The St Charles’ way is for every child to: ‘Belong, Believe and Blossom’
Our ‘Units of Work’ in each subject have been carefully crafted by expert teachers, identifying composite knowledge and skills and breaking them down in to component knowledge and skills to ensure sequential, layered knowledge acquisition
The curriculum at St Charles’ Catholic Voluntary has been carefully designed for our children. Everything we do is rooted in our Faith, this moral purpose runs through our core topics. Using the National Curriculum, our staff offer carefully designed and crafted topics that our pupils learn to ensure that they are engaging and purposeful. Where possible we have used our Locality: Lowry, the geography of the High Peak district and the Glossop’s local links with the Tudors and the Victorians. Our topics feature a moral focus: Civil Rights, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Slavery, this supports the spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning and helps prepare our children to show a social responsibility as they progress through their school career.
Lessons have been carefully planned and sequenced, to build on knowledge (using knowledge organisers) and to develop conceptual understanding. We are ambitious that there are no barriers to achievement at St Charles’. Teacher’s subject knowledge has been a focus, and knowledge organisers have developed this.
Our lessons follow a gold, silver and bronze format to enable pupils to develop a deep understanding and knowledge.
There is a distanced approach to revisiting topics to secure knowledge. Through revisits pupils
have the opportunity to address misconceptions and think about aspects of learning from different perspectives.
All topics are accompanied by a high quality reading text, which supports the teaching of English and reading. Reading remains at the heart of everything we do at St Charles’. High expectations underpin our ethos at St Charles’ and the impact of our intention is sustained
high pupil outcomes, year on year.
Our children are encouraged to work with a growth mind-set at all times and work collaboratively to develop key skills in their learning team work, reflective learning, effective participating, self-managing, resourceful thinking and independent enquiry.
We are rooted in Faith through our:
- RE Curriculum
- Respecting and Learning about other Faiths and Cultures
- Learning about British Values and becoming a valued citizen
- Come and See
- CAFOD
- Chaplaincy
- Collective Worship
- Supporting our parish and the wider community
In the words of St Charles Borromeo
‘We will pray, then we will understand’
Our Curriculum Intent
What do we want our children to learn and how?
- National Curriculum in the local context
- Ambition
- Eliminating all barriers to learning
- Subject knowledge
- Planned and sequenced learning
Our Curriculum Implementation
How do our children learn?
- Teacher knowledge
- Enquiry based learning
- Collaborative Learning
- Evidence of understanding
Our Curriculum Impact
What are the outcomes for all our children?
- Achievement for all
- Reading at the core
- Children becoming life-long learners
- Preparation for life
At St Charles’ Catholic Voluntary Academy we believe that the curriculum we teach our children
should be creative, broad and balanced in its approach.
The implementation and impact of the curriculum has the following aims for our pupils:
- We will ensure all pupils have enriched learning experiences which allow them to achieve and enjoy success.
- We will ensure all pupils have courage and confidence to take calculated risks.
- We will ensure all pupils develop a love for reading and become ‘life- long’ readers.
- We will ensure the curriculum we teach will be diverse, inclusive and prepare pupils for living in a multi faith and multi-cultural society.
- We will ensure all learning experiences are planned and delivered by teachers are both meaningful and challenging.
- We will ensure the curriculum is appropriate and relevant to the context of our local area and the pupils’ needs.
- We will ensure all pupils are reflective of their learning and seek to extend themselves mentally, physically and spiritually.
- We will ensure all pupils become aspirational learners who are self-disciplined and resilient.
- We will ensure that Gospel Values influence everything that goes on in the classroom and throughout the school..
St Charles’ Children have the opportunity to experience a broad and balanced curriculum which enables them to develop their skills through a focused day or themed weeks which culminate in sharing assemblies and exhibition events.
We teach the subjects of the National Curriculum both discreetly and through topics which are carefully planned in order to ensure our pupils acquire knowledge, cover key skills and experience progression in their learning. We aspire for every pupil to thirst for knowledge and become life -long learners.
Culture Capital is… ‘the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens,
introducing them to the best that has been thought and said, and helping to engender an
appreciation of human creativity and achievement’. Ofsted 2019
We aim to do this by the providing the following experiences for our pupils:
- Aspirations – Careers Week
- Forest Schools
- Pupil led Parliament – British Values
- Rights Respecting School – UNICEF
- Enterprise and other themed weeks
- Wellbeing and Mental Health – PSHE
- Cultural Capital Assemblies
- Schools Trips and Special Visitors in School
- Music / Art / Sports Academy Clubs
- Philosophy for Children
The St Ralph Sherwin CMAT 10:10 pathway is our way on ensuring that every pupil has the opportunity for a fuller, more abundant and holistic education.
