Our Curriculum

When children join us at 3+ or 4+ (Nursery and Foundation Stage) they follow the Foundation Stage Curriculum. Four guiding principles shape practice in early years’ settings.

These are:

Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and selfassured;
Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships;
Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers; and
Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

There are seven areas of learning and development:

Communication and language
Physical development
Personal, social and emotional development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

We are very proud of our exciting indoor and outdoor provision and high quality resources for both the Nursery and Foundation Stage classes. Our children make very good progress from their starting points and leave ready for the next stage of their journey.

Following the Foundation Stage, children spend two years in Key Stage 1 (5+ and 6+ Years 1 and Year 2) and then a further four years in Key Stage 2 (7+ to 10+ Years 3-6) where we implement the National Curriculum and make meaningful cross-curricular links wherever appropriate to ensure a creative, holistic curriculum.

Adaptive Teaching

According to Standard 5 of the Teachers' Standards (DfE, 2011) Adaptive Teaching is when teachers "adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils". Please click the following link for more information: Adaptive Teaching

The KS1 and KS2 curriculum includes:

RE
Literacy
Mathematics
Computing
Science
Art and Design
Music
Design Technology
PE
Geography
History
RSHE
MFL (Italian)

Our Curriculum

Intent

Our curriculum is underpinned by a Catholic education based on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. We want the highest standards of academic achievement so that our pupils become people of tomorrow aiming to make our world a better place. The main driving force behind how we design and deliver our curriculum, is our aim to challenge, excite and inspire our children to become successful and confident learners and achieve their best. We want our pupils to be successful so we provide an innovative and exciting curriculum. We expect the very best from our pupils and our pupils and parents can expect the same of us. We strive to work in partnership with our parents so that we together in step supporting our children’s learning, to create a learning community built upon the gospel and British values, where all individuals are respected and treated equally.

Implementation

The curriculum is much more than lessons in school. We arrange visits to and from school to enhance our children’s learning. To broaden our pupil’s capital culture, we organise residential visits, visits to the theatre, museums, castles, zoo and to businesses.

Our curriculum is in line with the National Curriculum; it comprises all learning experiences – including enrichment activities, which are planned to meet the needs and interests of all pupils, providing education with character that helps them to find the best in themselves. We are mindful of teacher workload and use supporting schemes of work for curriculum planning. The curriculum is delivered through a variety of teaching and learning styles to ensure that the learning experience is motivating and challenging. In this way each child has the experience of working independently and co-operative in a variety of situations is giving opportunity to reach their full potential.

Impact

By the end of year 6, all children, including those with SEND, will be able to know and remember more. The majority of the children will be able to reach age related expectations and some will reach greater depth. The curriculum prepares the children the children for the next stage in learning.

The impact of our curriculum is measured by monitoring:

Attendance data (school and trips/residentials)
Attainment data
Progress measures KS1-KS2 (SATs)
Progress and attainment outcomes for pupil groups
Engagement in enrichment activities
Book looks to inform leaders with regards to progression within units and year groups, sequencing, content, subject specific lessons
School Council
Behaviour analysis
NFER Standardised test

Religious Education at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School

Religious Education at St Mary Magdalene enables our children to grow in the knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith, and to know that God loves each one of them. We ensure Religious Education develops all aspects of their faith, spiritually, morally, culturally and socially. We also endeavour to encourage awareness and respect for other faiths.

Aims

We seek to guide children to live a Christian life, rooted in gospel values. We aim to enable children to integrate their life experiences and learning into an appreciation of their faith, in Jesus Christ. Religious Education enables reflection on life whilst presenting them with the same challenge and demands of other curriculum areas. We will offer the children a sense of their own self-worth through the experience of belonging to a caring community and an awareness of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.

The Religious Education Curriculum

To fulfil our aims we use ‘To Know You More Clearly’ (the RED) programme of Religious Education as recommended by the Diocese of Northampton. This programme encourages the development of skills to explore, investigate, interpret and communicate and deepen the children's understanding of scripture and their Catholic faith. In addition to this the Christian ethos is created by the example set by all adults in the community. This ethos permeates all aspects of the school and provides a model for the children to follow.

Knowing Jesus more clearly is the main aim of the new curriculum. To know you more clearly programme ways of knowing:

Understand	Discern	Respond
See	Judge	Act
What will I see and hear to help me understand?	How will I discover more?	What can I do now?

Each term the children will follow a programme of study called "a branch". Completing 6 branches within the school year.

The six branches are:

Creation and Covenant
Prophecy and Promise
From Galilee to Jerusalem
From Desert to Garden
To the ends of the earth
Dialogue and Encounter

Each branch follows these lenses:

Hear
Believe
Celebrate
Live

At the end of each branch and lenses the children will:

Understand
Discern
Respond

Plan for rollout of implementation of RED:

Summer term 2024:
EYFS/Nursery to begin to deliver RE using RED

September 2025:
Year 1 and Year 6 deliver RE using RED

Summer term 2025:
Year 2 and Year 5 deliver using RED

September 2025:
Year 3 and Year 4 to deliver using RED

With a view to whole school compliance by September 2025.

Assessment

Awaiting content

Prayer and Liturgy

Prayer is part of the fabric of our school. Children are guided and encouraged to actively participate in all forms of prayer and liturgies. We also endeavour to include parents in our prayer life by consistently reaching out to parents to join us in prayer and liturgy and to pray as a family in the home. We are a worshipping community. We foster links with our serving parishes. Father Bernard Barrett, parish priest at St Francis de Sales and St Mary Magdalene, is a regular visitor to the school and helps the chaplaincy team formulate a liturgy plan for each academic year. Children learn formal prayers but also are given frequent opportunities to pray privately, attend prayer groups, participate in guided meditations and create their own unique prayers. Children participate and help plan liturgies and assemblies.

Prayer and worship are led by our Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher, other adults and pupils.

Collective Worship

Daily prayers are said in class at the beginning and end of each day, and before lunch. These may be teacher or child lead prayers or more well-known traditional prayers.

Children hear the word and have time to reflect when using Ten Ten prayer and liturgy resources. Our collective worship is delivered in the school hall or in the chapel:

Monday	Whole school	Gospel assembly, prayers, reflection linked to/based on the week’s Ten Ten theme
Tuesday	Songs of worship	Traditional and contemporary hymns, songs and carols which praise God
Wednesday/Thursday	Class worship	Prayer, stillness based on Ten Ten theme of the week
Friday	KS1/2 assembly	Learning about saints/values deepening our understanding of our faith

Other Regular Assemblies

Bridgebuilder Trust - The Christian message is shared in a fun and interactive way each half term.

Class-led assembly - parents invited to join a celebration of classroom learning through drama and music.

Visitor assembly - Local groups who support our prayer life and Christian faith often come into school - CAFOD, Parks Trust, NSPCC, Missio.

Themed Day assemblies - a whole day is set aside to explore a theme such as Anti-Bullying Day, World Book day, St Mary Magdalene day feast day.

Prayer workshops - Easter and Christmas Cracked for year 6 led by Bridgebuilder.

Prayer spaces - in the chapel during Lent for the whole school.

Prayers We Say

Prayers and Devotions

Prayer is a way of lifting our hearts and minds to God. It allows us to adore God, acknowledging His almighty power and it allows us to bring thanks, our petitions and our sorrows before our Lord.

It is important that children encounter a wide range of prayers so that they are familiar with Catholic traditions, texts and the language of prayer. These are introduced, explained and learnt at a stage that is age appropriate and suitable for the personal development of each pupil.

Daily Prayers

Throughout the day there is opportunity for short times of prayer which mark the rhythm of the school timetable:

Beginning of the day
Grace before lunch
End of the day prayer

Individual Prayers

Time for personal prayer and reflection is important at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School and it is facilitated during school and class worship. Often both individual and communal prayer become part of the same liturgy:

Spontaneous prayer
Stillness and silence
Meditation
Reflective music
Written prayers

Songs of Worship

St Augustine said “Those who sing well pray twice”. Music is integral to prayer and celebration as it accompanies and highlights aspects of any worship and helps children to remember texts and messages more easily. Singing is a joyful expression of prayer to support the liturgical season:

Hymns and chants
Sung mass responses
Secular Christian music

Sacramental Prayers

Prayers and responses at mass should be familiar to all Catholic pupils and will be recited together, with confidence:

Mass responses

Common Prayer

The tradition of Christians learning prayers by memory is valued at St Mary Magdalene. We believe that prayers learnt by heart will spring from the heart and can be called upon when needed. These prayers will be introduced to children according to Key Stage.

During EYFS

Sign of the cross
End of day prayer

During KS1/KS2

Grace before meals
The Lord’s prayer
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St Mary Magdalene school prayer

Angel of God
Eternal Rest

Liturgical Devotions

These are traditions of the Church relating to the liturgical year which lead us to a deeper understanding of the season we are celebrating:

Rosary
Blessing of Advent wreath
Epiphany door blessing
Stations of the Cross
Crowning of Mary

Praying at Home

During their time at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School children are taught and encouraged to pray in a variety of ways and they enjoy many different experiences of prayer throughout the school day and school year.

As part of the ongoing spiritual development of our pupils we ask that you support their prayer life at home. You can do this by:

Teaching your child traditional prayers
Allowing opportunity for spontaneous thanks and prayer
Teaching prayers in your own home language
Singing your favourite hymns and carols
Sharing the seasonal prayer bags from school together
Asking about their RE lessons and collective worship
Thanking God for the happy times and offering prayers during sad family times.

Each child receives a school prayer book when they start school.

An Annual Plan of Prayer 25-26

Liturgy and Prayer Policy

Relationship, Sex and Heath Education at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School

We acknowledge that Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship, as well as Relationship and Sex Education (RSE), are all underpinned by a theology of relationship and are all encompassed in the title ‘Relationships and Sex Education’ (RSE).

Our belief in the unique dignity of the human person as made in the image and likeness of God underpins the approach to all education in our school. Our approach to relationship and sex education therefore is rooted in the Catholic Church’s teaching of the human person and is presented positively and prudently.

A Journey in Love is a resource created by Sister Jude Groden of BRES. It is the recommended programme of study for Catholic schools for Sex and Relationship Education, and has been written as a progressive scheme of work that supports the Religious Education, PSHE and Science curricula taught within the school.

As children progress through school, they discover more and more about themselves and the wider wold. This thirst for learning new things in all aspects of life is fostered by the school, who attempt to create a safe, stimulating environment for learning; supporting all children in their development. Our mission statement which drives the school, attempts to achieve this goal following the Gospel values of truth and respect, understanding our journey as children of God, both special and unique.

Central to our work within the school is learning about our faith, including understanding ourselves, our position in our community and how we develop as human beings – our spiritual, social, emotional and physical development. This is how A Journey in Love fits in to the school’s curriculum. The scheme permeates through all levels of learning throughout the school. It focuses on friendship, family, community, relationships and spirituality; a guide to the children’s development as young Catholics.

As you would expect, not all issues related to personal development are covered by the end of Year 6. The content is age appropriate and is taught with sensitivity, taking into account the children’s level of maturity in regard to the delivery of the lessons. Our teaching sensitively recognises that some children may have a different structure of support around them.

Journey in Love Overview for Parents

Year Group	Aims
Early Years	The wonder of being special and unique: To explore the wonder of being special and unique.
Year 1	We meet God’s love in our family: To focus on families especially growing up in a loving, secure and stable home.
Year 2	We meet God’s love in the community: To describe how we are growing and developing in diverse communities that are God-given.
Year 3	How we live in love: To describe and give reasons for how we grow in love in caring and happy friendships where we are secure and safe.
Year 4	God loves us in our differences: To make links and connections to show that we are all different. To celebrate these differences as we appreciate that God’s love accepts us as we are now and as we change.
Year 5	God loves us in our changing and developing: Show a knowledge and understanding of how we grow in awareness of the physical and emotional changes that accompany puberty – sensitivity, mood swings, anger, boredom etc. and grow further in recognising God’s presence in our daily lives.
Year 6	The wonder of God’s love in creating new life: To develop a secure understanding of what stable, caring relationships are and the different kinds there may be. Focusing on Catholic teaching, children will also know and understand about the conception of a child within marriage.

Journey in Love materials are shared with parents at our annual 'Meet the Teacher' meetings which take place every September.

Please note: During academic year 2025/26 there will be a consultation with parents prior to changing our RSHE scheme to TenTen "Live life to the full plus".

Learning Goals

Curriculum Enhancement

Detailed information about individual subjects can be found in the School Prospectus.

If parents require further information about the school curriculum they can visit https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum or for nursery https://www.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage.

You can also look at our class pages for curriculum newsletters and topics to be covered for each year group and also attending parents information evenings.

Online Safety Curriculum

Online Safety Curriculum

Cursive Writing Practice Sheets

Being a good learner

Please follow the link to Class Pages for even more information about the curriculum.

Class Pages