New Curriculum Page under construction
English
Writing
At Our Lady's, we teach writing by following the writing roots from Literacy Tree.
The Literary Curriculum at Literacy Tree immerses children in a literary world, therefore creating strong levels of engagement to provide meaningful and authentic contexts for primary English.
Children become critical readers and acquire an authorial style as they encounter a wide-range of significant authors and a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
The Literacy Tree (writing roots) is a whole school approach which we adopt from Key Stage 1. Within Reception, children will engage with some of the suggested Literacy Tree texts, alongside others which link to their individual interests and curriculum themes. Within the summer term in Reception, children will follow more of the Literacy Tree units of work in preparation for effective transition into Key Stage 1.
The Literacy Tree (writing roots) provides complete coverage of all National Curriculum expectations for writing composition, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. All units of work lead to purposeful application within a wide variety of written outcomes.
A writing roots lesson involves a daily 60 minute session. We grow literary knowledge and develop skills by using whole books, rather than extracts, promoting a love of learning and an eagerness to engage with similar texts. Many of our texts links to aspects of other curriculum subjects, leading to deeper thinking and further discussion.
Maths
At Our Lady's we recognise that maths is an essential life skill which helps children understand the world and enables them to think logically and problem solve.
We believe that being a confident, able mathematician is essential in ensuring that our pupils are given the best life chances possible. We understand that maths is vital for making sense of the world around us by seeing patterns and making connections. Our goal is that our pupils develop a curiosity about maths, which is seen, most importantly, as a matrix of skills and knowledge.
In maths, we are working towards using a teaching to mastery approach. This aims to ensure that no child is left behind.
Science
Intent:
At Our lady's, we encourage children to be inquisitive and see science as the world around them, whilst acquiring specific skills and knowledge to help them think and reason scientifically. We want them to gain an understanding of scientific processes and a knowledge of how these fit into the world of work as well as having a rich range of scientific vocabulary which they can use progressively as they advance through school.
Implementation:
At Our Lady's, we use the Developing Experts scheme to plan lessons and ensure all children learn and retain knowledge throughout the programmes of study. In each lesson, pupils are given key facts and knowledge through a storytelling approach to learning. Further to this, each lesson introduces or reinforces Rocket Words, these are key words and meanings to learn; vocabulary which is then repeated throughout the lesson, quizzed on at the end and repeated at the beginning of the following lesson.
All our lessons contain a balance of the different ‘Working Scientifically Skills’ and ‘Scientific Enquiry’ types, so that children practise a broad range of skills throughout the curriculum. Each child has an individual science book and knowledge organiser to support them with their learning. Wherever possible and suitable the children are taken outside for a first hand experience of their learning.
Geography
Intent:
At Our Lady’s Catholic Primary our aim is to ignite in all our pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
Through the teaching of geography, we want to ensure our children think like geographers and talk like geographers: develop their questioning; acquire skills through organising and analysing geographic information; make interpretations and connections, and to develop a greater understanding and knowledge of the world and their place in it.
Our aim is for our children to understand the connections between humans and the physical geography of the planet on which we live and how one can affect the other. They will have the opportunities to understand how their habitat, and the world around it, has changed over time and how technology and mankind has impacted on and shaped God’s world to what it is today.
This is all underpinned by our drive to enable all learners to experience the beauty, awe and wonder of God’s world and to develop an awareness of their divinely-ordered place in it as human beings: the pinnacle of God’s creation and responsible stewards of it. Our Stewardship does and must reflect our understanding that our planet is irreplaceable. We want to provide opportunities for our children to be advocates of positive change in the world in which we live; the generation who needs to make a difference.
Catholic Social Teaching
The Geography curriculum at Our Lady’s provides many opportunities for children to develop their knowledge and understanding of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and to action that commitment through good works and words that show we live our faith in our community as a force for good.
Computing
Intent:
At Our Lady's our high-quality computing education will equip pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and appreciate their place in the modern world. They will be digitally literate, understand how to manipulate and interpret information technology and be confident programmers with a broad knowledge of computer science. Our children will have an exceptional understanding of how to stay safe online, enabling them to interact within the digital world in a safe and responsible way.
Implementation:
We use Kapow as our main resource for the teaching of computing lessons. Kapow is a comprehensive and progressive scheme of work. It provides full National Curriculum coverage for computing, with detailed lesson plans that develop skills and knowledge with a wide range of topics for KS1 and KS2. Kapow provides in-depth lesson plans, teaching resources, clear and concise success criteria, informative links, descriptive videos and engaging independent tasks in relation to lesson objectives. They provide continuous professional development through confidence-inspiring videos for teachers that provide rich, visual demonstrations to develop subject knowledge.
Art
Intent:
Through our Art curriculum at Our Lady’s, we want to give our children the opportunity to develop their artistic skills and knowledge, to help them express their ideas and thoughts about God’s creation and the rich heritage and culture of the British Isles and beyond.
We want to expose them to a range of artists, sculptors and architects to:
- inspire them
- challenge them to express their own opinions about what they like and dislike
- develop their confidence to experiment and invent their own works of art