Curriculum
“We learn, we love, we look after our world. We strive to be the best that we can be, following in the footsteps of Jesus.”
Our Whole School Curriculum Intent Statement
At St George’s Catholic School, we provide a broad, balanced, creative and ambitious curriculum, which ensures our children are prepared for the next stages of their education and lives. The ‘whole child’ is important to us and we aim to develop our children intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically and spiritually. We help every child to reach their potential, whether it be academically, in sport or in the performing arts such as music, drama, art and as a good citizen in society. We nurture and create a family-feel community, where everyone knows each other, where we are fostering a love for learning.
Respect and love for everything in God’s world is a main part of our ethos and we encourage children to think and evaluate, to reflect and communicate.
We endeavour to enrich our children’s learning through a range of stimulating experiences. Our curriculum provides our pupils with the essential core knowledge and skills as directed by the 2014 National Curriculum. We aim to provide a curriculum which is enriching and challenging, where children experience the opportunity to learn in a wide range of contexts. Hence, our pupil engagement is high and there is a real buzz and positive attitudes to learning when walking around the school!
We aim to ensure that each and every child is prepared for life in modern Britain and to take their place in our modern world. We aim to open children’s eyes to the world beyond their immediate environment, to make them well-rounded and prepared for the next stage of their lives:
To raise children’s aspirations and self-esteem so that they believe (in themselves) that they can achieve.
To increase involvement of all stakeholders so that we are all engaged in life-long learning.
To deliver a curriculum that seeks to extend opportunity and develop a growth mindset so that all pupils have the resilience and determination to embrace challenge in all aspects of life.
To enable our children to live happy, healthy and productive lives.
To have respect for all people, including themselves, and for the world around us.
As a Catholic school, the school’s direction is driven from its Mission statement, “We learn, we love, we look after our world. We strive to be the best that we can be, following in the footsteps of Jesus.”, we provide a Catholic Christian education based on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ and draw upon Gospel Values which underpin all aspects of school life. In doing so, we aim to provide an environment in which the dignity of each person is recognised and developed; and to promote the full potential of each child through a curriculum which develops spiritual, academic, social and emotional growth.
At St George’s, we have developed a well thought-out and systemic learning programme ensuring there is time and space in the school day, and in each week, to gather components of knowledge and experiences beyond the curriculum specifications. The education offer we provide ensures each child’s cultural capital builds year on year sequentially.
What we offer our pupils at St. George’s:
· A reading-rich curriculum which recognises reading as the key to all learning and writing as a vehicle for expressing knowledge and understanding.
· A mastery approach to maths that creates children who are numerate, independent and inquiring.
· A broad and balanced curriculum where every subject is valued.
· Quality teaching of knowledge, skills and vocabulary across all subjects so that children will be encouraged to be inquisitive, ambitious and creative.
· Active learning - recognising that this not only promotes a healthy body but stimulates the mind.
· Exciting opportunities which enhance their learning throughout progressive themes and topics.
· A curriculum that will help them to develop the skills that they need to deal with the demands of a rapidly changing world and be successful, caring and valued citizens in society.
· The chance to open their eyes to the wonders of creation and marvel at the incredible and fantastic world in which we live and recognise that we are stewards of this world.
Our curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality first wave teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions, where appropriate. In this way, it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on pupil outcomes. Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour. Children feel safe to try new things.
The focus on making learning relevant and meaningful incorporates practical experiences for all our children, using both the local environment and further afield. The class teachers, alongside the Curriculum Leaders ensure there is clear progression of skills and opportunities for creativity, by planning from the National Curriculum Programmes of Study. Opportunities for depth of learning are planned by teachers and led by children’s prior knowledge through regular questioning and assessment.
Each topic begins with an exciting, stimulating experience. This may be an educational visit, a visiting speaker or an experience day where children discover and explore their new learning. Children are then challenged through a range of stimulating, exciting learning experiences to learn, develop, solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively across the curriculum.
We use our evaluations and assessments to continually update our curriculum maps, ensuring breadth and balance. Throughout the school year, we ensure that our children are kept up-to-date with current local and global news through special assemblies and whole school projects e.g, Remembrance Day, Science Week and World Book Day. In addition to this, we are constantly reflecting and demonstrating our values of faith, love, respect, honesty and courage through our mission statement “We learn, we love, we look after our world. We strive to be the best that we can be, following in the footsteps of Jesus.” ensures that we promote children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, enabling them to develop their own moral and ethical compass to guide them as to what is right and what is wrong.
We actively promote fundamental British Values of democracy, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those from all faiths, backgrounds and cultures and the Equality Act. Furthermore, our programme of assemblies, PSHE curriculum and RE curriculum educate children on current events around the world and promote children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
When planning a curriculum, St. George’s recognises the diverse backgrounds of our families. We have 88 children currently on roll, of which 41% are Catholics. The families in our school value the Christian education that is on offer for their children including other faiths or no other faith as well as Catholic faith. We have a number of children for whom English is an additional language 11.36% *(10 children) and are from a range of ethnic backgrounds.