The St. Gregory’s Curriculum for the St. Gregory’s Child

‘Together, In Jesus, we Love, Learn, Create and Celebrate!’
‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ John 10:10
 

The St. Gregory's Curriculum for the St. Gregory's Child
Curriculum Intent

Within the St. Gregory’s school community, the children in our care are at the heart of everything we do. Every pupil is recognised as a unique individual, with their differences celebrated, developing a sense of self and belonging. Each child should leave St. Gregory’s knowing God’s love and being able to show God’s love. We believe that all children are unique and must be encouraged to develop talents and be celebrated for the special gifts that they possess. Each day, we encourage our children to work hard, have a positive mind-set, have the confidence to make mistakes, persevere and to not give up; the St. Gregory’s child is a happy child, ready to take the next steps in their education journey.

St. Gregory's Curriculum for the St. Gregory's Child

St. Gregory's whole school curriculum is knowledge-rich, ambitious and provides all pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those on the SEND register, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Our curriculum is largely adopted and adapted from the Primary Knowledge Curriculum, and in some subjects is supplemented by other high-quality resources; our St. Gregory's curriculum aligns with the national curriculum. It is a curriculum where acquisition and assimilation of knowledge is at the heart of learning, and where skills may be an outcome of the curriculum, not its driving purpose.It has been coherently planned and is well-sequenced, laying the foundations of knowledge in EYFS and building on this throughout the primary years. The broad curriculum is followed consistently by all pupils. 

A knowledge-rich curriculum exposes children to ambitious content that has been highly specified and well-sequenced, leaving nothing to chance. A knowledge-rich curriculum ensures that each precious moment will support children in acquiring the knowledge, skills and cultural capital that they will need to become well-educated citizens of the future. Every historical figure encountered, philosophical idea grappled with, and scientific concept applied, fits neatly into our scheme of learning that holds a sense of purpose and develops logically from lesson to lesson, unit to unit and year to year. Through utilising cognitive science, and the psychology of learning, memory and schemata, a knowledge-rich curriculum is designed to ensure that the knowledge is taught to be remembered. At its core, our knowledge-rich curriculum enables all children, regardless of socio-economic background, to be provided with the opportunities to succeed in later life. Our curriculum has taken all the evidence and research into account to ensure that it incorporates the principles of spaced retrieval, formative “low-stakes” quizzing and plenty of practice to develop knowledge fluency that pursue mastery.

The principles of St. Gregory's Curriculum:

• Knowledge is valued and specified 
• Knowledge is well sequenced
• Knowledge is taught to be remembered 

The content in our curriculum has been carefully chosen by subject experts and has been sequenced in a meaningful way that enables all children to make connections and progress from unit to unit, term to term and year to year. We recognise and value each subject and teach them discretely, ensuring that our children develop a deep understanding and love of each distinct discipline. Where appropriate, links are made across disciplines to enable children to make meaningful connections.  Our curriculum includes local history, geography, and other locally relevant subject content. In its curation, we have referred to a wealth of research surrounding cognitive psychology and working memory, as a guide to developing a framework that enables children to blossom both cognitively and creatively: to recognise prior learning; to provide quality first-hand learning experiences; to allow children to develop communicative and interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers; to encourage children to become autonomous in learning; to experience a variety of curriculum-enhancing and life-enriching opportunities.

St. Gregory's Intended Curriculum

Our intended curriculum can be found in these documents:

• Our subject curriculum overviews outline the units covered in each subject across the year groups.
• Subject curriculum maps: detail exactly what we cover in each subject, which can be found under each subject area below.
• Subject rationales: explain the reasoning behind how our curriculum was developed for each subject, which can be found under each subject area below.
• Unit rationales: for subjects that require more substantial teacher knowledge, we have unit rationales that outline the substantive knowledge, concepts and disciplinary knowledge taught, and how each unit fits in with the bigger curriculum picture, examples which can be found in history, geography, science and art.
• The knowledge goals (KG) and assessment goals set out in our planning documents for each subject: KGs explain what we plan for all children to know by the end of each lesson, and the assessment shows what we expect children to commit to long term memory by the end of the unit.

Curriculum delivery is informed by key areas of research, and is delivered in a way that aims to ensure each strand is developed at age-appropriate levels: memory, vocabulary and oracy, knowledge and skill, quality learning experiences both inside and outside of the classroom, and aspirations.

By the end of each unit of learning, the majority of pupils will have sustained mastery of the content: that is, they show good recall and fluency or outcomes; some may show depth of understanding, potentially through application or demonstration of critical thinking. Statutory EYFS and end of Key Stage data, for core subjects, is available to view here. The impact of what we do and children’s achievement cannot always be measured in numerical data, so we approach reviewing impact holistically, considering the whole child through a variety of well-chosen assessment strategies, such as regular quizzing, spoken or written tasks and pupil voice groups, to name a few.

The St. Gregory’s Curriculum has been curated with specific values and research in mind, and how this is implemented through teaching lessons has been considered to enhance and deliver on this commitment. Please see our Teaching and Learning page here, to view a snapshot of our teaching and learning practice.

Assessment Across the Curriculum
Please visit our Assessment page here, to read more about assessment at St. Gregory's.

Breakfast Club
(Before-School Provision)
Our early morning Breakfast Club is an extremely popular choice for our families whose commitments begin before the start of the school day. Breakfast club (open from 7.45am until 8.45am) invites children from all classes to enjoy a healthy breakfast, with a wide selection of food and drink choices. Children start the day with a variety of stimulating tasks, set out within our programme of events below, to ensure our regular attenders are given opportunities to grow in many different ways. 

Early Years are supported closely by Miss Riley, whilst all children also have the option to complete Homework tasks or engage in other learning activities, including accessing technology to use our online learning platforms. 

 

The Hub
(After-School Provision)

Our after-school provision, The Hub, serves as a helpful choice to families who are unable to collect children at the end of the school day. With opening hours from 3.20pm – 5.45pm (Monday to Thursday) and 3.20pm – 4.45pm (Fridays), we recognise that children will need opportunities to complete classwork or additional learning tasks, as well as having time to relax and wind down before heading home to the remainder of the evening. The safe and stimulating environment provided by our after-school staff ensures that children of of all primary school ages are able to continue or enhance their class learning in a relaxed setting, involving children in a variety of stimulating and seasonal activities. Children experience a time of togetherness with snacks and drinks. The Hub’s timetable varies according to seasonal weather and activities; staff follow a generic guide: