St Edmund's and St Thomas' Catholic Primary School

Curriculum

Our School Mission Statement

"I have come that they should have life and have it to the full." (John 10:10)

Inspired by the teachings of Christ, St Edmund's and St Thomas' Catholic Primary school encourages and guides our pupils and all our school community to have a strong sense of service, love and compassion. In this way, they are encouraged to develop a vision for what they want to achieve with a zest for living life to the full.

Intent

At St Edmund’s and St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School we pride ourselves in offering our pupils a broad, rich and varied curriculum. Our vision and values are at the core of everything we do and underpin our teaching and learning. We firmly believe it is our duty to provide the children in our care with all the necessary skills to be successful in their future life, both academically and pastorally. When our children move on we expect them to have become independent learners who have acquired the wider skills that will help them to succeed in the next steps of their education. We strongly feel that it is not only the academic support we provide that is vital, but also the pastoral care. The whole school team works cohesively to provide an effective programme of personal care, individual nurturing and collective responsibility. The school proceeds from its Catholic Mission and our values permeate all aspect of school life.

We know that children learn best when they are offered exciting, engaging and immersive opportunities and this is promoted through our approach. We believe that learning should be relevant, interactive and focused on children's own personal needs. We are committed to raising standards and providing the best education for every pupil in our school. We plan high quality learning experiences that offer both support and challenge for all our children. We believe that the best learning happens when it involves real life experiences, is relevant for children at their stage of development and has a real purpose. This is why our curriculum is centred around our local community and the historical and geographical opportunities it offers. We use local people, places and stories, through visits and visitors whenever we can, to enhance the learning in our curriculum. We also believe our curriculum should provide significant, beneficial learning opportunities to support our pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

At St Edmund’s and St Thomas’, we aim to develop a knowledge-rich curriculum where pupils and staff value knowing and understanding. Knowledge is taught with the intention of remembering it, embedding it into the pupil’s long-term memory through deep and enriching learning. We expect our children to make good progress from their very different starting points and go on to achieve the very best outcomes not only in reading, writing and mathematics, but all aspects of the National Curriculum. We also expect our children to be successful in a much broader range of outcomes; in that they are positive learners, self-disciplined, good attenders, punctual, respectful, healthy, fully aware of how to keep safe and enthusiastic participants in all the experiences and opportunities the school has to offer.

Implementation

We are a school with a mixed age profile which we manage successfully in terms of phase group organisation and identity; as well as effective curriculum planning which is structured to promote good progress and continuity. Each phase group has a specific identity and is committed to creating independent learners. (See ‘Independent Learners’ documents below for further details).

We structure and plan the curriculum to ensure that good practice remains central, equality of opportunity is ensured and the requirements of the National Curriculum are integrated into the themes, projects and subject teaching. Careful planning of the curriculum ensures that the knowledge imparted to our pupils is sequential, repeated and revisited during their time at St Edmund’s and St Thomas’. We are mindful that our curriculum also needs to be versatile in order to respond and adapt to local, national or worldwide events. Subject leaders have formulated a series of guidelines, progression maps, long term and medium term plans designed to aid the delivery of the National Curriculum. They have also identified key vocabulary, essential to developing a good understanding of each subject. These are used by staff when planning over the whole year and termly.

The same teaching sequence is adopted in all units of work in all areas of the curriculum. Sequences of lessons are designed to build on previous knowledge acquired, progress to forming a basic understanding of the subject matter onto to finally deepening their understanding. Being introduced to and learning new vocabulary lies at the heart of this process. Developing a love of language is supported through the inclusion of high-quality texts, a visible passion amongst staff and an excitement around language which inspires and motivates all pupils to explore vocabulary with confidence.

Subject leaders collaborate with other subject leaders to build meaningful cross curricular links. Our mixed age profile has determined the need to plan Cycle A and Cycle B routes in many of the foundation subjects. We have embraced this and used this as a structure for revisiting and building upon previous learning.

Each half term has a whole school theme:

Autumn 1 – We Are Family

Autumn 2 – Journeys

Spring 1 – People and Objects Who Have Changed the World

Spring 2 – Planet Earth

Summer 1 – Can You help Me…?

Summer 2 – Wildlife Connections 

Phase groups use the themes and medium-term plans to plan half termly topic maps, making links across subjects as detailed in the guidelines and plans provided by subject leaders. Visits, visitors and cultural capital opportunities are identified and incorporated into the units of work. Support with planning and reviews of impact are regularly provided by the subject leaders. Class teachers are responsible for translating the medium term plans into weekly and daily plans; as well as adapting the plans to meet the needs of individual pupils.

Diagnostic assessments are used to benchmark starting points and identify areas for development. Teachers use formative, on-going assessments through marking, conferencing and observing pupils to ensure the plans are appropriate and effective and so they can monitor the pupils' understanding. This enables staff to quickly identify when a pupil needs greater support. Summative assessments are used termly to monitor progress. At the end of each term, assessment data is collected and monitored by subject leaders and the Senior Leadership Team. Children are expected to make good or better than good progress each term. Where children are identified as making 'slower' progress interventions are put into place to address gaps in learning.

Impact

Our children will be highly motivated in their quest for independent learning and will seek out opportunities for self improvement.

Our children will be equipped to take the next steps in their learning, displaying a natural resilience in overcoming challenges and obstacles.

Our children will become exemplary role models and will continue to live out our mission embodying our school values: love, respect, service and compassion.

Our Subjects

 

Curriculum (ID 1030)

 Documents

 

 

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