Our St Mary’s curriculum was initially redesigned throughout 2023. This academic we are working hard to refine the curriculum at St Mary’s.
Curriculum Tools
Whilst based on the National Curriculum, it has been designed to uniquely fit the needs of the school and encompasses a variety of curriculum tools, including:
- Come and See (Catholic RE curriculum)
- White Rose Maths
- Reading Vipers (EdShed/Literacy Shed)
- Language Angels
- Teach Computing
- Get Set 4 PE
The effectiveness of these tools is monitored and their use is reviewed annually.
The curriculum is pedagogically sound in that it is:
Progressive and Developmental; Our curriculum reflects and is appropriate to the age and stage of the development of the child during the different phases of their education. It is continuous and developmental. It is a process which is planned from beginning to end, with one phase of education informing the work of the next so that pupils can be led to a deeper and fuller understanding at a rate which corresponds to their maturing.
Adapted; We ensure our curriculum is sensitive to the different needs of individual pupils and is taught in a way that allows access to those pupils at different stages of cognitive and emotional development. Methods are adapted and specialist resources and training are provided for those with particular needs. We ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities are not withdrawn because of a lack of resources and training or to catch up in other subjects.
Cross-Curricular: Since a Catholic school is committed to the education of the whole person, this reflected in each relevant part of the curriculum. Each discipline speaks with consistency about the virtues that are enshrined in the Church’s teachings.
Integrated: Our curriculum ensures that there is correspondence between phases and across disciplines, and that parents are fully informed of the planning and evaluation of our curriculum.
Co-ordinated: Each curriculum subject is given the utmost importance by school leaders; led properly by someone who has the time and expertise to co-ordinate the subject at a senior level; taught by those committed to doing it well; and taught as part of a whole-school approach by those who are able to celebrate the teachings of the Church.
Balanced: Whilst promoting Catholic virtues, we should ensure that pupils are offered a broad and balanced programme which provides them with clearly relevant, factual information and meets the statutory requirements placed on schools.
This means that it:
- Excites, promotes and sustains children’s interest, allowing teachers to linger longer and dive deeper.
- Enables and fosters children’s natural curiosity.
- Enables children to reflect on and evaluate their learning.
- Promotes problem solving, creativity and communication.
The curriculum is taught on an individual subject basis, so rather than simply having a ‘topic’ lesson, children will know exactly which subject they are working on (e.g. History, Geography, Science, etc.) Furthermore, in Science lessons, children will be made aware of which of the 3 main strands of Science they are working on – Biology, Chemistry or Physics, although lessons will still be simply labelled as Science.
We try, where possible, to make links between subjects, so the study of a particular book in English may link to, for example, the History unit for that term, etc. This is an important feature of our curriculum, as it allows for recall and revisiting of material, both of which strengthen learning.
RE is taught essentially as a stand-alone subject but provides many links to life in general and can often be related to the other work in the classroom. Other subjects mainly taught as stand-alone are: Computing, French, Music and PE. Once again, however, links with other areas of learning are always made where possible, as the school values cross-curricular learning as a way of assisting the children to contextualise their learning.
If you need any further details on the curriculum, please contact the school office on info@st-marys-grantham.lincs.sch.uk
