Curriculum

At St. Mary’s we take care of each other, aim high, enjoy learning and achieve success within the family of a Church school.

Our academy curriculum encompasses everything your child experiences during their time with us whether this is in the classroom, outdoor learning, playing outside on the playground, through visits and visitors or in the dining hall. We aim to provide a curriculum which provides exciting and interesting opportunities for learning as well as developing the whole child: physically, emotionally and spiritually, preparing them for life in an ever changing, modern world.

Our curriculum is aspirational, encouraging high expectations of all children. We ensure that all children are able to access learning through adaptive teaching techniques. The objectives we cover in all lessons encourage children to think deeply about all areas of learning and develop their understanding of our diverse, global community.

Spiritual Development through curriculum

We will help our children to develop spiritually through intentionally planned activities and a commitment to following child-led opportunities, developing awe, wonder and curiosity. Our curriculum develops spirituality in lots of ways, for example…

  • Providing opportunities for children to show curiosity and open mindfulness when exploring questions
  • Giving children opportunities to learn how to use their own thinking and ideas when connecting their knowledge across the curriculum
  • Allowing children to explore different cultures and time periods, thinking about how spirituality has changed and how it means different things to different people
  • Spending time reflecting on works of art and music, talking about the meaning behind them and lingering, thinking about how they make us feel
  • Developing a sense of tolerance and respect towards all people, understanding their beliefs and thinking about how these impact on ours
  • Looking at amazing structures and wondering how they were created, thinking about the spaces which make us feel emotion
  • Providing opportunities to reflect, in all subjects, on what they learn, how it impacts on themselves and if it changes their view of the world

At St Mary’s we use specialist teaching resources to ensure that we provide high quality teaching and learning experiences for all children.

The Curriculum for Unity School’s Partnership (CUSP) is used for English, Science, History, and Geography. This is an ambitious, evidence-based curriculum with a focus on vocabulary. End points are identified and carefully planned for, building on previous knowledge. Long-term plans comprehensively map out what is taught across the acaemy in all subjects. See the documents below for the content of our different subjects across the curriculum. Subjects are taught individually but links are made across different subjects where appropriate.

We also use Read, Write, Inc. for phonics, White Rose for Maths, Jigsaw for PSHE and RSE, Charanga for music, and Real PE for physical education. See the tabs below for more information.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Reading

Writing

MATHS

Art

Computing

Design tECHNOLOGY

Geography

hISTORY

Modern Foreign Languages

Music

PE

PSHE

SCIENCE

religious education