Curriculum Overview

"Great schools don't just stick to statistics, policies and guidelines. They have the courage to do what is right to give the pupils the best possible start in life"

- Sir John Timpson

Our Curriculum intent is mission driven, Christ centred and child centred

“Aiming high, dreaming bigger, growing together in God’s love to do whatever he asks.

The 3Is of St Mary's - we recognise and use the terminology of intent, implementation and impact when describing and judging our Curriculum.  However, at St Mary's we have and use our own 3Is.

Independence

We strive to create an environment where all of our children have a love for learning and also enables them to develop an independence and level of maturity which allows them to develop at their own pace.  We wish all of our children to become independent learners.  They are given responsibilities, choices and opportunities which allows them to feel valued and encourages them to use their iniative.  This develops independence for their next steps in their school journey and the future.

Inspiration

Our teaching approach and Curriculum is geared towards being inspirational for all our pupils, giving them opportunities to flourish, be creative and use and develop the skills God has given them.  A Curriculum that inspires our young people is a Curriculum which does not put a cap on a child's potential.  As Walt Disney once said "Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children."

Inclusivity

Every single child at St Mary's is loved, cherished and valued as a child of Christ.  We strive to ensure that our Curriculum, activities and environment meets the needs of all.  Our school is a diverse community.  We celebrate all of our pupils.  We are delighted to be a community enriched by pupils of many faiths and cultures, all abilities and individual needs.

Our Curriculum

We use the categories Intent, Implementation and Impact when talking about our curriculum.

Ultimately, everything we do around a range of subjects, including science, history, information and communication technology (ICT), musical, physical education and the arts, is driven by our 3Is.

"The Curriculum is exciting and enriching."

"Leaders and Governors have created an excellent learning community."

- Ofsted, 2017

Curriculum

We use the categories Intent, Implementation and Impact when talking about our curriculum.

Ultimately, everything we do around learning is to foster a lifelong love of learning through delivering a high quality, pupil focussed curriculum where every child is valued.

“Teaching has many strengths across a range of subjects, including science, history, information and communication technology (ICT), musical, physical education and the arts.” “The Curriculum is exciting and enriching.”  “Leaders and Governors have created an excellent learning community.”  OFSTED 2017

Intent

We always aim to offer a broad, balanced and enriched curriculum by providing high quality teaching.  We want all our pupils to learn effectively in an environment that is based on Gospel Values, where all members of our school community are recognised as loved individuals.

We continually monitor, review and assess our curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of all our pupils.

Our recent biggest review of our curriculum has centred around the impact of COVID and how adaptations can be made.

Pupil Well-being and attitudes

This has always been at the centre of St Mary’s but recent events have placed an even greater emphasis on this.  We must ensure pupils are ready to learn and are supported in all areas of their development – academic, moral, social, spiritual, physical and emotional.

Pupil Attainment and Progress

We use our knowledge of all individuals to match the curriculum to the relevant needs.  Pupils have the right to high quality teaching and opportunities to develop without having a cap put on their potential.  We strive to ensure outstanding outcomes and appropriate progress for all individuals.

Curriculum

Our curriculum is ready for our pupils.  It is stimulating, well-resourced, adaptable and balanced.  It needs to offer all pupils a means of learning on a daily basis and provide pupils an opportunity to grow in confidence.  The curriculum develops the skills and knowledge pupils need to succeed, not just at St Mary’s, but on the journey to secondary school and beyond into adult hood.

Implementation

The intent of our curriculum guides our implementation.  Quite simply, we ensure that how we do things meets the requirements of what we need to do.

The correct and pupil centred delivery of the National Curriculum ensures all pupils have the opportunity to learn.  But, and just as important, we offer an enriched curriculum, extra-curricular activities, outdoor learning opportunities and a Growth Mindset culture where all pupils feel they can succeed.

Impact

The Curriculum which we offer and provide has an impact on the learning and lives of our pupils.  Our aim is to ensure that all children make at least the expected progress from their varied starting points but we strive to ensure that children exceed expectations and do not put a cap on their potential.

Our pupils will demonstrate a clear understanding of our aims and values through their work, progress, behaviour and interaction with those around them.

Our pupils will have acquired skills over their time at St Mary’s and be empowered to use to benefit themselves and for the good of others.

Our Curriculum allows our pupils to be highly motivated and foster opportunities where all pupils feel they can succeed.  A positive growth mind set is encouraged, nurtured and celebrated,

Recent events have taught us all the importance of mental well-being.  Our pupils will be confident, happy, resilient, well-skilled and ready for the next step of their life journey,

RE

As a Roman Catholic School, our curriculum is based on the Curriculum Directory for Catholic Schools.  The Directory develops knowledge and understanding of the following areas:

Revelation, Church, Celebration and Life in Christ.

EYFS and KS1 have began to use the RED, whilst the remainder of the school are undergoing training and are compliant with the RED pathway.  The Way, the Truth and the Life is currently used in KS2.  As well as this scheme, pupils also learn about and celebrate other faiths – Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism.

Pupils participate in acts of worship, both teacher and pupil led including assemblies, liturgies and masses.

Pupils demonstrate, share, celebrate and enjoy their faith in a variety of ways – fund-raising, entertaining parishioners, singing at care homes, serving at Lenten Lunches, having an active Chaplaincy Team, leading the Rosary.

English

This lies at the centre of our successful whole school curriculum.  Strong literacy skills acquired through good literacy teaching ensure pupils can participate effectively and confidently in all areas of the curriculum and life.  English is divided up into three main areas which are further subdivided.

Spoken language – speaking listening and responding

Reading – word reading, phonics and comprehension

Writing – transcription – spelling and handwriting, composition, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation.

English is taught every day, usually before morning break.  We feel this time best meets the readiness of our pupils.

Reading

Daily phonics sessions take place in EYFS and KS1 based on the new Government approved scheme “Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised.”

A variety of reading schemes are used in Key Stage 1 and for some pupils in KS2 these include Rigby Star and Alphablocks books.  We benchmark pupils in Key Stage 1 and Lower Key stage 2 to ensure reading material matches their needs and ability.

We recognise reading lies at the heart of a high quality curriculum and we give this subject a real priority.

From the moment pupils enter St Mary’s we foster a love and respect of reading.

Nursery have stories read to them daily, and have books available to read inside and outside during Discover and do.  A new reading area has been created with bean bags and famous book characters on the wall.  We have a weekly reading morning challenge (busy fingers) where children read to a teddy.  We also send reading books home to support early reading and have a secret book which goes home for the children to enjoy sharing with a parent.  We also listen to audio books and share big book stories.

Individual reading is encouraged as early as possible where pupils become independent with their choice and frequency of reading.  Whole class reading takes place and leads up to high quality reading comprehensions being used in Upper Key Stage 2.  Guided reading is used from EYFS to Year 6.  All pupils are encouraged to read at home daily, both to parents/carers and for themselves when appropriate.  We hope all our pupils become ‘free readers’ and develop the skills to choose their own texts, e.g. favourite authors, genre.

We are also promoting reading by providing reading videos and information on how parents can support children at home.

Recommended book lists are provided on class pages to help pupils and parents/carers in promoting and developing reading. We try to arrange annual visits to our local library.

Writing

Writing is encouraged and celebrated from the moment pupils begin their journey at St Mary’s.  This may begin with simple mark making in Nursery and lead to high quality pupil edited and redrafted pieces of text which secondary schools comment on as being GCSE standard.

We strive to make writing as cross-curricular as possible. For example, in Year 6 there is very little extended pieces of writing found in English books.  The majority is cross-curricular where pupils recognise that they are writing for a purpose.

Maths

September 2021 we have introduced Herts Essential Maths alongside Stick Mark Boom.  We recognise that this will take some time to embed and the long term impact/benefit may not be recognised for a period of time. We strive for our pupils not just to do Maths but to be ‘true mathematicians’ We are also embarking on the Mastery readiness journey with the aim a positive mindset towards Maths is vital for both staff and children alike.  Mastery will allow us to give our children the best possible learning opportunities whilst providing them with the foundations they need to be successful.

The National curriculum divides maths into the following areas of learning:

Number and place value, calculation, fractions and decimals, reasoning and problem solving, measurement, statistics, algebra and geometry.  A range of calculation strategies are taught

Times tables

We have always placed great emphasis on the teaching and learning of this.  We recognise that a good understanding and implementation of times tables lies at the centre of maths.  We are constantly seek to look at new strategies and initiative to help promote the learning of times tables.  We have recently purchased Times table Rockstars scheme and will be measuring the success and impact this has on the raining of standards with regards to Times tables.  We are sure this will further help us meet the National curriculum requirements of

• End of Year 2 – 2x,5x,10x and associated division facts
• End of Year 3 – 3x,4x, 8x, and associated division facts
• End of Year 4 – All times tables up to 12x12 and associated division facts

We deliver consistent approach through the use of Essential Maths and the weekly use of Stick Mark Boom.  Meetings have taken place between maths subject leads across the DOWAT.  This is an opportunity to share good practice and develop continuing professional development. 

We use accurate and robust assessment to inform us of progress, areas to develop and next steps to allow pupils to move their mathematical understanding forward.  We hold termly pupil progress meetings which identify the needs of our pupils. The assessment lead and subject leaders and SENCo work closely together to ensure correct interventions are put in place.

Science

As a Catholic school, we recognise God as the creator of everything and wish to instil a sense of awe and wonder in the children.

Our science curriculum is divided in to topics with ‘working scientifically’ at the centre of all topics.

Science is taught as a discrete subject but where possible cross-curricular links are developed to enhance and enrich the curriculum.

Outdoor learning plays a big role in our curriculum with the subject of science lending itself to so many exciting opportunities for our pupils.

Understanding about each science topic is acquired and developed as pupils progress through the school.  Topics are revisited and vocabulary and knowledge developed.  The skills for working scientifically are also developed through each year group.  At the end of each topic or learning sequence assessment procedure using Stick Mark Boom to inform staff and pupils of progress.