Curriculum

St Joseph’s is a Catholic school which puts Christ at its centre. We encourage our children to be disciples of Jesus and follow His example to be the best we can be. Our faith inspires us to live a wholesome virtuous life in communion with the Church.

We have a virtues led curriculum which aims to develop the whole child so that when our children leave our care they are kind, responsible, accepting individuals who have a clear sense of social justice and a moral purpose to contribute positively to society.

At St Joseph’s we have designed our curriculum to be stimulating and engaging and aim to foster a love of learning, developing each child’s curiosity. We will provide exciting learning opportunities, including first hand experiences, that will help our children become resilient, independent learners, acquiring skills and knowledge which will support them in our modern, diverse society.

The curriculum at St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School is determined by the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, the National Curriculum, the school's Curriculum Policies, and the Leeds Diocese Religious Education Guidelines. 

It reflects the requirements for academies to provide a broad and balanced curriculum as per the Academies Act 2010, and the National Curriculum programmes of study which we have chosen to follow.

It also reflects requirements for inclusion and equality as set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2014 and Equality Act 2010, and refers to curriculum-related expectations of governing boards set out in the Department for Education’s Governance Handbook.

The curriculum complies with our funding agreement and articles of association.

In addition, the curriculum acknowledges the requirements for promoting the learning and development of children set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework.

The National Curriculum consists of ten subjects which all children must study, plus Religious Education.  These are

• English
• Maths
• Science
• History
• Geography
• Music
• Design and Technology
• Physical Education
• Computing
• Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE)

Click here  to view our whole school long term curriculum map for the academic year.

Click here to view the National Curriculum that the school follows.

We follow 'The Way, The Truth and The Life' scheme of work for RE (further details can be found on the RE curriculum page). We use SCARF resources for PSHE and 'A Journey of Love' to deliver aspects of the RSE curriculum (further details can be found on the PSHCE and RSE page).

See https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/overview for more information or go to each curriculum's subject page on the 'curriculum' drop down menu.

All children are overseen by a class teacher, who is responsible to the Headteacher for their well-being and progress.  Within each class there is a mixture of group work and whole class teaching.  Pupils may be grouped by ability for some lessons, to individualise learning by enriching and extending the curriculum or providing interventions.

Assessment

Assessment, recording and reporting in this school is an important and central part of teaching and learning, which involves the children whenever possible. Children are encouraged to know the next steps in their learning, and to celebrate when individual targets are achieved. 

The careful monitoring of all assessment data provides teachers with valuable information that directs their planning and gives early indication of when extra help or support is needed for children to achieve their full potential.  Many intervention strategies are delivered by our Teaching Assistants to help build the confidence and achievements of pupils.  Higher ability children are quickly identified and achieve impressive levels of work by tackling more challenging activities. 

Under the new national curriculum guidelines, the following assessments must take place:

• a short reception baseline that will sit within the assessments that teachers make of children during reception
• a phonics check near the end of year 1
• a teacher assessment at the end of key stage 1 in mathematics; reading; and writing, informed by pupils’ scores in externally-set but internally-marked   tests (writing will be partly informed by the grammar, punctuation and spelling test); and teacher assessment of speaking and listening and science
• national tests at the end of key stage 2 in: mathematics; reading; grammar, punctuation and spelling; and a teacher assessment of writing and science.

Opportunities are given twice a year to share ongoing assessment information with parents or carers through formal parent/teacher reviews. A written report is sent to parents or carers in the Summer Term to indicate teacher assessment of each child's progress. Year 2 and Year 6 SATs achievements are reported, as well as Year 1 phonics screening results and Foundation Stage progress check. 

Click here to view further information on Assessment with the new national curriculum.