'Leaders are determined that all pupils achieve well and access a wide range of opportunities....... Leaders have developed a curriculum which helps pupils to learn knowledge in a logical order. Their intention is for pupils to leave school with the knowledge and skills to ‘be successful in an ever-changing world...pupils achieve well in all subjects, as the curriculum is taught effectively without distraction.’  OFSTED 2022

Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement - At St Lawrence Primary School, we have designed an ambitious curriculum, where children can thrive and develop from our dedicated approach to growing children holistically, nurturing their unique skills and talent to provide our children with the best educational start in life. Our curriculum considers the needs of a 21^st Century child and is ambitious in providing our children with the knowledge, skills and learning behaviours required to become successful life-long learners.

Background - The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject. Schools have the autonomy to decide on how this content is delivered, and what approach we would take to ensure that our curriculum is bespoke to the needs of our children and community. Our curriculum celebrates diversity and utilises the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the

community whilst supporting the pupils’ spiritual, moral and cultural development.

Curriculum Intent - At the heart of our school are a set of core values: KIND – K-Knowledge and Understanding of the world; I-Inquisitive and imaginative minds; N-Nurturing and compassionate hearts; D-Devoted to living as God’s children. These underpin our curriculum and the ethos of the school. At St Lawrence, we place great importance on a curriculum which develops the whole child. Through our core values, we foster an environment where the emotional, physical, academic, social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of each child is considered. 

The uniqueness of every child is recognised and valued. As such, our curriculum embraces the Catholic community from which it exists, recognising and celebrating the diverse cultures and experiences from which our children originate. We constantly adapt our learning journey to meet the needs and interests of our children, offering an excellent education underpinned by a broad, culturally rich and powerful curriculum to ensure that all pupils are well equipped for the next stages in their education. 

Our curriculum is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values however, creativity is pivotal at St Lawrence Primary School. We constantly provide enhancement opportunities to engage learning and to celebrate and develop the individual talents of our pupils, recognising everyone as unique with their own ambitions, skills and dreams. We aim to provide an environment that encourages lifelong learning. 

Community involvement is also an essential part of our curriculum as we celebrate local traditions, learning new skills to enable children to take an active role in various events throughout the year. Children leave St Lawrence Primary School with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.

Curriculum Implementation - Implementation describes the way in which we deliver our intent consistently each day. To do this we have carefully designed our bespoke, values based curriculum. This is designed to enable learners to acquire relevant subject knowledge which underpins the application of skills. Skills are carefully and progressively mapped across each key stage and subject area. Knowledge is consolidated and built upon to support retention and recall. This ensures that by the time children leave our school they have learned, and are able to recall and apply the key information that we feel is important in order for them to be successful in the future.Skills and knowledge are taught discreetly in subject areas so that our children gain a broad understanding of each subject and know exactly which subject they are studying. However, the curriculum is designed to embed transferable skills throughout, without weakening essential skills based learning. The quality of our classroom environments serves to stimulate and engage higher order thinking.

How do we plan for Cultural Capital? The government have placed great emphasis on schools developing Cultural Capital. Cultural Capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. It is about giving children the best possible start to their early education. 

At St Lawrence, we see Cultural Capital as the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits, language and possessions that enables individuals to demonstrate their cultural competence and social status. Our school plays a crucial role in developing this through immersing children in dance and music.

Embedding Cultural Capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children from all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential.

Enhanced Curriculum: Our enhanced curriculum aims to run alongside and compliments the National Curriculum, but aims to broaden the horizons of our children and links to our school's value. The opportunities offered aims to provide our children with unique experiences outside of the National Curriculum.  We broaden horizons by developing global learners, which underpins all of our values, by planning for opportunities to be aware of the wider world and its current issues and to understand and respect cultural diversity and differences with an understanding of how the world works and encourage participation in the community at a range of levels, from the local to the global. We teach our children to make the world a more sustainable place and to take responsibility for their actions. We do this by providing learning linked to:

-International/Cultural understanding

-Respect for others and our differences

-Community participation (local and global)

-Sustainability and environmental issues

-Challenging stereotypes

Curriculum Impact: We plan our lessons with clear learning objectives. We base these upon the teacher’s detailed knowledge of each child, striving to ensure that all tasks set are appropriate to each child’s level of ability. Our lesson plans make clear the expected outcomes for each lesson. We know those individual children who do not achieve at the expected level for the lesson, and we use this information when planning for the next lesson. Progress is assessed regularly. Each term, assessment data is gathered and progress is checked by the Deputy Head teacher. Children are expected to make good or better progress in all subjects and this progress is tracked. In cases where children are identified as not making ‘expected progress’ in English or Maths, interventions are put in place to address gaps in learning. Pupils leave St Lawrence Primary School with a secure understanding of the academic content; with the understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible and aware; how to make positive contributions to the local community and how to endeavour to be the best that they can be. We aim for all of our children to leave St Lawrence respectful, skillful, ambitious and with a thirst for life and all it has to offer.

At St Lawrence Catholic Primary School,  we aim to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum.

Here you will find an overview of the curriculum approach for each subject taught at school. Click the relevant subject below to find more information about your child’s learning.

'Standards and presentation in books are of a very high quality.' 

HEP Peer Challenge November 2021

Life to the Full - RSE Curriculum - We are delighted to announce that our school is participating in a brand new Relationship Education programme for Catholic primary schools, titled Life to the Full.

As you may be aware, Relationship Education becomes statutory for all primary schools from September 2020. The Life to the Full programme is based on ‘A Model Catholic RSE Curriculum’ by the Catholic Education Service which was highlighted as a work of good practice by the Department of Education. Therefore, we have confidence that the programme will be fit for purpose in supporting the growth and development of your child.

Life to the Full is much more than a series of lessons. It is an entire platform of creative resources that will engage, inform and inspire our children and, indeed, you as parents. This includes interactive video content, story-based activities, employing a wide range of teaching tools, original worship music and an accompanying programme of classroom prayers.

In addition there will be an online parent platform so that you, as parent and carers, can engage with the teaching and deepen the experience for your child. To access the online parent platform please visit: www.tentenresources.co.uk/parent-portal

Life to the Full is intended to be partnership between home, school and church. We know that you already do a fantastic job and we see our new programme, Life to the Full, as a means to further develop, support and enrich the partnership between home, school and church so that your child is fully supported.