ST MARY’S VISION STATEMENT

To help St Mary’s pupils know they are called to make a difference by being a thinking, feeling, questioning person in our world, embracing and living out Gospel values.

Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum is rooted in our school’s mission statement, ‘Called to Make a Difference’ living out the gospel allowing them to become lifelong learners.

We believe that children can make a difference in the world and we promote this through a curriculum that is rooted in our school values. We aim to encourage our children to make links with learning and the Gospel values. Our values include being:

Hopeful

Grateful

Prophetic

Loving

Peaceful

Generous

Truthful

Compassionate

Faith-filled

Learned

Attentive

(We also focus on one value each half term across the school)

Our curriculum is designed to encourage children to know and understand that the values shape us so children can be leaders, question the world and challenge what goes on in society. 

We want to nurture questioning, thinking, feeling children.

We seek opportunities to enjoy the awe and wonder of our locality using our unique and distinctive environment.  This is achieved through local visits and close links with educational partners including the Morecambe Bay Curriculum.  Our curriculum explores place based learning with visits from Eden Bear to local walks exploring local history.

We develop close links with local partners including visiting artists; the university of Lancaster and University of Cumbria and local schools.  These links have provided inspiring learning experiences from STEM, local visiting artists, British Values, careers fair and Eden Bear visits to our Reception children.  Our curriculum has enrichment opportunities to extended and embed learning for example, farm and woodland visits; trips to museums to see exhibitions and attend historical workshops; visits to The University of Lancaster to deepen understanding of British Values and democracy.

We aim to raise the aspirations of our children to help them believe that they can achieve and fulfil their individual talents. Our curriculum is inclusive to ensure all children get the opportunity to find new talents.

At St Mary’s we believe we all have a unique place in our world.

RE Curriculum Intent

At St. Mary's we believe that every person is Called to Make a Difference. Christ helps us to make that difference by being at the centre of everything we do.

We want our RE curriculum to help us all be more like Jesus by helping everyone in our school community grow in faith; by recognising all our unique gifts and talents and to develop who know they have been called to make a difference in society-to thrive in the world, fulfilling God's plan for them.

In RE, children will aquire essential skills:

• to have knowledge and understanding of a range of scripture and the life and work of key figures in the history of the People of God.
• to have knowledge and some understanding of a range of beliefs and to make links between beliefs and sources, worship and life.
• to know what it means to belong to a church community, understanding some of the liturgical year celebrations, Sacraments and different liturgies.
• to be reflective in asking questions of meaning and purpose and acknowledge others' points of view and to be able to support their own views.
• to be able to choose to live good lives, to excel as members of society-working for the common good as an example to others through their words and actions.

RE Curriculum Implementation

At St Mary's, RE is given 10% of curriculum time and is prioritised as a core subject. The Religious Education Curriculum Directory (RECD) underpins our teaching and learning. Come and See is a Diocesan approved scheme and forms the basis for curriculum teaching and learning. We also use other resources to help us achieve the essential skills of RE. We use Caritas in Action resources to strengthen our commitment to social justice and our Gospel values underpin our day-to-day lives. We teach our children about the Church's liturgical year and this is delivered through our Building the Kingdom work. Each class is named after a saint-these are our ultimate role models.

RE Curriculum Impact

Each term we use moderation to assess our children's understanding of Age Related Expectations in Religious Education. 

We hope that our children's experience of prayer and liturgy, Catholic tradition and teachings will ensure our pupils are prepared for a life in a diverse society. That they will be fully able to make a difference in our world and fulfil God's unique plan for them. We hope that they are members of society who live out the Gospel values, living out the example of Jesus to all they meet and that by growing spiritually and morally, they feel confident to do this.

HRSE Curriculum

A Journey in Love is a resource created by Sister Jude Groden of BRES. It is the recommended programme of study for Catholic schools for Sex and Relationship Education, and has been written as a progressive scheme of work that supports the Religious Education, PSHE and Science curricula taught within the school.

Throughout A Journey in Love, an aspect of the mystery of love is focussed upon in each group, children and young people are encouraged to marvel at the wonder and beauty of God’s creative love. This is reflected in each stage of a person’s growth in the Primary Years through a series of suggested, progressive and developmental tasks, activities and reflections which focus on physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development.

As with all aspects of learning, children are naturally curious and many will have questions related to their lessons. Opportunities to discuss questions form part of the lessons and again these are treated with care and understanding.

A Journey in Love highlights the importance of parental input and children will be asked to discuss their lessons at home.  As a parent, you have the right to withdraw your child from Sex Education at anytime if you wish to do so.

At St. Mary’s we provide a challenging, broad and balanced curriculum which meets all pupils’ needs and enables them to achieve their potential and 'make a difference’. It has been designed to:

• Support the development of agreed essential knowledge and skills.
• Develop the ‘whole child’ by promoting their spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development.
• Make the curriculum relevant and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Our school curriculum centres around exciting topics. Each topic has one or two lead subjects and also involves a number of subject areas from the National Curriculum, which link to the topic. This ensures that the curriculum has breadth and depth with clear progression. Each topic also includes for ‘enrichment experiences’ which are planned to bring the curriculum to life and extend learning further.

Parents are invited to attend a ‘Meet the Teacher’ session at the beginning of the year when proposed activities will be outlined. When enrichment experiences take place parents are invited in to view what has been achieved. Throughout the year we also organise meetings and workshops linked to different areas of the curriculum such as internet awareness and safety.

Details of these events are communicated via the newsletter, website and by personal invitations written by the children.

The Legal Rights of Parents - Parents do not have the right to withdraw children from any aspect of the mandatory curriculum. But under Section 405 of the 1996 Education Act, parents do have the right to withdraw their child from sex education within RSE(HRSE). This aligns with Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The mandatory curriculum defines sex education within relationships education as beginning at Key Stage 3. However, all schools should work with parents to ensure that they understand what is being taught to minimise requests for students to be excused from lessons. Schools should ensure any request and their outcomes are carefully documented.