lessons in English, Phonics, Maths, History/ Geography, Art/DT, Music, Science, RE, Computing and PSHE. Each class will continue to experience Forest School as we look for meaningful opportunities for outdoor learning across the curriculum. 

Each year group follows their own topics. We have sequenced our curriculum so that EYFS lays the building blocks of what the children will learn in Year 1, which in turn prepares the pupils for learning in Year 2. Each subject has an overview to ensure there is a progression of skills from year to year. 

We provide a spiral curriculum in which key concepts are presented repeatedly throughout the curriculum, but with deepening layers of complexity, or in different applications. In designing our curriculum, we have been clear about outcomes, defining the ‘sticky knowledge’ that children must learn; this is expressed for each subject/topic in the Knowledge Organiser. This drives our assessment of what the children have learnt. 

When children leave WVIS at the end of Year 2, we want them to have developed skills in each subject and made connections across subjects, which they can use for learning in Yr 3 and beyond.  As they look back at their time at Windlesham, we want to celebrate their sense of belonging to our community and how they have developed.