Our St Leo’s and Southmead Curriculum
Intent
At St Leo’s and Southmead, we place great importance in delivering a curriculum which supports the needs of our community by offering memorable experiences and lifelong skills. As a Catholic School, our mission and core values guide us in fostering an environment where all children are nurtured, inspired and able to succeed.
Our broad and balanced curriculum challenges children to be resilient and exceed their full potential. It enables us to build strong relationships, celebrate diversity and encourage respect. Through a clear progression of knowledge and skills, our children are offered a wealth of learning opportunities that provoke thoughts, create dreams and promote ambition.
Implementation
As a Catholic school, the RSE curriculum underpins all teaching. It is a core subject and lessons planned from the ‘Come and See’ scheme of work account for 10% of the timetable with daily collective worship also taking place.
All children are taught to use their St Leo’s and Southmead ‘Super Learning Powers’ in all that they do. Through learning how to be RESILIENT, FOCUSED, ORIGINAL, INDEPENDENT, COLLABORATIVE and to have the ability to PROBLEM SOLVE, we are preparing our children to be successful lifelong learners who ‘take the lid off’ and exceed all expectation.
Our knowledge and skills based curriculum is designed to be broad, balanced and engaging. We follow the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum in all subjects; our meticulously planned progression maps ensure sequential learning in all areas. Knowledge organisers are reviewed annually to take into account the needs of each individual cohort with clear end points in place. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and authentic cross-curricular links are made where appropriate. Foundation subjects are timetabled to be taught discretely each week with additional topic weeks taking place throughout the year in response to school needs and relevant national and international themes and events.
RSE and PSHE feature heavily in our timetable and are taught throughout the year. We follow ‘Journey in Love’ for RSE and ‘Jigsaw’ for PSHE. Through both of these subject areas, our children’s health, wellbeing and British Values are developed and they are encouraged to form positive relationships and appreciate each other’s differences with respect.
We want all of our children have access to a variety of memorable opportunities in order to widen their cultural experiences. Each year we organise whole school trips to the cinema and theatre as well as visiting a local tourist destination to enjoy a day of fun together. Further educational visits linked to topics are planned by class teachers for each individual year group. When they enter KS2, our children have two opportunities to attend a three day residential; an outward bounds centre in Y3 and London in Y6. In addition to our many visits beyond the school gates, we welcome many visitors to school in order to develop our children’s understanding of the world around them.
Communication and language are key to our children’s development. Early screening and rapid response interventions through ‘Wellcom’ help us to support our youngest children in EYFS with ‘Early Talk Boost’ used throughout KS1. We have a speech and language specialist who works with identified children throughout the school and supports teachers by setting targets and sharing resources. All classes have a ‘Talk Tank’ which gives children the opportunity to learn about, discuss and debate current affairs and themes. It is oral based and all subject matter is chosen by individual classes in order to broaden knowledge and develop vocabulary and spoken language.
Through the teaching of key knowledge and skills, teachers are able to assess pupil outcomes against clear and explicit measures of success. We use ‘Target Tracker’ for all subjects with data drops taking place three times each year. Assessment leads meet with teachers and co-ordinators regularly to discuss the progress of all children in all subject areas. At the start of each topic for foundation subjects, teachers complete a KASH assessment (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, Habits), this enables them to adapt their planning to take into account the individual needs of the children within their class.
Heavy emphasis is placed on quality of leadership throughout the curriculum. Our curriculum leads support subject co-ordinators during designated leadership time. Continuous Professional Development is given high priority with support available from Liverpool Archdiocese ALPSIT, Southern Area Collaborative and School Improvement Liverpool for all areas of the curriculum.
Curriculum Impact
Our children leave St Leo’s and Southmead with the ability to continue their learning confidently using the ‘Super Learning Powers’ of resilience, independence, originality, problem solving, fucus and collaboration. They have a wealth of cultural experience to draw upon in their later life and are encouraged to be ambitious and ‘take the lid off’ whatever they decide to do in the future!
Through careful planning, quality first teaching and timely intervention, our children make excellent progress from low starting points and transition to the next phase of their education with a solid foundation for success. We are proud of our end of key stage outcomes and strive better our outcomes each year.
In order to ensure success throughout the curriculum, subject co-ordinators have regular CPD and cascade relevant information to staff. Target tracker is used for all subjects and outcomes are monitored by senior curriculum leaders and discussed with subject co-ordinators on a termly basis. through this in-depth monitoring we are able to assess the impact of our curriculum for all children.
For information on how we comply with our duties under the ‘Equality Act 2010‘ and the ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014‘ please refer to our SEND page.
For more information about our curriculum, please contact Mrs Smith or Mrs McGuinness (curriculum leads) by phoning the school office on 0151 477 8410.
