At St Mary and St Chad (CE) First School the vision for our curriculum is to enable learners to gain a rich and vibrant curriculum which enables them to be lifelong learners.  Through our curriculum, we develop the essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life.  Our curriculum encompasses not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but goes beyond the experiences of the classroom to ensure that our children are exposed to creative, stimulating and varied opportunities.  Our motto is to aim high believe, fly high achieve so we enhance every child's school experience by creating an environment where they are encouraged to try their very best and do as well as they can.  The exploration and development of new skills and knowledge is supported by our 4 specific learning characteristics of perseverance, curiosity, concentration and reflection.  The curriculum is further developed by our commitment to  core values and, through this, we provide a learning experiences which promote confident, self-motivated children, eager to become lifelong learners.

We aim for our curriculum to be –

Inclusive - We endeavour to ensure that all our children fulfil their potential

Equality – we are committed to ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all children irrespective of differences and for children to have a diverse variety of opportunities.  

Promote collaboration – we aim for our curriculum to develop the wider skills to enable the children to work collaboratively.  

Cross curricular – links are made between subjects and areas of learning to support understanding

Developing the children’s cultural capital so that the children are learning are learning about things beyond their daily experience

Our Local Governing Committee has been delegated responsibility by Penk Valley Academy Trust to approve and monitor our curriculum policies, plans, implementation and impact. Local Governors work with us to ensure the curriculum intent and implementation are of a high-standard. The impact of our curriculum is measured through internal and external assessment and is scrutinised by the Local Governing Committee who report back to the Standards & Performance Committee of Penk Valley Academy Trust 

As a school in a three-tier system (First, Middle and High Schools) we work closely with our feeder schools and the schools into which we feed, including those not part of Penk Valley Academy Trust, to ensure our curriculum is well-sequenced across all National Curriculum Key Stages.

Our curriculum covers the National Curriculum 2014 (see link below) and the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (see link below). There are main areas of study are 

• English
• Maths
• Science
• Physical Education
• Computing
• History
• Geography
• Art and Design
• Design and technology
• Music
• PSHE - Personal Social and Health Education
• Relationships Education

During the year, the children complete work based on particular themes. The themes are based on food, materials and water. At the start of each term the theme has a specific title and launch day. The aim of this is to engage and motivate the children for the new theme. Through these themes, the subjects of History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology, Music, ICT and Science are taught. The theme overviews show what is taught in each theme. The basic skills are taught in English and Maths are then applied through the different subjects and themes. To enhance the children's learning, visits and visitors are used as much as possible. The curriculum is closely planned with our local first schools, middle school and high school to ensure consistency and continuity for the children.

In Key Stage 2, we teach Modern Foreign Languages. Currently we are teaching French. 

Religious Education is taught throughout the school with two thirds of the curriculum Christian and the remaining third  other religions. 

Within our curriculum and school activities we integrate and promote British Values and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development. Through this we help to prepare our children for life in modern Britain and promote tolerance and respect for people of all faiths, races, genders, ages, disability and all other groups.

We use Visible Learning to support the delivery of the curriculum.  See the Visible learning page for more information. 

Overviews for each year group in each theme and the expectations for reading, writing and maths for each year group are below.