Our Curriculum
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School
Our Vision Statement
With the love of Jesus and the inspiration of Mary at our heart, we will be the best we can be.
At St. Mary's we provide every member of our school family with the opportunity to achieve academically and thrive spiritually and socially.
#making a difference together
We aim to:
Educate, Protect, Love, Serve
We educate you so that you go and make a difference. Everything that you do is valued and celebrated.
We protect you so that you feel safe and happy, enabling you to you grow in your faith and your life.
We demonstrate love in all that we do; love for learning, love for each other and love for our world.
We serve one another; by providing you with a caring learning environment and an exciting curriculum you will reach your full potential.
In our school, we will develop a culture of high expectation and aspiration, based on our fundamental belief in the dignity of all human beings. We want all our pupils to flourish in safe, happy and enriching environments, taught and supported by adults who are skilled, motivated and committed to our shared vision and values.
St Mary’s Curriculum aims to:
- To create lifelong learners of the wider community
- It goes above and beyond their knowledge – it’s what we want them to take away with them when they leave
- It is child centric- the child is at the centre
- It branches out- Values, Attitudes & Cognition, Experiences and Relationships
- It is more than just words- it is shared with the children and our intent is woven and referred to throughout the curriculum planning.
Curriculum intent; St Mary’s curriculum is:
- Rooted in our Gospel values and virtues with the child at the very centre of everything we do. Based on our four key areas for learning lifelong skills which permeate through everything
- Focused on experiences, building positive relationships, demonstrating learnt values and embracing a learning culture
- Focused on the child and their unique starting point and ensuring that they experience an exciting, inclusive, broad and balanced curriculum; one that unlocks their potential
- A vehicle to develop the whole child as an individual; an advocate of their school; a member of their parish and community; a resident of the British Isles and a global citizen.
- Adapted to build on prior knowledge, skills and concepts
New knowledge is built upon enquiry, discussion and creativity. The curriculum is planned to ensure that all components of knowledge are sequenced across each subject area and across each year. Building prior knowledge is essential to guarantee that gaps in learning and knowledge and skills are filled.
The curriculum planning ensures that the components of knowledge are built upon year on year; this enables children to have a good understanding of individual subject areas and they can transfer skills and knowledge to other areas of the curriculum. Subjects are revisited over time ensuring that cyclical learning and interweaving takes place; building and recalling facts whilst practising key skills. The curriculum works on the short-term/working memory to long term memory. Our curriculum facilitates the child’s long-term memory. Therefore, the year on year plan gives opportunities for the children to revisit topics at a distance.
Our Pedagogy for our curriculum is all of the above and it is progressive. We build on what the child knows and commit ourselves to developing the child’s long-term memory by revisiting throughout the child’s time at St. Mary’s.
Learning is a core purpose of our school and is central to everything that happens.
Our approach for successful implementation of our planned curriculum is to create a culture where collaboration and professional dialogue between subject leaders delivers a curriculum that builds on prior learning, deepens knowledge, enhances skills and ultimately fosters a love for learning and achievement. Our aim is to also develop the children’s curiosity, creativity and independence. We engage in a constant cycle of review and evaluation. Underpinning all of this is the Plymouth CAST Principles of Teaching and Learning.
In Reception, we follow the’ Development Matters’ and ‘Birth to 5’ guidance. The children’s learning experiences are planned to enable them to develop and achieve in the early learning areas through play and investigative learning experiences. The EYFS curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas. Our EYFS curriculum is planned in a cross-curricular way to enable all aspects of the children’s development.
Our curriculum from Year 1 onwards, integrates the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum in a bespoke and engaging way. It is driven by engaging ‘Big’ questions which develop our children’s empathy of Catholic Social Teachings. It is also designed to meet the needs of future citizens and equip all children, including those with SEND, EAL and social disadvantages, with the foundations for life. Alongside the National Curriculum for English, Maths, Science, Computing, History, Geography, Art and Design, Design and Technology, Music, MFL and PE. For RE, we follow the Catholic Primary Religious Education programme, ‘Come and See’ and for RSE, Ten Ten’s ‘Life to Full’ programme of study.
- The knowledge and skills they need to be responsible, respectful, active citizens who contribute positively to society and has respect for all
- Belief that they have the knowledge and skills to manage their life
- The understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible
- A voice that can be heard
- An awareness of how to make positive contributions to the local community and how to endeavour to be the best that they can be
- Ambition and a thirst for life and all it has to offer
- A natural curiosity to learn and acquire new skills