Curriculum Overview
The national curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement. The national curriculum is just one element in the education of every child. There is time and space in the school day and in each week, term and year to range beyond the national curriculum specifications. The national curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.
As a school, we place a great deal of importance on academic learning. We take the progress and attainment of each child achieving the very best they are capable of very seriously. However, we also view each child as a complete person and our curriculum has been tailored to ensure that each child grows as a person and recognises their place in our community and in our ever- changing world.
Our curriculum has been designed to reflect that life at St. Stephen’s Catholic Primary School is rich, varied, caring, inclusive, exciting, challenging, inspiring, but above all, rewarding. This runs through all subject areas, including our cross curricular approach to English and our Maths curriculum that builds upon knowledge gained over time and applied into problems and investigations.
Our approach to teaching across the whole curriculum puts children at the heart of their own learning; taking an active part in lessons and ensuring that the children are rich in language and cultural diversity. We recognise that children have a thirst for knowledge and we are committed to nurturing young writers, performers, readers, international speakers, mathematicians, scientists, historians, geographers, artists, designers, musicians, sports persons, computer users and so much more!
We aim to provide the building blocks of knowledge that enable the children to progress and follow their dreams through fostering the qualities of resilience and inquiry as well as planning opportunities for the children to know about keeping safe.
We also plan for and promote British Values, (Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs) ensuring that children are aware of their rights and responsibilities as a UK citizen. They are values that give a simple message to our young people, ‘In Britain, no matter what your background, you can fit in, you can succeed and you can belong’.
In order to allow the children to fully develop these aptitudes, language is a key focus for us. We aim to develop the children’s communication abilities and also provide them with the rich and specific vocabulary (from across the curriculum) that underpins their knowledge and understanding.
We are a school that proudly embraces change and does not shy away from the increasing use and dependence on IT in the world. Everything that we do in IT is geared towards removing the fear from using computers and the internet. Children use the internet and will continue to do so. Therefore, our responsibility is to prepare them for the digital world and motivate them to become responsible digital citizens. Staff members do everything in their power to stay up-to-date with the developments in this field and perpetually promote the importance of e-safety.
Learning is also enhanced by a carefully planned range of educational visits with their strong links to enhance the curriculum. Our curriculum is also structured to use the wealth of local resources (including those further afield) to enhance the children’s learning experiences.
Our approach to assessment is built upon these milestones, looking to use assessment to monitor and support the children’s learning over a number of years to ensure that their maximum potential is achieved.
After developing our Curriculum Intent and Implementation, our staff teams considered what the curriculum at St. Stephen’s offers our learners. The nine overarching skills across the curriculum that our pupils acquire and develop over their time in school enable them to become:
- Inquirers
- Knowledgeable
- Thinkers
- Communicators
- Balanced
- Principled
- Caring
- Risk Takers
- Reflective
