At SS John and Monica Catholic Primary School, we are proud of our curriculum model, which ensures pupils develop progressive knowledge and skills, leading to high quality learning outcomes. We firmly believe that access to a high quality, broad and balanced curriculum is the right of all pupils. We also believe that the fundamental goal of quality education is to ensure our pupils make a positive contribution within their community and beyond.
Curriculum Intent
- As a Catholic School, at SS John and Monica’s, we strive to ensure that the children receive an enriching experience and curriculum which reflects the person of Christ. Our curriculum is closely designed around our school mission and vision statements and has been developed to support the needs of the child and of our community as a whole. Our curriculum is designed to be creative, inspiring and challenging.
- Within our vision, is the need for pupils to have experiences that broaden their knowledge, understanding and skills across all National Curriculum subjects and beyond. Our aim is for our children to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to be successful, confident, life-long learners who reach their full potential
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- As a result of recent research we are working towards a ‘Knowledge Rich Curriculum’ where children acquire a depth of knowledge in all areas of the curriculum. We have a cross-curricular topic approach and, alongside this, we build in enriching and enlivening topic focus day which immerse the children in a variety of relevant themes. We provide a curriculum which goes beyond the limits of the National Curriculum and that is literacy rich for our pupils. We, therefore, place a high focus on developing the children’s spoken skills, vocabulary and comprehension and use quality texts to do this. Reading is at the heart of our school and central to the children’s learning. The wider curriculum is an opportunity for pupils to practise and consolidate skills learned in the core subjects of English and Maths.
Implementation
- As a Catholic school, the RE curriculum is central to the whole school curriculum and underpins all teaching. It is a core subject and we follow the ‘Growing and Learning as the People of God’ scheme of work.
- Our approach to the Foundation Subjects is cross curricular and we seek opportunities to make authentic links with the core subjects whenever possible. The Focus scheme is used and a school over-view is used to ensure sequential learning and progression (See School Curriculum Overviews).
- In each cross curricular topic a foundation subject will feature more heavily and this is known as the driver topic. To aid understanding and recall we operate a fortnightly timetable with Week One the driver being a humanities focus, Week Two a Science Driver and so forth. Some Foundation subjects are primarily stand alone for example PE, MFL and Music although links are still sought whenever appropriate.
- Subject/Topic Focus Days take place throughout the year. These are determined by the school needs or relevant, upcoming themes. A cross curricular approach is adopted.
- Reading and Writing are a feature of all Foundations Subjects. The development of communication and oral skills is a feature of all Foundation subjects. Extending vocabulary and ensuring subject specific vocabulary is taught and is a feature of planning and display
- Wider Curriculum experiences are offered to pupils including experiences which promote of physical, social, health education. We also offer an Enabling Enterprise, Skills Builder programme which promotes the children entrepreneurial skills and helps them understand the world of work
- All our pupils have an opportunity to access our Forest School Curriculum. This is provided by an experienced external Forest School Lead who ensures that every child benefits from a comprehensive Forest School programme on an annual basis
- Independent wider curriculum research is set and encouraged throughout the year, to develop pupils research skills and as way to consolidate curriculum topics learned in school
- National Curriculum – through expert understanding of the statutory requirements we have created a curriculum that builds high level knowledge, skills and understanding for ALL pupils. It is broad, balanced and promotes depth of study.
Impact
- Both formative and summative assessment is used through the teaching of key knowledge and skills , teachers are able to assess pupil outcomes against key performance indicators. Outcomes in each subject are monitored and tracked and planning evaluated and adapted. End of term summative assessments are set to further assessment progress towards Age-Related Standards
- A rigorous termly monitoring schedule is implemented to monitor the quality of teaching and learning across the school. This includes lesson observation, learning walks, planning and book scrutiny and pupil consultations. All staff (who all have a subject responsibility) are involved in the monitoring the quality and provision of National Curriculum subjects. This ensures that the highest possible standards of teaching and learning are maintained
Please click on the following links to get further information about the National Curriculum and Early Years Curriculum our school is following:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum
