Curriculum Subjects

At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, ‘curriculum’ is viewed as encompassing all learning opportunities that pupils participate in.  Our curriculum planning is constantly evolving and encourages active pupil participation, both inside and outside the classroom.  We believe that active learning takes place when pupils are directly involved in the learning process, so consider children’s individual knowledge and interests.  All children have equal access to the curriculum and are treated fairly regardless of race, religion or abilities.

As a Catholic school, our curriculum is underpinned by the Gospel values as outlined in our school mission statement and the Academy Trust’s overarching ‘Vision of Excellence’.

Our curriculum aims to:

• Provide a broad curriculum which balances a rigorous focus on academic success, whilst fostering pupils’ creativity and innovation.
• Support the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of each pupil.
• Inspire a positive attitude towards learning, develops lively and enquiring minds and fosters a spirit of questioning and exploration.
• Develop effective learning attributes, such as the skills of resilience, reciprocity, resourcefulness and reflectiveness.
• Encourage pupil leadership skills, e.g. Prefects, Buddies, Mental Health Ambassadors, Peer Mentors, Digital Leaders, Fair Trade Champion, School Councillors (including Eco-Committee and Wildlife Champions) and a sense of empowerment.
• Help pupils to develop a sense of stewardship by learning about the world in which they live by looking at its context, value and form, as well as building an appreciation of the interdependence of individuals, groups and nations.
• Enable pupils to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to prepare them for their next stage of education and for life in an ever-changing world.
• Celebrate and respect diversity, value others and develop a sense of personal value.

These curriculum aims underpin the long, medium and short term planning that takes place at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School.

Further information about our curriculum and how it is organised can be found in our Curriculum Policy.

Pupils are explicitly taught about metacognition and introduced to key skills which may help them to become more effective, independent learners.  At St Mary’s, this is achieved through the implementation of Guy Claxton’s approach, ‘Building Learning Power (BLP)’ applying the key learning dispositions of resilience, reflectiveness, reciprocity and resourcefulness.  Each of these learning dispositions is made up of a number of areas of learning, which are called muscles.

We teach the children that in the same way that physical muscles can be strengthened with exercise, our learning muscles can also be developed and strengthened.

Using this language, pupils are encouraged to explain ways in which they achieved or approached a task and also how they can develop their future learning, so that they become an active part of their learning process.