Curriculum
Curriculum Intent
St James' Catholic Primary School provides its pupils with a broad, balanced curriculum which is underpinned by our Mission Statement, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love.' Jeremiah 31:3
The core values of our catholic education remain central to the life of our school and we want our children to have sense of self-worth through their experience of belonging to a caring community. We aim to develop the importance of values and beliefs whilst respecting the differences of others.
Our curriculum is designed to develop independent, confident and successful learners with high aspirations, who are well prepared for life in modern Britain, We aim to provide them with a clear understanding of the possibilities and opportunities that are there for them in life and we believe that our pupils should leave St James' with a love of learning and an understanding of their world. We want our pupils to be prepared and equipped with the necessary skills to be able to face the challenges ahead.
At St James', we have a mastery curriculum which is challenging, engaging and relevant to our children. We have a firm belief that we need to develop their inquisitiveness, determination, motivation, resourcefulness and resilience.
The children are provided with an engaging curriculum which is designed to address the contextual barriers of our school community:
- Geographical isolation
- Limited experience of ethnic and cultural differences
- Limited aspirations for many pupils.
The children benefit from a number of visits to provide them with opportunities to enrich their learning opportunities; residential visits in years 4, 5 and 6 further broaden their experiences.
The National Curriculum is taught as separate subjects; however long term plans are carefully adapted to ensure a cross-curricular approach to help the children make links. Staff set high expectations for all children and plan to ensure that there are no barriers to every child achieving.
Subject leaders have an important role. Each subject leader reviews the curriculum plans for their subject, ensures there is full coverage of the National Curriculum programmes of study and that there is progression of skills, knowledge and understanding.
At St James', we provide high quality and inspiring teaching from well trained teachers to ensure effective pupil engagement and progress. This is done by providing all staff with the opportunity to attend a range of relevant and current professional development courses, both locally and nationally.
Early Years Curriculum - Reception
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old. All schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers must follow the EYFS, including childminders, preschools, nurseries and school reception classes.
Click on the link below to find out more information about the EYFS
National Curriculum
The national curriculum sets out the programmes of study and attainment targets for all subjects at all 4 key stages.
All local-authority-maintained schools in England must teach these programmes of study.
The majority of this national curriculum was introduced in September 2014, with English and maths coming into force for all year groups from September 2016.
The exception is the science curriculum which came into force for year 10 pupils in September 2016, and applies to year 11 pupils from September 2017.
Click on the below link to find out more about the curriculum.