At Wynndale Primary School, our curriculum is driven by our unwavering belief that every child deserves an ambitious, inclusive and high-quality education, regardless of background, starting point or need. Our vision is rooted in our commitment to developing confident, capable, resilient learners who are well prepared for the next stage of their education and for life beyond school. Ultimately, we want every Wynndale learner to ‘Reach Their Star’. Our curriculum has been carefully designed to raise aspirations, broaden horizons and remove barriers to learning, so that all pupils — including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND — achieve well and flourish.

Our Curriculum Design Principles

Our curriculum is built around a clear set of design principles which ensure that learning at Wynndale is rigorous, relevant, coherent and meaningful. These principles guide how we choose content, structure learning and support pupils to make strong progress over time.

Rigorous

We carefully develop both:

• Substantive knowledge – the key facts, concepts and content pupils must know in each subject
• Disciplinary knowledge – how pupils think, work and enquire within each subject (e.g. as a historian, scientist, geographer or artist)

This ensures that pupils not only know more, but also understand how knowledge is created, tested and applied.

Appropriate

Our curriculum is matched carefully to children’s age, stage and starting points, with challenge built in for all learners. Learning is accessible through:

• Strong scaffolding
• Adaptive teaching
• Pre-teaching of vocabulary and concepts
• Targeted support where needed

We believe that all teachers are teachers of SEND, and high expectations apply to every child.

Sequenced

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced from EYFS to Year 6, so that knowledge builds step by step over time. Each unit connects deliberately to prior learning and prepares children for what comes next. This ensures that learning is:

• Logical
• Cumulative
• Progressive

Balanced

We provide a broad and balanced curriculum that develops the whole child, including:

• Intellectual
• Moral
• Spiritual
• Aesthetic
• Creative
• Emotional
• Physical development

This ensures pupils leave Wynndale as well-rounded individuals, not just academically successful learners.

Relevant

Our curriculum is shaped by the needs of our local community, while also opening doors to the wider world. We ensure that learning:

• Reflects pupils’ lived experiences
• Builds strong cultural capital
• Raises aspirations
• Promotes equality, diversity and opportunity

Coherent

We make explicit links between subjects, units and experiences, so that learning is not fragmented. Children are helped to:

• Connect ideas across subjects
• Apply knowledge in different contexts
• See the bigger picture in their learning journey

Focused

Within each subject, we carefully identify the most important knowledge and key concepts that children must learn and remember. This ensures that learning is:

• Purposeful
• Clearly prioritised
• Built around what truly matters most

Key Concepts, Schema and Learning That Sticks

We believe children learn best when new knowledge connects to what they already know. Our curriculum is therefore structured around key concepts and meaningful schema — patterns of knowledge that help pupils organise, connect and retain learning over time.

These concepts deepen as pupils move through school, helping them to develop:

• Secure mental models
• Strong long-term memory
• The ability to transfer knowledge to new contexts

Evidence-Informed Curriculum and Teaching

Our curriculum is shaped by educational research and evidence-informed practice, including:

• EEF guidance on high-quality teaching, oral language, metacognition, feedback and targeted support
• Dylan Wiliam’s formative assessment cycle, ensuring teachers:
• Clarify learning intentions
• Elicit evidence of understanding
• Provide responsive feedback
• Adapt teaching to meet pupils’ needs in real time
• Research from cognitive science and Rosenshine's Principles, including retrieval practice, spacing and managing cognitive load

This ensures teaching at Wynndale is responsive, inclusive and focused on securing strong progress for all pupils.