Outline of the National Curriculum at St Andrew's
St. Andrew's Curriculum Statement
Curriculum Intent
At St. Andrew's we aim to challenge, excite and inspire children, to engage their imagination in order to create reflective, resilient, enquiring and ambitious lifelong learners.
The key drivers in shaping our curriculum are the school’s mission statement, vision and aims. We believe that children should experience excellent teaching and develop a deep love of learning. Christian values are at the heart of our teaching and learning and we encourage all of our children to put these values into practice in every aspect of school life.
Our curriculum is carefully and creatively designed, enabling us to personalise the learning to meet the needs of our pupils, opening the door to new knowledge, skills and understanding. We work particularly hard with the children to develop an ‘I can’ attitude towards their learning and a strong resilience to challenge, by understanding the importance of the ‘Power of Yet’ and the value of making mistakes.
We balance the requirement for pupils to reach national expectations in core subjects whilst also providing a wide range of thoughtful and enriching experiences and opportunities in other foundation subjects including our '50 things'.
Curriculum Implementation
Our personalised curriculum is based upon the statutory curriculum for Reception and Years 1 – 6. It builds in opportunities for repetition to return to areas which allows our children to gain a deeper understanding of the skills and processes within subjects. Progression of knowledge, skills and understanding is planned carefully both within each year group and across year groups in a way that maximises learning opportunities.
Ensuring teachers have sound subject knowledge is a priority and CPD opportunities are made available to staff to ensure that all staff training needs are identified and that teachers attend high quality training.
All policies relating to the curriculum and teaching and learning support the ethos of the school and ensure that all learning is effective and well planned. We follow the letters and sound scheme for our Phonics and our reading is an amalgamation of a variety of schemes including Oxford Reading Tree, Big Cat, Bug Club, Songbirds and Phonics Bug.
Curriculum Impact
Evidence of the impact of St Andrew's curriculum is closely monitored by senior and middle leaders through work scrutiny, learning walks, teacher dialogue, AfL opportunities, summative assessment and pupil/parent voice.
The outcomes of National assessments demonstrate that when children leave St. Andrew's school, they are very well prepared for the next stage in their education.
Please click on the subject website pages to learn more about each of our curriculum areas. Knowledge Organisers are also sent home for each new topic in History, Geography and Science.