“In Woodside Primary we live, learn and grow together in a caring and vibrant community, where learners are happy, creative, confident and encouraged to achieve great things.”    ( Created March 2016 )

Our vision above provides a clear focus and sets the tone for the development of our curriculum.

In Woodside, our desire is to be inclusive of all, broadening our learners’ skills and experiences through a well organised, relevant and exciting curriculum which is unique, suiting the context of our school.

Through engaging learning experiences and thoughtful, creative teaching, our learners are encouraged to be active, aim high, celebrate achievements, and develop confidence to be all they can be!  With guidance, and through modelling, they develop sound values, are encouraged to make positive choices, believe in themselves, and become responsible people within school and beyond.  At all levels, an ethos of high aspirations and respect for all our learners is encouraged and attainment, achievement and participation are recognised and celebrated throughout the school.
Curriculum for Excellence identifies key values for life, four contexts in which learning takes place, six entitlements for learners, seven principles for curriculum design, and eight curriculum areas in which learning is organised.  These values, contexts, entitlements, principles and curriculum areas are at the heart of our rationale.


All staff in Woodside Primary have been actively involved in developing our curriculum rationale and creating a vision of what we value and view as essential elements of our daily practice. We work to ensure that our curriculum challenges and engages our learners through creative and enjoyable learning experiences.

Skills Development

Our curriculum aims to develop key skills for learning, life and work. We do this through:

• Sharing high expectations and developing learning goals with pupils
• A range of teaching strategies and styles incorporating AifL techniques: sharing learning intentions and success criteria, peer and self assessment, timely and meaningful feedback
• ICT, Outdoor Learning, Experiential Learning
• Collaborative working
• Engaging specialists and educational visits
• Pupil centred learning taking account of individual needs
• Pupil voice, responsibility and choice
• Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing being key drivers across the curriculum
• Establishing and maintaining strong community links

As a school community we continuously strive to provide stimulating, engaging and inspiring experiences for our learners.  This is at the heart of our learning and teaching commitment and our core values.  Working collaboratively is high on our agenda and enables us to share our expertise to enrich learning and teaching.  Daily approaches to learning and teaching are active, varied, skills based and pupil-centred.   The use of ICT and outdoor learning enhance our learners’ experiences.  We endeavour to put learning into relevant and meaningful contexts locally and globally, providing our young people with a broader view and understanding of life, learning and work.  We value the importance of the opportunities the wider community presents and use these to support learning. 

A range of assessment techniques are in place to inform learners’ next steps and are moderated across levels to ensure progression.

As a team, we are reflective and continually seek opportunities to grow and develop our skills by looking inwards, outwards and forward.  We grow as leaders of learning using an agreed, Quality Management Calendar of classroom visits (formal and informal), learning conversations, tracking and monitoring meetings and professional dialogue, all of which produce a significant and positive impact on learning and teaching. 

Ethos and life of the school

We pride ourselves in our vibrant, dynamic and happy ethos, where every child is included and encouraged to achieve.  Our curriculum offers a broad range of learning experiences for our pupils and a wide range of relevant partners contribute to planning themes and topics in order to make learning meaningful. We value the importance of ‘Pupil Voice’ and our pupils are encouraged to contribute to the school community at every stage through various pupil led groups such as:- Buddying, Pupil Council, Fruit Loops, RRSA Special Agents, Eco, Bloggers, Masterclasses and children’s own personal clubs. These provide opportunities for the children to become leaders and bring about change and improvements in our school. To ensure all pupils have these opportunities their involvement in groups is tracked throughout their school life.

Our whole school community has been involved in creating our shared vision, values and aims. These are promoted throughout the school and incorporated into all aspects of the school day. Our assemblies reinforce our vision and values and promote health & wellbeing through focussing on children’s rights and our SHANARRI indicators.

Curriculum areas and subjects

In Woodside, the experiences and outcomes are covered across eight curricular areas:-  Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Languages and literacy, Mathematics and numeracy, Religious and Moral Education, Sciences, Social studies and Technologies.  Raising attainment in Literacy and Numeracy is a priority and as such, our children experience 5 sessions of Literacy and Numeracy every week. Experiences and outcomes are bundled to ensure balance across the curriculum. Taking into consideration prior learning, the children will progress through the levels, ensuring all learners attain and achieve.

Interdisciplinary Learning

Interdisciplinary learning is a key feature of Curriculum for Excellence. It enhances our curriculum and is reflected in our planning. This brings learning alive by making connections and creating exciting and challenging opportunities, across different curricular areas. IDL opportunities help to develop the children’s confidence by providing real life contexts in which to apply their knowledge and skills.

Opportunities for personal achievement

We are passionate about celebrating all achievements, within our classrooms, school and wider community.  The four capacities are used to recognise achievements, across our school and at our weekly assemblies. Personal Learning Plans are used to set targets in order to support all learners to attain and achieve.  These are shared with both the teacher and parents, to help foster positive and meaningful relationships with families. Targets are reflected upon, evaluated and next steps in learning put in place, empowering our learners to strive for excellence. Evidence of work from PLP targets is included within children’s individual profiles.

All pupils are given opportunities for personalisation and choice which encourages and motivates them to become successful learners. Personalisation and choice takes many forms including, what pupils will learn relating to experiences and outcomes, as well as approaches to learning, Master Classes and running their own clubs.

A wide and varied programme of activities offers many opportunities for all our pupils in developing confidence, creativity and enhancing the well established, happy and caring ethos of our school.