This year, we are building and trialling a new and exciting curriculum that we are hoping to launch in September 2023.  We are already teaching elements of our Curriculum, seeing what works and what would be even better, so that when we launch it, it meets our aims and excites our children every lesson.

As part of our research, we have set the following aims for our Curriculum to achieve: 

The aims of our curriculum:

• We aim to be like Jesus the teacher, where all children learn to be good, inquisitive learners, capable of making our world a better place. Like Jesus our shepherd, no child will be left behind.
• We want our children to know more and remember more
• We aim to provide our children with a broad curriculum, rich with cultural capital.
• We aim to teach what is required from the National Curriculum as a minimum.
• We aim to create a curriculum that is teachable, clear and practical where possible.
• We want all of our children to progress so that they can tell us about their own progression in learning.
• We want our children to be able to tell us why they are learning what they are learning.

 Our 5 Curriculum Drivers are:

1) Catholic Social Teaching

2) Our Resilience

3) Our Community

4) Our Environment

5) Diversity and Inclusion

We look forward to sharing more on this in due course, ahead of our September launch.  In the meantime, please read about our current Curriculum below.

The topic curriculum at St Peter’s is broad and balanced and fully aligned to the 2014 National Curriculum.  Topics and focuses have been selected to inspire, motivate and engage children in memorable learning experiences and to teach them skills to prepare them for life.  The curriculum is ambitious and relevant to the children in the school.  The school’s shared mission that ‘we put Jesus at the heart of everything we do’ permeates through the whole curriculum. 

The aim of the topic curriculum is to develop and enhance children’s skills within Geography, History, Art and Design, and Design and Technology. The topic curriculum will build on the children’s learning and experiences from early years and equip them with the essential knowledge and skills to thrive within Key Stage 3 and beyond.  

The topic curriculum has been carefully sequenced to ensure that the children receive several opportunities across Key Stages One and Two to secure and embed the knowledge and skills which they are taught. Throughout their journey at St Peter’s, the children will be provided with sequences of work which gradually build on their understanding and knowledge of the world they live in, while developing their creative and innovative thinking. 

Within Key Stage One, the children will be provided with a curriculum which allows them to revisit and consolidate their prior learning, including experiences from early years, while continuing to build on their knowledge and skills. The children will begin to develop a more rigorous understanding of their local area, wider surroundings and how these compare to other areas of the world. Within History topics, the children will learn about changes within living memory and research significant people and events beyond living memory, while starting to consider how this impacts them today. In Geography topics, children will begin to develop skills in fieldwork and mapwork through local, national and world contexts.  Within Art and Design and Technology, children will be supported in learning about how art and products can be created for a range of purposes and develop skills in using a range of media, equipment and tools.  Design and Technology opportunities allow children to focus on structures, mechanisms, textiles and cooking and nutrition. 

Within Key Stage Two, the curriculum continues to build children’s knowledge, understanding and skills from that covered in Key Stage One.  Within History, topics develop children’s understanding of chronology and their sense and understanding is referred back to and built upon as they progress through Key Stage Two.  History topics have been selected and ordered with a consideration for the maturity of the topics e.g. the reasoning and impact of war in Britain is covered in Upper Key Stage Two.  Within Geography, topics continue to build children’s knowledge of the local area, Britain and the world, with focuses on Europe and North America.  Studies also include global issues including deforestation.  Art and Design focuses continue to develop children’s skills in drawing, painting and sculpture, as well as building children’s appreciation of the world’s artists and designers.  In Design and Technology, children design and make functional products whilst building their knowledge of structures, mechanisms, textiles and cooking and nutrition. 

Early reading and language development is a crucial part of the foundation for learning.  Our phonics programme is Bug Phonics.  After the children have completed the first three phases of the Phonics programme, we encourage them to move to reading books that are of an interest to them and that are at an appropriate level.  We do not follow a reading scheme at St. Peter’s.  Instead, we enable children to access any book that is at their reading level and guide them to increase the difficult of the texts they read as they learn and grow.  We do this using the Accelerated Reader programme for which a parent guide can be found below: