A Curriculum that celebrates the Global Diversity of our School Community!

St Nicholas of Tolentine recognises not only the importance of helping its pupils to develop academically, but also spiritually, morally, socially, and culturally. Our overarching Purpose therefore is:

‘To provide our pupils with a high quality broad and balanced education rooted in Catholic social teaching and the gospel virtues of

· Enjoy

· Success

· Respect

· Community

· Responsibility

· Compassion

At St Nicholas, we have designed an ambitious curriculum, to provide our children with the best educational start in life. We aim to provide a curriculum that celebrates the diversity of our school community. Our curriculum considers the needs of a 21^st Century child and is ambitious in providing our children with the knowledge, skills and learning behaviours required to become successful life-long learners.

Background

The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject. This is a statutory document that all schools must follow. Schools have the autonomy to decide on how this content is delivered and what approach we would take to ensure that our curriculum is bespoke to the needs of our children and community.

Intent

At the heart of our school are a set of core virtues: Respect, Compassion, Community, Success, Enjoy and Responsibility. Along with the Gospel Values, these underpin our curriculum and the ethos of the school. At St Nicholas, we place great importance on a curriculum which develops the whole child. Through our core virtues, we foster an environment where the emotional, physical, academic, social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of each child is considered. We firmly believe that everyone is entitled to an ambitious curriculum and our curriculum design is accessible for all, including children with SEND and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Implementation

Implementation describes the way in which we deliver our intent consistently each day. To do this we have carefully designed our knowledge engaged curriculum which is relevant to the children in school. This is designed to enable learners to acquire relevant subject knowledge which underpins the application of skills. Skills are carefully and progressively mapped across each key stage and subject area.

Knowledge is consolidated and built upon to support retention and recall. This ensures that by the time children leave our school they have learned, and are able to recall and apply the key information that we feel is important in order for them to be successful in the future.

How do we plan for Cultural Capital?

The government have placed great emphasis on schools developing Cultural capital. Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. It is about giving children the best possible start to their early education. 

At St Nicholas, we see Cultural capital as the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits, language and possessions that enables individuals to demonstrate their cultural competence and social status. Our school plays a crucial role in developing this through immersing children in music and the arts, visiting theatres, galleries and historic sites, and by introducing them to literature including through visiting authors.

Embedding cultural capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children from all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential.

Impact

Pupils leave St Nicholas RC Primary School with a secure understanding of the academic content; with the understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible and aware; how to make positive contributions to the local community and how to endeavour to be the best that they can be. We aim for all of our children to leave St Nicholas respectful, skilful, ambitious and with a thirst for life and all it has to offer.