Curriculum and assessment
Curriculum
The curriculum at St Paul’s has been developed over recent years to meet statutory requirements and to provide meaningful and enjoyable experiences for our pupils. Our Curriculum Intent document at the foot of this page sets out the rationale, aims and intentions of our school curriculum.
The curriculum in the Early Years (Nursery and Reception classes) is focused on self-directed learning. Staff plan a series of indoor and outdoor activities each session, based around the termly theme. The children are able to move between the activities as their interest takes them. Some members of staff will focus on a particular activity and learning objective to teach and assess children. Other staff members engage with the children around the classroom to prompt and assess learning. The children in the Early Years also have short whole-class sessions to teach reading, writing, speaking and mathematics. Teachers adapt the curriculum to reflect the needs of the children.
From Year 1 to Year 6, the school follows the National Curriculum. A new National Curriculum was launched in 2014. This curriculum is now statutory across all year groups. A copy of the National Curriculum can be downloaded at the foot of this page. All children in infant classes have a daily phonics lesson. Some junior children continue to receive phonics lessons when further support is needed. There is also a daily mathematics lesson in each class. Physical education, science music and religious education are taught discreetly. The remaining humanity and arts subjects are taught through ‘topic’ lessons, based around a termly theme. This enables us to exploit the natural links between the subjects.
In Years 5 and 6, the children are taught in mixed age groups for Mathematics. The Deputy Headteacher, Mrs Chris Cossar, takes an additional group.
Teachers use the National Curriculum to draw up plans for their classes. The half termly plans for each class can be found on the class pages of this website.
Early Years Class teachers are supported by an additional adult throughout the day. All other classes receive support across the week from the teaching assistant team within the school. The allocation of teaching assistants is determined by age and need.
Further information regarding our curriculum can be found on the ‘curriculum subjects’ page on our website and on the pages of each individual subject. Class teachers send curriculum outlines home each half term, which can be found on the class pages of the website. Teachers are happy to share more information about our curriculum.
