Curriculum

Primary School Curriculum Statement

Intent

At The Royal School, our curriculum is designed to inspire a lifelong love of learning while fostering key learning behaviours that help pupils thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. These are underpinned by our school values: Trust, Respect, Risk, Initiative and Community. We are committed to ensuring that every pupil knows more, remembers more, and applies their knowledge confidently as they progress, within an environment where every child feels included, valued and represented.

Key Principles:

1. Knowledge and Memory Building
   Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to build knowledge progressively over time. Pupils are supported in becoming reflectors who assess their own understanding, independent learners who take ownership of their progress, and resilient individuals who persevere through challenges. By embedding opportunities for pupils to revisit and consolidate learning, they develop the skills to retain and apply their knowledge over time.
2. Representation, Diversity and Cultural Capital
   We celebrate the richness of our community and the wider world by embedding diverse perspectives and voices throughout the curriculum. Pupils are encouraged to be empathisers, includers, and tolerant individuals, learning to understand and value different experiences, cultures, and perspectives. This ensures that every child sees themselves reflected in what they learn and feels a strong sense of belonging. We aim to develop children’s cultural capital to give children skills and experience needed to become citizens in society to be able to participate fully in modern, global multicultural societies.
3. Achievement for All
   Every child has the right to a high-quality education that meets their individual needs. Through adaptive teaching practices, we help pupils become adapters and achievers, supporting them to overcome barriers and embrace challenges. Collaborative group work promotes skills as listeners, collaborators, and communicators, ensuring all voices are heard and valued. The sequencing of our curriculum aims to ensure all pupils have the required knowledge to access their current stage of learning. We believe that building a sequenced, coherent sufficient and spiralled curriculum is the most important lever we can use to encourage achievement for all; the impact of learning is not static. It is a long-term process, not a moment or an event. (Nicholls 2022).

Through these principles, underpinned by our focus on key learning behaviours outlined in our behaviour policy, we prepare every child to be confident, knowledgeable, and empathetic individuals who make meaningful contributions to the world. Our curriculum not only equips pupils with the tools for academic success but also nurtures the qualities they need to thrive as learners and as members of society.

Implementation

Implementation is the process of putting our curriculum intent into action, ensuring that our vision for learning becomes a reality in every classroom. At The Royal School Wolverhampton, this means delivering a well-structured, engaging, and inclusive curriculum that equips all students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed.

1. Knowledge & Memory Building

At The Royal School Wolverhampton, we use a range of strategies to support knowledge retention and long-term memory development. Retrieval practice is embedded in lessons, beginning with ‘Think Backs’—a review of prior learning to strengthen recall. Key knowledge and vocabulary are revisited regularly, and core concepts, such as Chronology in History, appear across subjects to reinforce understanding. Teachers provide models and worked examples in consistent formats to support learning, and medium-term plans reference prior knowledge to inform planning. Retrieval practice is also a focus of teacher development, ensuring staff have effective strategies to support memory retention. Working walls in classrooms serve as visual prompts, helping pupils recall and apply key information.

2. Representation, Diversity and Cultural Capital

At The Royal School Wolverhampton, we ensure that pupils experience a broad and diverse curriculum that reflects the wider world. Experience days and educational visits introduce topics in an engaging way, providing real-world context and helping pupils build the knowledge and understanding needed for success. In English, pupils encounter a wide range of high-quality texts from different genres and authors, representing diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Learning about other cultures and civilizations is embedded across subjects and further enriched through dedicated culture days. Across the curriculum, key figures linked to topics are explicitly taught—for example, in Science, each unit of work highlights the contributions of significant scientists, including historical figures, modern researchers, and individuals from under-represented groups. These approaches ensure that all pupils develop cultural awareness and an appreciation of diverse experiences and achievements. Personal development is further enriched by our extensive after-school programme of wide-ranging clubs, from sports to STEM.

3. Achievement for All

At The Royal School Wolverhampton, we are committed to ensuring that all pupils develop the knowledge and skills needed to engage successfully with their learning at every stage. Careful and considerate sequencing of the curriculum supports this by building on prior learning in a structured way. We recognise that learning is a long-term process, and our curriculum reflects this through key concepts that run across subjects, allowing pupils to deepen their understanding over time. By providing a well-structured and coherent learning journey, we enable all pupils to make progress and achieve their full potential. Pupil learning is tracked through formal assessment at regular intervals as well as informal, low-stakes assessment opportunities within lessons. Through this, timely feedback or support can be given in forms such as: live feedback, fluid focus groups, retrieval practice.