Curriculum design statement: intent, implementation and impact
The staff and Governors of St Paulinus School promote the provision of a stimulating curriculum with overarching themes that have significance for individuals and society and provide relevant learning contexts. The curriculum provided will promote equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice for all children. The policy was written by the Executive Head Teacher and Head of School through consultation with Staff, Pupils and Governors.
At St Paulinus, we aim to inspire all members of our community to love in the way that Jesus has shown us. This is visible in all that we do and all that we say. Jesus is our ultimate role model and we look to him for support and guidance.
School Mission Statement
“A New Commandment, I give unto you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another”
(John 13:34)
We will show our love by:
- Respecting one another; understanding that our views and opinions may differ.
- Preserving and taking care of God’s world; being Stewards of Creation.
- Celebrating successes with each other.
- Developing our relationship with God through prayer experiences and Collective Worship.
- Encouraging each other to aim high and be the best that we can be.
- Acknowledge that, sometimes, things go wrong. Forgiveness and mercy help us to repair and renew.
- Motivate each other to…
- Show tolerance towards others.
- Have courage to be ambitious in our work.
- Develop strong partnerships with the parish of St Paulinus and with the wider community in which we serve.
- Show generosity and support those who are in need.
- Spread the Good News of Jesus and make Christ known to all.
Educational Purpose & Intent
The curriculum is all the planned activities that we organise in order to promote learning and personal growth and development. It includes not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also the range of extra-curricular activities that the school organises in order to enrich the experience of the children.
It also includes the ‘hidden curriculum’, or what the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave. We aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people, who can work and co-operate with others while developing knowledge and skills, so that they achieve their true potential.
What do we teach?
The National Curriculum Framework 2014 and Middlesbrough Diocese RE Syllabus underpin our curriculum and every pupil is taught in line with those expectations. However, our distinct curriculum also includes learning opportunities that are designed to support our values and reflect our local community, whilst retaining the flexibility to respond to our children’s changing interests and the developing world around them.
Rather than subjects driving the curriculum, it is the needs of children that have determined the emphasis. It is important that children learn what is in the statutory curriculum, but we know that children need much more than this. Balancing children’s needs with the statutory curriculum will always be a challenge, but instead of the two acting in opposition we can ensure the content of the curriculum meets the needs of children and fulfils statutory requirements. To do this, we have established some key ‘drivers’ for our school curriculum.
We have developed four curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum and bring about our schools aims, responding to the needs of our children and our community, the values of our school and the location of our school.
Our curriculum drivers are:
- Learning
- Opportunity
- Values
- Experience
They spell the word Love so links with the Mission Statement are clear to all.
Establishing drivers doesn’t mean that we will dismiss any parts of the curriculum. They help us to prioritise content. We strive to offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based and which provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge they need to be educated citizens. “It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said, and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.” NC 2014.
The curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.
Our curriculum provides pupils with opportunities to develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. This supports their acquisition of knowledge. We also plan to use every relevant subject to develop pupils’ mathematical fluency. Pupils’ acquisition and command of vocabulary are key to their learning and progress across the whole curriculum.
The curriculum plans to develop vocabulary actively, building systematically on pupils’ current knowledge and increasing pupils’ knowledge and vocabulary. In addition, we actively seek to provide inspiring opportunities for education in the Arts, so that all pupils are encouraged to become creatively literate through the art, craft, design, music, dance and drama activities they experience.
Curriculum Drivers
The curriculum drivers help to enable all our pupils
Learning: The key to our curriculum is effective delivery which enables all children to learn.
Opportunity: This learning will take place using the opportunities provided by the school.
Values: All will be underpinned by our school curriculum values.
Experiences: Each child will experience a quality curriculum to offer engagement for all.
In more detail the aims of our school curriculum are:
- to enable all children to learn and develop their skills to the best of their ability
- to promote a positive attitude towards learning, so that children enjoy coming to school, and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning
- to teach children the basic skills of literacy, numeracy, science and computing
- to enable children to be creative and to develop their own thinking
- to enable children to recognise and utilise their own best learning style
- to teach children about their developing world, including how their environment and society have changed over time
- to help children understand Britain’s cultural heritage
- to enable children to be positive citizens in their community and wider society
- to fulfil all the requirements of the National Curriculum and the Diocese of Middlesbrough R.E. guidelines.
- 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 and high self-esteem, and to be able to live and work co-operatively with others.
Implementation
We plan our curriculum in three phases. We agree a long-term plan for each Key Stage. This indicates what topics are to be taught in each term, and to which groups of children. We review our long-term plan on a regular basis.
With our medium-term plans, we give clear guidance on the objectives and teaching strategies that we use when teaching each topic.
Our short-term plans are those that our teachers write on a weekly or daily basis. We use these to set out the learning objectives for each session, and to identify what resources and activities we are going to use in the lesson.
In the Foundation Stage and at Key Stages 1 and 2 we adopt a themed approach to curriculum planning. We plan the curriculum carefully and progressively, so that there is coherence and full coverage of all aspects of the six areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum.
Our Early Years Policy and Intent Statement, Building on Secure Foundations Key Stage 1 and Building on Secure Foundations Key Stage 2 are all available on the school website.
Monitoring, Review and Impact
Our Governing Body’s Link Governance Structure is responsible for monitoring the way the school curriculum is implemented.
We have named link Governors. The Governors liaise with the curriculum leaders of these areas, and monitor closely the way the school teaches these subjects.
The class teacher is responsible for the day to day organisation of the curriculum. The Executive Head Teacher and Head of School monitors the lesson planning of all teachers during the year.
Curriculum leaders monitor the way their subject is taught throughout the school. The teachers are responsible for the medium and long-term planning which is shared with the subject leader.
Curriculum leaders also have responsibility for the purchase, storage and management of resources.
Means of Measuring Impact:
The curriculum is regularly reviewed, developed, monitored and evaluated by the Curriculum Leaders, external advisers and governors, leading to improvements and innovation. Curriculum Leaders take responsibility for ensuring coverage, progression and standards through long and medium-term planning, promoting the subject and developing the teaching methodology and securing high quality resources. They regularly monitor and evaluate learning, teaching and the curriculum.
Children with Special Needs, including Able, Gifted and Talented (See also SEND policy)
The curriculum in our school is designed to provide access and opportunity for all children who attend the school, as stated in our SEND policy. We always provide additional resources and support for children with special needs.
If a child has a special need, our school does all it can to meet these individual needs. We comply with the requirements set out in the SEN Code of Practice in providing for children with special needs. If staff or parents or carers raise a concern about a child, his/her teacher will make an assessment under advice from the SENDCo. In most instances the teacher is able to provide resources and educational opportunities which meet the child’s needs within the normal class organisation. Support staff or specialist teachers may be used to assist the child.
If a child is working at the extension level they will be given open-ended questions and tasks and encouraged to follow lines of thought independently, as stated in our Gifted and Talented policy.
