St Peter's Church of England Primary School

Curriculum

Click on the subjects below to find out more

Our Long Term Plans

Click on the classes below to find out what the children will be learning about each year in the different subjects. 

Special Experiences

We recognise that children learn best from real life experiences and as such our curriculum is enhanced through a wide variety of trips and visitors to school. As many of our children have limited experiences away from home we provide many of these 'Special Experiences' as part of their learning journey.

In summary, we aim to follow the philosophy:

 ‘I hear and I forget.

I see and I remember.

I do and I understand.’

                Confucius

Click below to find out about the special experiences take place in each class. 

Our Curriculum

St Peter's Church of England Primary School provides a wide-ranging curriculum for all of our children that is exciting, varied, relevant, diverse, practical, engaging and fun. The curriculum is shaped by our Christian vision and recognition that each child is a unique individual.

Our school has a long history, being initially founded in 1812 to teach the children of the most deprived inner-city families. The school continues to thrive today serving one of the fifth most deprived wards in the country. With an eclectic mix of cultures, faiths, backgrounds and with around 23 different languages spoken, we embrace the diverse needs of our families and ensure that children make excellent progress from often very low starting points and we strive to ensure that disadvantage is not a barrier to success. As such, our curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure it reflects and meets the needs of all of our learners in order for them to leave St Peter’s as caring, confident, knowledgeable, hard-working and talented individuals who are ready to succeed at high school and in life beyond.

Intent

(What we are trying to achieve through our curriculum)

In line with our Key Values and our school motto ‘We Care’, we aim to create an inclusive learning environment of respect, where we are all valued as individuals and treated equally and where everyone feels safe and happy and is able to achieve to the best of their ability. We promote a strong family ethos where everyone works as a team for the good of everyone else.

We aim for the highest standards in all aspects of school life, resulting in progress and attainment being in line with (or exceeding) national expectations and where everyone reaches their full potential in all aspects of school life.

We encourage all to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth, to promote resilience and to have a love of learning, enjoying questioning, listening and responding creatively across the range of subjects.

In response to the needs of the children in our school we place a place a high emphasis on language acquisition and development to ensure the children’s speaking, listening and understanding skills are at age-appropriate levels. The strong focus on phonics and reading throughout school is key in ensuring pupils are able to access the full curriculum as they progress through school. In addition, we provide a wide-range of opportunities for first hand learning experiences that they may not otherwise access, to enable children to be immersed in their learning and motivated to find out, know and remember more.   

The foundation curriculum identifies key knowledge and concepts that are built upon throughout school.  Curriculum leaders have worked with staff to identify this well-chosen knowledge which is reflected within medium term plans and subject curriculum statements.

We encourage high aspirations in order to make a positive contribution within our community and diverse society and to recognise the valuable role we all can make to Britain. Being a Church of England primary school, a high emphasis is also placed on promoting spiritual growth where we are all nurtured on our own spiritual journey with God.

Teachers have the confidence, ability and flexibility to move beyond planned opportunities to make the most of questions raised by the curiosity of the children.

Early Years Foundation Stage

The ‘Development Matters’ guidance is followed to support each child’s learning and development in working towards the Early Learning Goals. Key topics are planned to provide progression and structure to their learning in addition to themes being explored based on the children’s own interest. There is a careful balance between planned, focussed activities and child initiated learning. The learning environment is organised to ensure each area of provision has the necessary resources to encourage children to play and explore in a variety of ways.

Specific Schemes

In addition to our own designed curriculum, we follow a range of schemes:

• In Religious Education (RE), we follow the ‘Understanding Christianity’ scheme of work, a resource of the Church of England Office Project.
• In Personal, Social, Heath and Citizenship Education (PSHE), we follow the Islington Primary Scheme of Work ‘You, Me and PSHE’. Aspects of the PSHE curriculum are further enhanced through Road Safety training, Bikeability, D:Side (drugs education, internet safety, social media safety), SRE (Macmillan Health Promotion), MindMate lessons are taught half termly to support children’s mental health (SEMH support).
• In Music we follow the Music Express Scheme (in addition children receive a weekly singing lesson, Years 5&6 receive a weekly recorder session and groups of children in KS2 learn to play steel pans.)
• In Physical Education (PE) we follow the Real PE and Real Gym Scheme (children in Years 3 and 4 also attend weekly swimming lessons). Our football, netball and cross country teams participate in city wide leagues and competitions
• In Phonics, we follow the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ SSP scheme.  
• In Maths we follow elements from the White Rose Maths Hub, in particular the materials which focus on concrete, pictorial and abstract approach and the reasoning and problem solving materials to support learning. We also follow the Mastering Number programme in Reception and KS1.
• In Writing we use examples from the Alan Peat Sentence Structures resources and a ‘Colourful Semantics’ approach.
• In Reading we use the ‘Collins Big Cat’ scheme across school. In Reception and KS1, books are all phonically decodable and are closely matched to children’s phonic ability. Comprehension skills are developed as children progress through school, with higher order reading skills such as inference and deduction developed using strategies such as  OWI (Observe, Wonder, Infer) and VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explains, Retrieve, Summarise) sessions. Click to find out more about Reading and the Key Texts read by each class. 
• In Computing we use the Purple Mash scheme.

Our curriculum is designed and delivered to respond effectively to the needs of our children. We put a significant focus on language development across school to support our children who often join us with limited language skills.

Throughout the Foundation Stage and into Year 1 and Year 2, a significant emphasis is given to language development through programmes such as ’Talk for Writing’, teaching strategies such as ‘Active Listening’ and ‘Skilled Speaking’, specific interventions such as ‘NELI’, ‘Early Talk Boost’ and ‘Talk Boost’ as well as bespoke language groups led by our Speech and language Therapist. Language group continue into Year 3 when appropriate.

Across school we promote the use of ‘pre-teaching’ to enable children to develop their understanding of topic based language. We also ensure we provide a wide range of visual prompts (using real-life objects wherever possible) and hands-on, practical learning, in order to bring the learning to life and to help them to know and remember more.

Careful thought is given to ensure new or unfamiliar vocabulary is clearly planned, introduced, explained, practised and used in context, to ensure children’s language skills are enhanced. Topic vocabulary is displayed in classrooms and forms part of our subject ‘Knowledge Mats’ which are developed for most subjects and summarise key knowledge and vocabulary for children to learn, understand and remember. 

Vocabulary is also developed through a wide range of rich reading materials and is linked to key knowledge and concepts across the curriculum. Practical activities provide many opportunities to develop skills in speaking, listening and understanding.

To promote a love of reading, class story time sessions take place daily across school. ERIC time (Everyone Reading in Class) is also enjoyed by several classes. Classes are given weekly library sessions where children are encouraged to select a book to borrow. Some classes attend the local library too.

We recognise that children learn best from real life experiences and as such our curriculum is enhanced through a wide variety of trips and visitors to school. As many of our children have limited experiences away from home we provide many of these 'Special Experiences' as part of their learning journey.

In summary, we aim to follow the philosophy:

 ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.’

                Confucius

Other opportunities to further enhance the curriculum include:

Extra-curricular clubs;

• Sports clubs including football, netball, Active Kids, street dance, running club and dodgeball.
• Gardening Club
• English and Maths booster groups.
• Games Club
• Black history group

•  Residential visits take place in Year 5 and 6
• Links are frequently made with the local community such as IntoUniversity, Leeds Minster, Headingly Rotary, Northern Ballet, Bridge Community Church, Scotthall Christian Fellowship, Moortown Baptist Church and LACON football.
• Online home-school learning opportunities are provided through subscriptions to ‘Bug Club’ (reading) and ‘Mathletics’, ‘Times Table Rockstars’, ‘Numbots’ ‘Spelling Shed’ and ‘Purple Mash’.  Written work is published on our school website.  
• Other home school links are promoted through ‘Learning Logs’ and other project work set by class teachers involving researching a subject and presenting the information in different ways.
• The opportunity to play the Steel Pans in KS2 and recorder lessons in Year 5 and Year 6.
• Children are encouraged to take on a variety of responsibilities in school such as being voted onto the school council through a democratic process, computer monitors, milk monitors, assembly duty helpers and office assistants.
• There are regular opportunities to perform for a wider audience through class assemblies, nativities, concerts and productions as well as from being a member of the school choir.
• The annual Rotary Poetry Recital provides children with the opportunity to rehearse and learn a poem and then to perform it to an audience in a formal setting.
• Aspects of the ‘Open Futures’ programme are followed and provide the children with the opportunity to learn about gardening and growing fruit and vegetables, key skills in preparing and cooking a variety of foods and Philosophy for Children (P4C).
• Class or whole school themed days or weeks e.g. International Week, Faith day and Maths investigation weeks.

Impact

(How we know if we are achieving the aims of our curriculum)

The impact of our curriculum is monitored and evaluated in a variety of ways to ensure it is effective and meets the needs of our children including:

The school’s Christian vision supports the character and moral development of all children who are aspirational of themselves and their communities;

• Summative assessments show children are working at least at age-expected levels, or have made expected progress from their starting points;
• Ongoing formative assessment show that children are achieving learning objectives and some have explored subjects at a greater depth;
• Children are able to communicate confidently and effectively;
• Children can explain how the curriculum gives them confidence to listen, question, explore and challenge themselves in pursuit of their learning goals;
• Work produced by the children (including photographs and other media) shows a wide range of evidence of the learning that has taken place;
• High levels of attendance and punctuality across school;
• Positive and receptive attitudes towards learning;
• Excellent behaviour for learning demonstrated;
• Positive feedback from pupil, parent and staff questionnaires;
• Pupil interviews by subject leaders and governors;
• Enthusiasm for extra-curricular activities with a high take up of those on offer;
• Readiness for the next stage in their education as they move to high school;
• A clear understanding of fundamental British values and the ability to make a positive contribution towards society;
• Children are able to make positive choices about how they live, behave and stay safe and healthy.