St Anne's Catholic Primary School

At St. Anne’s, we embrace the uniqueness of every pupil. Our goal is to support their spiritual, academic, physical, and emotional growth in a warm and inclusive environment that encourages effective learning, all rooted in our Catholic values. We want all our pupils to leave school as resilient, confident, and well-rounded individuals who love learning and have the skills and determination to succeed.

We are committed to providing a broad and balanced curriculum that aims to:

• Recognise and encourage all kinds of talents, helping every pupil expand their intellectual, creative, and physical abilities.
• Help our pupils grow into confident and mature adults by enhancing their understanding of the world around them. We focus on giving them essential skills, especially in reading, to open up a wide range of opportunities for their future. This starts in the Early Years Foundation Stage with a strong emphasis on reading, handwriting, and early math skills.
• Foster a love of reading throughout the school, so our pupils can show off their fluency and confidence while engaging with all parts of the curriculum.
• Prepare our pupils to adapt to a changing world where strong communication and computer skills are essential, along with being good citizens.
• Ensure that knowledge is connected and builds on what pupils have learned before, with clear goals for each year group. We regularly review our curriculum to keep it relevant and responsive to our pupils’ needs.
• Help all pupils recognise and build on their prior knowledge, benefiting from a curriculum that clearly sequences skills across subjects and year groups.
• Support every pupil in making progress from their individual starting points and ensure they are appropriately challenged by their lessons.
• Ensure that all children have access to the curriculum and that it is adapted as needed so everyone can learn and progress.
• Regularly review and adjust our school curriculum to fit our context, with a current focus on social skills, health and well-being, reading, and mathematical development in the younger years.
• Celebrate learning in various forms and across different subjects, ensuring that children can explore a wide range of curriculum areas in every year group.
• Encourage our pupils to be guided by the love of God, embedding this value in everything we do while celebrating everyone’s skills, talents, and achievements.
• Provide high-quality opportunities for memorable learning experiences that positively influence our pupils’ future learning.
• Inspire our pupils with engaging lessons and broaden their life experiences through opportunities to learn beyond the classroom, such as visits and trips.
• Offer learning experiences that teach children how to keep themselves safe, particularly online, and what to do if they find themselves in a dangerous or unsafe situation.
• Foster a strong partnership between school, home, and the parish community, emphasising the importance of collaboration in delivering a meaningful Christian education.

We use a range of pedagogical practices throughout the curriculum to ensure that we are successful with our Intent. This can range from small group tasks, individual tasks, whole class tasks. We focus a lot on teacher modelling, expert questioning, scaffolding pupils’ learning, giving children memorable experiences and over-learning to ensure that key knowledge is transferred to children’s long-term memory.

• At the core of our curriculum are the essential subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, and Religious Education. We also place great importance on our wider curriculum, which includes all other subjects outlined in the National Curriculum.
• Our wider curriculum is organised into distinct subject-specific units of learning, taught both as stand-alone lessons and through cross-curricular connections where meaningful links can be made. This approach helps reinforce prior knowledge and deepen understanding.
• Each unit of learning is planned using medium-term planning formats and includes an engaging “hook” at the beginning to excite and motivate the children. We also ensure there’s a clear purpose for each study so that learning feels meaningful and relevant to them.
• Whenever possible, we enhance learning through field studies, visits, workshops, hands-on resources, role-play, and practical activities.
• We carefully plan, review, and adapt the progression of knowledge, skills, and understanding each year to ensure that children’s learning builds effectively over time, preparing them for secondary school expectations.
• Our teachers engage in self-reflection to continually improve their teaching skills and strategies, raising standards across the curriculum.
• Each subject has a designated leader responsible for overseeing the progression of skills, updating, monitoring, and reviewing the sequence of learning within their subject. This is supported by the Curriculum Leader, Key Stage Leaders, Headteacher, and Governors.
• Subject leaders receive appropriate training and support to help develop their skills, and each subject has its own budget. 
• In the classroom, key concepts are presented clearly to help them stick in long-term memory, with a strong emphasis on revisiting and reinforcing learning. Subject leaders monitor this process.
• Subject leaders oversee the implementation of their subjects' units of learning, assessments, and the progress of all pupils. They produce a monitoring report each term, which is reviewed by the Curriculum Leader and Headteacher.
• To ensure high-quality teaching, subject leaders monitor their areas and provide training as needed, ensuring that all teachers have expert knowledge of the subjects they teach.
• At the end of each year, subject leaders create an annual review and action plan, which feeds directly into the School Improvement Plan and is shared with the Governor responsible for their subject.
• Subject leaders also design appropriate assessments for each subject, making sure that these assessments contribute to future learning for the pupils.
• Our PSHE and RE Schemes of Work, along with our Prayer Garden, help children develop their reflection skills.
• The curriculum is further enriched with a wide range of extracurricular activities that meet our pupils' needs, including clubs like homework support, sports clubs, science club
• All subjects incorporate memorable experiences to help reinforce knowledge in long-term memory.
• Pupils in Year 4 and Year 6 participate in residential trips designed to encourage independence.
• Governors oversee curriculum implementation, with many subjects having designated link governors who review the work of subject leaders.

• Our tracking and assessment system helps us keep an eye on how children are progressing with the curriculum, so we can provide extra support when needed.
• Key Stage and Subject leaders review assessment and progress each term by looking at pupil work, checking assessments, talking to pupils, analysing data, and observing lessons. They share their findings with the Headteacher, and we make any necessary adjustments.
• We want our pupils to be ready to take on the next stage of their education with confidence and focus.
• Our curriculum is grounded in Catholic beliefs and moral values, which enhance the overall experience of our school community. We aim to create a caring environment where everyone is treated with kindness, understanding, respect, and equality. This way, all our children can be happy and reach their full potential.
• We also make sure to include principles of diversity and equality in all areas of teaching and learning. We keep an eye on progress and achievement data and take action to help anyone who might be struggling.