Curriculum Intent

‘Work together, Pray together’

After love, a good education is the greatest gift we can bestow upon our children. We will strive to motivate, stimulate and assist children in developing their own unique gifts to the limit of their capacities. Through a broad and balanced curriculum we will assist children to acquire the knowledge and skills, which support their continuing education and be relevant to their lives.

By embedding a virtuous curriculum, we are encouraging all our children to be the best version of themselves and we are committed to ensuring that every child at St. Benedict’s is respectful, resilient, articulate, aspirational, and knows how to be happy and safe.

It is our intention that pupils leave school with a sense of belonging to a community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections, and become life-long learners.

Aims of our Curriculum

For all pupils to:

  • Become fluent and confident readers, and to develop an appreciation and love of reading, whilst gaining knowledge across the curriculum
  • Use excellent basic skills across the curriculum including reading, writing, and mathematics
  • Develop a sense of morality, respect, and community
  • Be excited by the curriculum, and want to learn
  • Retain key knowledge in all curriculum areas
  • Become independent, resilient and divergent learners, so they are ready for secondary school (and beyond)
  • Be challenged and make progress across all areas of the curriculum (including disadvantaged pupils and those with a special need and/or disability)
  • Have a broad and lasting knowledge of subject specific vocabulary
  • Have a wide range of life experiences that enhance their learning (including trips and extra-curricular activities)

Children with SEND

The curriculum in our school is designed to provide access and opportunity for all children, as stated in our SEND policy. We always provide additional resources and support for children with special needs.

If a child has SEND, our school does all it can to meet these individual needs. We comply with the requirements set out in the SEN Code of Practice. If staff, parents or carers raise a concern about a child, his/her teacher will make an assessment under advice from the SENDCo. In most instances the teacher is able to provide resources and educational opportunities which meet the child’s needs within the normal class organisation. Support staff or specialist teachers may be used to assist the child.

 

“Embracing the Lord in order to embrace hope, that is the strength of faith, which frees us from fear and gives us hope.” Pope Francis 2020

At St Benedict’s Primary School, we put your child’s well-being at the centre of our thinking. We acknowledge that the children will have had different experiences during this pandemic.
However, the common thread running through all is the loss of routine, structure, friendship,
opportunity and freedom. These losses can trigger anxiety in any child. Some of you may have experienced this with your own children. We know that an anxious child is not in a place to learn effectively. With this in mind, the school has thought about the most effective way to support your child’s wellbeing and ability to learn.

   

Please make sure you also read your child’s class newsletter which has more information about each year groups recover curriculum.

We continue to offer a  curriculum which is broad and balanced. Over the three terms of the academic year, each child has the opportunity to experience the full range of subjects. Key Stages 1 and 2 follow the National Curriculum which is built around developing the children’s essential knowledge, understanding and key skills within subjects. There will be slight changes this year but we aim to provide each and every child with a curriculum which focus not only on academic success but also their mental, physical and social well being so they thrive each day.

 

English

At St. Benedict’s we use the National curriculum for English together with other published schemes. Our English scheme of work uses reading and a wide range of texts to engage the children and drive expectations in, reading, writing and spelling, punctuation and grammar for each year group. It also outlines the narratives of writing which are taught across school.

Mrs Brockbank is our English and Phonics lead in school

Mathematics

The intent of our mathematics curriculum is to design a curriculum, which is accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement. We deliver lessons that are creative and engaging. We want children to make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. We intend for our pupils to be able to apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects. We want children to realise that mathematics has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. We want them to know that it is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. As our pupils progress, we intend for our pupils to be able to understand the world, have the ability to reason mathematically, have an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Miss Wilson is our Mathematics lead in school.

Science

St Benedict’s follows the National Curriculum to teach science. We aim to provide children with learning experiences to develop an understanding of the world by using and applying scientific knowledge and skills. Children are encouraged to use different types of scientific enquiry to ask and answer questions about each topic through first hand experiences.
Science is taught through a variety of topics covering Light, Seasonal Change, Plants and Animals, Materials, Sound, Habitats, Forces and Magnets, Light, Rocks, States of Matter, Electricity, Earth and Space and Evolution and Inheritance.

St Benedict’s are proud to have achieved the silver award for the Primary Science Quality Mark.