Curriculum Overview

Our curriculum intent

"You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

Dr Seuss

At St Michael's we want our curriculum to whisper to our children: 'You belong in this world.  All this came before you and one day you too might add to it.'

Our intent for our school curriculum:

• To support the children to make sense of the world they live in; to make sure they feel that they belong.
• To help them appreciate the world they live in and motivate them to 'add' to the world; to make a difference.
• To nurture our children as individuals and meet the aspirations we have for them.
• To become global citizens who are both "interesting and interested".  We want our children to be 'interesting' to talk to, because they know a great deal about the world and 'interested' in finding out more.
• To develop a thirst for knowledge and a love for learning - to become life-long learners.

Our school curriculum includes the national curriculum.

We want the children of St Michael's to engage in a learning journey that will teach them to be curious and resilient learners, with a growth mindset, who are willing to try new things, learn from their mistakes and reflect on their learning. By making the learning memorable, we broaden children's experiences and help them to grow into independent, confident and ambitious young people, who can make sense of the world around them and who play their part in making a positive contribution to the world they live in. 

We have a knowledge rich curriculum, underpinned by our belief that knowledge is important in its own right and that knowledge is there for the taking.   Our curriculum acts as a vehicle for building what the children need to know, but it also acts as a tool with which the children can better shape their school experience, their relationships with others and the future world they will inhabit.  We want the children to deepen their understanding of the world and build up their knowledge over time, as we understand that knowledge is 'sticky', in other words, the more children know the easier it is for them to know more. We make use of knowledge organisers (KO) to ensure children know exactly which information is expected to be learned over the course of their study in a particular subject.

Our bespoke 'Knowledge Organisers' include:

• essential facts about the topic
• key vocabulary or technical terms and their meanings
• images such as maps or diagrams

The Knowledge Organisers give the children an overview of the content, it gives them ownership over their learning, it teaches them how to organise information in a systematic way and by using the knowledge organisers in a collaborative way, children learn 'how to learn', for example by teaching each other the facts through 'quiz, quiz, trade'.

Food for thought

• A good curriculum should lead to good results.  However, good examination results don't always mean that the pupil received a rich and full knowledge from the curriculum. Tests are by-products, not end products.
• Our focus should not be on the content to be delivered, but the recipient. Teaching is about being attentive to the conditions and needs of those recipients.
• If we want the children to understand how life works, then we should teach them that their present choices have future consequences.
• The curriculum acts as a vehicle for building what it is children need to know, but also a tool with which they can better shape their school experience, their relationship with others and the future world they will inhabit.

See Bespoke St Michael's Curriculum Map

Healthy Body, Mind and Spirit

"For everyone well-being is a journey.  The secret is committing to that journey and taking those first steps with hope and belief in yourself."

At St Michael's, we have a bespoke 'Healthy Body, Mind & Spirit Curriculum' (HBMS).  Some aspects of the curriculum we cover in our collective worship, but we also make sure that we have opportunities in class to have age appropriate discussions.  Therefore we have built into our timetable weekly  'Let's Talk sessions, in which we cover the following four core themes:

1.  Health and well-being

2. Being safe in the school and beyond the school gate

3. Relationships

4. Living in the wider world

Within these themes, the lessons include discussions about British Values, global citizenship, personal safety, health and mental well-being.

See Collective Worship overview