The Intent of our curriculum here at St Francis is that pupils are:

Inspired, Creative, Active and Nurtured

I CAN be a successful learner.

This is achieved through a challenging curriculum, underpinned by core Christian values, which provides our pupils with a range of experiences so that their journey through St Francis is successful and happy as at our school every person matters, every person helps, every person succeeds.

Our curriculum is delivered through the teaching of progressive ‘milestones’. These ‘milestones’ are systematically revisited throughout the year groups in order to establish a deeper understanding and maximise the retention of key skills and knowledge, so that children build on prior learning. Teachers at St Francis are committed to planning and delivering lessons, which supports and meet the needs of all of our learners, no matter their starting points. We believe in providing children with inspiring and engaging learning opportunities beyond the classroom, using our unique and special location as a resource with which to apply developing skills within real-life contexts.

We want our children to be curious about the world and we seek to ignite a thirst for knowledge through engaging, inclusive lessons that are differentiated enabling all pupils to make progress academically, socially and spiritually. From this, our Intent at St Francis is that every child experiences a curriculum which will enable them to personally flourish and as they progress into the next stage of their education they have the requisite skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners.

To find out how we are making the curriculum accessible for those with disabilities and special educational needs, please click here to view the Equalities Statement, Accessibility Plan, Racial Equality Policy and the Equality and Diversity Policy in the Key Policies section of our website.  Please also refer to the Everyone's Included of the website where you can find an information report detailing how our school identifies, assesses, and makes provision for children with Special educational needs and disabilities.

 

Character Education

Education for character is already integral to the work of many schools, including here at St Francis. It means that schools offer both a rigorous and stretching academic education alongside broad opportunities for wider personal development. This then contributes to forming well-educated and rounded young adults who are ready to take their place in the world. The Department for Education has identified six benchmarks for effective Character Education. These are:

What kind of school are we?

What are our expectations of behaviour towards each other?

How well do our curriculum and teaching develop resilience and confidence?

How good is our co-curriculum?

How well do we promote the value of volunteering and service to others?

How do we ensure that all our pupils benefit equally from what we offer?

On the below document, we have mapped out how we provide opportunities within our curriculum to develop each of these benchmarks and the next steps to further improve this. 

 

 

Cultural Capital

What does Cultural Capital mean at St Francis CE primary school?

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours and skills that a child can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a pupil will draw upon to be successful in society; their career and the world of work.

Cultural capital gives power. It helps children achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital. Cultural capital is having assets that give children the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point. Cultural capital is absolutely everywhere in our world, in our own house, our road, our town/city, across the nation, across the globe.

Ofsted define cultural capital…                                                                                                                           

As part of making the judgement about the quality of education, inspectors will consider the extent to which schools are equipping pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Our understanding of ‘knowledge and cultural capital’ is derived from the following wording in the national curriculum: “It is 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.”

A school is not going to develop cultural capital purely by, for example, taking children to an art show or to the theatre. It is through children’s active participation that cultural capital develops. Children are unique human beings – they should sing, they should dance, they should twist, they should turn, they should rock and roll, they should imagine, they should script their own stories and then act them out, they should use their hands to twist, to bend, to shape, to mould, to feel, to cut, to tear, to form, to join, to draw, to paint, to make, and they should explore and experience all those wonderful haptic moments which are essential to developing as a human being. Their confidence in doing this is part of their cultural capital.

St Francis is committed to providing our children with these real experiences, and our children benefit from a broad, balanced and enriched curriculum that builds on what they already know and understand. We believe that exposure, not only to culture but also to situations in which the children might not have previous experiences of, is of paramount importance to their ongoing successes. Gradually widening children’s experiences as they progress through our school is an important step in providing rich and engaging learning across the curriculum. We plan carefully for children to have progressively richer experiences in reception and beyond, which are inline with our curriculum drivers: Inspiring, Creative, Active, Nurturing and Challenging.

We will strive hard to meet the needs of those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those with special gifts and talents, and those learning English as an additional language (EAL), and we take all reasonable steps to achieve this.

Ex Days

To further extend our commitment to our core values of “Everyone Matters” and “Everyone Succeeds” we are proud of this innovative way of delivering part of our curriculum. Every two weeks, pupils will experience activities in each year group from Years 1 through to 6 in this exciting way – Ex- days! Dates for Ex days, can be found under news/events in the calendar section, but as a guide Year 1 and 2 alternate every Tuesday, Year 3 and 4 alternate every Thursday and Year 5 and 6 alternate every Wednesday. Reception year is every Friday morning.

Our ex-day team, are Miss Sutton, Mrs Sullivan, Mrs Rosevear and Mrs Mckenzie.

If you require any further information about our curriculum, please contact the school office.