St Bernadette’s Curriculum Statement

‘Young people get one opportunity to learn in school and we owe it to them to make sure they all get an education that is broad, rich and deep.’ Speilman

We believe our curriculum will inspire children to go on on achieve great things…

Curriculum Intent

At St Bernadette’s Primary School, our core vision is for pupils to achieve to the best of their abilities and strive to become lifelong learners.  As a Catholic Caring Community we promote Christian values.  St Bernadette sets an example to us by her actions. We follow God’s mission with our own school values linked to scripture.   We set high expectations to ensure that every pupil excels across all aspects of school life.  

Our intention is to ensure pupils make outstanding progress and that the curriculum removes any potential barriers to learning.  We want our pupils to leave with knowledge and skills which will not only create excellent life opportunities but will also prepare them exceptionally well for life beyond our schools.

Our Curriculum intent is underpinned by three driver words taken from our ambitious school vision:

1. Aspire

2. Courage

3. Excellence

Pupils experience a broad, deep and knowledge rich curriculum

Our curriculum helps pupils to achieve high standards and make excellent progress.  We are committed to meeting the requirements of the primary National Curriculum.  The work set reflects the content and challenge of the curriculum.  Excellent bespoke materials ensure a progressive curriculum is in place across all phases.  Our Curriculum has high aspirations for all pupils, offering opportunities for further support through varied levels of differentiation, support and scaffolding to allow pupils to apply their knowledge skills with greater independence.  As a reflective school we adapt our curriculum to meet the demographics of our setting which will both engage and widen understanding of our children. 

Pupils will be literate and numerate

The development of pupil language and oracy is at the forefront of our curriculum as we understand how vital it is for our pupils to build confidence in communication skills not only for their time in school but also to prepare them for working life. We ensure pupils have opportunities in all subjects to discuss, challenge and build on other points of view and to develop their formality of language to ensure they can have the confidence to speak to different audiences. Numeracy skills are embedded across the curriculum. Pupils who arrive with below expected maths skills are quickly caught up through expert teaching and incisive intervention. We ensure pupils are literate and numerate enabling them to flourish, thrive and access the next stage of their education, employment or training.

Pupils will have high expectations for their behaviour and achievement

At St Bernadette’s we have high expectations of all pupils and provide opportunity for pupils to learn what is expected of them morally. Our overarching Code of Conduct ensures that pupils learn positive behaviours. Whilst pupils gain knowledge through each Key Stage we also want them to become learners who are enquiring, enthusiastic, engaged and have exemplary manners. We are particularly proud of the respect and care that our children show for one another, the environment and the community around them.  All staff and pupils agree to our Code of conduct which expects the highest standards at all times.

Pupils will build their character

As a school, we are totally committed to improving the life chances and aspirations of pupils, this is reflected in our strong vision: ‘Be strong and courageous. Inspire each other to excellence, shining in the light of Christ, making a positive impact on the world.’   With a focus on building character and resilience, we ensure pupils have access to a wider curriculum which provides numerous opportunities in sport, creativity, performing, volunteering and membership. An extensive enrichment programme supports the development of pupils into well rounded citizens.

Pupils will develop their cultural, moral, social, mental and physical development

We are proud of our Catholic Faith and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development is championed within the school in order to develop pupils as a whole, not just academically but to ensure that they are fully prepared for life in modern Britain. Pupils are encouraged to take part in a range of sporting, cultural and charitable activities. Links with local and national community events enrich the curriculum offer and help to contextualise learning.

Pupils will secure foundations for progression

It is our intention at St Bernadette’s to ensure pupils have secure foundations to transit well into secondary school and beyond.  Children at St Bernadette’s make strong progress whatever their starting points.  As they progress through each Key Stage, we aim for pupils to have the requisite skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners in readiness for their next stage of learning. 

Development of language and building knowledge are integral to curriculum planning. 

A core principle of our primary curriculum design is built on progression as outlined in the National Curriculum 2014. Our primary curriculum, reinforces prior learning and progressively increases in cognitive complexity. Children move through the primary school, revisiting and building upon concepts in greater depth. Metacognitive strategies aid retention and memory. 

The curriculum focuses on high quality teaching of basic skills (reading, writing, number and speaking and listening). 

Early years provision provides a sensitive balance of play-based learning and adult-led interaction.  Throughout Key Stage 1 and 2, pupils will receive a broad and rich curriculum, taught primarily as discrete subjects or through combining subjects when this is appropriate.  

Religious Education is the “core of the core curriculum” in our school. The children follow the ‘Come and See’ programme of study for RE. 

A rigorous approach to the teaching of reading develops learners’ confidence and understanding in reading. Reading materials are closely matched to learners’ phonics knowledge.  A love of early reading, for pleasure and academic excellence, is rooted in schools.  The secure acquisition of grammar, spelling (including phonics) and vocabulary impacts positively on writing development. 

Through a mastery approach, Maths lessons are carefully sequenced and pupils are taught through whole-class interactive teaching, ensuring fluency and conceptual understanding are developed in tandem and children develop a deep knowledge of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning.

Foundation subjects are split into ‘increased fluency blocks’ whereby we sequentially order content in our long term plans to ensure National Curriculum coverage.   We use the flexibility of the National Curriculum to decide how to deliver the curriculum and how to organise our timetables.  

Teachers are ambitious for their learners and create environments that allow children to focus on learning and promoting independence.  Quality INSET and CPD provide enhanced teaching and learning development. 

Teachers use on-going assessment to evaluate the learning and progress of all pupils.  Summative assessments are used in all subjects to assess our children’s retention of new teaching and this informs future planning.

Curriculum Impact

At St Bernadette’s, our curriculum will:

• ensure that the sequence of learning builds on previous knowledge whilst supporting future progression.
• meet the needs of pupils of all abilities.
• provide high levels of challenge, allowing accurate tracking of progress and rigorously assessment
• help children become inquisitive learners who are motivated to excel and who have a thirst for learning. 
• allow pupils to acquire an appreciation and respect for their own and other cultures. 
• prepare pupils with academic, emotional and mental flexibility and resilience who work hard to have a positive impact on their local community and world around them.
• deliver high quality CPD and develop well trained practitioners.

*The School leadership team will use ongoing, robust monitoring systems to evaluate the impact of our curriculum design.

Curriculum coverage

Each term we send to parents Curriculum Newsletters which provide a summary of the topics that children are studying.  We always encourage parental support with our work.  These newsletters can be found on the Class pages section of the website along with information about the fun and interesting activities each class are partaking in.

Please refer to our specific subjects or EYFS section for further details on our school curriculum offer. 

 

 

EYFS (Early Years and Foundation Stage) Curriculum

At St Bernadette’s, we believe that the Early Years Foundation Stage is crucial in securing solid foundations that children are going to continue to build upon. It is our intent that the children who enter our EYFS develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally whilst embedding a positive attitude to school and learning.  We believe that all children deserve to be valued as an individual and we are passionate in allowing all children to achieve their full, unique potential.

The principles that guide the work in the EYFS are grouped into 4 themes:

• A unique child, Positive relationships, Enabling Environments, Learning and Development
• The EYFS Curriculum consists of the seven areas of Learning and Development.

The three prime areas of learning are:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development

The four specific areas of EYFS learning are:

Mathematics, Literacy, Understanding of the World, Expressive Arts and Design

The teaching of these areas of learning is practical and playful with support and challenge from adults in class sessions, small group sessions and working with individuals. There is a combination of adult-led, teacher taught sessions as well as a wealth of stimulating continuous provision opportunities

The curriculum in Early Years is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all pupils. It facilitates them to gain the skills, knowledge and understanding, as they start out on their educational journey, supporting them to progress from their individual starting points and preparing them for the next stage of their education.

Our ethos in Early Years is to support children’s personal, social and emotional development so that they feel safe and secure and are ready to learn, enthused and excited to learn new things in a safe environment.

We recognise that all children come into our setting with varied experiences and all staff work hard to ensure that the learning opportunities provided widen their knowledge and understanding of the world, setting ambitious expectations for all children.

At St Bernadette’s, we offer an EYFS curriculum which is broad and balanced and which builds on the knowledge, understanding and skills of all children, whatever their starting points. We follow the Early Years curriculum using topic themes and enrichment opportunities.

The aim of our EYFS curriculum is to develop a thirst and love for learning by:

• Carefully planning sequences of activities that provide meaningful learning experiences, developing each child’s characteristics of learning.
• Providing high quality interactions with adults that demonstrate and impact on the progress of all children.
• Using high quality questioning and interactions to check understanding and address misconceptions.
• Staff acting as role models to the children they teach in order for children to develop their own speaking and listening skills.
• Carefully assessing, through observations, which are recorded on tapestry and shared with parents. These are used to inform the next steps of learning and meet individual needs.
• Developing an effective and engaging environment that is set up so that children can access all areas of learning both inside and outside at any one time.
• Providing activity starting points for child initiated activities that enhance children’s learning and impact on progress.
• Allowing children to be successful in their attempts at an activity and using effective feedback to help facilitate next steps in learning.
• Suggesting home learning opportunities with information about what has been taught, allowing parents to build on their child’s school experiences, at home.

We recognise the changing needs and interests of our pupils and we are responsive to this, regularly developing existing topics.

Literacy opportunities are promoted in many of the continuous provision activities available to children during the week.

The Early Years staff use core texts as a basis for topic planning and usually start with an exciting hook to engage children in both the topic and the book. We have developed our own suggested text list and we also have class authors. These texts are chosen for their level of challenge and quality language. They have also been chosen with a view to promoting reading for pleasure.

Phonics is taught daily through story time phonics and the love of real books. Through stories and activities associated with these, phonic sounds are introduced to children each day in an engaging way. The phonics activities are revisited to embed over the year and supported in a range of ways including associating actions with these.

Pupils have opportunities to share their learning with their parents and carers through Tapestry. Regular ‘Stay and Play’ sessions for nursery, allow parents to join in learning activities alongside their children and share the nursery experience. We have a twitter feed where children’s learning and successes are celebrated.