Curriculum

Curriculum Intent

St Julie’s curriculum is closely designed around our school mission and vision statements and has been developed to support the needs of our community and the child as a whole. Our curriculum is designed to be creative, inspiring, challenging and to provide the children with the essential knowledge they need to be educated citizens (National Curriculum aims.)

Encompassed within our vision, is the need for pupils to be exposed to a range of topics and experiences that broadens their understanding and equips them with the skills our children need to be successful, confident, life-long learners who reach their full potential.

We endeavour to enable all our pupils to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to enable them to thrive. We believe access to a high quality, broad and balanced curriculum is the right of all pupils, including SEND and disadvantaged. We recognise that the majority of children in our school attain above age related expectations and therefore we ensure that a challenging curriculum continues to stretch their learning.

Our curriculum is designed to be a ‘Knowledge Rich Curriculum’ and our overview ensures that the children acquire a depth of knowledge in all areas of the curriculum. We have a "challenge curriculum" and, alongside this, we build in enriching and enlivening themed weeks which immerse the children in a variety of current and relevant themes. We focus on developing the whole child through the promotion of sports, the arts, personal, social and emotional development and a wide range of extra-curricular activities.

As a Catholic School, we strive to ensure that the children receive an enriching curriculum which reflects the person of Christ and the message the church received from him.  Embedded within this is a respectful awareness of other cultures and faiths, we ensure children have a diverse range of experience of other cultures and faiths within and outside school.

Implementation

As a teaching team we have developed a broad knowledge-engaging curriculum that provides children with the knowledge and skills they need for the future and has relevance to their daily lives. We deliver the curriculum in a way which is appropriate to our children, our school and our town. We are committed to providing children with high quality lessons and a rich range of practical experiences to enhance their learning through using our school’s locality and the array of cultural and sporting experiences our town has to offer.

A rigorous approach to the teaching of reading ensures all pupils consistently achieve high quality outcomes across the curriculum. All children in EYFS and KS1 follow the synthetic, systematic and structured "Floppy's Phonics" teaching programme, participating in daily phonics sessions.  The well resourced library also provides a reading for pleasure book for all children to share at home with an adult. 

Schemes of work are sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught and pupils can work towards clearly defined end points. These clear, focused topics will promote deep learning as children progress through the school. Through a range of strategies such as mini quizzes and knowledge organisers, teachers assess the children’s knowledge and understanding to ensure information is retained in their long term memory.

The curriculum is assessed against national curriculum outcomes using working towards, expected and greater depth and this information is used to inform teachers' planning. We listen to pupil voice and allow their interest and natural curiosity to contribute to our curriculum planning and delivery. To encourage enjoyment and knowledge retention our curriculum makes good use of practical resources and first hand learning experiences. Through their expertise, subject leaders ensure the high quality delivery of a curriculum suitable for the twenty first century and where necessary provide CPD on knowledge and development.

We recognise the importance of and value parental involvement in the life of the school. As a school we are therefore committed to establishing and maintaining an effective and purposeful working relationship between home and school. We engage parents and carers through curriculum meetings, maths workshops, share a story sessions, art exhibitions, science week, singing events, collective worship sessions and value their views and opinions through regular questionnaires.

Impact

Through the implementation and delivery of our curriculum, we aim for all children to make progress and for some children to make better than expected progress across all areas of learning. We define progress in terms of the children knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that children are prepared for the next stage of their education.

We acknowledge that our curriculum is a working document which we continually strive to improve. The curriculum is constantly monitored and evaluated by leaders and reviewed in line with the changing needs of our children and the changing demands of the wider society. As a result adaptions are made in order to secure further improvements for our pupils.

Encouraging Learning Behaviours

We want our children to have deep learning experiences. This is best achieved when children work through a problem for themselves and are not simply told the answer by an adult. We want children to be engaged with subjects and activities that they try to avoid through fear of getting things wrong or "not being good enough".  This is known as having a growth mindset. 

For more information about growth mindset please follow the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/help-your-child-try-new-things

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