Our Curriculum

The OLOL curriculum provides children with varied, creative and enriched learning experiences which we celebrate our learning as a school and with the community. Diversity and inclusivity is at the heart of our curriculum. Our gospel values are an integral part of our learning both academically, socially and emotionally. Our broad curriculum inspires through diverse experiences with a relevance to our local community alongside a global relevance. Our aim is that children develop the skills, attributes and knowledge that they need for life.

Intent

At Our Lady Of Lourdes Catholic Primary School, our curriculum is designed to provide a broad, balanced and ambitious education that prepares all our pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Our curriculum aims to:

  • Provide every child with the knowledge, skills and cultural capital they need to succeed in life, regardless of their background or starting point

  • Build strong foundations in communication and language, reading, writing and mathematics so that all pupils can access the full curriculum

  • Develop pupils' character, resilience and self-worth, enabling them to become confident, kind and respectful citizens

  • Celebrate our Catholic ethos whilst promoting understanding and respect for different faiths, beliefs and cultures

  • Ensure all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, have SEND, or face other barriers to learning, receive the support they need to thrive

Our curriculum is underpinned by:

  • High expectations for all pupils, with a commitment to 'keeping up' rather than 'catching up' and the idea of 'No Excuses'.

  • A coherent, carefully sequenced approach that builds knowledge cumulatively across year groups

  • Rich vocabulary development and oracy across all subjects

  • A whole-school approach to safeguarding and promoting pupils' wellbeing, including comprehensive PSHE provision

  • Opportunities for pupils to develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally

Implementation

We are developing our curriculum to ensure it is coherently planned and sequenced so that pupils build knowledge and skills sequentially and cumulatively. We want to ensure time is available within the curriculum for revisiting content and dealing with gaps in knowledge and skills. For our primary-age pupils, the curriculum should prioritise accurate and fluent word reading, spelling, handwriting and mathematics. We are developing it to prioritise 'keeping up' rather than 'catching up', by quickly dealing with any identified gaps in pupils' knowledge to ensure their are no excuses made.

 

We are increasingly ensuring the curriculum is designed to extend pupils' language and vocabulary, both spoken and written, and increase their reading competency across all subjects. We are building on all pupils being explicitly taught how to communicate effectively through spoken language (oracy), articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through speaking, listening and communication. We view the curriculum as something that everyone needs to access, rather than something we have to adapt for certain pupils.

 

We are developing our approach to ensure that teaching of reading is rigorous and sequenced, and develops pupils' fluency, confidence and enjoyment. Reading attainment is assessed and gaps are tackled quickly and effectively, so that all pupils can access the whole curriculum. We are increasingly ensuring we teach and offer books that include protected characteristics and represent diversity, preferably those written by authors from diverse backgrounds or other protective characteristics.

 

Our personal development programme is broad, coherently planned and suitable for our school's context. We are developing pupils' ability to be reflective about their own beliefs and perspective on life, including developing their knowledge of, and respect for, different people's faiths, feelings and values.

 

We have established a culture in which staff understand the range of barriers that pupils may face to their learning and/or well-being, including those specific to our community and the school's context. We are developing our systems to quickly and accurately identify pupils facing these barriers.

 

We use the 'graduated approach' (a continuous cycle of 'assess, plan, do and review') which helps to ensure that pupils receive an appropriate level of support and meets pupils' needs, and staff receive suitable training and support to implement it.

 

Gospel Values in Action:

·        Our Gospel values permeate every aspect of our curriculum, teaching children to:

·        Show compassion and kindness to all

·        Respect the dignity of every person

·        Act with integrity and honesty

·        Serve others in our community

·        Pursue excellence in all they do

 

Impact

We recognise that our pupils' outcomes are not yet where we want them to be. Historically, our results have not reflected the ambitious curriculum we have designed or the potential of our children. We are honest about this and committed to rapid improvement. Leaders have recently started to take action to improve achievement. While our actions are appropriate and carefully targeted, they are at an early stage. This means it is too soon to see the full impact of this work in published outcomes.

However, we are already seeing encouraging signs of progress:

  • Pupils are developing stronger foundational skills in reading, writing and mathematics

  • Gaps in knowledge are being identified and addressed more quickly

  • Pupils are becoming more confident and engaged learners

  • The quality of work pupils produce is improving across the curriculum

Our whole school community - leaders, governors, staff, pupils and parents - is united in our determination to improve outcomes for every child. We are:

  • Taking effective action to tackle areas for improvement, including through professional learning that ensures teachers develop the expertise needed to deliver the curriculum effectively

  • Providing ongoing, targeted teaching and practice so that pupils quickly catch up where there are gaps in their foundational knowledge

  • Using assessment effectively to check pupils' understanding, identify any gaps in pupils' knowledge or skills, and tackle these quickly

  • Monitoring pupil progress and adjusting our approaches where needed

  • Ensuring that disadvantaged pupils, those with SEND, and those who may face other barriers receive the support they need to thrive

While we acknowledge we are on a journey of improvement, we are beginning to see positive impact in several areas:

Knowledge and Understanding:

  • Pupils are increasingly able to recall and apply what they have learned

  • Pupils are developing the age- and phase-appropriate knowledge and skills they need to progress to the next stage of learning, including language and communication skills that enable them to access the full curriculum

  • Pupils are making connections between different areas of learning

Reading Culture:

  • A strong culture of reading is being embedded across the school, shown by pupils' growing confidence in and enjoyment of reading, which sets them up to be lifelong readers

  • More pupils are reading widely and often

Personal Development:

  • Pupils feel welcome, valued and respected and that they belong within our school community

  • Pupils understand, appreciate and respect differences in the world and its people; they celebrate what we have in common across cultural, religious, ethnic and socioeconomic communities

Our Commitment

We are committed to ensuring that:

  • All pupils make suitable progress from their starting points

  • Gaps between different groups of pupils narrow quickly

  • Pupils develop the knowledge, skills and qualifications they need for the next stage of their education

  • Every child leaves OLOL as a confident, articulate communicator; a resilient, independent learner; a compassionate, respectful citizen; and an individual who understands and celebrates diversity