St Anne Stanley CE Primary School
Curriculum Intent
The curriculum at St Anne Stanley CE Primary is designed to reflect our caring and inclusive nature. We aim to provide a high quality curriculum which supports every child to achieve their fullest potential. Pupil and parent voice afford insight into the needs of our school community and we endeavour to meet the needs of every child including disadvantaged and vulnerable learners. In line with this whole school intent, our SENDCO supports our pupils with SEND to overcome barriers to learning and development and reach their full potential.
At St Anne’s, we have endeavoured to develop a curriculum which engages our children, is broad and balanced, with high ambition for all pupils. We ensure that our curriculum is not narrowed and instead engages our pupils in a wide variety of enriching experiences. All National Curriculum subjects are carefully planned, structured and sequenced to ensure progression across units of work and across year groups or stages. The knowledge and skills gained as part of our curriculum are detailed in the progression maps that accompany each subject. Our progression maps demonstrate incremental learning and provide sequenced end points detailing the knowledge and skills gained as pupils move through our school.
Our curriculum intends to build on the cultural capital of our children through our focus on knowledge together with our emphasis on building enrichment into our school curriculum. In particular, subject leaders engage pupils in experiences that serve to enhance and enrich pupils’ experiences. All of which serves to build our pupils’ cultural capital.
To know and remember more:
- Our school curriculum is progressive, learning is sequenced to support pupils to revisit, consolidate and build upon prior learning. Subject leaders identify the key knowledge in their subject area and share this with pupils and staff in the form of knowledge organisers together with reinforcing key knowledge through retrieval practices. We support our pupils to build fluency through consolidating their developing knowledge and skills in their long term memory.
To develop the language of subject areas across the curriculum:
- Academic vocabulary together with the key vocabulary associated with each subject is discretely taught. This enables our pupils to develop the language of each subject area and effectively articulate their developing knowledge and skills.
To become fluent and avid readers:
- While reading is discretely taught through evidence-based approaches such as phonics, children are further encouraged and inspired to apply their developing literacy skills across the curriculum.
To learn and develop through dialogue:
- At St Anne Stanley, we follow an evidence-based approach to formative assessment which includes ‘live marking’ i.e., constructive dialogue that takes place between teacher and pupil whilst a task is being completed. Pupils are therefore given time to address misconceptions etc. during lessons.
Through our curriculum and close links with the church and wider community, we believe that our school values underpin everything that we do.
Curriculum Implementation
Providing a curriculum that is unique to our school is paramount to our vision. In order to achieve this, leaders at all levels continually review and improve its contents. Our school’s curriculum is planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build upon what has been taught before. This is done through well planned curriculum mapping and sequencing, with subject leads liaising with EYFS, KS1 and KS2, the curriculum lead and SLT to ensure a smooth progression of knowledge from Nursery all the way through to Year 6. Subject leaders are supported to research and develop their subjects through CPD prioritised in the School Development Plan with regard to whole school objectives and individually with regard to the priorities of individual staff.
Within lesson sequences we have embedded low stakes quizzes, interactive learning displays in class and recapping over prior learning. Key concepts are identified and progressively sequenced in planning units. Spaced repetition is mapped in to help pupils retain learning.
The importance of learning new vocabulary is integral to our teaching and learning across the curriculum. We believe that extending vocabulary is vital to our children’s learning. Our Curriculum design is a never-ending process – it is a continual process of reviewing and refining. This is a process that we are committed to so at St Anne’s, we have a curriculum that is continually strengthening to enable children to know and remember more.
Reading is a strength of our school and is at the heart of our curriculum. A range of quality texts and sources help to enrich the pupil’s learning experience. Pupils regularly visit our school library, both to read for pleasure and to gain access to reading material based around curriculum areas. Every class has a reading area with both fiction and non-fiction texts that engage all children’s interests. There is a sharp focus on phonics for our younger pupils and a programme of support is in place for any older children who may need additional help, these may be SEND, EAL or new to the country.
We believe that Mathematics is an essential tool for life. We strive to develop great mathematicians, who use their fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills with confidence, throughout their school career and into their adult life. All of which is achieved through building knowledge and skills in manageable steps with an ongoing focus on revisiting key concepts.
We embrace the opportunities of our local area. In terms of geographical and historical content. We want our children to use the vibrancy of our great city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity and appreciate what they have. Equally, the strong links with our local church and community enable a wide range of exciting and dynamic learning opportunities that not only offer different contexts and experiences, but also encourage both local and global citizenship. Although the foundation subjects are taught discretely, we have carefully developed cross-curricular links to enhance the curriculum
We have embraced the ROAR programme as a tool to support personal well-being. This is complimented by our carefully planned PSHE scheme and wide range of support links that are in place to support our children in keeping safe. Themed weeks, linked to specific curriculum areas, allow our children further opportunities to explore a range of extra- curricular activities.
Specialist music and P.E. teachers promote unforgettable experiences both in and out of school and provide opportunities which are often out of reach.
We recognise that children have a thirst for knowledge and we are committed to nurturing our skilled young readers, writers, performers, international speakers, mathematicians, scientists, historians, geographers, artists, designers, musicians, sports persons, computer users, linguists and so much more. We aim to provide the building blocks of knowledge that enable our children to progress and follow their dreams through fostering the qualities of resilience and enquiry. We want them to have no limits to their ambitions and aspirations.
Curriculum Impact
As a result of our well thought out and planned curriculum, pupils develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum and as a result, achieve well.
Our staff at St Anne Stanley CE Primary School work hard to build a stimulating and progressive curriculum that meets the needs of all of our pupils. Leaders at all levels continually monitor and develop their areas so that our children receive the best possible learning experiences. We strive for our children to leave St Anne’s achieving their utmost potential with a love of learning that is lifelong.
At St Anne’s we strive to ensure that all of our pupils make good progress across all areas of the curriculum. We ensure that teaching is matched to learning needs so that children build learning blocks and competencies as they grow enabling them to leave our school with a sense of belonging and responsibility, having had the time of their lives and fully equipped to become our successful, caring, local and global citizens of the future.
If you have any queries regarding our curriculum, please contact the school office – Mrs A. Dougan or Mrs D. Casey, who will then put you in contact with the relevant member of staff. Paper copies of information displayed on the school website e.g. curriculum maps are available upon request.