Our Curriculum at St James

At St James, we have built (and continue to adapt and change) a curriculum that provides every child in our school with opportunities to flourish.

 

To support our whole school vision, we aim to deliver a curriculum that meets the academic needs of all our children by:

  • providing an education that is inclusive and is adapted and responsive to the needs of all our children, including those in our specialist units;
  • making links across our curriculum to ensure our children understand what we are teaching them and why;
  • ensuring broad and balanced coverage that develops each child as an individual, enhancing strengths and scaffolding trickier areas;
  • teaching tools and skills that enable learners to embrace mistakes as opportunities, become independent and develop a Growth Mindset;
  • ensuring all our staff have the skills and training to deliver Quality First Teaching with consistency and a passion for progress and children’s success;

To support our whole school vision, we aim to deliver a curriculum that meets the physical and emotional needs of all our children by:

  • creating a relationship-based, whole school approach where all members of the school community are available, supportive and sensitive to the needs of our children and their families;
  • engaging our families and community in the life of the school and their children’s education and, where needed, helping them to support themselves and their children;
  • ensuring our children communicate and relate effectively to a range of audiences to make sure their voice is heard;
  • providing opportunities through the curriculum and through play to understand their bodies, building stamina and core strength;
  • explicitly teaching children how to keep themselves and others safe and to develop emotional resilience;
  • encouraging teamwork, relationship building and peer support, developing humility to offer and receive constructive criticism.

To support our whole school vision, we aim to deliver a curriculum that meets the spiritual needs of all our children by:

  • providing first-hand, real-life opportunities for all children to experience a broad range of activities in school and beyond to develop their imagination and curiosity;
  • developing in children a sense of their role in the community of the school and the wider world so that they become contributory and responsible members of society, lovers of nature and protectors of the environment;
  • celebrating the achievements of all our children;
  • providing role models and experiences to inspire and open children’s eyes to the possibilities around them, developing aspiration so that they achieve their potential as an individual;
  • creating time and space for reflection throughout the day and school week, understanding how to respond for positive impact and to develop personally;
  • enabling an environment where respectful discussion and debate about faith, values and beliefs is encouraged;
  • being self-aware and empathetic to the experiences of others in the school and wider community;
  • knowing that everyone can ask and receive forgiveness for their mistakes, being able to forgive themselves and others and move on.
These statements complement the Trust's Curriculum Statement and Teaching and Learning Statement which can be found via the links below: 

Where to find out more

 

On these following pages, you can find out more about the curriculum that the school is following including our enrichment offer which ensures our children flourish.

 

You will find Intent & Implementation Statements and Long Term Plans (LTPs) for every Foundation subject. These outline why (intent) and how (implementation) we deliver each subject at St James, with additional information on how we make the curriculum accessible to children with additional needs, assessment and the impact we expect. There are separate pages for Early Years, Reading, Writing and Maths.

 

Each year group page will have its own LTP and an overview of the curriculum taught in each term.

 

If you would like to find out more about the curriculum at St James, please contact your child's class teacher in the first instance. If you are not part of the St James family, please contact the school office on 01604 751475 or office@stjames.pdet.org.uk and someone will happily talk you through our exciting curriculum.