Our Curriculum
At St Michael and All Angels CE VA Primary School our curriculum is rooted in:
- Our vision statement, "John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."
- Our mission statement, “working together to achieve our best, we listen, love and learn through Christ.”
- Our school values of respect, trust, forgiveness, love, honesty and thankfulness.
It is imperative at St Michael's that our curriculum is tailored for our school and our children. Our curriculum needs to be able to overcome any barriers to learning that our children may experience.
We want to teach knowledge and skills, but also experiences and wonderment of the world. We want to prepare our children for their next stage of learning and, ultimately, life as a citizen in the 21st Century.
Our curriculum drivers are:
We have planned our curriculum with the intention of promoting learning and the personal development for all children. Our curriculum provides opportunities for children to develop as independent, resilient and confident learners, with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and wider society.
The curriculum has been designed to ensure that academic success, as well as physical development, well-being and mental wellness are key elements that support the development of the whole child and promote a positive attitude to learning. It provides meaningful opportunities to promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepare children for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
Intent
Our aim is to deliver a dynamic and innovative curriculum that challenges, excites and inspires children to achieve their best. Learning is carefully sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught and understood before. It recognises that children will be at different stages of their learning journey and ensures that curriculum planning is tailored to individual needs.
At St Michael and All Angels we seek to ensure the crucial deepening of essential knowledge, skills and understanding through our curriculum design. We plan and organise our curriculum to ensure that children are not merely covering curriculum content but are achieving a depth to their learning which enables them to apply their skills and understanding across a range of contexts and subjects.
Our well-planned and organised curriculum will:
- Provide exciting and memorable experiences to ensure children are inspired to learn
- Ensure all children receive a full and varied curriculum which meets their needs and interests
- Support pupils to reach a high standard of literacy and maths skills through specific teaching and the application of these skills to learning across the curriculum
- Ensure that knowledge and skills are taught progressively so that children build on what they already know and understand
- Allow children to achieve depth to their learning by applying their knowledge and skills in a range of contexts and subjects
- Develop children with enquiring minds, who question the world around them with curiosity
- Extend learning beyond the classroom through engaging enrichment and extracurricular opportunities
- Teach children the essential social and emotional skills, as well as how to keep physically and mentally healthy
- Develop children’s personal values, qualities and attitudes so that they are respectful of other people and their beliefs, views and opinions
- Encourage children to be caring, responsible and active citizens who positively contribute to the local and wider community and environment
At St Michael and All Angels our curriculum is carefully designed, implemented and reviewed to ensure that our values are LIVED through everything that we do within and across our school. We strive children to be the best they can on a daily basis to ensure children are responsible, resilient and ready for their next chapter.
Implementation
- Our core and Christian values drive everything that we do so that we can develop the holistic child with an explicit focus on developing the children’s strength of character and personal development
- We plan backwards from an ambitious, agreed end point so that quality first teaching leads to high quality outcomes
- We do this through clear, consistent and progressive teaching sequences so that pupils master knowledge, skills and understanding for each curriculum area that lead to meaningful, high quality outcomes.
- Key and skills are taught explicitly so that they can be mastered and applied within and across the curriculum and beyond.
- Knowledge is organised coherently to ensure progression so that pupils have strong core knowledge across our rich curriculum.
- We develop children’s understanding through rich, connected learning opportunities and experiences so that pupils can connect new knowledge with existing knowledge
- Along with our core values, we provide a language rich environment, with an emphasis on vocabulary, which underpins our curriculum so that children can thrive and become confident, literate individuals
- We effectively use assessment for and of learning so that we can identify next steps for pupils on their journey to true mastery and depth
Impact
Achievement at St Michael and All Angels is defined as children knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more across our broad and rich curriculum. This leads to pupils who are ready and fit for the next stage of their education.