St. Michael’s Curriculum 2023-2024

Curriculum Overview

The School has a personalised school curriculum in line with the changes that came into place in the academic year 2018/ 2019.

This curriculum  has been developed following through consultations with pupils, staff and Governors. An overview of it’s aims and objectives can be viewed below. This curriculum will be closely monitored throughout the coming year and adapted as necessary to meet the needs of the pupils and the statutory requirements.

Our Curriculum Vision

The children and their learning are at the core of everything that we do at St Michael’s Catholic Primary School.

St. Michael’s Catholic Primary School offers a broad and balanced curriculum which;

• Promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school.
• Prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

In order to prepare children as life long learners and global citizens, we must provide a curriculum that will go beyond the statutory content. Our curriculum is designed to take into consideration our children’s varied backgrounds and cultural experiences; so we believe our children deserve a curriculum that does not narrow their life chances but expands them and prepares them as future citizens of this country.

Our Curriculum Aims

At St. Michael’s our curriculum aims are to develop:

• Successful, resilient learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
• Confident learners who achieve their full potential
• Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society

Curriculum Intent

Following consultation with pupils, staff and governors, the school introduced a new, unique and personalised curriculum for St. Michael’s in September 2018. This was trialled and monitored by staff in 2018-19 academic year and has since been evaluated, reviewed and re-organised. It is closely linked to our internal assessment system.

It is our intention to deliver an exciting and challenging curriculum that delivers the National Curriculum aims and knowledge with a personalised approach to our own school’s locality and further beyond.

Depth of learning is important – we do not narrow our curriculum – we ensure children receive a broad and balanced curriculum and ensure learning is relevant, exciting, aspirational and challenging. All National Curriculum subjects, are viewed as being equally important, but underpinned by the understanding that basic Literacy and Numeracy competency are vital in all learning. So we ensure throughout that Literacy and Numeracy knowledge and skills have a high priority and where possible, we try to reinforce knowledge and skills across subjects in a topic/focussed learning based approach.

The curriculum comprises all learning and other experiences for all pupils. This includes specialist teaching in Spanish, Music, Science and P.E. These external specialists work alongside our staff to both upskill them, as well as providing excellent learning experiences for the pupils. Visits, visitors, residential experiences and many enrichment activities are also integrated throughout our curriculum. A wide range of extra-curricular activities are also available at St. Michael’s before, during and after school.

Curriculum Implementation

The aim of our curriculum at St Michael’s is for pupils to have the skills to be successful, independent, motivated and resilient learners in preparation for the next stage of their education.

National requirements and school requirements are mapped out as a whole school by subject leaders, and then individual year groups plan the curriculum for their pupils accordingly.

The National Curriculum is delivered through half termly units of work. These units are personalised and directly linked to the school and wider world.

• Teachers plan lessons to ensure the children make connections across a variety of subjects.
• The curriculum is planned thoroughly, starting with the children’s current knowledge and skills, so that real progress can be made and measured.
• Each term there are a variety of visits and visitors planned in each year group to enrich the learning and create lasting memories via real experiences.
• Children’s prior knowledge is assessed at the outset of the topic and learning planned accordingly.
• At the end of each topic, pupils are assessed based on the knowledge and skills that have been acquired.

The curriculum is reinforced by the school’s Values throughout all areas of the curriculum including assemblies. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils and their understanding of British Values and the core values of our society are woven through the curriculum.

 External specialists come into school to provide the teaching of Martial Arts, Gymnastics, Music, PE and Spanish.

Curriculum Impact & Outcomes

We measure the impact of our curriculum through:

• Assessing the knowledge and skills learnt through the topics.
• Reflecting on the standards achieved against planned outcomes.
• Celebrating the learning at the end of each topic, where children demonstrate the knowledge  they have gained  
• Sampling children’s learning across the school.
• Pupil discussions.
• Annual tracking of standards linked to national curriculum.

If you have any questions regarding the curriculum we teach at St Michael's, please contact the school directly.