At Dulwich Wood, we have created a unique approach to teaching the curriculum through whole school learning journeys providing a collaborative community approach.

Each learning journey provides creative links between the National Curriculum subjects; enables open ended tasks; uses good quality texts; provides children with real life contexts and most importantly generates an enthusiasm for learning.  It promotes the development of key skills and subject related vocabulary.

Previous learning journeys have been:  Invent to Inspire (STEM focus); A Day in the Life of… (History); All the World’s a Stage (Shakespeare) and Survival (Geography).

Learning journeys are chosen based on the coverage of the National Curriculum, current local/national events and fundamentally to meet the needs of the children, academically or socially.

INTENT:

The intent of our whole learning journeys is to provide a collaborative approach to the curriculum which brings the key learning together in a creative and inspiring way that also enables the children are able to see how each subject relates and builds upon each other.

We want our children to be caring, creative, confident and collaborative and to be able to live and breathe these values in their everyday lives.

We want the children to develop transferrable skills that are relevant to modern life in the 21st century and to our local context.

Events are carefully planned and organised to support each learning journey to ensure that we fulfil the cultural capital needs of our children.

IMPLEMENTATION:

In order to ensure that our learning journeys are effective and provide the coverage of the key learning for each year group, we ensure that the following is used throughout the planning process:

  • Progression maps that provide a clear progression and coverage of the National Curriculum
  • Curriculum maps are created to ensure that coverage
  • Medium term plans are generated to plan the learning objectives
  • Evidenced based schemes are used to support subject knowledge
  • Engaging, good quality texts that promote language development
  • Whole school assemblies to generate enthusiasm for learning
  • Community events that involve the whole school community
  • A range of learning opportunities that are linked to real life experiences
  • Teaching and resources are adapted to meet the needs of all children
  • Historical and geographical content is planned to ensure that it promotes diversity and equality
  • Assessment tasks, high quality questions and pupil responses are used to ensure that children secure knowledge, skills and understanding.

The learning journey is closely linked to the Dulwich Wood Learning Toolkit as it:

  • Begins by questioning, imagining and planning
  • Secures knowledge and skills by making links
  • Encourages collaboration and perseverance
  • Expands thinking with reasoning and empathy
IMPACT:

We aim to ensure that our children are they are able to:

  • Articulate their ideas
  • Believe in themselves
  • Get on with others
  • Know that they can make a difference
  • Set about solving problems creatively
  • Recognise that they are responsible for their own actions
  • Acquire the knowledge that empowers them to achieve their potential
  • Prepare for the next stage in their learning.

For more information please read the following documents: