Our Vision

Aspiring, nurturing, flourishing;

together shining a light.

Aspiring, nurturing and flourishing are at the heart of our curriculum at St Mary’s. Academic excellence is achieved through engaging teaching and a well planned, knowledge rich curriculum. We support and nurture every child by building strong relationships and developing confidence as they journey through our school. We believe equipping children with a relevant, inspiring and creative curriculum will empower them to shape their future and shine a light in the world.

The St Mary’s Journey

This year we have invested a significant amount of time in developing the St Mary’s Journey; a knowledge rich curriculum which is ambitious and includes many opportunities for enrichment. This ensures pupils have a solid base to build on as they move through the school, into secondary school and beyond.

Our aspirational curriculum reflects the local area, its geography, history and wildlife. It is designed with knowledge at its heart and develops a strong vocabulary base to support long term learning. We believe pupils flourish when they know more and remember more.

From Key Stage One we teach individual subjects separately, for example: history, geography, computing and art. This is so that pupils have a clear understanding of the knowledge and skills needed for each curriculum area and how these progress systematically over time.

We use half-termly Learning Journeys to lay out the focus and depth of skills and knowledge to be learnt in each subject area, in each year group. These are carefully designed to consolidate and build on previous learning. We believe that knowledge breeds curiosity – as pupils learn more about the world, they will become more curious.

We work with different schemes, organisations and individuals to ensure the curriculum meets the needs of our pupils and is aspirational for all.

Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum; the link can be found below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum

Key Questions

At St Mary’s, we recognise the importance of personal development. To foster this, we have incorporated overarching questions in each year group, designed to support children's development and understanding of self, guiding them on a journey to shape their own futures. These thoughtful questions serve as a compass point each term to encourage reflective thinking, curiosity, and a sense of responsibility. 

How can I find out more about the curriculum at St. Mary's?

If you have any questions about the curriculum we follow at St. Mary's, please look at the school prospectus or class pages first or contact the school who will direct you to the relevant subject leader who will be able to answer your query.