Here at John Wheeldon we strive to give our children enriching, engaging and meaningful opportunities so that they can flourish and grow during our time with us.
Our curriculum is designed to embed our whole school values and encourage our children to apply their growing understanding to wider issues. British values forms an integral part of our school life and we regularly reflect on how we use and respect these key values within our school routines and experiences. We are determined that children will not only progress academically with us but in their personal and social development, becoming young adults that are ready for the next chapter in their lives. We recognise that our children come to our school with a wide range of differing experiences and aim to provide enriching opportunities so that none of our children are at a disadvantage.
If you would like to further discuss personal development provision in school or have any further ideas of how we can enhance experiences further, please contact our school office who can direct you to our curriculum lead, Miss Robertson.
Personal development folder
Each child will receive a personal development folder that will stay with them during their time with us. This folder will grow with them as they progress through school. It will contain certificates for both in and out of school achievements, photographs of key experiences and our John Wheeldon ‘PROUD passport’
Our folders also contain evidence of our half termly reflections.
Autumn 1- Perseverance – Why is perseverance important? What have I persevered with?
Autumn 2 – Respect – How have I demonstrated respect to others?
Spring 1 – Outstanding – How can I be an outstanding citizen?
Spring 2 – Unique – What makes me and others around me unique?
Summer 1 – Dynamic – How can I support others to be dynamic (positive and enthusiastic)?
Summer 2 – SMSC reflection and impact
Click below to see some examples of our discussions.
Protected Characteristics
Throughout the course of the year we acknowledge and celebrate specific national and global events. This includes:
- World Mental Health Day
- Black History Month
- Interfaith Week
- Anti-Bullying Week
- International Human Rights Day
- Mental Health Awareness Week
- Refugee Week
- Autism Awareness Month
- Bastille Day
- Religious Festivals and Celebrations
Within these days we aim to encourage collaboration and reflection at home to promote and understand protected characteristics.
Community links
We value the importance of our children understanding their locality and community roles. We promote the concept of volunteering and giving back to our community through activities or donations such as food and clothing banks. Each year group have a specific community focus.
EYFS: Christmas cards for the local care home.
Years 1 and 2: Harvest festival and food donations to our local food bank, House of Bread.
Year 3 and 4: Make links with local faith group.
Year 5: House of Bread – with the local charity, House of Bread, children attend a workshop where they make a loaf of bread to take home and a loaf of bread that they can and donate to a chosen member of the community.
Year 6: Remembrance Service – host and commemorate alongside local service personnel and local dignitaries.
In addition to these, there are other community opportunities that our children can take part in such as renewable energy projects with Perkins engineering, sustainability projects in our weekly eco club, becoming a member of Rotakids and performing in local venues with our school choir.
Weekly assemblies
Each class have two assemblies per week held in key stages. One assembly is based around our school values and British values, considering how these are reflected and impact on everyday society. In addition, a weekly PROUD assembly is held to celebrate children who have displayed effort within Maths, English and demonstrated our proud values in school.
As part of our weekly assemblies we introduce our ‘Big thoughts’ questions. These are philosophical questions which encourage children to think about the world around them by asking questions about what they see, hear and experience as well as what they believe in and consideration of what others believe in.
These open-ended questions have no right or wrong answers, but help to broaden children’s thinking processes, to develop their speech and language skills and to build confidence in their ability to express themselves using words. These are also shared with home to encourage a collaborative discussion.
Click below to see the list of ‘big thoughts’ we have covered this term.
Wow days and Enrichment
As part of our topic studies, we plan for a ‘wow day’ designed to give ‘hands on’ opportunities to engage with the topic, this may be through practical activities and often involves children acting in role. This day involves staying on site but being presented with experiences that enhance understanding.
Visits
Each year group have carefully planned visits that aim to enrich the understanding of key topics. Visits are mapped out across the school to give memorable key experiences for our children such as a seaside visit, visit to the zoo and a trip to the bustling city of Birmingham. They also celebrate our rich local history such as Stafford Castle, the Ancient high house and a local area walk to identify local links to the world wars.
Every year group visit our local library and return home with a library book and membership card.
Visitors in school
In addition to specific visits, we liaise with our local community to ensure we try and make links where possible and have quality visitors in school to enrich our curriculum. More recently, we have had visits from the armed forces, local mosque, an Olympic athlete and a historian from Staffordshire archives.
Residential Visits
Children have the opportunity to go on two residential visits during their time with us. The first one is in Year 4, spending three nights at Laches Wood and the second is in Year 6 at Standon Bowers where they spend the week. We work closely with the centres to design a timetable that will give our children progressive learning opportunities and key personal development experiences developing their teamwork, resilience, perseverance and independence.
Click below to see children (and staff) enjoying their residentials!
Extra curricula clubs
We offer a range of clubs across school. Some of these are delivered by school staff and others are provided by outside agencies. We monitor the attendance of our clubs so that we can ensure we have a representation across all groups of children. Sporting clubs often lead to a tournament and dance/music clubs lead to a performance shared with parents.
Autumn Term Clubs
Musical performance
We value the importance of children expressing themselves through music and having a ‘performance’ experience’ Throughout the course of the year, children have the opportunity to take part in performances with their own class and perform this to parents and carers. As part of our Music curriculum, children are filmed completing their musical performance and asked to evaluate performances of themselves and others.
Responsibilities and Leadership Opportunities
Offering additional responsibilities in school gives our children the and gain the experience of representing the class or school.
See our Pupil Leadership page for more information.
Wellbeing in School
Wellbeing is at the forefront of our life in school. We are committed to ensuring the wellbeing of our children, staff and families and educating children on how they can take steps to improve their wellbeing. We have daily friendship clubs at lunchtime to provide children with a safe space to build friendships and develop communication. We also have targeted ELSA sessions for pupils who have been identified as needing additional emotional support. Selected children are assigned school mentors who they are able to regularly tough base with and regulate
See our wellbeing page for more information.