We have carefully and deliberately designed our curriculum to meet the needs of our pupils, whilst covering the full scope of the National Curriculum.

Often described as a ‘microcosm of society,’ Co-op Academy Woodslee serves a unique community which brings together children from homes of ‘white collar’ professionals, ‘blue collar’ professionals and approximately 1/3 of our children in receipt of the Pupil Premium.

Our pupils come from a highly populated White British demographic with 3.41% of our school community use English as an Additional Language. Learning about themselves and how they can serve our local, national and global is a key part of our curriculum and reflected in many parts of our curriculum. Developing reading, speaking, writing and maths mastery are a high priority for our children. We want every child to read and read well. For this reason, we have put literature and vocabulary at the heart of our curriculum. We take every opportunity to broaden our pupils’ language skills.  Vocabulary is deliberately planned and woven into the curriculum and we place a huge focus on developing the love of reading.

Our ambitious curriculum is designed to help pupils discover their talents and interests, and hence, understand what success means and feels like for them. We have deliberately planned a wide range of opportunities with links to Career Related Learning for creativity through art, design, music and sport and built in opportunities for our children to develop their cultural understanding.  Our creative curriculum develops career related learning because children develop transferable skills in problem solving, leadership and teamwork.

Through our curriculum, we prioritise pupils’ moral development. We are passionate about our children having the courage to make the right moral choices, regardless of who is watching. Opportunities for pupils’ moral development are prioritised through: our history curriculum (where pupils learn about equalities and discrimination in various periods); our PSHE curriculum where children learn about equality and inclusion; our book choices (which contain moral dilemmas and pertinent issues); our Restorative Justice Behaviour Policy and our Mental Health Strategy.

A significant proportion, approximately 70%, of our children stay with us from Foundation Stage 1 or 2 and will stay with us for their entire primary education; some children, approximately 30% by the time they reach Year 6, will have experienced multiple school moves before they join us locally. We incorporate many opportunities for pupils to develop their knowledge of and appreciation for their locality and the people who make up our wider community. For example, pupils learn about the local area through geography, specifically our fieldwork, history, specifically our links with Port Sunlight and the River Mersey and RE specifically our learning of other faiths and celebration of feast days such as Eid and Diwali. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure that key knowledge is built on as pupils move through the school preparing the children for their secondary education.

Many of our children are a part of families where there are three or more children. This often brings with it responsibility for looking after others and themselves from an early age. As a result, our pupils are caring and nurturing towards each other and start their Foundation Stage journey with levels of independence that are ready for a strong emphasis on personal, social and emotional development from the Early Years. Woodslee also serves children who are from smaller families and do not have these skills of independence and experience of sharing meals with people other than adults, this is why our Rainbow Restaurant allows for opportunities for children to talk with one another, with round tables and a calming, ambient atmosphere. We believe it is important to build on the skills our children join us with, so we give pupils regular opportunities to make a difference to others, develop their independence, the school and the community. This supports their social and moral development and their motivation to contribute. Opportunities for this are in our Rainbow Restaurant, our Playleader scheme, Co op Young Leaders Programme, Reading Buddy Scheme and our Pupil Parliament.