Our Curriculum Cornerstones
Our curriculum is based on five cornerstones which underpin every lesson, every interaction, and every experience our children have during their time at St. Matthew’s.
Confidence
is the cornerstone on which future success is built. Through accessing our broad and enriched curriculum, our children will grow in self-confidence and realise the importance of self-acceptance. Our curriculum will offer all children the opportunity to shine whether it be through the arts, STEM or through sport.
Communication
brings people together. Through focusing on the development of communication skills, we will be empowering our pupils and enhancing their ability to collaborate with peers and to convey their thoughts and feelings in an age-appropriate way.
Creativity
is experimenting, growing, taking risks, making mistakes and having fun. Our curriculum is designed to inspire our children to look at things in different ways and to challenge their notions of what is possible.
Challenge
is what makes life interesting and overcoming it is what makes life meaningful. Not only will our children face and embrace challenges through our curriculum, they will be encouraged to challenge the status quo so that they can become leaders of the future.
Change
is inevitable. Our curriculum is dynamic so that it reflects the constancy of change, both within the individual, and in the world. Our children will learn that change is good and that it should be embraced and not feared.
Curriculum Organisation
At St. Matthew’s, we are committed to ensuring all of our pupils receive their full curriculum entitlement.
Due to us being an ever-growing primary school, we have to take several factors into consideration when organising our curriculum and class structure.
To ensure that all pupils receive their full curriculum entitlement, we operate a 3-year curriculum cycle in Years 3-5 for Science, RE, History, Geography, Art, DT and Computing. Due to the hierarchical nature of knowledge in subjects like Music, MFL and RH(S)E, we make sure that these subjects are taught in separate year groups.
Growing numbers and physical capacity necessitate a split class in Year 4. Some pupils are taught in a Year 3/4 mix and others in a Year 4/5 mix. Crucially, pupils in Year 4 will access the Year 4 curriculum for Maths and English irrespective of which class they are in.
Decisions about pupil placement in Year 4 are based on a number of factors and importantly they are made in partnership with parents.
Our 3-year curriculum cycle is linked below. In these subjects, pupils encounter substantive knowledge at different times depending on their pathway. Importantly, our curriculum is designed in such a way so that teachers can take pupils’ varying degrees of knowledge and understanding into account. Progression in the disciplinary knowledge is mapped out by phase to enable teachers to move pupils’ learning on.
If you have any questions about our curriculum rationale, please do not hesitate to speak with Mr. Gray or our curriculum leader Dr. Saunders.
Remote Education
The school’s remote education policy is available on request.
