Curriculum
The curriculum at St Anne’s is based around our Curriculum Intent.
When deciding upon our core curriculum intentions, we began with our Mission Statement.
With Christ at the centre of our lives, we live out our call to serve the young:
“It is not enough to love children, they must know they are loved.” -
St. John Bosco
Intent
- Our children will know that they are loved
- Love is inter woven and exemplified in our 5 school values which we strive to live out knowing each one of us is made in the image and the likeness of God.
Respect
Kindness
Perseverance
Forgiveness
Inclusivity
- Our curriculum will create lifelong learners and children who will be prepared for the challenges to come.
- We will provide a curriculum that is broad and ambitious for all learners that will give ALL pupils the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
- We understand the important building blocks reading and mathematics are to open up the whole curriculum for a child.
Implementation
Our curriculum is Exciting
Our curriculum is taught through exciting topics. Some topics we cover are Pirates in Year 1, World War 2 in Year 6 and The Stone Age in Year 3.
Year groups have immersion days at the beginning of their topic to generate enthusiasm and a ‘thirst’ for learning.
Our teachers plan activities that the children will be excited about. If children are excited, they are learning!
Our curriculum encourages our children to be Independent
Our children are encouraged to be as independent as they can be, whilst also being given the tools they need to be successful.
Learning is scaffolded appropriately across the curriculum to ensure pupils are supported and challenged.
Our curriculum is Engaging
Our children visit engaging places, such as Milestones Museum and Henley Fort that excite and engage them with their learning in class.
Fantastic Fred (a mental health resource), theatre companies, CAFOD, inspirational speakers and authors are invited in to engage the children in key messages and learning.
As a school, we actively encourage our children to engage in extra-curricular activities. We offer a wide range of clubs for the children to participate in, such as, tennis, football, judo, dodgeball and dance.
Our yearly Healthy Living and Mental Health Week offers children the opportunity to engage in a new sport or activity such as, skateboarding or BMX riding.
Our curriculum is Purposeful
Our curriculum is fit for purpose. It is ever changing to suit the modern world. Our children are learning skills to help them in their future.
Children will learn through our curriculum to appreciate and understand other cultures and religions and develop Fundamental British Values such as mutual respect and tolerance are explored in assemblies and through our pupil council.
Cross-curricular links are developed to make learning meaningful and relevant to the real world with pupils playing an active part of this process.
As a Catholic school, we follow the ‘Come and See’ for RE and the ‘Journey in Love’ scheme for RSE, which prepare the children for life as Catholic members of the community.
We follow the ‘Connect’ scheme for PSHE, whilst also ensuring that our school community and local health concerns are reflected in what the children learn.
Our curriculum allows children to be Resilient
From EYFS, through to Year 6, resilience is a skill developed.
Our curriculum encourages learners to be resilient and to understand that it is good to challenge themselves and to bounce back up when they find something difficult.
Our children are brave learners who take a risk and value mistakes.
We have regular whole school assemblies on the importance of resilience and perseverance as it is one of our school principles.
Our curriculum is Challenging
At St. Anne’s, our children are challenged and enjoy challenging work.
In every lesson, the children are encouraged to think deeply and explain their reasoning for ideas and answers, no matter their age.
Children are encouraged to self-assess from an early age and take ownership of their learning.
Children develop a rich vocabulary throughout their topics, which they can apply orally and in writing.
Throughout the curriculum, our children are encouraged to edit and improve their writing to produce work that is as good as it can be.
In History and Geography, topics are hinged on a question to deepen their learning.
Our curriculum is Memorable
Learning is sequenced and shows progression from EYFS to the end of Key Stage 2, with the children’s knowledge being enhanced in each year group through the use of knowledge organisers, working walls, pupil’s work and high quality resources.
Each curriculum subject has a progressive long term skills and knowledge organisers which ensures coverage and layering of knowledge overtime written by the subject leader.
All curriculum subjects include memorable experiences and help add knowledge to long term memory. These include Residential visits, trips to the theatre, musical and sporting experiences.
Pre- knowledge and skills are retrieved through starting point assessments and built upon during the learning journey. End point assessments are used to assess knowledge at the end of each topic.
Retrieval work is used in all lessons to ensure knowledge moves to the long term memory.
Our curriculum allows children to be Inquisitive
Our children have opportunities to learn about things they are interested in. Our yearly Science Fair allows children to demonstrate their own Science experiment and proudly present it to the school community.
Our bank of iPads and laptops allow the children to research topics and ask questions that they might have.
Many lessons are enquiry based, thus combining independent learning with developing an inquisitive mind.
Our curriculum is Collaborative
We encourage our children to work positively together. This may be in a pair in PE lessons, creating a musical piece in their Music lesson or planning a presentation on what they have learnt in History.
We promote respect, responsibility, tolerance and understanding to ensure children are valuing themselves and others as citizens of our local and global communities.
Pupils learn from one another and opportunities in every lesson ensure this skill is harnessed.
Our curriculum allows children to be Hardworking
We have weekly celebration assemblies where hard work is celebrated.
Children learn the importance and benefits of working hard.
Our curriculum is Creative
Our children are encouraged to show their learning in their own way so they have ownership over the work they create.
We encourage our children to think creatively in every lesson by
All our children have their own Art journal, where they are encouraged to be creative and expressive, showing their individual style and creativity.
Our curriculum allows children to be Visionaries
Our children recognise that they have an impact on the world around them.
We show children that their future holds possibilities and support them in having high aspirations and taking steps to achieve their goals.
We provide leadership responsibilities for our children such as our Pupil Council, RE Council and Peer Mentors.
Our children are provided with opportunities to make a positive contribution to their local community and as global citizens through various charities we support, such as The Beelieve Foundation and our Love in a Box appeal.
Impact
We are all on a learning journey together and because of this, our staff continually reflect on the impact of our teaching and curriculum through assessments, surveys (including parent and pupil voice), discussions, learning walks and monitoring.
Governors work alongside the school leadership team to monitor, evaluate and challenge how the intent and implementation of the curriculum is reflected in the teaching and learning at St. Anne’s.
Monitoring then informs any changes that we make for the benefit of our children. This is to ensure that our pupils are happy, challenged learners, prepared for the next stage of their learning journey.
Helpful documents to view:
- National Curriculum Documenthttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum
- Equality Act 2010: guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance
Subject Leaders
As well as all of our staff being driven to ensure our children at St. Anne’s receive an outstanding curriculum that they deserve, we also have a team of subject leaders to help lead, deliver and implement such an outstanding curriculum for all. Each subject leader is responsible for their subject area by delivering and implementing their action plans and ideas and ensuring such initiatives are evident in your child’s learning and books. Each Subject Leader has compiled a vision for their subject. For further details, click on the subjects in the menu on the right.