Our Curriculum (Overview)

Our Curriculum Aims:

The aim of Willow Primary School is to provide opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident, successful learners with high aspirations who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.  At Willow we believe WE COME TO SCHOOL TO SOW THE SEEDS OF LIFELONG LEARNING. 

S = Self

O = Others

W = World

Our ASPIRE Values permeate through everything we do and we expect our pupils to be ambitious to achieve their very best through being positive, self-motivated, engaged in their learning and independent in their decisions. There is a high focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding.

We aim for all our pupils to enjoy their education and most make progress in all areas of learning, and to support this, pupils at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through appropriate extension activities. Those who struggle are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.

Breadth and Experiences:

The school’s curriculum has been developed to ensure knowledge, breadth of coverage and progression in line with the National Curriculum and EYFS Framework. It provides pupils with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills - we call them Willow's Fantastic Fifty!  Reading is a central focus of our curriculum and we prioritise children’s reading skills, fluency, comprehension and enjoyment.  

Curriculum Leadership:

Subject champions play an important part in the success of the curriculum by leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review. They each collate evidence in subject leaders’ files and regularly hold pupil interviews in order to check on knowledge and skill acquisition. Subjects are planned to ensure progression of knowledge and skills across school. The curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality first wave teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate. In this way it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on pupil outcomes.  

Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour. Creatively produced topic displays give children a sense of pride in the presentation of their work and we expect our children to work towards an audience and purpose so that their learning outcomes are meaningful and worthy of sharing, often with parents and members of the community. High quality visits and visitors enhance the curriculum and provide opportunities for writing for a purpose. To promote physical health and well-being, a range of extra-curricular clubs gives pupils an opportunity to access a variety of sports clubs after school hours. 

Our Self, Others and The World:

Our PSHCE scheme (Jigsaw) provides children with opportunities to discuss and learn about personal health, wellbeing, safety, relationships (including anti-bullying work), differences and aspirations. 

Our diversity, heritage and community work helps children to realise that everyone is special and unique and we should celebrate differences and different kinds of families. In recognising the development of the whole child the pastoral support given to children so they can access the curriculum is very strong. Various programmes of support are provided for children where a need has been identified such as self-esteem, anger management and bereavement, this is led by our inclusion team which includes our Inclusion Manager, SENDCo, Attendance Officer and Senior Leaders.

Our Curriculum is compliant with the Equity Act and the SEND regulations.  Please see our Equity, Equality and Diversity page under the  Policies section. 

Our Heritage and Community:

At Willow, we make sure our curriculum reflects our community and celebrates what makes us special. Each year we learn about Doncaster's Heritage and our community. Take a look at the video on the link below to see some of our learning showcase:

Heritage and Community Project 2023 - Showcase Video

The Long Term Plans in the section below show how our curriculum is designed across each year group. 

Long Term Plans for 2023/24 will be made available in Autumn Term.