Curriculum

Curriculum Intent Statement - St Michael's Primary School

As a Local Authority Maintained School, St Michael's follows the National Curriculum.

Intent Statement

The rationale that underpins all the work we do for our children at St Michael’s Primary is that our school curriculum will:

• Be enjoyable, engaging, exciting and memorable.

• Give children the knowledge and skills to be successful learners.

• Teach about different traditions and cultures and respect for one another.

• Teach us to be proud of ourselves, our families and our communities.

• Provide challenge and promote resilience.

• Teach empathy and encourage well-being.

• Enable children to be confident readers, writers and mathematicians and to be curious about the world around them.

Our curriculum has been designed to ensure our focus must be:

• A well thought-out, knowledge led curriculum.

• A curriculum that also promotes mastery of skills, whilst allowing pupils opportunities.

• A curriculum that revisits topics to embed and reuse knowledge and skills acquired as part of the scheme of following a knowledge-rich, expert led curriculum.

Implementation

It is important that our curriculum for Key Stage 1 builds on the child-initiated ethos of the Early Years Foundation Stage principles. Pupils should be active partners in developing the curriculum. Their questions, interests and ideas are therefore utilised to develop and enhance planned learning experiences.

Throughout Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 a wide variety of teaching and learning approaches and styles are used to promote pupil engagement with the curriculum. At the start of new topics children create a concept map to demonstrate their understanding of the subject, later on in the term further knowledge gained in the subject is added to the map. Staff regularly utilise a range of high quality resources to encourage independent learning and inspire pupils. The structure of the lesson can vary from reviewing prior knowledge at the start of the lesson, incorporating partner work, discussion and quizzing using the low threat, high impact approach.

The use of the whole school environment, both inside and outside, is also used regularly to enrich the curriculum. Every year group plans outdoor learning into their time table, this could range from including use of the ample field space in the school grounds for Science, DT and Art or visiting Lousehill Copse for a forest school activity.

Our curriculum is based on the September 2014 National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 & 2 and the Development Matters 2021 non-statutory guidance and the Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage in Reception. It is delivered using a variety of approaches and resources depending on the nature of the subject being taught and the needs of the children (for more details please refer to the separate subject policies)

Separate curriculum statements and policies: English, Maths, Science, PE, Music, History, Geography RE, Computing, PSHE & SRE, MFL, Art, Design Technology.

The teaching of Science, Art, DT, History and Geography will form the basis of our topics. The national curriculum will give us the knowledge and skills to be covered. This will strengthen the teaching and learning sequence in the foundation subject areas and for children to have a clearer understanding of the progression in their learning through each subject. Their learning will interleave and build more seamlessly each year and make more sense for them. In making these links more clearly, their learning will be committed to their long term memory more easily.

We embed the learning within the topic through the use of rich and varied texts in English, we include enrichment in every topic to hook the children in. After-school, we offer a range of clubs which include: fencing, sewing, film, mindfulness, choir, football, science, puzzle, arts and crafts, recorder and athletics to name a few.

If you would like a greater understanding of the school curriculum please contact Miss Crofts on telephone no: 0118 901 5550 or email: admin@stmichaels.reading.sch.uk   

Alternatively, please take a look at the Year Group pages