Curriculum Overview

The Curriculum at St Catherine's School

"At St Catherine's Church of England School, we strive to educate our children to realise their aspirations and to contribute positively to society guided by our Christian principles."

In our children’s own words:

"To make our dreams come true, be kind to everyone and follow God's rules."

Through the story of ‘The Good Samaritan’ the children learn to be curious about the world, be open in their experiences, overcome prejudices, encourage dignity and respect, live well together, celebrate individual differences and encourage kind, hopeful actions – working together towards a hopeful, inclusive world.  (“act justly, love constantly, live humbly” Micah 6. V8) 
 

Here at St Catherine’s, we intend that children will experience an education that effectively prepares them for their next stage of education, for modern life and to be a positive part of their community.

We do this through the provision of a carefully planned curriculum that provides a broad range of rich experiences both over each academic year and across the pupils’ time in school.

Our curriculum is designed to develop academic knowledge, learning dispositions and engage the pupils.

There is a strong focus on early reading and vocabulary development from the early years to ensure all pupils are confident readers.

The vision in our school drives all decision making with regard to the implementation of practice:

  • Curriculum design is led by the values we hold dear
  • Our academic targets are defined by the Church value of striving for the best for all pupils regardless of their background
  • Our pastoral programme and approach in school is led by the overarching belief that pupils learn best when they are motivated, happy and safe.
  • Guided by our Christian values, children will learn to take responsibility, to show care and be thoughtful in their lives.

 Our Curriculum provision is:

– focused on the local context – for example:

  • all pupils will develop a deep knowledge of the history and geography of their local area.
  • We enable children to develop a sense of belonging and heritage crucial in creating aspiration and ambition.
  • Subject specialists plan links and experiences relevant to the pupils
  • Topics are linked to global, nationally relevant themes
  • All year groups have a focused Climate Curriculum learning unit

 At St Catherine’s our distinctive characteristics are the whole school ethos of care, leading by modelled good practice, celebrating success and using values to drive the behaviour expectations in school.

We aim to have fully embedded the Capabilities Curriculum

Our revised curriculum will be consistently well taught and fully covered annually

Developing children’s understanding of their own place in the world and the positive impact they can have – we encourage courageous advocacy in their actions.  We expect children to stand up for what they believe and we teach them about the rights of all.

We want our children to be critical thinkers who ask: ‘how do we change things for the better?’

The success of every individual matters. We include our families in their child’s education and value their role in securing success academically, socially and emotionally.  We do not give up on any individual. We look always for ways to be better at what we do.

 Every individual, regardless of their starting point is welcomed and wanted. We are aspirational for every pupil.  We are inclusive and celebrate individuality.

We have a powerful focus on community.  We expect all of our school to be part of this community and contribute to it positively. 

We role model and live our vision daily from senior leaders, all staff and pupils. Much of the curriculum and collective worships programmes focus on ‘impact’ We teach our children: ‘What you do matters!’

To find out more, please read our curriculum documents below:

Curriculum Design and Structure
Schemes of Learning
 
The school follows:
 
English Writing - The Literacy Tree
English Reading - The Literacy Leaf, Accelerated Reading and the Read Write Inc. Programme to teach Phonics.
Maths - White Rose Maths
RE - Understanding Christianity and The Cornwall Agreed Syllabus
PE - Striver
French - La Jolie Ronde
History and Geography - Connections - David Weatherly
Music - Charenga
Art - Access Art
DT - Project on a Page
Science - we follow our own planning based on the National Curriculum
PSHE - SCARF
Computing - i-Compute
 
Schemes of Learning Subject Overviews
Links to further information