Curriculum Intent

“Today amid so much darkness we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who can bring hope to others.  To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open a horizon of hope.  It is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds.”  Pope Francis

Our curriculum is inspired by the Gospel values which underpin everything that we do. Our values of justice, courage, compassion, peace, kindness, humility, forgiveness and integrity shape the way that we live and learn together, as well as our response to the real life issues that will be encountered through our global curriculum. 

The curriculum is designed around eight big ideas to enable children to make purposeful and memorable connections across their learning, leading to deeper learning experiences.  These are:  community, human rights, stewardship, resilience, equality, technology, health and wonder.  

We aim to instil high quality analytical skills, a strong sense of Catholic social justice and respect for human life and the natural world so that our pupils leave us as educated and caring people who are able to make the world a better place.  Our goal is to prepare our children to meet the world and enable them to view themselves as ‘agents of change’ as they ‘let their light shine’ in the world that they are growing up in.

We are strongly committed to our disadvantaged pupils to ensure that their start in life does not determine their future.  We know that reading ability has a huge impact on the future success of our pupils.  Reading is therefore given the highest priority within our school.  Our curriculum provides ample opportunities for pupils to read: to apply and hone their decoding skills, develop fluency and broaden their vocabularies. 

To ensure that all pupils achieve well from their starting points and flourish academically, we build in ample opportunities for them to retain, apply and deepen their learning.  All our teaching and learning activities are based on a strong pedagogical methodology where opportunities for modelling, quality questioning, retrieval practice, guided instruction, independent practice and review are built in.  Vocabulary is explicitly taught within all topics and hands-on activities both inside and outside school add to our pupil’s cultural capital and provide highly memorable learning experiences.