Curriculum
St Mary’s Curriculum
Intent
At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, the aim of our curriculum is to provide a Catholic education based on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, in which the values of the Gospel underpin all aspects of school life. We provide opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident, successful learners with high aspirations who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society. There is a high focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding. The school ensures that children are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
St Mary’s provides a highly inclusive environment where all learners enjoy their education, and almost all make very good progress in almost all subjects and areas of learning. Pupils at all levels are encouraged and supported to achieve their potential. Children are challenged and there is a culture of resilience and high expectation. We have adopted a series of standards which we all hold ourselves to account. We expect everyone to always do their best and expect the best.
Our curriculum is developed to deepen knowledge and understanding as well as develop skills by ensuring effective progression within each subject and across all year groups. We aim for our curriculum to enable children to learn more and remember more. We provide children with meaningful experiences that build on previous skills and knowledge gained. We want children to learn to value their own and other’s cultures through the experiences that we provide.
Implementation
At St Mary’s we implement an inclusive curriculum that meets the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum. It focuses on providing high quality learning experiences both inside and outside of the classroom.
In EYFS at St Mary’s we implement an inclusive curriculum which incorporates the development matters framework and the children’s own interests. Half termly topics are based on children’s interests and seasonal, cultural and world-wide events.
Children are taught from the earliest of ages to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading. We use Little Wandle phonics which is a synthetic and systematic approach to teach early reading. This is a rigorous and uncompromising approach to ensure that all our children are able to access the whole curriculum in order to reach their full potential.
Our curriculum develops the long term memory of our children by providing engaging experiences, building sequentially on age appropriate knowledge and by revisiting previous learning in all areas of the curriculum. Our school curriculum has been written by St Mary’s staff for the pupils of St Mary’s.
Our curriculum is delivered through effective high quality first teaching including the use of specialist teachers for PE, Music and Computing. Knowledge and skills are assessed termly using age-related end points.
Enrichment, including inspirational visitors and engaging educational visits, enhance learning and deepen children’s knowledge. We provide opportunities for children to engage in Extra-Curricular clubs and competitions which include sport, music, computing and drama.
Our curriculum promotes children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, ensuring that they are responsible citizens who promote the fundamental British Values through their daily actions. British Values are actively promoted in school. We recognise that mental wellbeing is crucial to academic success.
Each half term a curriculum overview is sent home and homework is set to engage and hook children, parents and carers. Children’s learning is celebrated and shared with parents regularly.
Our curriculum is continually developed and updated to meet the children’s interests and needs.
Impact
Our curriculum is designed so that children leave St Mary’s knowledgeable, skilled and independent learners who achieve well. Through the breadth and depth that our curriculum offers, every child learns to their full potential regardless of gender, ethnic origin, disability or additional need and religion. Our curriculum enables children to become well-rounded, confident and resilient learners who are well-equipped for the future. It provides them with the key knowledge and skills to make their own decisions and to thrive in all that they do, whilst at St Mary’s and beyond.
Finding out more
Any parents that would like to know more about our currciulm please contact their class teacher. Each half term children will recieve a learning plan with detailing what they will be learning that term. This learning plan can also be found on their class page on the website.