Curriculum Intent

Curriculum Intent
at Sacred Heart Primary School

At Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School our bespoke curriculum is broad  and balanced taking into account our school’s unique characteristics and  setting. The curriculum has been designed and at times adapted in response to what we already know about our children. It is designed to build on what has previously been taught and learned to ensure that academic achievement, physical and mental wellbeing, growth of character and personal development are intrinsically linked for the purpose of equipping our pupils with firm foundations of the requisite knowledge, skill and strength of character needed to be successful in life.

It mirrors our mission statement preparing the children to leave Sacred Heart as caring, resilient, creative learners ready for the next learning phase. Children who are ambitious and kind, who are ready to make a positive impact in the world. We will ensure our children are proud of who they are and what they can achieve. 

Our curriculum is co-designed by staff and children using the arts and our rich cultural heritage to enrich the curriculum which reflects the distinctive beliefs, values and stories of our community, helping pupils to be creative and make full use of their gifts. Our balanced approach to the curriculum is not at the expense of high standards in core subject areas. Our curriculum, with its excellent range of experiences, aims to ensure that every pupil at Sacred Heart makes excellent progress-both academically and personally.  

Our families are from a rich, varied and multi-cultural community and together, we will build our children’s aspirations demonstrating possibilities for their future lives. Our gospel values underpin all that we do, we promote a sense of self-worth through an understanding that each one of us is precious to God. A focus on speech, language and communication strengthen the children’s ability to progress, allowing them to articulate their learning; demonstrating quality thinking and application of skills and knowledge. Physical and mental wellbeing are built into our curriculum design, allowing children opportunities to exhibit spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding. All of our children will access all of the curriculum. 

Our curriculum is designed to: 

  • Be coherent and carefully sequenced in every subject area, designed to enable children to know more and remember more.

  • Develop creative individuals who collaborate and co-operate and can solve problems seeing failure as an opportunity to learn. 

  • Be ambitious with a clear focus on developing basic skills in order to access the full curriculum on offer. The school considers language development, reading and writing to be fundamental skills needed for knowledge acquisition and communication of learning across all subjects in the curriculum

  • Develop pupils who care about their role as part of a family, community and the wider world; encouraging them to feel part of, and to contribute positively to fundamental World values. 

  • Ensure all pupils have high aspirations. 

  • Develop a love of learning for all pupils 

  • Develop children to be proud of who they are and what they do ∙ Develop children to be active, creative contributors – we will promote kindness & instil empathy 

  • Give equal opportunities – removing barriers to learning, regardless of starting points.

  • Ensure each and every one of our pupils understands and embraces modern British values

Implementation: How our curriculum is taught?

In Nursery and Reception, we follow the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum’ document. The planning is based upon the themes with discrete RE, phonics, maths and literacy directed teaching. Our medium-term planning identifies the intended learning for children working towards the Early Learning Goals. The Reception and Nursery teachers work closely with all adults in the EYFS to plan for progression. All staff are involved in evaluating provision and planning changes or enhancements to support or extend children’s learning. We deliver learning for all of the areas through, planned purposeful play and learning experiences, with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities. We believe that play in the Early Years classroom is essential and contributes to the development of the whole child. Through play our children explore and develop learning experiences, which help them make sense of the world. Through practice they build up ideas, learn how to control themselves and understand the need for rules. They have the opportunity to think creatively alongside other children as well as on their own. They communicate with others as they investigate and solve problems. The EYFS curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas. The curriculum is planned in a cross-curricular way to enable all aspects of the children’s development.

Our curriculum from Year 1 onwards, builds on the learning in EYFS and integrates the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum in a bespoke and engaging way. It is designed to meet the needs of future citizens and equip all children, including those with SEND and social disadvantages, with the foundations for life. 

Curriculum planning enables learners to make connections and interconnections in order to ensure that knowledge (substantive) and skills (disciplinary) are learned progressively to reach agreed end points. Lessons enabling retrieval practice (reviewing previously taught objectives), formative assessment and opportunities for teachers/support staff to address misconceptions, means that learning is moved from the short term memory and embedded into long term memory so that learners know more, remember more and do more. Our spiral approach in subject areas ensures that learning is revisited and reinforced when needed.

We have a clear long term overview which encourages cross-curricular work wherever possible around planned Topics using Key questions. Our Subject Leads and SLT set out the learning through our Long Term Overviews, Medium Term Plans and Progression documents. Within this context, we still ensure that children understand the unique contribution of individual subject areas.

We consider context and relevance for learners when planning relevant learning and meaningful wider opportunities, so as to maximise each child’s ‘cultural capital’ and knowledge of British values. 

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits, language and possessions that enables individuals to demonstrate their cultural competence and social status.
Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School and Nursery plays a crucial role in developing cultural capital through immersing children in debates, dance, theatre and music, school trips, performing arts, sporting activities and by introducing them to literature and art from different cultural backgrounds.
Embedding cultural capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children form all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential. Thus, we have planned activities each term for all pupils to participate and experience as individuals, classes, key stage groups and whole school.

As well as our academic curriculum, we ensure learning is supported by relevant educational visits and visitors, overnight residential visits, assemblies, charity days and responding to events in the news. A vast range of clubs and enrichment activities such as concerts, sports clubs and matches, competitions, arts, mental health and wellbeing clubs, visitors from our community, industry and universities are a regular occurrence in our school. These are a vital part of the children’s development as lifelong learners and ensure individual talents are celebrated.

Our strategy for successful implementation of our intended curriculum is to create a culture where collaboration and professional dialogue between subject leaders delivers a curriculum that builds on prior learning, deepens knowledge and enhances skills that foster learning and achievement. We engage in a constant cycle of review and evaluation.

Impact

Everything we do is with each child in mind. 

Pupils’ progress of learning is measured through ongoing assessment and though key assessment points depended on the year group. This will be formative and summative.  Teachers will use this information to adjust and adapt planning as necessary, to ensure that any gaps in knowledge and misconceptions can be addressed and any interventions put in place effectively to maximise the progress of every child. School evaluates how well our children are learning the content outlined in the curriculum through:

  • School progress data which is analysed by SLT, middle and subject leaders and class teachers

  • Book looks and learning walks

  • Termly lesson observation

  • Pupil/parent voice

Our curriculum aims to not overload pupils with information but enables them to know more and remember more through connecting to prior learning. The impact of the curriculum is that our children are well-motivated, aspirational, confident and engaged in their education with a growing knowledge base which prepares them for effective transition for their next stage in learning and equips them for life.

We aim for all of our children to leave Sacred Heart respectful to all, skilful, aspirational, inspirational to others and kind to all.