Theme 

The Thematic Curriculum at Walsgrave Academy provides children with coherent and holistic contexts for learning closely linked knowledge and skills. Contexts are motivating and engaging, with clear links to everyday life and the locality of Walsgrave Academy.

The Thematic Curriculum has been organised through a ‘theme based’ approach which incorporates the knowledge and skills set out in the National Curriculum for History, Geography, Art and Design, Design and Technology and Music. The Thematic Curriculum builds on the foundations of these subjects developed through the Early Years Curriculum, in particular ‘Understanding the World’ and ‘Expressive Arts and Design’.

Please click on the individual subject icons to find out more:

History Geography Art & Design Design & Technology Music 

Delivering of Thematic Curriculum at Walsgrave Academy:

Building on the foundations within Early Years, Themes are taught termly from KS1 onwards. Within KS1, Themes follow an integrated model of both History and Geography alongside Art, D&T and Music.

Within KS1, Themes always start with the Geography learning first so children learn about the ‘world today’ before moving into their History learning. Local studies are also incorporated into Theme as and when appropriate. This ensures that we have a child-centred approach where children often start with their ‘world today’.

Within KS2, Themes progress into either Geography or History based as the children build up their depth of learning. Geography or History based Themes then spiral within and across KS2 to ensure that there is equal coverage and balanced provision of both History and Geography. This model then allows children to be ‘Secondary Read’ in terms of learning about History and Geography congruently within KS3.

Themes begin with a ‘Launch’ event and include an ‘Enrich’ event at an appropriate point within the Theme journey, so children feel excited and engaged within their Theme learning as well as having memorable experiences build within.

Enrichment Experiences / Links with the Community

We constantly strive to broaden the experiences for the children within themes through educational visits, visitors into school and shared experiences of the wider school community, for example, involvement with parents and cross-school links etc. Visits make good use of local places of interest, and include places such as Coventry Transport Museum, the Lunt Roman Fort, Midlands Air Museum and Coventry Cathedral. Alongside local relevance and interest, we also enjoy taking children out of the West Midlands and visiting places of interest such as the capital city of London or Weston-Super-Mare.