Curriculum Vision

Our Curriculum 

At St Joseph's, we are committed to providing a broad and balanced curriculum that reflects the example of Jesus through the gospels and that makes maximum use of the context of our children and their locality. Our enrichment curriculum, which includes many and varied opportunities for the children to explore their own particular skills and talents, serves to extend the school day beyond the classroom, and encompasses sport, the arts, the outdoors and school trips and residentials.  

The basis for all our programmes of study in each subject comes from the 2014 National Curriculum that can be accessed here:  

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum

Intent
The aims of our curriculum are:

· To provide the children with firm foundations founded in knowledge, skills and understanding, preparing them for a future of learning

· To provide an environment, underpinned by gospel values, in which the dignity of each pupil is recognised and developed

· To promote the full potential of each child through a curriculum that develops spiritual, academic, social and emotional growth

· To encourage our pupils to live and act according to gospel  values, as well as British Values,  and to enable children to be positive global citizens in society

· To promote a positive attitude towards learning and knowledge, so that children enjoy coming to school, and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning

· To enable children to be creative and to develop their own thinking and questioning

· To provide the children with the opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills

· To teach children about their changing world, including how their environment and society have changed over time

· To fulfil all the requirements of the National Curriculum

· To teach children to have an awareness of their own and other beliefs

· To help children understand the importance of truth and fairness, so that they grow up committed to equal opportunities for all

· To enable children to have respect for themselves, high self-esteem and to be able to live and work co-operatively with others

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School endeavours to offer a curriculum that develops a well-rounded, happy pupil in the context of Catholic education. We have rich and varied opportunities, both inside the classroom and outside, that inspire our pupils and make them excited to learn. A curriculum which connects leaning across different subjects and which reinforces the core skills and knowledge of literacy and numeracy is crucial to ensure that children are offered a wide range of life choices and opportunities in the future.

We want our children to come to school filled with enthusiasm and eager to learn every day. In order to do this, we want to arrange for the children to visit interesting places, experience live performances and offer opportunities that they would never have the chance to be exposed to otherwise. We know that this will impact on their learning and improve attainment in all subjects.

We believe in a school where the origins to our plans for teaching and learning stem from the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’. We want to enable students to understand the world around them and the skills that they hold within, so that they can become passionate, fulfilled individuals and pro-active, conscientious citizens of St Joseph’s and the wider community. In order to achieve our goal, we will teach engaging, inspiring lessons that cover a rich and varied curriculum. We know that this will result in happy pupils with a thirst for learning that will see them reach their vast potential in whatever field they intend to pursue.

Implementation

As a school, we place a great deal of importance on academic learning. We take the progress and attainment of each child achieving the very best they are capable of very seriously. However, we also view each child as a complete person and our curriculum has been tailored to ensure that each child grows and recognises their place in our community and in our ever- changing world. Our curriculum has been designed to reflect that life at St Joseph’s is rich, varied, caring, inclusive, exciting, challenging, inspiring, but above all, rewarding. This runs through all subject areas, including our topic linked approach to English. Our approach to teaching across the whole curriculum puts children at the heart of their own learning, taking an active part in lessons and ensuring that they are rich in language and cultural diversity. We recognise that children have a thirst for knowledge and we are committed to nurturing young writers, performers, readers, international speakers, mathematicians, scientists, historians, geographers, artists, designers, musicians, sports persons, computer users and so much more!

We aim to provide the building blocks of knowledge that enable the children to progress and follow their dreams through fostering the qualities of resilience and inquiry as well as planning opportunities for the children to know about keeping safe. We also plan for and promote British Values, (Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs) ensuring that children are aware of their rights and responsibilities as a UK citizen. They are values that give a simple message to our young people, ‘In Britain, no matter what your background, you can fit in, you can succeed and you can belong’. While these values are not unique to Britain or British society, they are integral to our ethos and values. Through our Religious Education curriculum, and Catholic life of the school, we look to help children develop gospel values alongside British Values and to understand how they overlap and where they diverge.

In order to allow the children to fully develop these aptitudes, language is a key focus for us. We aim to develop the children’s communication abilities and also provide them with the rich and specific vocabulary (from across the curriculum) that underpins their knowledge and understanding. We are a school that proudly embraces change and does not shy away from the increasing use and dependence on ICT in the world. Everything that we do in ICT is geared towards removing the fear from using computers and the internet. Children use the internet and will continue to do so. Therefore, our responsibility is to prepare them for the digital world and motivate them to become responsible digital citizens. Staff members do everything in their power to stay up-to-date with the developments in this field and perpetually promote the importance of online safety.

Learning is also enhanced by a carefully planned range of educational visits and visitors to school to enhance the curriculum. Our curriculum is also structured to use local resources when possible, to develop in the children an understanding of the place in which they live and its history.

Our approach to assessment is to carefully plan questioning as part of the learning opportunities which the children have every day and to use these opportunities to extend the children’s knowledge and skills, using assessment to monitor and support the children’s learning over a number of years.

Impact

At St Joseph’s, our children develop respect and understanding of people who have different characteristics to themselves, whether that be age, gender, disability or race. A rigorous, well planned curriculum (delivered by inspiring staff in an ethos of love, care and support) enables our pupils to be well rounded, empathetic young people. We strongly promote self-respect for all in our school irrespective of race, creed or gender. Care is taken to ensure that resources do not present stereotypical images, rather role models from diverse backgrounds and cultures. As the children’s first teachers, we aim to work with you to provide the very best learning opportunities for all pupils and ensure they continue to grow into happy fulfilled individuals. Parents/carers play a key role in our learning community and we look forward to sharing in the development of your children as caring, educated young citizens.

We aim to enable the children to achieve the academic progress they are capable of by providing them at each stage, with a curriculum which meets their needs and challenges them to go further so that they are ready for the next stage in their education by the time they leave us.  We also strive to ensure that along the way, they are happy and fulfilled as individuals, with bright futures ahead of them. Personal development and attitudes are monitored all of the time during their journey through school and we also use various questionnaires with children to gather their views and to check on well being and attitudes towards themselves as learners. St Joseph's has a strong track record of ensuring that pupils make good progress from their starting points, fulfil their potential and go on to secure outcomes that prepare them well for their next stage of education.