Curriculum Vision
High aspirations and social intelligence underpinned by Christian values for every child are at the heart of St Elphin’s school.
Our curriculum is broadly traditional but reflective of our growing multi- cultural community. Through a vocabulary rich curriculum, engaging teaching and strong school family partnerships, we work hard to ensure that St Elphin’s is the best possible primary school experience for every child who comes here.
We believe that every child should develop a deep love of learning which we harness through a carefully and creatively constructed curriculum.
In our school, we all work together to provide a consistent approach to the teaching of all subjects, ensuring that knowledge and concepts are built on and regularly reviewed and revisited as children progress through the school.
In addition we provide a wide range of experiential learning which allows children to embed and apply core skills as well as explore their interests and capabilities across a range of contexts.
We welcome our responsibility to instil a strong moral code into every child’s character and use Christian values to mould them into becoming the person they were created to be so that they can make a lifelong positive contribution in the world around them.
At St Elphin’s we work hard to ensure that every child has the best possible primary school experience leaving us with all the necessary components for the next stage of successful education and a heart full of special memories from their time with us.
Each subject document below contains the curriculum by year group (N-Y6). In addition to the learning objectives, it identifies key vocabulary and opportunities for cultural capital and vocational experiences to support learning.
Curriculum Intent
Principles and purpose
The curriculum at St Elphin’s is exciting and inspires children to nurture a passion for learning. It is designed to meet statutory requirements by delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, National Curriculum and locally agreed syllabus for Religious Education. It also provides a broad and balanced holistic education that supports the needs of all our pupils, giving them the skills, knowledge and understanding to prepare them for their future lives. Our curriculum ensures that:
- Learning is meaningful and purposeful, providing children with opportunities to actively engage in their own development and progress.
- It draws on academic success, creativity and problem solving, responsibility and resilience, as well as physical development, well-being and social skill development as key components.
- It is based on analysis of how it can benefit the needs of our children in our communities.
- It takes account of our duties outlined in the Equality Act 2010 (See equality policy and objectives).
- It meets the needs of children with SEND by providing an inclusive learning environment (See SEND policy).
- Through the teaching and exploration of Christian and British values, the curriculum supports our children in developing attitudes and qualities which will enable them to become confident, caring, respectful and responsible citizens.
- Children develop a positive 'can do' approach that enables them not to set fixed limits on their learning potential.
- Children have exposure to a wide experience beyond their local community e.g. School trips, sporting events, projects linked to the arts, residential visits and through visiting speakers.
Further details about the National Curriculum can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/search?q=curriculum
Christian Values based education
As a Church of England Primary School, we are a Christian Values based learning community. Each half-term the children unpack and explore a particular Christian Value which is also linked to one of the fundamental British Values. This approach is hugely important in supporting the children’s social, spiritual, emotional and cultural development and in our aim of ensuring they are fully prepared to become responsible citizens in modern Britain.
As a Church School, we place great emphasis on the teaching of RE. We follow the Blackburn Diocese scheme of work and work closely with the Diocese to ensure the curriculum provision reflects current thinking at both local and national level. We also draw on the National Understanding Christianity Programme to enhance teaching and learning.
Entitlement and Enrichment
Our long term curriculum for each subject by year group identifies cultural capital opportunities to enable children throughout school to experience wider activities that will enhance their understanding and enrich learning as well as create lasting memories via real experiences. We incorporate whole school special days and celebrations in addition to whole school project weeks, linked to a range of subject areas, which involve experiences that we believe benefit the children in developing their understanding of the world in which they live. Within our long term curriculum documents, we have identified opportunities for educational visits, enrichment opportunities and extra-curricular activities because of the essential part they play in enabling children to make links and create memorable 'sticky' learning.
In addition, we have included vocational links to enable our children to make sense of the wider world around them and to explore potential career interests as they look ahed to their future. These can be found within each year group curriculum by subject. (See below)
Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception classes) curriculum
The Foundation Stage Framework and Development Matters are the basis of our Nursery and Reception curriculum. The topics in each year group have been chosen to enable the Reception year to build and extend on previous learning taught in Nursery. This ensures that learning is sequenced, embedded and extended in order to enable children to know and remember more. It also ensures that children are prepared well for the next stage of their educational journey into the national curriculum.
Further details about the Framework can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/search?q=foundation+stage
A copy of the Development Matters documents can be found here:
Curriculum Implementation
In order to ensure that children 'know and remember more', our curriculum is designed to include the following key features:
- The curriculum is sequenced both within the year group and across the school so that learning can build systematically.
- Concepts are interlinked across subjects through the use of a 'sourdough' principle - at the end of a unit of learning some knowledge is carried through to a new aspect of learning, enabling children to recall previous learning and apply it to new contexts in order to strengthen connections in long term memory so that 'sticky' learning is achieved.
- Pupils revisit knowledge concepts, themes or subjects several times throughout their school journey; each time to deepen and broaden knowledge and strengthen long term memory.
- Learning is supported through the use of high quality texts and resources as tools to deepen vocabulary, knowledge, skills and concepts.
Year Group Curriculum Overviews
Long Term Curriculum Overviews by Subject
St Elphin's Curriculum:
Science
Religious Education (RE)
PE
PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education)
Geography
History
Computing
Music
Art & Design
Design Technology (DT)
Languages (French)
Curriculum Impact
By the time our children leave St Elphin's we want them to:
- have made excellent progress in knowledge and understanding of key skills in English and Maths.
- know more, remember more and apply it to a range of contexts
- have caught up in the key areas of language acquisition and reading, where needed.
- be prepared for the next stage of their journey and equipped for life
- be able to make a lifelong positive contribution to the world because they live by a strong moral, values-driven code for life
- be inspired to want more from life and committed to learning in order to get it.
To ensure this happens, our curriculum is regularly reviewed through leadership monitoring and evaluation activities (Subject leaders and Senior Leadership team (SLT)) to ensure it has maximum impact on learning potential. Subject coverage, progression and assessment are key aspects for driving improvement. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) needs for our staff team are also identified and supported as part of our commitment to excellent teaching.
Parents and prospective parents are welcome to contact the Deputy Headteacher to discuss any aspect of the school's curriculum.
Threads of Learning
At St Elphin's, we have developed and use threads of learning documents to ensure there is clear and consistent progression in each area of learning within every subject across our curriculum. This impacts positively on all children's learning by helping them to effectively build on previous knowledge so that they know and remember more. Threads of learning enable all children, including those with SEND, to be on exactly the same development pathway, but access this at different stages appropriate to their individual learning needs.
You can find an example of one of our threads of learning below: