Curriculum Overview
St Francis RC Primary School Aims and vision:
Aims
At St Francis we aim to
- Support all pupils to achieve in line with national expectations or individual targets by the end of the academic year
- To be an exemplar of a self-improving school
- To provide an environment that meets the needs of every child to prepare them to thrive in our rapidly changing world
Vision
We are committed to improving the quality of the educational provision for all our pupils which will enable them to reach their full potential and attain the levels of knowledge, understanding and skills that society demands for their future lives.
Curriculum Overview
At St Francis, the design of our curriculum aims to support Catholic Social Teaching, recognising that every child has the right to all that is needed to allow them to live their full potential as intended by God.
Our curriculum focuses on preparing each individual with the personal empowerment needed to be able to look beyond themselves to becoming better citizens. All knowledge and skills taught in the curriculum are carefully selected to promote greater confidence, independence and resilience so that pupils can make links between that which is learnt in the classroom and a real life context. We believe in ‘ fewer things taught well’ to develop depth in learning and give opportunities for pupils to experience a broad and balanced curriculum. Thus understanding clear pathways to developing these skills further.
Curriculum Intent
We will continually strive to achieve the school’s aims through the formal curriculum and through all the other experiences offered to our pupils. High quality education will support the pupils’ standards of attainment, enabling them to:
- Develop their use of reading, writing, oracy and maths which provide the foundation for all their other learning
- Learn social skills that encourage positive interactions between their peers as well as adults
- Treat everyone in an equal manner, irrespective of gender, race, class or disability
- Develop personal and moral values that are respectful of others, leading to their appreciation and tolerance of other religions and other ways of life
- Learn in a safe and secure environment, in the interests of all who work in the school
Curriculum Implementation
At St Francis we place equal importance on the teaching of the Foundation subjects as with the Core subjects, continuously responding to children’s interests and talents.
History, Geography, Art and Design Technology are taught through a ‘connected curriculum’, with four themes in each year group, spread across the academic year. Most of the topic titles are questions such as, ‘Can party food ever be healthy?’, ‘Has there ever been a better time to live?’ Through these topic themes, pupils are taught to explore, evaluate and build on what they already know.
English, Maths, Science, Religious Education, Relationships & Health Education, Music, Physical Education, Spanish and Computing are taught discreetly and links to the topic are made where the opportunity arises.
The books children study in English are linked to our themes to enable pupils to transfer skills from one subject to another and embed knowledge. The texts and significant people studied in all subjects are carefully selected to reflect our diverse community and promote inclusivity.
In years one to six, the children experience a weekly ‘Topic Day’ in order to support a broad and balanced curriculum. The aim is to allow time for greater engagement, enthusiasm and enjoyment of the Foundation subjects, where skills are taught in a way that is interconnected and knowledge is embedded. Specific themes lend themselves better to focusing on particular foundation subjects, but close planning and monitoring ensures all intended skills and knowledge for each subject are taught by the end of the year.
We also provide many opportunities for our pupils to celebrate and deepen their learning through themed weeks, such as science, arts, anti-bullying and diversity weeks, termly enrichment days and educational visits.
At St Francis it is recognised that learning in all subjects begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) through each of the early learning goals. In all subject progression maps, the learning is stated from EYFS through to Year 6. To create greater continuity for our pupils, EYFS focuses on the seven areas of learning and development through six topic themes, one per term.
Our outdoor areas, including the pond, allotment and Forest School are regularly used to ensure continuous provision of learning takes place outside of the classroom in all year groups.
We believe that the creative and personal nature of our curriculum ensures a smoother transition from the Early Years through to Key stages 1 and 2. Our children are provided with the foundational knowledge needed in each subject to support their learning journey to Key Stage 3.
Curriculum Impact
The Senior Leadership Team, Subject and Phase leaders regularly monitor the impact of the curriculum through pupil voice, test/data outcomes, planning, monitoring of books and displays, lesson learning walks, discussions with teaching staff, pupils and parents.
Resources and schemes of work used to support the curriculum are continuously reviewed to ensure they are effectively enhancing the delivery of quality teaching and learning.
The intended outcomes of our curriculum are that our pupils leave St Francis school equipped with an enthusiasm for and love of learning, practical skills that can be taken into a real life context, a responsibility to others and the environment they live in and the resilience to continue to strive in an ever-changing world.
Success For All – A Whole School Phonics Programme
We are pleased to announce the arrival of our new Phonics Scheme. We have launched our new scheme for 2022-23. We spent some time researching the right scheme for our school that fits with our reading for pleasure approach. The new scheme is supported by our Lightning Squad intervention which helps children who may be struggling with their reading and our reading assessment programme which assesses the children’s decoding, reading for meaning and comprehension skills.
Success for All Phonics is a complete systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, from Reception upwards, that has been validated by the Department for Education.
We will be inviting parents into school to see Success for All in action at regular points throughout the school year.
The new national curriculum is being implemented by every school from September 2014. Curriculum maps for each year group can be found below. These curriculum maps will inform you of the knowledge, skills and understanding your children will acquire in each year group.