At Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, we intend that our curriculum nurtures and develops the whole child so that each unique individual grows constantly in confidence, and has the skills and knowledge to achieve their true God-given potential. All children will access a rich, ambitious, challenging curriculum that fosters curiosity, creativity and a life-long love of learning. It is designed to provide the children in our care with experiences that will prepare them well academically whilst also enabling them to contribute to creating a better world. Our curriculum is designed to go beyond the statutory content and deliver experiences that take into consideration our children’s varied background and cultures, expanding their life experiences. Driven by this, we have developed, as part of The Romero Catholic Academy, a Romero Child Charter. This charter underpins our hopes and desires for the children in our school, as we seek to give them rich experiences and opportunities that will foster a lifelong love of learning. This is realised through six strands:
The Romero Charter (click here)
This charter goes beyond the requirements of the National Curriculum, as at Sacred Heart we seek to create a narrative that is meaningful to the children. Alongside this, we have developed, as part of The Romero Catholic Academy, a carefully-crafted curriculum to expand the children’s skills and knowledge. High-quality visits and visitors into Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School are also well-designed to enhance our curriculum.
Our curriculum is implemented through quality teaching of knowledge, skills and vocabulary across core and foundation subjects; all children at Sacred Heart will be challenged to be inquisitive, compassionate, courageous and creative learners. They will have opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge through age-appropriate and progressive themes and topics. The aim of the Key Stage One theme curriculum is to develop and enhance children’s basic skills within Geography, History, Art and Design Technology. The theme curriculum will build on the children’s learning and experiences from early years and equip them with the essential knowledge and skills to thrive within Key Stage Two.
In Key Stage One, our theme curriculum has been carefully sequenced to ensure that the children receive several opportunities to secure and embed the knowledge and skills which they are taught. Throughout their Key Stage One journey, the children will be provided with a sequence of work which gradually builds on their understanding and knowledge of the world they live in, while developing their creative and innovative thinking.
In Key Stage Two, themes will run for a term in order to allow sufficient time for children to explore subjects in detail and to give the scope for our more able children to showcase their higher order thinking skills. Explicit drivers have been established for each theme to ensure that the sense of purpose remains clear throughout. Each year group will follow the same central driver so that wider school opportunities can be taken to reinforce learning and for more effective subject leader monitoring. The main drivers are History and Geography. We ensure that every subject has complete and full coverage alongside this. Where appropriate and conducive to effective learning, these are linked to the broader topic. Where the skills need to be taught more directly then discrete focus is applied. All subjects are mapped to ensure essential learning is revisited at outlined opportunities throughout the year as best practice of spiralling curricula.
Our aim is for the curriculum to extend beyond academic achievements: we want children at Sacred Heart to go out into the world and make a difference in their own lives and to the lives of others. Through our curriculum, we aspire to prepare our children for the next stage in their lives academically, spiritually and morally.