St Benedict’s Catholic Primary School Hindley

CURRICULUM STATEMENT 2023

INTENT

We aim to create a curriculum that has breadth and balance, develops skills, knowledge and understanding with a focus on vocabulary development and enrichment whatever their starting points. All teaching staff understand

St. Benedict’s curriculum will: 

• Inspire children to develop a love of learning.
• Develop high aspirations for all
• Embed skills to prepare children for the next stage in their education.
• Enable children to use their acquired skills and knowledge to observe, question and think.
• Acquire and develop a rich vocabulary to enable access to texts and media
• Take learning beyond the classroom.
• Develop children to become reflective learners who have a sense of responsibility for their own learning and development.
• Build confidence and motivation within our children. 
• Grow children who understand the importance of perseverance, resilience and tolerance.
• Learn to value others, their views, cultures and beliefs.

IMPLEMENTATION

We implement an inclusive curriculum that meets the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum.  Our curriculum is well-planned providing literacy-rich, cross-curricular opportunities, and high-quality implementation of mathematics teaching, underpinned by fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

We provide a text rich curriculum which links English to the wider curriculum. Teachers use carefully selected, high-quality texts, relating to focus themes History, Geography or Science. 

Within the wider curriculum, teachers ensure that there are opportunities planned for children to further develop their literacy skills, including regular cross-curricular reading and writing.  This ensures that standards are consistent across the curriculum.

Knowledge and vocabulary are fundamental within our literacy-rich curriculum. Lessons are well-planned to develop and increase children’s knowledge, building on prior experiences and making connections in their learning. Children are immersed in and exposed to a diet of vocabulary, which is high-level and subject-specific, to extend their breadth of language.

Children are taught to ‘read well, quickly’ through the effective implementation of our Department for Education validated, synthetic, systematic phonics programme, Monster Phonics.

Parents and carers are provided with ‘knowledge mats’ at the start of all History, Geography and Science units, to encourage discussion with their child and deepen their knowledge and breadth of vocabulary.

Our curriculum is delivered through highly effective ‘quality first teaching’, including the use of specialist teachers in PE, Music and Design Technology. Teachers use end of year expectations and knowledge progression documentations to accurately assess children’s skills and progress.

Enrichment, including inspirational visitors and exciting educational visits, enhance teaching, learning and knowledge. A broad menu of Extra-Curricular clubs is provided to children across school, which includes sport, music, languages, wellbeing, computing and media. Carefully selected experiences provide our children with unique and rich opportunities to develop Cultural Capital.

Our curriculum promotes children’s Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development, ensuring that they are reflective and responsible citizens. Fundamental British Values are actively promoted to prepare the children for life in Modern Britain and in their journey to become citizens in a global world.

Our curriculum is continually shaped and developed to meet children’s interests and needs and is supported by practices based on credible research.

 IMPACT

Teacher’s planning shows a clear pathway of skills, knowledge and vocabulary taught with varied opportunities for cross curricular work. 

Evidence in books shows a progression of skills across all subjects and year groups and assessment procedures verify this.

Vocabulary development, including subject specific vocab, is evident in independent study and across the wider curriculum.  Development of subject specific vocabulary allows access to higher order texts which in turn leads to positive reading comprehension results.

Pupil voice supports the love of learning and the enjoyment they have of our curriculum.