Curriculum Overview
Our curriculum is driven by our vision to create responsible citizens who are well prepared for the next stage of their learning journey. At St Mary and St Giles, we offer a rich, interesting and vibrant curriculum which is ambitious for all learners. Through our curriculum, we promote spiritual growth and develop the essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life.
Our curriculum encompasses not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum but goes beyond the experiences of the classroom to ensure that our children are exposed to the richest and most varied opportunities that we can provide.
The curriculum is enhanced by our commitment to Christian Values-based Education (including British Values) and, through this, we provide learning experiences which promote confident, responsible, self-motivated pupils, eager for lifelong learning. At SMSG, we are fully committed to ensuring that our curriculum provides equitable opportunities for all our children so that every child can access our broad, rich and balanced curriculum.
This includes all our vulnerable children such as our SEND, disadvantaged and those with protected characteristics. We ensure we fully adhere to the duties in the equality act 2010.
General Principles
Our curriculum gives children the opportunity to:
- experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning
- understand the purpose and value of their learning and see its relevance to their past, present and future
- develop new skills through a variety of interesting contexts
- develop and demonstrate their creativity
- develop a rich and deep subject knowledge
- see clear links between different aspects of their learning
- learn within a coherent and progressive framework
These principles prepare our children for their future giving them the skills, knowledge and values to be successful adults and responsible citizens. Our rich curriculum topics engage, inspire and motivate our children so that they can enjoy their time at school and foster a lifelong learning habit. We strive for our children to be curious about the world around them; to ask questions, undertake investigations and make evaluations enabling them to make links in their learning and therefore acquiring a broader knowledge base and essential skills.
Our children will build on their skills and knowledge throughout their time at St Mary and St Giles and leave us being ready to move on to the next stage of their learning journey.
Values
As a Church of England School, we are driven by our Christian values of responsibility, thankfulness, kindness, wisdom and love. We also uphold the fundamental British Values of the Rule of Law, democracy, individual liberty, tolerance and respect. We use these values and principles to enable children and adults to support each other to flourish into the best person they can be. Our school celebrates difference and diversity allowing children to develop into happy and confident individuals.
Our curriculum gives children the opportunity to be:
- Spiritual - Explore beliefs, experiences and faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity and reflect on experiences
- Moral - Recognise right and wrong and respect the law; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues and offer reasoned views
- Social - Use a range of social skills to participate in the local community and beyond; appreciate diverse viewpoints; participate, volunteer and cooperate; resolve conflict
- Rule of law - Learn that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable for their actions and behaviour
- Cultural - Appreciate cultural influences; appreciate the role of Britain’s parliamentary system; participate in culture opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity
- Individual liberty - Be free to express views or ideas
- Tolerance and respect - To respect and tolerate the opinions or behaviour of others
Wellbeing and Safeguarding
Our school provides our children with an environment where their well-being is a priority. We recognise that children who feel safe, have high self-esteem, show respect and tolerance and have the ability to critically reflect, are in the best possible position for all types of learning. These are also traits that are essential to be a successful member of any community both in our school or a community that the children will join in the future.
Our curriculum gives children the opportunity to:
- develop self-esteem and confidence in their abilities
- learn in a peaceful and supportive environment
- learn how to respect themselves and others
- reflect and think mindfully about their learning
- recognise that people are good at different things
- build respectful friendships
To see our safeguarding curriculum please refer to the document in the safeguarding section of this website.
Pupil Voice
At St Mary and St Giles, we want our children to be able to articulate their thoughts, opinions and ideas in a coherent and sensible manner. In order to flourish into responsible citizens, we believe our children need to have the confidence to voice their opinions and the skills to respectfully challenge and debate points they may not agree with. Our children need to understand the responsibility of playing an active role in the school and wider community so that they can transfer this skill into later life. We aim for our children to develop independence and positive self-esteem so that they can make a positive contribution to society in the future.
Our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:
- make a positive contribution to the school and local community
- take part in age-appropriate discussions
- make choices about things that are important to them
- express their opinions on a range of different topics and issues
- contribute to planning their own learning
Teaching & Learning
Our curriculum will be taught through a pedagogy that:
- excites, promotes and sustains children’s interest
- enables and fosters children’s natural curiosity
- promotes problem solving, creativity and communication
- promotes innovation and entrepreneurialism
- enables children to reflect on and evaluate their learning
Our rich and exciting curriculum offers all children to engage in learning using a topic approach to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum in Science, Geography, History, Art and Design Technology. (The projects can be viewed on our Topic Overview Document.) Through these projects the children's knowledge and skills are developed through a carefully planned progressive and sequential curriculum.
This learning journey through each project allows children to develop into independent, resilient, reflective learners who have the skills and knowledge to tackle further learning beyond our school.
There are some subjects that are taught outside of our topics to ensure sound progression in knowledge and skills. There are occasions when these subjects will be linked to the topic when it maximises learning potential. These subjects are:
- English
- Mathematics
- Religious Education
- Physical Education (PE)
- Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Relationships and Sex Education
- Computing
- Music
- Modern Foreign Languages (French)
Environment
We acknowledge the significance and impact that parents and carers can have on a child's education and we engage with them in a variety of ways, including curriculum events, so that every child has the opportunity to meet their full potential. We provide wider opportunities to engage in learning with external providers and in outdoor contexts. This enables all our children to gain a wide variety of learning experiences to enrich their education.
We enrich our curriculum by:
- welcoming parents and carers to take part in children’s learning and experiences
- holding specialist curriculum days or weeks
- offering opportunities for children to learn outdoors
- developing partnerships with external providers that extend children’s opportunities for learning
- providing on and off-site subject or topic related activities
- using quality resources in and out of the classroom
Useful Documents
Long Term Curriculum Overview 2023 - 2024
IFtL Safeguarding Curriculum adapted for SMSG