2025 Curriculum Overview

Our curriculum

At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, we provide a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum that helps every child to flourish, academically, personally and spiritually.

Rooted in our Catholic values, our curriculum is designed so that pupils develop rich knowledge, strong skills and positive learning habits from the Early Years through to Year 6.

We want our children to leave St Mary’s as confident readers, articulate communicators, curious thinkers and kind citizens and ready for the next stage of their education.

A curriculum that is carefully sequenced

Our curriculum is coherently planned and thoughtfully sequenced so that learning builds step-by-step over time.

Each subject is organised into clear learning journeys where pupils build secure foundations before moving to more complex ideas, revisit and strengthen prior learning regularly, develop and apply subject-specific vocabulary, and connect new knowledge to what they already know.

To ensure high quality and consistency, we use published schemes of work where these best support progression and coverage. Alongside this, we have developed bespoke curriculum units that reflect the needs of our pupils, our local context and our school priorities, so that learning is both rigorous and meaningful.

Teaching and learning: our pedagogical approach

We are committed to teaching that helps pupils know more and remember more. Lessons are planned so that children can succeed through clear explanations, purposeful practice and timely support.

Across the school, our approach includes:

• Explicit teaching and modelling so pupils understand new learning and what ‘success’ looks like.
• High-quality talk and questioning to deepen thinking, extend vocabulary and develop reasoning.
• Guided practice and independent application to build confidence, fluency and independence.
• Retrieval practice and regular review to strengthen long-term memory and reduce forgetting.
• Responsive teaching that identifies misconceptions quickly and adapts teaching to meet pupils’ needs.

We create calm, purposeful classrooms where pupils feel safe to take risks, learn from mistakes and persevere.

Inclusion, support and challenge for all

We believe every child can achieve. Our curriculum is designed to be inclusive and accessible, with scaffolding, adaptive teaching and appropriate challenge. We work together to ensure that pupils with SEND and those who may need additional support can access learning, while pupils who grasp concepts quickly are supported to deepen and extend their understanding.

The essentials: strong foundations in English and Mathematics

In the Early Years and Key Stage 1, we place particular emphasis on building the fundamentals, especially early language, phonics and reading, so pupils develop the secure foundations needed for future success.

Throughout the school, we prioritise:

• developing fluent, enthusiastic readers;
• building confident writers with strong transcription and composition skills;
• developing secure number sense, reasoning and problem-solving in mathematics.

Wider curriculum, enrichment and personal development

Our wider curriculum nurtures creativity, curiosity and cultural understanding. We enhance learning through enrichment opportunities, such as visitors, trips, themed days and performances, helping pupils make connections and see learning as relevant and exciting.

Through our curriculum and wider school life, we also develop pupils’ character, responsibility and personal development, supporting them to grow in confidence and live out our shared values.