Curriculum Vision and Intent

We aspire to work together to create a safe, happy and exciting community where individual skills, talents and cultural heritage are respected and valued. Working in partnership with parents/carers and the wider community ensures that our students feel supported and experience a broad and balanced education that prepares them to be successful and confident citizens in the twenty first century. The key Christian values of friendship, trust, forgiveness, thankfulness, love and compassion are explicit in School policies and all aspects of our work and serve to make our learning community welcoming and successful. All members of our community are expected to strive for excellence to ensure that all students are known, valued and can achieve.

“The Christian vision for a school providing a ‘fertile soil’, where all are enabled to flourish, results in an exceptionally inclusive and caring community… [it] drives design for a relevant curriculum.”

SIAMS Inspection Report January 2020

Curriculum Intent

At St Mary’s CofE High School, we have created a curriculum that is broad, balanced and is designed to foster the intellectual, physical, moral and spiritual development of our students. We believe that the curriculum must be inclusive so that every student has the opportunity to be successful and fulfil their academic potential as well as personal excellence. Therefore, every student at St Mary’s is encouraged to be aspirational in their outlook and to have high expectations of themselves within the classroom and school environment.
As a Church school, our Christian values are central to our curriculum intent:

• A passion for learning where knowledge is appreciated and valued for its intrinsic value
• Strong, confident and happy individuals who are able to live safe, healthy, fulfilling lives and be resilient when challenged with adversity
• To create citizens of the future who make a positive contribution to society and are equipped for the world of work by achieving nationally recognised qualifications that develop career progression
• A strong understanding of social justice which seeks to embed the values of inclusion, equality and human rights so that students can confidently recognise and challenge injustice

Curriculum Principles

• Every subject that is delivered at St Mary’s is important and is valued within the school curriculum.
• The curriculum is organised to provide students with a broad experience that allows them to gain a wealth of knowledge, new experiences and skills throughout KS3-5.
• Subject Leaders and teaching staff create and plan a curriculum that exposes students to the ‘best that has been thought and said’ and ‘engenders an appreciation of human creativity and achievement’ (Ofsted 2013) as well as a curriculum that is relevant to them, their histories and cultures
• Every subject is planned and implemented to prepare students for living and working in a multicultural and technological world.
• Students follow a vibrant and stimulating curriculum that includes a strong focus on the teaching of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, and offers an extensive variety of learning experiences. These ensure that progress is rapid and learning is optimised.
• Subject Leaders actively teach British values within the context of their subject where topics and pedagogy allow

Our core principles within the curriculum are to create:

• a curriculum that develops and builds on the knowledge, skills and concepts of the year before, creating independent and curious learners
• a distinctive purpose across all subjects for each year a subject is studied so that students appreciate the wider value of the subject and topics within, that they have learnt or are learning
• a KS3 that is distinctive from the subject matter in Key Stage 4 so that students’ foster a depth of understanding and broad experience of learning
• a broad curriculum so that students experience all elements of the curriculum before they narrow their options at KS4
• The curriculum is personalised and inclusive so that students are supported in their learning but also challenged and stretched to fulfil their potential
• Opportunities are created within the formal curriculum, extracurricular events and enrichment to enable students to explore and develop their talents
• The curriculum is relevant to student’s needs and the demands of a rapidly changing world

The range of accredited courses and learning opportunities offered to students include:

• Study pathways leading to GCSE, AS and A2 level qualifications
• Vocational courses at outside providers
• Specialist qualifications e.g. LAMDA, graded Music examinations and GCSE / A Levels in community languages
• Collaborative links to local colleges and universities
• Opportunities for Professional Learning Placements

Fieldwork, off-site visits and an extensive programme of enrichment activities are used to ensure learning is inspiring and relevant. Activities that stretch, support and challenge provide all students with opportunities for practice, performance and application of their learning.