Our Curriculum at St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School
Our Curriculum Design
At St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Buckfast, we place pupils’ learning at the heart of our curriculum, ensuring progress across all subject areas. Our broad and balanced curriculum is designed to nurture pupils as unique individuals and lifelong learners, rooted in Gospel values that inspire everything we do.
Our mission to Build, Nurture, Respect, Enable, and Love Unconditionally
underpins our commitment to fostering a community where pupils treat one another with kindness, respect, and support. We strive to make learning both meaningful and enjoyable, preparing pupils for life beyond school by helping them grow through successes and challenges alike.
As a Catholic school, we aim to instil Gospel values in our pupils, encouraging them to act as stewards of God’s creation, protect the environment, and inspire positive change within their communities.
Our curriculum is carefully designed to:
- Foster relationships and empathy through immersive experiences grounded in compassion, justice, courage, and kindness.
- Place reading at the core of all learning, developing fluent, confident readers who read widely for both pleasure and knowledge.
- Integrate learning across subjects while maintaining a strong emphasis on high-quality writing and the application of mathematics and technology.
- Prepare pupils for a rapidly evolving 21st-century world by encouraging creativity, risk-taking, and learning from mistakes.
- Provide memorable, motivating experiences that make learning enjoyable and build essential life skills.
Curriculum Aims
At the heart of our curriculum is the aim to foster a love of reading that ignites imagination, expands vocabulary, and builds lifelong literacy skills. Alongside this, we ensure that pupils:
- Develop excellent foundational skills in reading, writing, and mathematics.
- Cultivate a strong moral compass, a sense of respect, and community responsibility.
- Find inspiration in a curriculum that excites and motivates them to learn.
- Retain and apply essential knowledge across all subject areas.
- Grow as independent, resilient, and resourceful learners, ready for secondary school and beyond.
- Make progress across all subjects, with tailored support for disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).
- Acquire a deep understanding of subject-specific vocabulary.
- Enjoy life-enhancing experiences through trips and extracurricular opportunities.
Our approach incorporates subject mastery, metacognitive strategies, and a growth mindset culture. We prioritise vocabulary development and sequence learning carefully to ensure that all pupils, including those with additional needs, achieve their full potential.
How We Deliver Our Curriculum
Engaging Learning Experiences
Every topic begins with an immersive activity designed to spark curiosity and excitement. Lessons focus on practical tasks, dialogic learning, and problem-solving, guided by Rosenshine’s principles of effective teaching.
Learning Journeys provide pupils and parents with clear guidance to support the retention and recall of key information and the learning objectives along the way. These structured resources link new content to prior knowledge, enhancing long-term learning.
Global Awareness
Inspired by Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, our curriculum encourages pupils to engage with global issues and take positive action locally and beyond.
The Impact of Our Curriculum
Through our curriculum, pupils will:
- Honour God through their actions and live out Gospel values.
- Develop a lifelong love of reading and improved communication skills.
- Confidently solve complex problems using logical strategies.
- Make measurable progress across all subjects.
- Apply their knowledge and skills across disciplines, growing as future historians, scientists, geographers, and more.
- Deepen their understanding of environmental issues and take meaningful steps to protect God’s creation.
Assessment
We assess pupils’ understanding through a combination of formative assessments, summative evaluations, and teacher judgments. Regular questioning, practical tasks, and opportunities for conceptual learning help identify gaps and inform next steps.
- Maths and reading are assessed termly.
- Writing is consistently monitored across all year groups.
These methods ensure that every pupil’s progress is tracked and celebrated, with support provided where needed.
A St. Mary’s Education Includes:
Before leaving St. Mary’s, every pupil will have the opportunity to:
- Develop a personal relationship with Jesus.
- Support a meaningful charity.
- Participate in a variety of hobbies, both active and reflective.
- Serve their local and school communities.
- Experience staying away from home overnight.
- Perform in front of an audience at Buckfast Abbey – even a solo!
- Build lasting friendships and social skills.
- Learn essential self-care and safety skills.
- Celebrate diversity and understand their role in a global society.
Our curriculum embraces the rich resources of our local area. Through our close connection to Buckfast Abbey, pupils gain unique opportunities for spiritual and cultural growth. Additionally, our location within Dartmoor National Park provides unparalleled experiences in outdoor learning and environmental stewardship, fostering awe, wonder, and a sense of responsibility for God’s creation.