Curriculum 'I's'

Curriculum Intent

 At St Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School, Hearts and Minds are nurtured in a stimulating and safe environment. We believe that every child is unique and we nurture each child through a creative and rounded curriculum to reach their full potential. Talents are celebrated and differences are respected within a strong, supportive Catholic community. Our children learn to love, respect and care for each other and God’s entire world.

To encourage and promote positive learning, our ‘Be Values’ (Be kind, Be polite, Be respectful, Be safe, Be your best) permeate throughout our curriculum. Our children leave us as having inquisitive young minds, with a vast knowledge of the world around them. They become responsible and active members of our community, capable of meeting their true potential using the skills learnt.

St Gabriel’s is a place where children are filled with a love of life and learning, through a curriculum designed to meet the needs of every child.

The foundations of our curriculum are rooted in quality first hand experiences and a broad range of quality texts to support and enhance learning. Our curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced and successfully designed to meet the needs of all of our pupils. It is ambitious in order to challenge all of our pupils.

The aim of our curriculum is for pupils to have the requisite skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners in readiness for their next stage of education.

Curriculum Implementation

As a Catholic school, Religious Education is central to us and therefore 10% of curriculum time is spent on religious education. This does not include collective worship time. We follow the Diocesan approved scheme of The Way, Truth and Life programme.

Our Early Years class follows the Early Years Foundation Stage framework  and the following areas of learning

• communication and language
• physical development
• personal, social and emotional development
• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design

They are then assessed throughout the year.

Pupils are still working on the Early Learning Goals of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum as they enter Year 1. There is a period in the Autumn Term where the majority of children progress to the National Curriculum. Throughout this period and beyond all children are still developing their phonic knowledge through the Letters and Sounds Programme and developing their fluency in reading through the regular reading focus.

In KS1 and KS2 the curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the new National Curriculum 2014 and other experiences and opportunities which best meet the learning and developmental needs of the pupils in our school. 

We are  developing a teaching for mastery curriculum in Mathematics (with other partnership schools) which enables children to develop their reasoning, investigative and problem solving skills.

Our topics weave throughout our curriculum, and we take a creative approach to learning wherever possible. The children often steer the learning, by developing meaningful and appropriate questions about their topics. ‘Topic Days’ allow children to be immersed even further into the curriculum, as they dress and act like those they have been studying throughout history.

Curriculum Impact

Throughout teaching, teachers are able to assess pupil outcomes and development of key knowledge and skills against the objectives. These outcomes are monitored and tracked, with planning and learning evaluated and adapted.

Teachers have high expectations of all children and are able to provide challenge, stretch and enrichment in learning because they know the starting points of the children and understand the progression required to reach the end goal. This is achieved through the use of a range of assessment and analysis strategies: timely testing, moderation of work, pupil interviews, use of assessment grids and data tracking systems. The results are seen in outcomes of work, feedback from the community and in the pride the children have of themselves and their school.

Monitoring shows that children are active in their learning, are able to construct their own knowledge and are able to think flexibly and creatively.

Analysis of internal testing provides staff with an accurate overview in order that gaps in learning can be closed.

Parental feedback from questionnaires is very positive about the school.

Results show that we are making improvements and children do achieve well. We know that Reading has a high value in school because our results are consistently good by the time pupils leave St Gabriel’s.

The learning attitudes shown by the children are excellent as they are motivated and engaged in their learning. Comments are often received by visitors to the school and when on visits confirming this.

We are particularly proud of the respect and care that our children show for one another, the environment and the community around us.

We are also proud that our staff team ‘are fully committed to ensuring that all pupils achieve the best that they can, in an environment where they are nurtured, challenged and inspired’ (S48, 2017)