Curriculum Intent

Curriculum Intent at St William of York

At St William’s the key drivers in shaping our curriculum are the school’s mission statement, vision and aims. Our curriculum is underpinned by Gospel Values which permeate through everything we do.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

We believe that pupils should experience excellent and ambitious teaching and develop a deep love of learning. In delivering our curriculum we aim to remove any barriers to learning so that ALL pupils are able to make progress across the whole school curriculum. The curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced allowing all pupils to further deepen their knowledge, skills and understanding in all aspects of learning. We want children to know more, remember more and consequently be able to do more. Retrieval practice is implemented in all lessons to ensure children embed knowledge and skills into long term memory; this has been strategically planned.

Our curriculum has been designed:

  • Vertically, to ensure progression of knowledge, challenge and skills over time.
  • Horizontally, to ensure broad and balanced coverage each year for all subjects.

In designing our curriculum our aims were that it:

  • Develops long term memory
  • Supports pupils in making connections
  • Builds on prior knowledge
  • Develops a detailed schemata
  • Encourages knowledgeable children
  • Supports children’s oracy skills
  • Promotes mentally and physically healthy children
  • Prepares global citizens
  • Creates lifelong learners

To ensure that our ambitious, bespoke curriculum is delivered to the highest standard, St William’s  has a clear strategic overview for curriculum implementation. All policies relating to the curriculum and teaching and learning support the ethos of the school and ensure that all learning is effective and well planned. Ensuring the children can read with fluency and understanding so they are able to access all subject areas takes high priority as does the focus on improving the children’s long-term memories. Subject knowledge, skills and concepts are taught as individual disciplines and English and mathematical skills are effectively promoted across all subjects. Our curriculum is effective in blending subjects in to the connected curriculum thereby making meaningful deep links between subjects.

We promote teaching which is based on high expectations and high standards and ensuring the teachers have sound subject knowledge is a priority. Our CPD programme enables training needs to be identified and provides all members of staff with high quality training.

We recognise that the key skills of reading, writing, oracy and numeracy are crucial in equipping our pupils with the necessary skills to live in modern Britain and given our diverse school context, we focus on providing a language-rich curriculum. We aim to ensure that all pupils will be confident, articulate and effective communicators by the time they leave our school. Keep up not catch up is a key mantra to ensure we do not dilute our expectations in the wake of missed education as a result of COVID-19.

Our curriculum is bespoke to the needs and the lives of our pupils and uses the National Curriculum a learning platform. We raise aspirations by ensuring our pupils deepen their understanding of equal opportunity and the ability to celebrate the richness and diversity of the school and society in which they live. The curriculum is enriched to build the cultural capital pupils require to succeed for all our children but in particular our disadvantaged and SEND pupils. Differences are celebrated and explored throughout school e.g. Diwali, Eid, well-being week, Christmas, PSHE celebrating differences, diverse range of significant people, trips, visitors and experiences. A key approach to achieving our curriculum intent is for our curriculum to be filled with rich first-hand experiences.

We enhance our curriculum by providing our pupils with a wide range of new and exciting learning experiences such as; learning to play a musical instrument, participating in school performances, visits to theatres and museums, sports tournaments and a wealth of extra-curricular clubs.

We take a creative approach to the curriculum; we want all our pupils to develop an ‘I can’ attitude towards their learning and a strong resilience to challenge by understanding the value of making mistakes.

We aim to make our pupils fully prepared for life as British and global citizens. We want them to be equipped to make positive choices in terms of their social interactions, health and personal wellbeing and we have a strong focus on ensuring the pupils are highly computer literate.  Transition is carefully managed at every stage of development and we have very strong links with local providers including nurseries and our feeder secondary schools.

Equality in our curriculum

Aims

Our school aims to meet its obligations under the public sector equality duty by having due regard to the need to:

  • Eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
  • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
  • Foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

What is the Public Sector Equality Duty (the PSED)?

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies to promote equality.  The relevant protected characteristics are-

  • age
  • disability,
  • gender reassignment
  • pregnancy and maternity
  • race
  • religion or belief
  • sex
  • sexual orientation

Click here to read our Equality Scheme

Legislation and guidance

This document meets the requirements under the following legislation:

This document is also based on Department for Education (DfE) guidance: The Equality Act 2010 and schools.

Nugent Road, Bolton BL3 3DE

01204 333522

office@st-williams.bolton.sch.uk

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