Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact

Curriculum Intent:

Our curriculum at St Stephen’s is driven by a motto: ‘Be prepared to make a change, to challenge, and to contribute’. There are three main themes that underpin the Curriculum:

Culture – my place

Climate – my choice

Care – my right

By organising our curriculum in this way, it will prepare children to have a role in society, to have a voice and to enable them to develop and take an informed position on world events. 

Curriculum Implementation:

Through quality teaching of knowledge, skills and vocabulary across core and foundation subjects, all children will be challenged to be inquisitive, compassionate, courageous and creative learners.

Children will have opportunities to influence their own learning through age appropriate and progressive themes and topics. Effective learning characteristics including being ambitious, reflective and imaginative will drive teaching and learning.

Curriculum Impact:

Our children will have a wide set of skills, a deep knowledge, and be to reflect on our Christian values which can be used to get ahead in education and life more generally. 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.

Planning the Curriculum

When teachers plan their lessons, they think carefully about the experiences they can offer, the skill that is required, what knowledge is to be learned and which aspect of our curriculum themes are covered.

Knowledge Organisers

Each half term, children will bring home a ‘Knowledge Organiser’. This document contains the essential knowledge that your child will need to learn as part of the new topic they will be focusing upon in class.

The Knowledge Organisers are designed to be used at home to help children to learn the key facts and information relating to their topic. Children will be learning the same information as part of their learning in class. Suggestions as to how to help children’s learning at home are as follows:

• Children read the information at regular points throughout the half term (ideally with an adult).
• Discuss the information together, focussing on your child reading and understanding the information contained.
• Revisit the document regularly over the half term and ask your child what else they have learnt in class that expands upon the facts in the Knowledge Organiser.
• Discuss the new vocabulary on the Knowledge Organiser and model using these words in a sentence, or discuss definitions to help your child develop their understanding of these new words.
• Help your child to develop their understanding of their topic by visiting the library to borrow some information books (library staff will be able to help you to locate relevant books); research on the internet with adult support and supervision.

We are confident that these Knowledge Organisers will help our children to develop knowledge on a wide range of topics and will significantly improve their vocabulary and understanding. This will then help them to be more confident in class and help to develop their reading and writing skills across the curriculum.

What does the Curriculum look like?

English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Music, MFL, Computing are taught discreetly however cross curricular links are explicit, particularly with Art and Design Technology

PE is delivered twice weekly.

The full national curriculum, set out by the Department of Education, can be accessed here.

Curriculum Impact