Growing together – becoming STARs

At St Nicholas CEVC Primary School, our curriculum is rooted in our Christian vision:

“With faith as small as a mustard seed we become STARs – nothing is impossible.”
- Matthew 17:20

Our curriculum is designed to enable every child to Strive, Trust, Achieve and Respect, developing the knowledge, skills, confidence and character they need to flourish both now and in the future.

We believe that every child holds the potential to grow. Like the mustard seed at the heart of our school vision, children need strong foundations, careful nurturing and opportunities to develop their knowledge and understanding over time.

Our curriculum is ambitious for every pupil.

We aim to ensure that children:

• develop secure foundational knowledge and skills, particularly in reading, writing, mathematics and oracy;
• build a rich and connected body of knowledge across the full curriculum;
• learn to remember more, understand more and make meaningful connections between their learning;
• develop a rich vocabulary and the confidence to communicate their ideas;
• become fluent, confident readers who develop a genuine love of reading;
• are curious, thoughtful and increasingly independent learners;
• experience a broad and balanced curriculum, including the arts, humanities, sciences, technology, physical education and languages;
• develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally;
• learn about people, communities, cultures and beliefs beyond their own experiences;
• develop the resilience and confidence to challenge themselves and learn from mistakes;
• understand how our STAR values – Strive, Trust, Achieve and Respect – can guide their learning and relationships;
• are prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Strong Foundations

We recognise that secure foundational knowledge gives pupils the platform from which future learning grows.
Teachers carefully identify the most important knowledge, vocabulary, concepts and skills pupils need to learn. New learning builds deliberately on what has been taught before.
Across the curriculum, teachers regularly revisit previous learning so that important knowledge moves into pupils' long-term memory and can be applied confidently in new situations.

We place particular emphasis on:
Reading – developing accurate, fluent readers who read widely and understand what they read.
Writing – developing confident writers who can communicate clearly for different purposes and audiences.
Mathematics – developing fluency, mathematical understanding and the ability to reason and solve problems.
Oracy – developing pupils' spoken language, vocabulary, listening and ability to explain and discuss their thinking.

The National Curriculum recognises spoken language as fundamental across primary education and identifies reading as involving both fluent word reading and comprehension.

Reading and Phonics

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum.
We want every child to learn to read successfully and to develop a lifelong love of books.
In Reception and Key Stage 1, children are taught early reading through Read Write Inc. Phonics, a systematic synthetic phonics programme.
Children regularly practise reading using books that are carefully matched to the sounds they have been taught, helping them develop accuracy, fluency and confidence.
As children become increasingly fluent readers, teaching develops their vocabulary, comprehension and ability to discuss and respond thoughtfully to texts.
In Key Stage 2, we use Destination Reader to support the systematic development of reading comprehension, discussion and higher-level reading skills.
High-quality texts, stories, poetry and non-fiction are also used throughout the wider curriculum.

A Knowledge-Rich Curriculum

Our curriculum identifies the important knowledge pupils should know and remember within each subject.
Learning is deliberately sequenced so that pupils encounter increasingly complex ideas as they move through the school.
Teachers make explicit links to previous learning and regularly revisit important knowledge through retrieval practice, questioning and discussion.
We recognise that pupils are more able to think critically and creatively when they have secure knowledge on which to draw.

Our curriculum therefore develops both knowledge and skills, rather than seeing them as separate.