Our Curriculum Vision
Our WICK curriculum is bespoke, with subject leaders selecting from the very best available resources from the leading subject specialists and associations to support teachers to plan and deliver lessons to the highest standard. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure that, as children progress through the school, previous learning is built upon so that children know more, remember more, and can do more. Importantly, our curriculum is constantly evolving to take into account developments in educational research and the wider world.
One of the principles that has guided our curriculum design is that of “mirrors and windows”. Across subjects, we choose texts, themes and content that enable our children to see themselves and their own lived experiences and those of their community reflected back at them. This may be historical research into the “Newick lads” who lost their lives in the first world war, to studying texts which they re-write to take place in the local area. In doing so, our children’s learning mirrors their lives and becomes relevant and immediate to them.
At the same time, we recognise the relative privilege that our setting provides our children. Thus, we also strive to open windows to other cultures and settings which may be very different from those they would otherwise experience. From texts chosen in English which look at how children live in different countries around the world, to history and geography units which encourage children to appreciate different people’s experiences, and work in DT where children make food from other cultures, our aim is to engage children’s interest and broaden their understanding and outlook. Detailed overviews of each subject taught throughout the school can be found on individual subject pages accessed through the Curriculum menu above.
At Newick, we firmly believe that learning takes many forms. We strive to provide our children with a high level of enrichment from educational visits to support the taught curriculum, to regular “Break Out” mornings, outdoor learning at Forest and Garden school, or arts enrichment such as our participation in the intergenerational opera project. Details of just some of these enrichment activities can be found on the relevant pages accessed through the Wider Curriculum menu, above.