At St Paul’s we offer an engaging curriculum which is broad, balanced and carefully sequenced through core concepts, built progressively towards identified end points. It distils the requirements of the National Curriculum which is, in itself, ambitious and wide-ranging. The curriculum reflects and takes into account our context, our children’s starting points and the needs of our community. Opportunities in the curriculum have been identified to build Cultural Capital through knowledge, skills and understanding. Children enter school with skills and abilities broadly typical for their age; however, within each cohort, an increasing number of children are entering with limited speech and language skills and additional needs. Our curriculum deliberately has oracy and literacy at its heart. We prioritise foundational knowledge, in order for children to secure the basics, allowing them to be successful learners across the curriculum.
Our curriculum is subject specific and has been designed, planned and organised to ensure core concepts, are identified and core knowledge is taught. We ensure that children are not merely covering content but are achieving depth to their learning. Our careful curriculum design and planning ensures that content is well-sequenced, builds upon prior knowledge, and uses retrieval practice in order to embed learning. Our Curriculum Documents for each subject area articulate exactly how progression is planned and sequenced.
Curriculum intent has been influenced by current research, including Christine Counsell’s work on core and hinterland, the work of Mary Myatt and also the work of Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli. We stay abreast of new research and use evidence as a base for planning our journey through the curriculum. Research also runs through how the school implements the curriculum in the classroom. Intent and implementation prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable learners, in line with the EEF research so that all learners are successful. “What is vital for some, is valuable for all.”
As a Church school, we consider RE as a core subject. As such, this contributes to the Christian distinctiveness as a Church school part of the Leeds Diocese.
All subject lessons are planned discretely, although links are made across subject areas where identified.
In line with Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, Teachers routinely activate prior learning through daily review which builds and strengthens pupils’ knowledge through progressive activities. Using the development of schema, explicit teaching of subject specific vocabulary enables children to understand deeply and articulate their learning. Teachers use modelling and worked examples to demonstrate methodology, scaffolding learning appropriately to support all pupils effectively. Guided and independent practice is used to lead children through the learning process to success. Purposeful questioning engages all learners and allows assessment ‘in the moment’ for Teachers to address misconceptions and gauge depth of understanding.
The delivery of subject knowledge is maximised and it is ensured that children receive the best possible opportunities for learning in specialist subjects, such as Music, MFL, PE and Computing by deploying staff effectively and according to their strengths.
The impact of the curriculum in the core areas is assessed formatively and summatively. In the wider curriculum, staff use assessment questions, last week, last month, last year at the start of lessons to assess pupils’ gaps in learning. They use these to plan, to plug gaps. Teachers use low-stakes quizzes to check learning and to improve retention as part of retrieval practice. Leaders have used the Ofsted research reviews for different subjects to ensure that assessment is robust in identifying gaps within the taught content and addressing these.
Pupil voice and work show that children know more and remember more. Work by subject leaders to develop and monitor their curriculum area, in collaboration with their colleagues, shows the development of cohesive and progressive understanding as children move through school, leading to outcomes for key measures that are at least in line with or above those seen nationally.
We ensure that our children acquire the knowledge, vocabulary and skills across all curriculum areas so that they are equipped to thrive in the next stage of their education.
Please look at our Curriculum Documents in the individual curriculum areas on the website for more information.