Our Curriculum
At St Mary and St Josephs RC Primary School we serve a multi-faith community with a rich and diverse cultural heritage. Our aim is to provide our pupils with a curriculum that has a strong emphasis on broadening language acquisition and developing life skills that will prepare our children for the next stage of their journey, whilst maintaining the schools' strong Catholic faith and ethos. The social teachings of the church and the themes of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, respect and tolerance are woven
throughout the curriculum alongside our school virtues. We believe that all children deserve an education rich in wonder and first-hand memorable experiences. As such, our planned curriculum and purposeful learning opportunities improve our pupil's interest and joy in learning. Opportunities which our pupils perhaps may not have experienced before, not only engage and motivate, but empower them to be resilient, inquisitive and show an interest in the wider world. We strive for our curriculum to have the teaching and learning of vocabulary at it's core. Prior to undertaking any new topic our children are exposed to new vocabulary and key concepts to ensure that all pupils, regardless of home language, have access to the curriculum and can engage with and fully take part in all learning opportunities. At St Mary and St Joseph's we have designed our S.P.I.R.I.T skills to go hand in hand with the
teaching of the essential skills and knowledge within the National Curriculum. Through the SPIRIT of SMSJ we aim to support all of our pupils to be the best they can be within our ever-changing and diverse society and ensure everyone has the mind set, skills and confidence to achieve their full potential. Our belief is that an education that does all of this gives children the best chance to become well-rounded, happy individuals ready to succeed.
At St Mary and St Joseph's we provide a creative curriculum based around the Kapow schemes of work giving children the opportunity to explore the breadth and depth of the curriculum. The Kapow schemes provide engaging, knowledge-rich and progressive curriculums for foundation subjects. Learning is mapped to the Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. Kapow schemes are designed to be knowledge rich and follow a spiral model to ensure that previous knowledge and skills are continuously built upon. We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides lots of learning challenges throughout the academic year that will require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively across the curriculum. Where possible, lessons or themes are supported through hands-on experiences, including specialist visits or visitors. Kapow also provides a rigorous framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These essential skills and knowledge are tied to activities and are age related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.
Our curriculum is based around the Kapow scheme of work giving children the opportunity to explore the breadth and depth of the National Curriculum. Our staff value the different ways in which children learn and plan lessons to account for these differences. We encourage teachers to make cross-curricular links where possible, so that children can draw upon knowledge from different subjects, making connections and understand how each plays a different part in everyday life. Age related expectations combine the acquisition of knowledge, understanding and the development of skills tocreate a purposeful and exciting learning journey for every child.
The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils runs throughout our curriculum. Our staff will help our pupils to develop an inner discipline and will encourage them to make up their own minds and be ready to accept responsibility for what they do. They will grow through making choices and holding to the choices that they have made. They will want to be honest with
themselves and with others. By bringing together the National Curriculum Programmes of study, the S.P.I.R.I.T of SMSJ, our Catholic RE syllabus, Catholic Virtues and our RSE Ten Ten scheme we have the content through which children will develop and possess the building blocks essential for becoming a successful adult.
The emotional health and well-being of everyone in our school community is at the heart of everything we do. We seek to promote a caring, compassionate and fair environment within which all pupils are valued and enabled to flourish. Our school culture is based around the premise that we are all equal and everyone's views and opinions matter. Through our curriculum and wider opportunities we encourage our pupils to take part in discussions and activities and have the opportunity to use pupil voice to influence decisions which affect our school community.
Within our school and school grounds we have a wealth of resources, facilities and environments in which we can create purposeful learning environments to engage learners. These include a Library Resource Room, I Pad and Laptop suites, 4D immersive space, cookery room, garden, forest school, outdoor classroom and orienteering space. We are also fortunate enough to have a variety of local environments, resources and facilities within the community which we have forged links with to enhance learning experiences.
