Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum at St Margaret’s is a central component of realising our school vision, “The roots to grow and the wings to fly”. Everything that happens in school from lessons, trips and visits, collective worship, social times to extra-curricular clubs is deliberately and purposefully planned to develop our roots of friendship, forgiveness, respect, truthfulness, perseverance, thankfulness and citizenship. Through successful implementation our curriculum gives our pupils the wings to fly so that they;

• Have the ability to live in and value a diverse society.

• Realise there are no limits to their potential.

• Have the confidence to make informed choices and think for themselves.

• Are aware of their own gifts and use them wisely.

• Play a part in making the world a better place.

• Recognise and celebrate the good in everyone and everything.

St. Margaret's follows a question-based enquiry curriculum that instills a passion for learning in children and fosters curiosity about the world around them. A central objective of our curriculum is to make sure that the lessons we teach are inspiring for our children so that they not only enjoy each lesson but also cultivate a love for learning that will last a lifetime. Through carefully chosen topics and individuals, our curriculum opens our children's eyes to recognise the wonderfully diverse world that we live in.

Ambition and high expectation for all is a key focus at St Margaret’s and therefore our curriculum has been designed to offer all children a variety of hands-on enriching experiences. This allows our children to access and be immersed in their learning so that they can progress their knowledge and skills with a deeper understanding. Pupils are purposely exposed to rich cultural experiences, ambitious vocabulary, high quality texts and challenging content. These memorable experiences offer children of all abilities and backgrounds engaging and exciting opportunities that they may not have encountered before and opens doors of opportunity.

Stoke Golding has a fascinatingly rich heritage. Our curriculum offers children the opportunity to celebrate the successes in our local community as well as unpicking how key periods of time have affected our local area.

Curriculum Implementation

We want our children to be confident in sharing their views and opinions and therefore oracy underpins the foundations of our curriculum. We believe that being able to articulate themselves well is a fundamental skill that can support all children in all areas of the curriculum. Through carefully planned opportunities for children to demonstrate their oracy skills such as debates and performances, we strive to develop confident young individuals. Our lesson format allows children to revisit and learn new vocabulary within each subject as well as giving them many chances for paired talk to explain and justify their reasoning.

We spark curiosity within our children not only through our enquiry-based curriculum, but also through our programme of enrichment activities. Throughout their time at St Margaret's, children will be exposed to essential skills that enable them to be prepared for the wider world and reasdy to make a difference.

Our knowledge-rich and skills-strong curriculum is designed to allow children to transfer key knowledge into their long-term memory. It provides thoughtfully crafted and sequenced learning opportunities which encourage our pupils to build on prior learning and experiences to become experts within a wide range of subject areas. 

Subjects begin with a big question. This consists of a main question that the children are unable to answer at the beginning of a blocked unit. Teaching provides the children with the knowledge and skills to provide or demonstrate a response to this enquiry driver. Our curriculum is organised into blocks to provide for deeper understanding and prepares our children for subject-specific learning in Secondary School.

Impact

Our bespoke, ambitious curriculum ensures that learning is cumulative and layered.  We know our curriculum is successful because we regularly assess progress against age-appropriate knowledge and skill descriptors. We can see progress in the way our pupils talk about their knowledge and understanding and through their responses at the end of a topic when answering their big question.