Curriculum

St. Patrick’s Catholic Primary School: Curriculum Policy

Impact:

The impact of our curriculum is that the mission statement of the school:  belonging, caring, sharing safe in the arms of God’s love, ensures that all children can reach their potential through an inclusive community where they are all valued and have the opportunity to develop: spiritually, academically, morally and personally. We aim that by the end of each Key Stage, the vast majority of pupils have sustained mastery of the content, ensuring that they develop a wealth of vocabulary through their study, knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live.

Curriculum vision:

At St Patrick’s, we ensure the development of the whole person, so that all may achieve their potential and at the same time promote the common good of society. We encourage pupils to Encounter Jesus, Discipleship and Missionary Discipleship.

We aim to develop a caring Catholic Community based upon the life and example of Jesus Christ, which encompasses the life and lives of everyone and everything in our school.

We encourage our children to share their learning with each other, their families and the wider community. To understand our British Values and to value and learn from others around us.

Driven by the national curriculum guidelines, in order to develop the knowledge content of the curriculum, our aim is to make the curriculum relevant and exciting to our pupils, with purposeful outcomes that they care about achieving.

We want our children to have a love of learning, feel passionate about it and have ownership of the outcomes.

We aim to meet the needs of all learners in our curriculum, challenging them and enabling them to problem solve and undertake learning at a deeper level.

We are preparing our children for their future adult lives, whatever they may be.

Our teaching intentions are:

To shape independent learners who are, explorative, questioning, and creative through:

• • • • Questioning
      • Modelling
      • Challenging and supporting
      • Continuous formative assessment
      • Moderation of assessments and judgements
      • Valuing everyone’s work at whatever ability.

Our provision is informed by educational research into effective teaching practices, cognition, learning and how knowledge and understanding develops. These act as a guide for the consistency and distinctiveness of our curriculum:

• Teaching is based on a clear understanding of cognition, metacognition and learning.
• Teachers have deep knowledge of the subjects they teach.
• Teachers monitor learning and provide feedback.
• The classroom climate created by teachers inspires and motivates all pupils.
• Pupil groupings are flexible and not solely driven by perceived “ability” or prior attainment.
• Developing strong partnership with parents and carers that influence learning at school and home.
• Teachers empower children to take control of their own learning.

Implementation:

Our whole school curriculum comprises an entire planned educational experience informed by organisational principles and approaches, making full use of opportunities for real world learning: Pre and post learning maps ensure that children build on learning from previous year groups and gained knowledge from the world around them.

Specialist Roles: PE, Speech and Language, Music tuition, Fun Fit, Healthy Family team, Change4life, Anti-bullying ambassadors, mental health champions, School based and family SENCO, SLE, Chaplaincy, Minnie Vinnies

Sports: Cricket, Football, Swimming, Rugby, Tennis, Dodgeball, Dance, Athletics, Rounders, play leaders, Netball

Outdoor Provision: Forest schools, prayer area, basketball, football, daily mile, quiet Reading area,

Before and After school:  Breakfast, afterschool, lunchtime, choir, football, drama, cross country

Interventions: speech and language, phonics, sensory room, anxiety, nurture groups, playground pals, attachment, self-regulation, maths, fine motor skills, emotional literacy, reading, writing, bereavement, RE, handwriting, transition, language, social stories, friendships, outdoor learning, dyslexia, problem solving, gross motor, reading comprehension.

Enrichment: Retreat afternoons, Collective Worship, Care and Prayer groups, Remembrance Day, Harvest Festival, CAFOD, Safer Internet and E-safety, DARE, Book Week, National Poetry day, other religious festival awareness days, Patron Saint’s Days, reflection time, charity support, Monarch Day, sports day, governor diploma award, a variety of residential excursions, sporting events, nativity, end of year play.

Impact:

Our curriculum has an ambition for high achievement of all pupils irrespective of background and starting point. This achievement is represented in three key areas:

Learning

Children are confident and successful learners; demonstrating our values; they want to learn, achieve and make the right choices for their learning.

Progress

Children make progress which is reflected in national tests and examinations which meet government expectations or in the qualifications obtained. Children’s progress will be seen in pre and post learning activities which clearly show any new learning and skills gained.

Personal Development

Children learn to make the right choices for their own safety and development.  The choices children make benefit the school and local community.

We regularly review how well our curriculum goals enable achievement:

High Quality Outcomes

• Has the learning journey led to a purposeful outcome or product?
• Do children have ownership of the outcomes?
• Do the pupils experience a taste of the best that has already been achieved?
• Are there relevant contexts for high quality outcomes for English and Maths?
• Are teaching expectations high enough?
• Are there clear assessment criteria?
• Are pupils challenged to think and to evaluate their learning?
• Is assessment purposeful, efficient and used to shape future learning?

We evaluate through monitoring, work scrutiny, data analysis and project outcomes.

Curriculum Content is Responsive and Relevant

• Are pupils able to connect local, national and global contexts for learning?
• Do children experience enjoyment in their learning?
• Do teachers respond to educational research?
• Are the rich resources within the local community and environment being maximised?
• Are tasks adapted to reflect current affairs and technological and environmental changes?
• Is AfL and Quality First Teaching responsive and effective?

We evaluate through monitoring planning, pupil conferencing, evaluations and work scrutiny.

Mastery for all Challenges for all

• At point of learning, is the curriculum sufficiently challenging and appropriate for each child?
• Are there opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of the learning values?
• Are there high expectations for all?
• Does the work of the children show that tasks are rich?

We evaluate through curriculum outcomes, book scrutiny, pupil interviews and assessment.

Embedding Knowledge and Skills

• Do children have opportunities to solve problems and undertake learning at a deeper level?
• Do children have the opportunity to build on their knowledge and skills throughout the school?
• Are knowledge and skills (K&S) carefully planned in the curriculum projects?
• Are there coherent links within projects that increasingly challenge and embed K&S?
• Do children have opportunities to embed their knowledge and skills in the curriculum?
• What knowledge and skills have pupils gained against expectations?
• Is each NC subject given integrity and taught systematically through each Key Stage?

We evaluate through curriculum assessment.

Being part of a Family and a Community

• Does the curriculum engage pupils to be part of a family of learners?
• Do children share their learning with others?
• Do children learn from others?
• Are our school learning values explicitly taught in our projects and prepare them for their future lives – whatever they may be?
• Do pupils engage with local community, national and global issues?
• Are pupils able to relate their values and experience to British Values?

We evaluate through pupil interviews, lesson observations and curriculum evaluations.

How we measure our success.

Cross School and external moderation, RE, R,W,M Tracking Data, Parent View and Parent Surveys ,Self-Assessment, Book Scrutiny, Foundation Subject Assessments, Learning Walks, Director of Performance and Standards visits, Lesson Observations, Discussions – Staff/Pupils/Parents, Director of Performance and Standards Reports, Governor Monitoring Visits and reports, Pre Key Stage Standards, Pira/Puma/GAPs Scores, Pupil, Comparison to National Data, Comparison to Local Data