Curriculum Vision
Making Learning Irresistible!
At St Mark’s Primary School we believe that all our children have the right to a broad, balanced and diverse curriculum that is engaging, relevant and rooted in the unique context of our school and vision - drawing on its culture, heritage and community. This will equip them with the key skills and knowledge needed in order for them to flourish and to achieve their full potential. All staff are continually developing the curriculum that we provide for our children to ensure we are preparing them for the next stage of their education and for later life, enabling children to nurture and begin to fulfil their hopes and aspirations.
Our main aim is to provide stimulating, meaningful child-led projects in which the children become fully absorbed, using a cross-curricular approach. We strive to encompass many curriculum subjects into each project, making them relevant and meaningful for our children, in order for them to make a positive contribution to the community in which they live and within the wider world.
We aim to foster the best possible development of each child emotionally, academically, physically, socially and spiritually, considering their own unique abilities and aptitudes, allowing them to acquire a wide range of skills in a caring, secure and well-ordered environment. Children’s positive behaviours are underpinned by the school’s core Christian values: Hope, Honesty, Friendship, Forgiveness and Perseverance.
Intent
The Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust approach to the curriculum is to support and enable all our schools to provide a curriculum that:
Implementation
Implementation
Foundation Stage
Children in the Foundation Stage follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum of which the three prime areas are:
These support learning in four specific areas:
Key Stage 1 and 2
All year groups follow the statutory guidance provided in the National Curriculum which was introduced in 2014. Objectives for each year group are provided below. Our RE curriculum is taught in accordance with aspects of the agreed North Somerset syllabus ‘Awareness, Mystery and Value’ and following the 'Understanding Christianity' scheme of work.
Within the project-based approach, children are encouraged to suggest lines of enquiry for the class to follow while including many different subjects through cross-curricular work. During the project, children take part in a WOW activity, which could include trips, visitors, visits, project days and immersive activities to broaden the curriculum and give purposeful links for the children.
Throughout the year, the children all come off timetable to take part in specialist theme weeks such as Arts Week, Science Week and Sports Week to fully broaden and enhance the curriculum the children are experiencing.
Additional to this, every term starts with a Mystery Monday, where each class receives a secret item that informs the day’s work. The children suggest and choose the activities they take part in making the work relevant and inspiring for the children.
Check out the Mystery Monday page below for pictures and examples. “Mystery Mondays are great because you learn about lots of different things and it’s our decision what we learn.” Charlie, 10 “The themes are really good because everyone is doing something different but around the same subject.” Daisy, 9 “It enables us to have a refreshing approach to the curriculum because you don’t know at the start of the day what will happen as its child lead. The whole school enrichment days and weeks are great as a school. I feel that because the curriculum is new I need to come up with a more creative way of teaching it.”
Please click on the different tabs below to find out more about each of the subjects your children will be learning. Year group objective sheets containing all National Curriculum objectives for each subject are below, showing the coverage of teaching throughout the year. Project knowledge organisers are also available on the year group pages where you can find the children's questions and information about their new projects.
Staff Input
" It's good to do something different using a wider choice of activities which you can clearly see fit into the the curriculum."
"It's motivated me to be more interested in the project. Children absolutely love the excitement of finding out what the next one will be."
" Our current project lends itself nicely to incorporating English and Maths skills."
Governor input
“It is very clear on learning walks that St Mark’s offer a full and broad curriculum and it’s lovely to see the children so fully engaged and wanting to learn.”
“Within the classrooms it is clear what projects are being taught and that they cover many different areas of the curriculum.”
“As a parent governor it was wonderful to be invited into the classroom to visit the Tudor museum. It was amazing to see the effort that the children had put into their home learning to combine with their classwork for a brilliant display.”
Aims
The aims of our school curriculum are: