Co-op Academy Woodlands serves a unique community which brings together children from around the world.

They bring with them wide-ranging cultural experiences and this is a great resource for our school.

We want every child to be able to say:
 

Our pupils speak many different languages. For most of our pupils, developing English language and vocabulary is a high priority. For this reason, we have put language, literature and vocabulary at the heart of our curriculum. We take every opportunity to broaden our pupils’ language skills, for example having a progressive Nursery rhyme curriculum to improve speaking and language acquisition, the implicit teaching of age- and subject specific vocabulary within the curriculum and developing an emotional register with a progressive emotional vocabulary curriculum so that pupils are using age appropriate challenging vocabulary to regulate their feelings.
 

Our ambitious curriculum is designed to help pupils discover their talents and interests, and hence, understand what success means and feels like for them. 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.

A significant proportion of our children will only be with us for part of their primary education; some will arrive from or leave to a different area of the UK or a different country. Some might arrive and leave more than once and some will have experienced multiple school moves before they join us. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure that key knowledge is built as pupils move through the school. This means that teachers are fully aware of any potentially missed learning for pupils joining us at later points.

Many of our children are a part of a large family. This often brings with it responsibility for looking after others and, as a result, our pupils are caring and mature. We believe it is important to build on this, so we give pupils regular opportunities to make a difference to others, the school and the community. This supports their social and moral development and their motivation to contribute. For example the academy has a school council and the academy uses pupil voice to support decision and policy making.
 

The local area is identified as one of high deprivation, with high levels of unemployment and, often, over-crowded housing. With the aim of improving pupils’ life chances/script we are passionate about giving our pupils opportunities outside of their usual experiences and environment. We expect children to engage actively in lessons and to develop a strong work ethic. Learning about careers and employability is a key focus and as a result the school implemented the Skills Builder curriculum. The Skills Builder curriculum aims to teach all our children the 8 essential skills of listening, speaking, problem-solving, creativity, staying positive, aiming high, leadership and teamwork. These skills will support children not just now in Primary school, but also in all areas of their life as well as when they move to high school, college, university or apprenticeships.