Curriculum & Subject Policies

 Statement of Curriculum Intent

Our vision and Christian Values form the basis for the curriculum we deliver and is relevant to the context of our school setting. We believe Character Education is vital in nurturing the whole child, encouraging independence and self-reflection and a well-balanced and informed view of global issues, helping our children to become Global Citizens.  Children at St Andrew’s will thrive because of the full range of positive experiences they enjoy.   It is our ambition that children will succeed and make accelerated progress from their starting points as a result of teaching which is consistently good or better.  Additionally, we seek to provide a rich and creative curriculum that will allow children to develop the life skills and values that will enable them to become personal, local and global citizens with the capability and desire to change things for the better. We will strive to ensure that children are fully equipped for life in the twenty first century. To support this ambition, children will appreciate and understand the benefits of new technologies whilst being made fully aware of the dangers. Throughout all our work we will aspire to ensure that pupils feel a sense of ownership and partnership within our school improvement strategies. Therefore, when pupils were consulted about curriculum design, we have embraced their views and used these to inform our implementation.

Implementation

A key aspect of our curriculum centres around the Christian values and Global Citizenship themes.  These are woven through the National Curriculum and core literacy and numeracy skills which, as a result allows children to connect their learning around them, to respect people and value diversity, and to care and advocate others.  To enhance this approach, we will use strategies to ensure that children are actively involved, have opportunities to talk imaginatively, expressively and are able to clarify and explain their thinking and develop high level enquiry and questioning skills.  Our strategies will also promote the use of high quality children’s literature because a passion for reading can provide knowledge whilst creating a sense of curiosity, spirituality and love of language.  To complement this work, we will also equip the children with a vocabulary that strengthens their own power of verbal and written communication. Our curriculum recognises that stimulating the senses can also be a vehicle to enrich language use and boost learning. To extend this, we will use the school grounds and local area as a powerful teaching resource for curricular subjects.

Curriculum Vision and Overview

Our values for 2023 – 2025 are outlined below.  We take a Christian value which is underpinned by a Global Citizenship goal that the children explore.  Subjects within the curriculum will be used to assist the children understand the world, its issues and inequalities, and where appropriate subject areas will be blended so that children can make meaningful connections.

Autumn Term 2023 – UNITY (Christian Value)

                                 Peace and Conflict (Global Goal)

Children in Year 3 and 4 will learn about some causes and effects of conflict at a personal, classroom and global level.  Strategies to avoid, manage and resolve such issues will be explored.  This will be developed further in Upper Key Stage 2, where children will learn and reflect upon past and present conflicts in their own and other societies.  They will explore a range of resolutions including 'win-win'.

Spring Term 2024 – RESPONSIBILITY (Christian Value)

                             Sustainable Development (Global Goal)

Years 3 and 4 will examine how the environment is damaged and/or how this can be improved and begin to understand climate change.  Years 5 and 6 will discover the causes and effect of climate change and consider environmentally responsible living.

Summer Term 2024 – FAIRNESS AND EQUALITY

                             Human Rights (Global Goal)

Children in Lower Key Stage 2 will consider rights in class and school and study basic human rights and how some of these have been denied.  This will be developed in Years 5 and 6 where the children will explore current and historical human rights issues and movements in this country and globally.

Autumn Term 2024 – UNITY (Christian Value)

                            Identity and Diversity (Global Goal)

Lower Key Stage 2 will explore similarities and differences between peoples in local settings and wider contexts and begin to explore the diversity of cultures and societies. Through geography and history, Upper Key Stage 2 will add to their knowledge of diversity of cultures and societies and explore their contribution to our lives.

Spring Term 2025 – RESPONSIBILITY (Christian Value)

                             Globalisation & Interdependence (Global Goal)

Years 3 and 4 will focus on similarities and differences between places in various parts of the world, including their local area.  They will also make links between their local community and the wider world.  This will be developed in Upper Key Stage 2 where the children will learn about global connections between people and countries (eg, through trade and communication). 

Summer Term 2025- FAIRNESS & EQUALITY

                             Social Justice (Global Goal)

Children in Lower Key Stage 2 will consider what is fair and think about what it means to be rich and poor in local and other contexts.  Years 5 and 6 will learn that equal treatment doesn't always necessarily mean fairness.  They will also discover some causes and effects of poverty and inequality (including gender inequalities) at local, national and global levels.  

If you have any questions regarding the curriculum we teach, please contact the school or your child's class teacher directly.