ABout Our Curriculum
Our Million Dreams Curriculum Aims:
-
Develop children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in all National Curriculum subjects, with a strong emphasis in phonics, reading and writing, as these underpin learning across all subjects, and ensure they are prepared for the next stage in their education.
-
Develop resilience and independence, and support children to become self-regulated learners.
-
Develop respect for themselves, their own community and communities of others.
-
Enable children to become confident and curious learners.
-
Fosters children’s self-esteem and support them to build positive relationships with others.
-
Encourage children to respect the ideas, attitudes, values and feelings of others and be able to work alongside collaboratively.
-
Promote kindness and empathy.
-
Teach children to have an awareness of their own moral development, and to understand right from wrong.
-
Promote inclusion, equality and diversity.
-
Help children grow into responsible citizens who have a positive impact on their community.
Our Million Dreams Curriculum: Intent
At Woodlands, we are dedicated to improving outcomes for every child through our Million Dreams curriculum, empowering them to excel in all they do. Our goal is to inspire children to dream **big** for their futures and make a positive impact on the diverse world around them. We aim to prepare them to be responsible citizens, succeed in life, and embody tolerance and acceptance in a multicultural society. To achieve this, we ensure our curriculum is inclusive, reflecting both the diversity of our pupils and the wider world.
Designed by Woodlands teachers, our Million Dreams curriculum is a knowledge-rich, balanced and challenging curriculum that covers all National Curriculum subjects. Tailored to our community, it connects knowledge across subjects through strategic planning, ensuring progression whilst making links between past and future learning.
We believe that ensuring every child is prepared for the next stage of their education is a shared responsibility. It is a privilege to support each child's unique journey, starting with exceptional Early Years provision that nurtures courage, curiosity, and resilience. Our Early Years Curriculum establishes a strong foundation for learning, inspiring children to develop confidence, creativity, and independence in their thinking.
At Woodlands, we fully acknowledge the vital role that reading plays in shaping children's futures, and our vision is for every child to not only develop the ability to read with confidence and proficiency but also to cultivate a deep and lasting love for reading that will enrich their lives for years to come. Building on the strong foundations of Early Years and KS1 phonics and early reading, we continue to ensure children develop secure and deep phonics knowledge throughout KS2 whilst developing fluency and comprehension skills to support understanding and analysis of fiction and non-fiction texts. We achieve this through our Phonics programme and our “Learning to Read, Reading to Learn, and Reading for Pleasure,” approach.
Our curriculum also develops specific skills in each subject. For example, children learn to approach information like historians or scientists. Frequent retrieval practice supports long-term memory retention, freeing up cognitive space for new knowledge. We maintain high expectations for all pupils and recognise the critical role parents and carers play in supporting education.
Our Million Dreams Curriculum: Implementation
Overarching hooks for learning have been carefully developed and planned to motivate and engage our children. We have given them exciting names to help promote inquisitiveness whilst giving clues as to content. They are underpinned by subject specific drivers each term with an appropriate balance of knowledge, skills and progression to enable children to make greater sense of their learning and next steps.
In addition, we have mini topics covering a variety of themes, for example: our local area study, religious festivals, Black History Month, Anti-Bullying week etc. Our curriculum meets the needs of all our children whilst complying with our duties in the National Curriculum 2014, The Early Years Curriculum, the Equality Act 2010 and The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.
Our Wider Curriculum includes ‘Hands on’ experiences, such as trips, workshops and access to visitors linked to the curriculum, is carefully planned to enrich the children’s experiences.
Examples of overarching hooks for learning and their subject specific drivers:
Nursery |
Reception |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
|
Going on a Journey |
Marvellous Me! |
Land and Seas (Geography) |
Dear Diary (History) |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
Year 6 |
|
Tribal Tales (History) |
Potions, Burps and Bottom Bile (Science) |
Marvellous Maps and Raging Rivers (Geography) |
Darwin’s Delights (Science) |
Our curriculum offer is underpinned by ensuring children are successful learners and have a belief in themselves through a growth mindset programme that begins in Early Years.
The curriculum is regularly reviewed through staff training sessions, and increasingly with other stakeholders including governors, parents and pupils. The implementation in the classroom is regularly monitored by both senior and subject leaders through lesson drop ins, book looks, staff and pupil voice, for example. Subject leaders use curriculum progression documents to support teaching and learning.
Knowledge organisers are used to evaluate and assess learning throughout the unit. Children have opportunities to share their learning through a variety of means including writing, double page spreads and other self chosen methods.
Our goal is to ensure that children are able to understand and engage with their learning. They must be able to identify and select relevant information and build on what they already know. Cognitive psychologists liken working memory to a 'spotlight,' and it’s essential that we direct this spotlight on the most important information. This is why we provide explicit instruction along with ample opportunities for practice. Children can then Select, Organise and Integrate their knowledge, making meaningful connections. To minimise cognitive overload, teachers carefully design tasks that support learning without overwhelming students. We believe every child has the right to think deeply in lessons and our tasks are designed to be inclusive and accessible for all.
Our Million Dreams Curriculum: Impact
Our knowledge rich curriculum will enable the skills and breadth of content for children to make links to the next year group or the next stage of their education. Acquiring subject specific vocabulary will allow them to build links and enhance their learning across other subjects. We strongly believe that deeper knowledge will give our children the confidence to join conversations which in turn will enable greater access to the wider world.
Children will leave Woodlands with a sense of pride in themselves, their learning and the role they have played in the community at Woodlands.
We work hard to improve the implementation of the curriculum. Here are teaching and support staff discussing disciplinary knowledge in History, ready to design appropriately inclusive tasks.
