Our Approach to Learning at Ainslie Wood

We focus on individuals and their personal journey towards their own potential. Your child won't just learn about the world. They'll experience it!

EYFS

Our Early Years Foundation Stage uses a carefully balanced combination of choice, free flow, routine and structure in order to give our children the strongest possible start to their school career.  Our focus on ‘Child-Led Independence’ ensures that children make good progress in all areas of their learning; from the beginnings of reading, writing and maths through all aspects, including the development of physical, social and emotional skills. 

In EYFS, we want parents to share with us as much as we want to share with them.  All learning and development steps and milestones are shared and celebrated, and we love to find out about what your children have been doing and learning outside of school too.

Years 1 - 6

At Ainsle Wood, we have developed a coherent curriculum with consistent features that make it particularly strong and purposeful for our learners:  

• Knowledge-first progression, where each week builds on the previous one. 
• Meaningful cross-curricular links, with each subject retaining its disciplinary integrity rather than being forced into a theme
• Authentic outcomes, where pupils have a real audience and a purpose for sharing what they've learnt.
• Clear progression of subject-specific skills, ensuring teachers know not just what to teach but why it's sequenced that way.

The audience curriculum has been designed from the perspective of how knowledge grows, which is enabled through:

• Clear sequencing. Each lesson prepares pupils for the next. For example, in the Year 4 Science unit, pupils learn about photosynthesis before producers, producers before consumers, consumers before adaptations, and only then move into digestion. That progression gives each concept a purpose.
• Respect for individual subjects. Cross-curricular links support learning without replacing the discipline itself. History is still taught as History, Science as Science, and Art as Art. 
• Knowledge and skills working together. Rather than separating them, the subject-specific skills develop through increasingly rich knowledge. Historians don't just "analyse sources" in isolation—they analyse sources about Ancient Egypt. Artists don't just "use clay"—they use clay to communicate historical understanding.
• Authentic outcomes. A museum exhibition, a showcase, or a performance asks pupils to explain and communicate their understanding, which often deepens learning more effectively than a worksheet or end-of-unit test.

Assessment

Our results for the statutory end of key stage tests show our children consistently achieve significantly above others of their age groups – both locally and nationally. This is achieved through ongoing, rigorous teacher assessment, with our adults establishing a shared understanding of the learning needs of each individual pupil. 

Further Information

If you would like any further information on any aspect of our curriculum, please get in touch with Mr Bird - our Leader of Learning.