Christ the King RC Primary School Curriculum Statement

 With the knowledge of Jesus, and His love in our hearts, we try to be the very best we can.

At Christ the King, we value each child as an individual; made in the image and likeness of God.

We believe that, ‘God has created me to do some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.  I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain. a bond of connections between persons.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

(Saint John Henry Newman).

Curriculum Intent

At Christ the King RC Primary School, pupils access a broad and balanced curriculum. The National Curriculum sets out our minimum content.  We extend this by ensuring that our children access a range of learning experiences that allow them to build resilience and evaluate risk taking; deepen their knowledge in context; enrich their learning; provide ‘hands on’ opportunities as well as raising their own aspirations – experiences that most of our children would not otherwise have access to. Across all curriculum areas, we aim to deliver a curriculum that is fully accessible to all learners. 

We ensure that we have a fully-inclusive approach to competitive sport that takes place our cluster of Catholic schools and wider.  Specialist teachers provide instrument lessons and French lessons across Key Stage Two.  We read for pleasure in school and have well-stocked and well-used libraries. We have a wide selection of home reading books and we also have a range of class authors and class novels that we enjoy together in every year group. Our regularly-reviewed Reading Spine features a book list for each class; we have identified a range of authors and texts that we believe every child should be exposed to during their time at Christ the King.  Our children read across the curriculum and enjoy a range of diverse, relevant and stimulating texts, both classic and modern, within their lessons. 

Through our curriculum provision, we endeavour to: 

• Ensure our children are nurtured to journey forward in they develop a strong faith, following in the footsteps of Jesus.
• Promote inclusion, diversity and community cohesion to help our children to develop as socially-responsible followers of Christ.
• Foster a life-long love of reading.
• Offer experiences where children develop a sense of wonder and ambition, learning in a wide-range of contexts, promoting and sustaining a thirst for knowledge and a love of learning.
• Expose our children to a range of ambitious and subject-specific vocabulary to aid in ensuring our children develop strong oracy skills which enable them to confidently and effectively express their thoughts and opinions.
• Encourage our children to nurture their individual God-given talents and gifts, developing ambition and raising aspirations.
• Encourage children to work confidently, both independently and collaboratively.
• Develop an awareness of the importance of positive mental health and emotional wellbeing.
• Ensure that all children are taught the essential knowledge across all subject disciplines.
• Promote high standards across all subjects, maximising the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more.

A knowledge-rich approach

Our ambitious curriculum is stimulating and knowledge-rich; it is designed to give all children, particularly the disadvantaged and those with SEND, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

We employ a range of metacognitive strategies to increase independence and self-regulation. Our children become increasingly responsible for their own learning, enabling them to plan and show initiative, persevere and have a commitment for self-improvement.

In Early Years Foundation Stage, we follow our own sequenced curriculum in each Area of Learning with the National Curriculum from Year 1 to Year 6, as the basis of our age-related progression in knowledge for each core and foundation subject.  Curriculum Maps and Overviews exemplify how coverage is achieved and knowledge secured across each phase, from Nursery to Year 6.  Knowledge is carefully sequenced to ensure it is progressive and subject leaders review this regularly.  Knowledge Organisers outline the knowledge to be learnt by the end of a particular unit.

All pupils follow the full curriculum, without it being narrowed.  We aspire to have each child, who does not have a cognitive delay or who is not an International New Arrival, attain at least a Good Level of Development, particularly the disadvantaged and children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

We believe our children are entitled to:

• Be independent, enthusiastic and self-motivated learners who are eager to ask questions;
• Be engaged in active learning, driven by their own curiosity;
• Understand what they have achieved and know how to make progress;
• Have opportunities to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning;
• Experience teaching that encourages them to be resilient and creative;
• Be appropriately challenged and enjoy their learning;
• Develop spiritually, morally and as members of their local and wider community.

We believe that an effective curriculum offers knowledge, skills, understanding and progression. Our curriculum is designed with these principles in mind.  It is personalised, reflecting the background and experience of our children; it is outward-facing, reflects global contexts, celebrates diversity to emphasise unity, is authentic and contextualised so that learning is relevant.

In our ongoing work reviewing, evaluating and updating our curriculum, we consider the following:

• Ensuring sequential learning where children know more, remember more and can do more;
• Our local context and filling the gaps relating to wider life experiences;
• A focus on subject disciplines;
• The depth, breadth and curriculum content;
• Seeing the curriculum as the progression model;
• Having a clear purpose for assessment;
• Developing a mastery approach;
• Listening to and acting on the insight provided by pupil voice;
• Clear curriculum leadership and ownership by our talented staff team.

For more details, please also see the Curriculum Maps and Overviews for each subject.

Implementation

Curriculum Organisation

At Christ the King, we follow the National Curriculum (2014), and supplement our delivery of this, where necessary, with carefully-selected Schemes of Learning. We include extra learning opportunities, visits and visitors to meet the specific needs of our pupils and community.

Our Curriculum has been designed to provide a coherent learning journey from Early Years Foundation Stage through to Year 6, identifying the key information and concepts for pupils to learn and allowing pupils to build on and develop their knowledge over time. 

In light of the Coronavirus Pandemic, we aim to ensure we rapidly recover lost learning by prioritising key areas of missed curriculum content that are critical for progression within each subject area, in order to ensure pupils are able to make sense of later work in the curriculum. This includes the key knowledge, skills, vocabulary and concepts and the links between concepts, as outlined in the National Curriculum.

We integrate opportunities to read high quality and diverse texts across all curriculum areas, as we believe this best suits the needs of our pupils.

Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, we are aware that pupils will have gaps in their prior learning which may hamper their progress in grasping new concepts or deepening understanding. When planning lessons, we therefore ensure that our pupils’ understanding of key concepts or essential prior knowledge is secure before more demanding content is taught.

Teachers’ planning takes account of prior learning, using a variety of retrieval methods within lessons to reactivate knowledge, to ensure that pupils learn how new knowledge connects to that already taught.

Curriculum Design and Sequencing

Learning is contextualised and made relevant to real life experiences in order to motivate stimulate and engage pupils and help them to understand how they can apply their learning in their everyday life. 

Curriculum sequencing pays close attention to when and how disciplinary knowledge is paired with substantive knowledge, so that disciplinary knowledge is always learned within the most appropriate substantive contexts. We address gaps in disciplinary knowledge in the same way as substantive knowledge- we provide opportunities for pupils to fill ‘gaps’ in prior learning through targeted intervention and support.

Staffing/ Planning

Our curriculum is delivered by qualified teachers, who are closely supported by the subject leadership team and the curriculum leader.  Subject leaders have regular CPD opportunities via the National College, Subject Association and local Networks. This is then disseminated to staff via CPD meetings and regular subject updates.

Year group teachers work collaboratively to plan learning opportunities, using our carefully-sequenced curriculum maps and overviews, which illustrate full coverage of the National Curriculum.

Learning and teaching is closely monitored by subject leaders in order to determine areas for development and to ensure best practice is identified and shared across school. The subject action plan is regularly revisited and updated to ensure it accurately reflects current priorities and next steps.

In order to best meet the needs of our pupils and community, we have a significant emphasis upon oracy and communication, including a focus on subject-specific vocabulary.

Extra Support

Additional support is provided by our team of Teaching Assistants who are deployed by the class teacher and SENDCo. Teaching assistants work alongside the class teacher to identify intended learning outcomes and how these may be differentiated to suit the needs of individual pupils, including those with SEND, EAL or other learning needs, and those who may need additional challenge. Essential key vocabulary is highlighted and common misconceptions, and ways to address these, are also identified.

We use well-targeted interventions, based on careful assessment of learning, to complement our quality first teaching. Our aim is that this intervention can offer rapid catch-up, in order to enable more effective whole-class learning, with the majority of pupils working at age-related expectations. We ensure intervention is explicitly linked to the content of lessons so that pupils experience the curriculum as a coherent whole.

Assessment

Teachers assess pupil learning through the careful use of both formative and summative assessment.

In their use of formative assessment, teachers identify what pupils do and do not know, or can and cannot do, to inform feedback to pupils and any adjustments to teaching, identifying next steps for development of learning. At Christ the King, we believe that focused assessments which target specific areas of learning are the most effective method of identifying precise areas of weakness and strength. We use a range of methods, such as low-stakes tests and quick quizzes, flashback activities and use of Knowledge Organisers, which support staff in effectively identifying which pupils have grasped the knowledge and skills and which learners need additional intervention and support before moving on.  This has been especially crucial as part of our Recovery Curriculum, as we know that gaps in knowledge are likely to hinder pupils in mastering the next stage of their learning.

Teachers also use summative assessment to measure pupils’ achievement in learning, for example, in end of unit or end of term tests.

Cross-curricular

Links with prior learning are made explicit to pupils, and we show how new knowledge relates to previous learning, including from the previous year groups and key stages. Where appropriate, links are also made with other curriculum areas so that pupils see how subject disciplines relate to each other, however, we teach the National Curriculum as subject disciplines.

Pedagogical Approach

Our pedagogical approach to learning at Christ the King is underpinned by our focus on metacognition and self-regulated learning, and Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction (Rosenshine, 2012) also informs our approach to learning and teaching.

In the moment verbal feedback is our favoured form of feedback, as we believe this has the greatest impact on learning. Effective, differentiated questioning and opportunities for pupil discussion and interaction allow for teachers to check understanding before moving learning on.

Timetabling

Certain subjects, namely History and Geography and Art and Design and Design Technology are offset on a half-termly basis. In order to ensure learning is not ‘lost’ we utilise past Knowledge Organisers and link back to previous units where possible. We also provide opportunities to incorporate Geographical skills and knowledge into History units. For example, using maps and atlases to locate civilisations studied within History.

Trips and Visits

Our pupils also have the opportunity to study outside of the classroom, (e.g. as regular fieldwork opportunities form part of our Geography curriculum delivery.) This gives pupils the opportunity to gain experiences in the local environment and thus provides context for their learning. External visits to a range of venues are planned at each key stage to coincide with relevant learning in a bid to enhance subject knowledge and maximise pupil learning. These trips and visits also contribute to increasing our pupils’ cultural capital, and provide first-hand experiences which can be subsequently built upon back in the classroom.

Impact

Through our carefully-planned and robust curriculum, pupils develop a range of knowledge and skills, preparing them well for the next stage of learning.

Progress will be seen within pupil workbooks and within the result of assessments taken, showing that over time, pupils know more, remember more and are accessing increasingly sophisticated topics and concepts.

It is our mission to ensure our children leave Christ the King RC Primary School with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the next stage of their education and with strong foundations for future learning.

For more details, please also see our Curriculum Subjects and Year Group Pages. 

Curriculum Subjects

On our website you will find lots of information about each curriculum subject taught at Christ the King. Each subject area has its own curriculum overview, giving an 'at a glance' view of units of work studied in each year group. You will also find a curriculum map, providing more detail of the content of each unit of work.  In addition, each subject area has its own curriculum statement illustrating the Intent, Implementation and Impact of each curriculum area at Christ the King. 

If you would like to find out more about our curriculum, please telephone school to make an appointment with the curriculum leader who will be happy to answer any queries.