Curriculum Statement
At St Augustine's Primary School, we strive to create a safe, nurturing Catholic environment where every child is valued and supported within a community rooted in Gospel values, with Christ at its heart. Our goal is to honour the dignity of each child as a unique individual and a child of God.
Through a broad, balanced, and inclusive curriculum, we provide inspiring and challenging learning experiences for all pupils, regardless of ability, background, or gender. High-quality teaching ensures that every child’s potential is recognised, needs are met, and achievements are celebrated. Our aspirational curriculum opens doors to future possibilities, empowering children to dream big and reach their full potential.
Our curriculum is designed with a clear purpose: to foster independence, motivation, and a strong sense of responsibility in our learners as future citizens. This core intent is woven into all our teaching and learning.
Aims:
- That children develop life-long learning behaviours through independence, collaboration and personal discovery.
- That all children are empowered from the earliest opportunity, to be enthusiastic, self-motivated and resilient learners.
- That through the high expectations of the whole school community, all children are inspired to nurture a passion for learning.
- That all children benefit from teaching that recognises different learning styles and encourages them to be creative.
- That all children benefit from learning within a positive and caring learning environment where all achievements are acknowledged and valued.
- That all children are challenged to reach their full potential and ‘be the best that they can be’.
Our curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum, used as a starting point from which to expand and deepen knowledge through experiences and opportunities which best meet the learning and developmental needs of our pupils. We want our children to question learning, to self-organise and feel comfortable enough to take calculated risks.
In Nursery and Reception we follow the Early Years Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. We use this in conjunction with Development Matters government guidance. This framework specifies the requirement for learning, development and care in the early years and provides the seven areas of learning and development that we must teach.
The three prime areas are particularly important for learning and forming relationships. They build a foundation for children to thrive and provide the basis for learning in all areas. The prime areas are:
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development
We also support children in four specific areas, which help strengthen and develop the three prime areas, and ignite children’s curiosity and enthusiasm.
The specific areas are:
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
At St Augustine’s we aim to foster a love of reading and language in all our children right from the start. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in EYFS and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. We also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects
At St Augustine’s Primary School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.
Through our core and foundation curriculum we want to encourage our children to learn in a purposeful way; develop inquisitive minds and have the ability to reflect on and evaluate their own learning. Teaching and learning ensures that knowledge and skills are taught explicitly and there are opportunities for connections to be made with different curriculum areas. We aim to cultivate a language rich curriculum in which the development of vocabulary is key in every subject and phase.
All subject leaders are given training and opportunities to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding, so that they can support curriculum development and their colleagues throughout the school.
At St Augustine’s we seek opportunities to extend and enhance the curriculum through a range of activities, such as residential trips, visits, sporting events, visiting speakers and a range of after school clubs. As well as our own staff, we employ a specialist teacher who supports the delivery of physical education.
We have also developed a series of Learning Powers within school that support our children to understand how we learn and enable them to become better learners as a result. This has become a school-wide culture that nurtures positive habits and attitudes, equipping learners to approach challenges with confidence, resilience, and creativity. When children believe in their ability to learn, they become more engaged, focused, and motivated: leading to deeper thinking, faster progress, and a greater enjoyment of learning.
The core subjects of the National Curriculum are being followed by every child from Y1-Y6 and continuous assessment is integrated into the curriculum. The Foundation Stage Profile takes place at the end of the Reception year. A phonic screening check takes place for children in Y1. The Multiplication Times Tables Check takes place at the end of Y4. National tests (SATs) are carried out for Y6 children at the end of Y6.
For more detailed information about specific learning within each year group, please see individual class pages.