OUR Curriculum
Curriculum Intent
At St. Joseph’s our goal is for all members of our school’s community to work together to achieve the highest standards because of a desire to exceed expectations and aim high.
We are dedicated to enabling our children to grow into self-confident, articulate and motivated life long learners who will be caring and compassionate members of the global community. They will have a positive impact on society because of the knowledge, skills and understanding that they have, as well as their intrinsic understanding of our Catholic Values and Virtues along with British Values which permeate our curriculum.
Through structured, well-planned sequences of learning we deliver a broad and balanced curriculum that is ambitious for all and can be adapted for pupils with SEN and/or disabilities.
Curriculum Implementation
We plan our curriculum ensuring we meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and the Early Years Curriculum ensuring that there is coherence and full progression in its coverage.
Our curriculum is underpinned by the Rosenshine (2012) article, “Principles of Effective Instruction: Research-Based Strategies that All Teachers Should Know”.
At St. Joseph’s there will be a daily Maths and English lesson including a daily spelling focus and extra opportunities within the weekly timetable to teach elements of these core subjects including handwriting, reading and mental maths. Children receive regular homework in Maths and English which consolidates learning, deepens understanding and prepares pupils well for work to come. Other subjects which are taught on a weekly basis include Science, RE, PE, ICT, Music and MFL (KS2). Each half term, one week is dedicated to ‘Topic’ which includes the subjects of History, Geography, Art and DT. During this week English and Maths will be taught in a cross curricular manner where possible. Curriculum opportunities are enhanced by visits to the local area and workshops in school delivered by external providers.
Planning
Planning must take account of the school’s curriculum (detailed in Subject policies) and the individual learning needs of the pupils within the class. Planning will respond to children’s learning and be adapted in response to AfL. Based on assessment of learning, further support and challenge in subsequent lessons will be identified including where extra adult support will be directed.
Tasks will be matched closely to learning objectives and when considering the appropriateness of the task we need to consider:
- The interest level;
- The concentration span of children;
- The individual needs of children;
- The task’s contribution to continuity and progression in sequence of activities;
- The values explicit and implicit in the task;
- Opportunities for all learners to reason, use and apply skills taught.
Questioning
Questioning will be rich, probing and focused on learning. Children should also be encouraged as much as possible to pose their own learning questions. Effective questioning might be used to:
- Make pupils think more deeply
- Inspire and enthuse pupils
- Develop pupils’ imaginations
- Establish what pupils have learnt
- Summarise the learning
- Assess pupils’ knowledge and understanding at all stages of the lesson
- Establish whether a pupil’s grasp of a concept or skill is secure
- Identify misconceptions and where pupils are ‘getting stuck’.
Curriculum Impact
End of Key Stage results and progress figures will provide some evidence of the impact of our curriculum .
Pupils knowledge and skills in non-core subjects can be evidenced through book scrutiny, pupil voice, displays and learning journals.
However, good outcomes are not just measured using data but in how successfully pupils are developed as well-rounded citizens.
At the end of their primary education, pupils leaving St. Joseph’s:
- take personal responsibility for their actions and their learning.
- respect others and themselves, demonstrating empathy, fairness and kindness towards others whilst celebrating each other’s individual backgrounds and talents.
- are respectful of their immediate and wider environment so that they grow up to be responsible British and global citizens.
- work collaboratively and get along with other people.
- know that making mistakes and taking risks is essential for learning to take place and view this positively.
- persevere when something is difficult.
- can demonstrate our learning in different ways
- support each other with their learning.
- know how to assess their own learning and that of others.
- know how to reflect on their learning and progress towards their goals.
