Curriculum intent statement

2022 / 2023

Our Lady and St Anselm’s Catholic Primary School offers a distinctly Catholic education in an inclusive environment.  We aim to provide excellent learning opportunities, promoting achievement in every area and nurturing social, emotional and spiritual well-being. As our children gain confidence and skills we hope that they will go on to become compassionate, well balanced young people. They will take their place in society as active citizens, economically independent, exemplifying the British values of equality, tolerance, democracy, individual liberty and rule of law. As a Catholic school we believe every child is made in the image of God, and therefore we want the best for them. We value our school community as a place where love can flourish. We believe children are made in the image of God, and therefore we want the best for them. As a thriving Catholic School, our Catholic ethos is at the core of our curriculum. We ensure that all of our pupils respect each other and have respect for people of all faiths, race and gender. Everyone has the right to be treated with respect and dignity. We have designed our curriculum with pupils’ learning at the centre. Following the Covid 19 pandemic, we have made adjustments to our curriculum to ensure all children catch up with their key learning, this includes changes to the curriculum, catch up tuition and interventions.  We recognise that our curriculum has to be broad, balanced, offer excellent learning opportunities promote achievement in every area, nurture social, emotional and spiritual well-being and offer pupils opportunities to grow as individuals. Through a combination of learning techniques, we aim to ensure pupils enjoy learning and feel prepared for life after school. Children have the opportunity to apply learning across the curriculum, make links to create sticky learning and reconsolidate previous learning. We also intend to offer our pupils new and exciting experiences through extra-curricular activities that are designed to build resilience, confidence and self-esteem. We have recognised that healthy lifestyles, general fitness and health needs to play a key role in our curriculum for 2022 / 2023. We have also identified the need to re build community links follow the disturbances through 2019 to 2021.

We recognise that pupils should be challenged in their schooling; learning from failures and celebrating successes. We intend for our curriculum to be empowering, enabling pupils to develop their interpersonal skills, creativity and independence.

How the school intends to deliver the curriculum throughout the school

As briefly mentioned above, we intend to deliver the curriculum through a variety of methods that are both classroom-based and extra-curricular. Below, we have outlined how we intend to deliver this promise. We promote equal opportunities to all of our pupils in line with the Equality Act 2010 throughout our practices.

We regularly review curriculum coverage and ensure the learning is relevant and interesting for pupils. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum, the topics taught in history/geography, and science are often linked to a text being studied in English.

Classroom-based learning: Our staff value the different ways in which pupils learn and plan lessons to account for these differences. We encourage teachers to make cross-curricular links where possible within their lesson plans, so that pupils can draw upon knowledge from different subjects and understand how each topic plays a part in everyday life.

Teachers use different learning resources to teach core content, e.g. educational videos, guest speakers and ICT lessons. By using different techniques, we intend on keeping pupils engaged with learning and accommodate pupils who learn differently to their peers.

Pupils at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged, by being encouraged to expand their skills and knowledge through varied curriculum opportunities. Those who find learning more difficult are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills in order to support them to develop at their own pace and to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs. We also carry out interventions for small groups of pupils with TAs. Within these interventions, TAs breakdown the content of the lesson in a more digestible way for pupils. The sessions can last between 10 minutes to one hour and groups are no larger than six pupils to every TA. This allows pupils to get dedicated one-to-one time with the TA, ensuring any questions that pupils may have get answered in a way they understand. It is important to note that these interventions supplement the work of the teacher and do not replace it.

A full list of the subjects available to our pupils in each year can be found below.

Extra-curricular activities: We provide a variety of extra-curricular activities for pupils that enhance their learning experience. The activities range from after-school clubs, to educational trips and visits – a list of the extra-curricular activities available for each year group is available below. Extra-curricular activities are designed to enhance pupils’ learning experience, form personal connections between pupils and their peers, and teach skills essential for life after school.

How the school involves parents, pupils and the local community in curriculum planning and delivery

Our school values the input of its pupils, parents and the local community concerning the planning and delivery of the curriculum. We believe pupils get a well-rounded education if everyone is involved in shaping it. This is why we send pupils and parents questionnaires on an annual basis. These questionnaires ask questions about factors such as what pupils enjoy about learning and lessons, what they find challenging, and whether they feel well informed on attainment. Parents are also frequently welcomed in to school for topic afternoons to see learning in action.

We engage with the wider community by ensuring there are opportunities for pupils to participate in community projects, e.g. Pick up your dog dirt initiative. We embed each project within the curriculum into the relevant subjects, e.g. creating posters and writing letters. This shows pupils the value of protecting and being involved in their community and establishes a link between the theories they learn in the classroom to practical examples in real life. 

How the curriculum benefits pupils’ learning and personal development

Our curriculum has been designed for a range of learners, providing equal opportunities for all – by doing this, pupils will benefit in the following ways:

• Learning how to lead safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
• Understanding that failure is part of the road to success
• Being rewarded for academic successes
• Being supported with their next stages in education or training and feeling prepared for life after school
• Becoming responsible individuals who contribute to community living and the environment
• Achieving to the best of their ability
• Acquiring a wealth of knowledge and experience 
• Becoming critical thinkers
• Finding a sense of belonging to the school and its community
• Learning how to cooperate with their peers and respect one another inside and outside the classroom.