Overview
St. Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School is committed to meeting the requirements of the primary National Curriculum and the requirements of the Bishops of England and Wales as our pupils pass through each key stage.
The curriculum will be taught with the consideration of the needs of all learners. Our curriculum will be exciting and will inspire children to nurture a passion for learning.
Our broad and balanced curriculum is designed to ensure that pupils recognise their unique skills and talents have a passion for learning, are equipped to contribute positively to the community, achieve well and have high aspirations.
It is underpinned by the core values of our mission statement-
Educate; Create; Witness: Christ at the Centre
- Educate each other
- Create Community
- Show witness to the Gospel values of Courage, creativity, thankfulness, responsibility, compassion, peace, service, justice, trust, hope, love, forgiveness, friendship, humility, generosity and reverence and respect.
Our curriculum ensures that academic success, creativity and problem solving, reliability, responsibility and resilience, as well as physical development, well-being and mental health are key elements that support the development of the whole child and promote a positive attitude to learning, supporting pupils for their next stage in their educational journey
These values are taught on their own and through other areas of the curriculum, including assemblies and acts of worship. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils and their understanding of the core values of our society are woven right through our curriculum.
We have designed a fully comprehensive curriculum framework. Our curriculum continues to ensure that:
- Our children’s learning is both meaningful and benefits from a specific focus on the core requirements of the English and Mathematics curriculum.
- Learning is sequenced and progression is carefully planned for.
- It is based on an analysis of how it can benefit the needs of our specific children and their community.
- It is designed to ensure that children can become upwardly socially mobile.
- It supports children in developing Global and the fundamental British Values.
- Children are given opportunities to actively engage on their learning through meaningful and applied contexts.
- Children know that there are no limits on their ability.
Our schemes of work reflect the content and challenge of the curriculum. Teachers have received training in key areas of curriculum change and are ready to provide outstanding curriculum provision.
Experiences for pupils are:
- Inclusive
- Exciting
- Challenging
- Engaging
- Real and experiential
- Relevant to their context
- Influenced by pupils
- Progressive
- Values-led
- Safe
The curriculum is designed to include:
- A clearly articulated learning journey with a purposeful outcome
- An engaging stimulant for learning
- Opportunities for pupils to contribute to planning the learning journey
- Real experiences
- Application of basic skills including computing
- Cross-curricular links where they add value
Our pedagogical approach is designed to enhance the learning experience for pupils and each unit of work includes the following opportunities when appropriate:
- Links to English units
- Links to mathematics units
- Basic skills to be reinforced during the unit
The National Curriculum is typically delivered using an integrated topic approach and is assessed using Insight statements (National Curriculum) as a basis to ensure coverage and progression throughout the school. All children are challenged, appropriate to their capabilities; children who find aspects of their learning more difficult are appropriately supported so that they too are enabled to experience success.
Early Years Statement
Intent
Our Early Years curriculum has been designed to ensure that children receive their curricular entitlement in a way which is meaningful to their: context, stage of learning, capabilities, interests and prior experiences.
We seek to provide:
- Quality and consistency, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind
- A secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child, and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly
- Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers
- Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported
Implementation
Our high-quality early years education has a strong focus on communication and language. Pupils learn through topics, stories, songs, rhymes and following children’s interests with a balance of adult directed and child-initiated activities and challenges within our continuous provision. Planned, purposeful play provides opportunities for teaching, learning and creativity both indoors and outdoors. Children are active learners who learn through firsthand experiences.
Four guiding principles shape our practice in early years:
- Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
- Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others.
- Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
- The importance of learning and development. Children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live, through the seven areas of learning: Communication and Language; Physical Development; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Literacy; Mathematics; Understanding the World; Expressive Arts and Design.
The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations children have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment are crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added; practitioners build children’s language effectively.
Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, gives children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, storytelling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.
Children develop and learn at different rates through:
Playing and exploring (children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’)
Active learning (children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements)
Creating and thinking critically (children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things)
Impact
We provide a teaching and learning environment where learners are cared for, valued and respected. Parents and practitioners work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect within which children can have security and confidence. We place a high focus on key vocabulary and communication and language and have recently renewed our ICAN accreditation and achieved the enhanced level.
We strive to ensure that our children’s progress across the EYFS curriculum is at least good from their varied starting points. We also strive for children to reach the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception and to be at least in line with National Expectations. We have exceeded this in the past few years. Evidence in children’s learning journeys support all areas of the EYFS curriculum. The impact of our curriculum is measured by assessment procedures which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally. We measure the percentage of pupils achieving age related expectations throughout the academic year, put supportive interventions in place if and when needed. Class teachers use observations to make formative assessments which inform future planning and ensure that all children build on their current knowledge and skills at a good pace. Summative assessment compares children attainment to age related expectations using the statement bands in Development Matters. This is tracked using a data tracker to ensure rates of progress are at least good for all children, including vulnerable groups such as those with SEND, disadvantaged or summer born children. Our assessment judgements have been moderated both in school and externally with local schools. We also partake in local authority moderation which has validated our school judgements. The impact of our curriculum will also be measured by how effectively it helps our pupils develop into well rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens. We endeavour for pupils to be Key Stage 1 ready and have our school values embedded by the time they leave reception, preparing them for their future.
Children’s Leadership
Children are given many opportunities to develop leadership skills. These skills are developed through membership of the School Council, The Worship Team, Head Boy and Head Girl positions, Worship Team Representatives and as a Buddy Mentor for the younger children and through responsibilities given in their class.
The school makes considerable efforts to ensure children have exposure to a wide experience beyond their local community during which these concepts are shown, through for example, sporting events, residential visits and outdoor activities and through highly personalised school visits. Our strong-rooted values-based understanding gives us an excellent platform for embracing difference. And children are not just taught British values but ‘World Values’.
