Curriculum Statement for St Paul's C of E Primary

"It is our aim to provide an ambitious, modern day curriculum that actively prepares the pupils of St Paul's for the lives ahead of them. Learning at St Paul's will provide pupils with opportunities to develop personally and academically and will systematically build upon what they know, understand and can do.

We want a bright future for our children, and strive to achieve a curriculum that equips each unique individual with the strength of character and resources to make their own decisions about who they want to be."

Curriculum Intent

We take a whole-school approach to the curriculum. This enables all children in the school to be actively involved in their learning and share their experiences with others across all age groups. The whole school will focus on an over-arching 'key question' e.g. 'Is Change Always Good?' and through these, pupils explore learning subject specific content through foci areas.

We endeavor to make our curriculum as engaging and practical as possible, as we believe this will support pupils' learning and understanding of the wider world. We have made deliberate choices with links across subjects to enable opportunities for pupils to make meaningful links in their learning, and have many opportunities to revisit and recap prior knowledge, to ensure it is truly embedded.

The curriculum is carefully and deliberately sequenced to allow pupils to build upon and develop previous knowledge, whilst engaging with new content and providing opportunities to interleave. The curriculum at St Paul’s supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, in addition to their physical development, promoting responsibility for pupils’ own health.

Our curriculum allows pupils to develop the skills and knowledge required for successful application throughout St Paul’s by promoting the learning and development of our youngest children in Nursery and Reception to ensure they have a solid foundation for Key Stage One, Two and further.

Curriculum Values

These curriculum aims are underpinned by our school values:

At St Paul’s C of E Primary School our mission is to ‘Make a Difference to Everyone’ by:
Embedding Christian values
Expecting all members of our school to ‘Walk the St Paul’s Walk’ by being kind, staying safe and always doing their best
Engaging pupils in an exciting, experiential education which develops a lifelong love of learning
Equipping children and their families for the journey of life
Establishing a responsibility for sustaining the environment

Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum program has been carefully planned over a two year rolling cycle, this ensures that pupils are exposed to the statutory curriculum content in each Key Stage whilst with enough time to delve deeper into subjects and topics, whilst making cross curricular links, where appropriate.

Curriculum content has been sequenced across each phase, Northgate (N/R), Eastgate (1/2), Southgate (3/4) and Westgate (5/6) and is evidenced through Subject Pathways. These documents sequence learning from Early Years to the end of Key Stage 2, breaking down each curriculum component into smaller, manageable outcomes, each one building upon the knowledge of the previous phase. These Subject Pathways have been developed with our pupils in mind, understanding what pupils already know at the start of their journey at St Paul’s and what they need to know in order to succeed. The content of the Subject Pathways has been carefully sequenced to ensure progression across phases, but also within subject content, therefore teachers assess pupils’ prior knowledge and target their teaching appropriately, ensuring all pupils succeed. In order for our curriculum to stay relevant and meaningful to pupils, the subject content has been sequenced but the focus or overarching key question remains fluid; this ensures opportunity for learning to be focused for the current needs of each cohort whilst ensuring subject content is sequential and rigorous.

Pupils are taught in Key Worker groups within their phase, for wider curriculum. Mixing pupils within these year groups allows for rich and in depth discussions, whilst allowing independence and curiosity to shine through. Across the rolling program, opportunities are built in for recap and consolidation ensuring progression of both skills and knowledge.

Our two year rolling program indicates which subjects are taught to which groups of children in which terms. Over each academic year and the course of the two year cycle, each child has the opportunity to experience the full range of National Curriculum subjects and knowledge. Curriculum groups, including staff members from all aspects of life at St Paul’s, have sequenced areas of learning from different curriculum subjects which contain similar themes or links. This allows for a more creative and cross curricular approach to learning and encourages children to apply skills in a variety of ways.

Medium term plans are written to ensure coverage of the foundation subjects. They include learning intentions and activities and are written for each phase on a half termly basis. The key information and progression of subjects is taken from a whole school MTP that is created by the Curriculum lead to ensure coverage is accurate and rigorous each term.

Our short-term plans are those that our teachers write on a weekly or daily basis. We use these to set out the learning outcomes for each session and to identify the resources and activities staff will use in the lesson. These plans also show adaptation to ensure the needs of all pupils are met in each lesson.

Our approach to Learning in Nursery and Reception (Northgate)

At St Paul’s C of E Primary School & Nursery we offer a curriculum rich in wonder and memorable experiences. We work hard to provide a stimulating environment that provides exciting opportunities, promotes challenge, exploration, adventure and a real love of learning.

It is our intent that all children develop physically, verbally, socially, cognitively and emotionally from their start with us at school. We aim to create the atmosphere of ‘family’ so that the children grow up as confident, responsible members of the larger community, and are recognised for their own talents and for being individual. We work in close partnership with families to that together, children are valued, respected and encouraged to reach their full potential in all that they do.

Please click the links below to see the progression of learning across Early Years at St Paul's C of E Primary School & Nursery

EYFS Progression

EYFS Long Term Plan

EYFS Vocabulary