St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School
We act with love, build our faith and grow as people
Curriculum
St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School Curriculum Intent
We act with love, build our faith and grow as people
Our curriculum is designed to instil a love of learning, enabling all pupils to fulfil their potential through the central aims of high pupil standards, high engagement and high enjoyment. Underpinning everything we do at St Margaret Clitherow, is the idea of maximising our mission to act with love, build our faith and grow as people.
Our school curriculum, based on the National Curriculum, is inclusive and looks to overcome all barriers that prevent pupils from succeeding. As a Catholic community, the principles of Catholic Social Teaching are interwoven throughout the curriculum equipping children with the values and skills to contribute to and participate in society. To support this, all staff seek out relevant and meaningful opportunities to develop pupils’ social, moral, cultural and spiritual understanding. This is further enriched by the wide variety of extra-curricular clubs and events on offer.
We take autonomy for our school curriculum and for the way we plan for and deliver it. Pupils will be supported to master fundamental concepts in subjects. We believe in assisting pupils to develop deep, secure understanding through experience-based learning. We will therefore allow them to study at a pace that enables the formulation of a robust understanding of central ideas; key concepts; key bodies of knowledge; and fundamental skills. This includes, at times, the ‘less is more’ approach and we may cover fewer items but we will do so in much greater depth. Our aim in doing so will be to ensure that all units of learning have a high impact on pupils’ development. The curriculum will not be delivered at an undue pace, with teachers moving on to the next thing too quickly.
Our Pupil Parliament helps us to regularly check-in with our pupil voice and consider our learners’ needs on an ongoing basis. We also recognise the benefit of a fit body and mind and ensure pupils have a wide range of opportunities to engage in sport and physical education.
We have high expectations of all learners – there is no ceiling set for the performance of any pupil and targets are set for the continual improvement of all learners through suitable and appropriate tasks. Numeracy and Literacy skills feature at the heart of our offering; however, our curriculum remains broad and ambitious. We aim to provide the best possible ongoing life chances via regular and repeated exposure to a wide range of vocabulary and experience-based learning opportunities to support understanding of all pupils from across the multitude of different cultures and ethnicities that make up our school community. Staff at the school will continually support and promote pupils to read confidently and widely and equip pupils with a range of learning and emotional regulation tools and strategies to enable them to succeed with their learning and life beyond school.
Full details of topic coverage by year group and by subject are below. For any further information relating to the curriculum, please contact Mrs Angela de Grande, via enquiries@smc-bracknell.com.