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Curriculum

Our Curriculum Rationale

In this section, you will find information about our school’s curriculum, including:

  • the content of the curriculum we follow in each academic year for every subject
  • the names of the phonics and reading schemes we are using in EYFS and Key stage one
  • how parents or other members of the public can find out more information about the curriculum we follow

Our Curriculum Intent

At St Joseph the Worker Catholic Primary School we are: skilled readers, confident writers, mathematicians, scientists, historians, geographers, musicians, artists, linguists, theologists, athletes, digital nomads, designers and technologists, inclusive and diverse. We want our children to have no limits to what their ambitions are and want them to embody our core values. We are ‘A Loving Christian Family Striving to Achieve Excellence’ and our curriculum is carefully crafted so that our children develop their academic, social and cultural capital.

Our Curriculum promotes curiosity and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our children to become independent and resilient. We strive for academic excellence and want our children to have high aspirations. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and want them to embody our core values of being Respectful, Ready and Resilient.

We encourage our children to celebrate success and build on disappointment in order to develop resilience. We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We want our children to use the vibrancy of our great city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, cooperate with one other and appreciate what they have. We do this by providing a strong SMSC curriculum with our core values placed at the heart of everything we do. We enrich their time in our school with memorable, unforgettable experiences and provide opportunities which are normally out of reach. We firmly believe that this is not just about what happens in the classroom, it is about the added value we offer to really inspire our children.

Our Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities and assessment milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills. Subject Leaders have developed subject specific characteristics which we expect the children to demonstrate in each discrete subject area. These characteristics underpin all the work in these subjects and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils.

We have three school values which permeate all aspects of life at St Joseph the Worker Catholic Primary School. Weekly themes under the core values umbrella form the focus for our SMSC lessons and Collective Worship.

We empower our staff to organise their curriculum as they see fit to best suit the needs of the pupils in their care. They are best placed to make these judgements. Staff develop year group specific long term curriculum maps which identify when the different subjects and topics will be taught across the academic year. The vast majority of subjects are taught discretely but staff make meaningful links across subjects to deepens children’s learning.

Our short-term plans are produced on a weekly and daily basis. We use these to set out the learning objectives for each lesson, identifying engaging activities and resources which will be used to achieve them.

Our Curriculum Impact

We use both formative and summative assessment information every day, in every lesson. Staff use this information to inform their short-term planning and short-term interventions – including in the foundation subjects. This helps us to provide the best possible support for all of our pupils, including the more able. Subject Leaders have mapped out the assessment milestones for each phase and further broken these objectives down for each year group in each subject area.

Our Staff use formative assessment grids to systematically assess what the children know as the topic progresses and to inform their future planning. These formative assessment grids then inform summative assessment judgements for each topic in every foundation subject area (and science).

Assessment information is analysed by Subject Leads, and SLT as part of our monitoring cycle. Pupil progress reviews are conducted termly (formative) and termly (summative). This process provides the SLT and Governors with an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education in our school.

We set out our monitoring cycle at the beginning of each academic year. This identifies where monitoring for all year groups is undertaken in all subject areas. Monitoring includes: book looks, lesson observations, and/or learning walks, pupil/parent and/or staff voice.

All of this information is gathered and reviewed. It is used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.

Year 1 Expectations
Year 2 Expectations
Year 3 Expectations
Year 4 Expectations
Year 5 Expectations
Year 6 Expectations

Nursery Long Term Plan 2023/2024
Reception Long Term Plan 2023/2024
Key Stage 1 Long Term Plan – Autumn 2023
KS2 Long Term Plan 2023-2024

RE
Mathematics
English
Science
Computing
Geography
History
Art & Design
Design Technology
Music
MFL
PE
Oracy

Early Years

Nursery and Reception children are taught the Foundation Stage Curriculum. Early Years staff prepare the children for and introduce them to the KS1 Curriculum when appropriate.

Teachers use a variety of approaches to deliver the Curriculum. Sometimes the children are taught individually and other times as a whole class. Mostly they work in small groups, these groups are carefully structured so that each child feels secure and is able to learn effectively and at an appropriate level.

In the Infant and Junior Departments, classes are organised according to age and ability using Assessment information, within each class children are grouped and work set according to ability. Children work at their own appropriate level within their own particular class.

All the work for the year is planned as a whole school to ensure progression and continuity. Some subjects (mainly Core Subjects and RE) are taught separately and some are integrated in a thematic or topic approach which may last several weeks. Topics are carefully planned to enable children to learn in a relevant way. Progress is measured termly against national data.

Further information

For more information / advice on our curriculum please see this useful link: EYFS and KS1 Useful Websites

A copy of our curriculum overview for each academic year is available by contacting the school office at: stjosephtheworker@knowsley.gov.uk

Your child’s class teacher will also be happy to talk to you further about how your child learns at St Joseph the Worker Catholic Primary School.

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