‘Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all’ – Aristotle

At Willow Lane, we believe in the power of education to transform lives. We know learning happens in communities and empowers them and, as a school at the heart of its community, we understand and respect the positive impact we can have. We recognise that children spend much of their waking lives at school and we are privileged to work with our children, families and the wider community to change and enhance lives. As such, we take a holistic approach to child development, which focuses on the mind, body and soul. This includes celebrating the wide diversity of our learners’ backgrounds, beliefs, interests and talents. This is the foundation of all that we do. This is the Willow Tree Way.

So what does this look like in our school? Visitors will see busy classrooms full of energetic children engaged purposefully in their learning. They will hear children talking enthusiastically about their learning as they grapple with new ideas and knowledge. Visitors will experience English lessons that start with a work of art, brilliant stories or film clips; history lessons steeped in drama and children handling artefacts; geography lessons that begin with educational visits and fieldwork; science lessons happening around our woodland, vegetable beds or pond; children practising for sports competitions; art and music projects being designed for display in the city centre; or children coding apps and games. In short, we work hard create a warm, inclusive and enriching school environment- a place our children are excited to attend every day.

More detail for each year group and subject is provided in the documents below and in the subject overview pages. Please note our school curriculum is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our children and to ensure that it remains informed by best practice and is of the highest quality. As such, we are currently investing in updating our curriculum so there is some variation in curriculum design and delivery. We expect the fully updated curriculum to be in place by September 2025 in line with our current school improvement plan. To find out more about the curriculum talk to the class teacher or contact Duncan Webster, the deputy headteacher, at d.webster@willow.lancs.sch.uk.