Our motto ‘learn to love, love to learn’ shapes our curriculum. The bible says: ‘Let all that you do, be done in love,’ 1 Corinthians 16:14. We learn from our curriculum and we learn from God. Our curriculum is underpinned by our Anglican faith where our children learn to love and love to learn with God. Our Christian distinctiveness and values are evident inside and outside of the school curriculum. Collective Worship is a focal point in the daily life of our school and we seek to provide opportunities for the spiritual development of both staff and children.
The bespoke curriculum that we have developed at St. Leonard’s is specifically for our children in our school and linked to our Christian vision. We encourage and support every individual to explore and achieve their own potential and have a positive impact on the wider community. Our values of courage, trust, respect, thankfulness, forgiveness and service are woven throughout everything we do.
Our curriculum forms the basis for learning and the experiences that allow our children to thrive during their time at school. It promotes excellence and encompasses academic, spiritual, creative, cultural and sporting opportunities as well as nourishing the individual talents and interests of our unique learners.
At St. Leonard’s, children take a knowledge-rich learning journey from Nursery to Year 4 as we believe that knowledge underpins and enables the application of skill and that a rich web of knowledge is what provides the capacity for pupils to learn even more and develop their understanding. Our intent is that children will have a deep understanding of the subjects of the National Curriculum; this knowledge will equip them with the necessary firm foundations to continue their life-long education. Our exciting and broad curriculum, alongside our strong provision for cross-curricular activities and experiences, ensures this intention is successful.
Our curriculum has been developed to take advantage of our mixed-age classes and is organised on a two-year rolling programme which ensures full coverage of the appropriate knowledge and skills for all pupils.
We deliver the National Curriculum through creative cross-curricular topics that combine a range of subjects to make learning inspiring, engaging and meaningful and enable children to make links between subjects where purposeful and appropriate. We believe that this is important for making the curriculum relevant and meaningful to pupils and for putting knowledge into context. We believe that not only is it our responsibility to cover the National Curriculum but also to develop the skills and values that would allow our children to succeed and flourish in life whatever their ability.
Our curriculum is knowledge led and places a high importance on the acquisition of new vocabulary. We have mapped out both the knowledge and the vocabulary we want children to know in each subject of the curriculum. Beginning in Early years, this is embedded in an enabling environment which combines child and adult led opportunities to learn. Further up the school, teachers engage the children in regular retrieval practice activities, including low-stakes quizzes and games which help them to know more and remember more over time by revisiting the learning.
Through the curriculum we promote a love of reading and demonstrate to pupils that reading is key to their learning. Our curriculum immerses pupils in topics linked to high quality texts and reading for pleasure is highly encouraged. Within each unit of each subject area, our curriculum planning identifies key high-quality texts, both non-fiction and, where relevant, fiction, which our children will be immersed in. Where appropriate, the fictional texts identified will be shared with children, either as a class novel or as part of their English lessons during or sometimes in the weeks prior to beginning the topic. This is to enable teachers to pick out the key vocabulary for the topic and ensure that the children have grasped some of this key vocabulary and are ready to learn.
Teachers adopt a creative approach to the delivery of the curriculum throughout the school, which enhances cross-curricular links, encourages the enjoyment of learning and provides practical, meaningful, creative and interactive real-life experiences both indoors and outdoors.
We know that giving our children the opportunity to try new things and develop new skills can be hugely beneficial. It can help them to grow in confidence, expand their understanding of the world around them, or introduce a new hobby or passion. We offer a range of educational visits, workshops and after school clubs throughout the year to enhance key learning areas. We also have a range of visitors in school to further support our curriculum.
Our curriculum has high expectations and promotes excellence, consisting of many planned experiences in school and out: lessons, topic days, themed events, school council, collective worship, clubs, sports, competitions, trips, workshops, visiting speakers, residential camps, performances, fund raising and community work.
Our children will have a sound set of knowledge, skills, vocabulary and Christian values. In short, they will learn more, remember more, enjoy more and develop more spiritually, socially and emotionally, thus enabling them to be ready for their next stage in education. Children leave St. Leonard’s as independent, happy, caring and confident individuals who know how to keep safe and who do well across all subjects. They will have developed a love of reading, enquiring minds, a thirst for more knowledge and have high aspirations.