Curriculum

As part of our aim to establish strong links between school, parents and pupils, this section includes information about the curriculum we teach at St. Mary’s.

To all our pupils,

Every day at St Mary’s, the staff and governors are working to make sure that by the time you leave us:

• You will embrace each other’s differences and show kindness and forgiveness to those around you, journeying towards a shared understanding of God’s love for one another.
• You will understand how unique you are, believe in yourself and have confidence in your abilities.
• You will have experienced learning in many creative forms, though music and art , science, drama and debating. Through using the outdoors and practical activities, making extensive use of our: Forest School, Pond Life, Secret Garden, school grounds,local area and beyond.
• You will feel a part of your community and be proud of your school.
• You will understand the shared responsibility we have to look after God’s World and encourage others to do so.
• You will have a Growth Mindset and know how you can grow your brain through using your learning powers.
• You will know the importance of making mistakes and spend your time learning and achieving from them.
• You will know what it feels like to succeed and have achieved your very best
• You will love learning new things and want to keep learning more by being inquisitive and asking questions.
• You will know and understand friendship and have learned how to get along.

At St Mary's, we ensure our children receive high quality teacher and learning on a day-today basis, not only in our classrooms but also in the varied outdoor learning areas we have on our grounds. Our school places high value on the learning environment, both in and outdoors, that our children are exposed to every day. Through this approach, we believe we secure the best possible learning environment for children to grow and flourish as learners and people.

How is The Curriculum organised and why have we planned it this way?

At St Mary’s School we offer an exciting, deep, rich, challenging and experiential curriculum which inspires learning, identifies talents, promotes achievement and celebrates personal achievement.

Our curriculum offer ensures that all our children become engaged, active and responsible citizens who recognise and value their contribution to British society and its institutions and that they gain a perspective of themselves as both local and global citizens.

We endeavour to fulfil the potential of every child academically, socially, morally, spiritually and culturally in order to prepare them for the next stage of their education and their life beyond school and help them to look after their own mantle health and well being.
 

Religious Education is the core  and we plan our curriculum so that we can take every opportunity to view, with awe, the wonders of all elements of God's world.

Our curriculum has been designed around the requirements of the National Curriculum and the needs of our children. We work with lots of external partners and are influenced by educational research, for example the work we have developed around learning to learn and Growth Mindset. We also model what we say  to the children about continuous self improvement and work closely with Manchester University on evaluating the impact of our work. 

Each year, staff from each year phase get together to plan review the year and  the long term topic plans. Here we will look at National Curriculum objectives and the children that will be taught in each year group. With this in mind, topics and themes are adapted to take into consideration children's interests and individual needs. During this time we ensure that there is a range of creative and active themes planned to allow all types of learners to be catered for. Subject leaders then revise these plans to ensure the children at St Mary's are receiving a broad and balanced curriculum that is innovative and creative.

To allow children to become immersed in themes and subjects, as well as being able to create a whole school approach to teaching subjects within topics, each subject is taught during the same half-term across the school. This can be seen on each year groups long term plans.

R.E, English, Maths and Science, being core subjects are taught every week across the year, with Computing having a stand alone theme for one half-term and  integrated into other subjects and themes each half-term throughout the year.

Music is taught both through the themed units and as instruction - in Key Stage 2 all pupils learn at least one instrument and have the opportunity to perform.

In Key Stage 2 the children learn Spanish and this is taught by a languages specialist on a weekly basis.

PE is a taught discretely and all children have two hours of PE a week and from Year 1 upwards we have ‘The Daily Mile’

Any questions you have about the Curriculum can be addressed by Class teachers or Senior Leaders on request.

Phonics: Letters and Sounds

We follow the Letters and Sounds Phonics programme.

In common with all Catholic schools in the Salford Diocese, we follow the Salford Religious Guidelines. Throughout the year we hold weekly class assemblies, to which all parents are invited. During Year 3, the children will make their First Confession during Advent, receive their First Holy Communion on Easter Sunday and be confirmed on Pentecost Sunday.

As an integral part of the school curriculum, we would ask parents to ensure that all home learning set is completed on time. The school has a strict home learning policy which details time and frequency for both Key Stages.