Our Curriculum Intent and Impact

 

At Our Lady and St. Gerard’s we provide a curriculum which is bespoke and meets the needs of our children. Our curriculum educates the children in knowledge, skills and understanding to be effective, inquisitive, curious learners and influence their wider thinking.

 

Our Curriculum is designed to: recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences, allow the children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.

   

We strive to ensure our children are fully engaged and engrossed in their learning, with a variety of planned and well-organised learning opportunities. Subject Leaders work hard to ensure:

 

• our curriculum is progressive
• monitoring and evaluation within subject areas is meaningful and continuous
• additional opportunities are planned which extend and enrich the curriculum.

 

Members of our Governing Body are linked to curriculum areas to provide challenge and support.

Our curriculum approach complies with the duties in the Equality Act 2010 and the SEND Code of Practice as we strive to make our curriculum accessible for children with additional needs (See SEND section for further information).

 

Curriculum update February 2023

 

As you are aware, the development of the knowledge aspects of our curriculum has been a focus for us as a school. Below is an overview of each area and the developments to date. 

Home Learning Curriculum

Blended Learning 

The term 'Blended Learning' is a term used to describe an approach to education which combines traditional classroom approaches with online educational materials and opportunities for online interaction.  This approach is not a new one and we have been using online materials and platforms to support the learning in school for a long time.  However, with the recent COVID pandemic and the restrictions that have been in place, we aim to ensure that our blended learning is the best it can be.  This means that children can go online to practise skills and consolidate their classroom learning.

 

Home Learning

As families/pupils and 'bubbles' are asked to self-isolate, we strive to provide home learning which mirrors the work being done in school as closely as possible.  This means that teachers still follow their curriculum plans and their daily timetable to ensure that there is still coverage of the curriculum.  This means that when children are back in school they will be at the same point in the units of work as others.  Please visit our Home Learning page for further information.

 

We use Purple Mash to set blended learning and home learning tasks.  Purple Mash is an award-winning cross-curricular website for nursery and primary school children. It enables children to explore and enhance their knowledge in a fun and creative way.  This platform allows us to set tasks to individuals or whole classes.  Children have individual logins which allows them to complete 2Dos set by the teachers. Teachers can provide feedback and rewards for tasks completed.

 

          Sumdog is an online maths and spelling practice tool that can be used to                        support home learning and for blended learning.

          Sumdog is used to:

          1. Consolidate and revise key skills already taught in school

          2. Reduce isolation (if learning at home) as children can play alongside their                        classmates in a secure environment

         3. Help children stay engaged and motivated with games-based learning that                       rewards accuracy.

 

Children have personal logins and tasks can be tailored to particular needs.  Teachers can set group or individual challenges for targeted intervention at home or at school.