St Mark’s Curriculum
Growing, sharing and flourishing in God's glory.
'God saw all that he had made and he saw that it was very good'.
Genesis 1:31
Inspired by learning in beautiful surroundings, we have become a school community that flourishes in learning and life. When we reflect on the wonder that is God's creation, we are encouraged to grow into enthusiastic learners who respect, value and reach out to others on their own learning journey.
Our Ethos for Learning Through Our Curriculum at St Mark’s
Our curriculum is varied, broad and rich. We believe it represents the world we live in and provides our children with the experiences, skills and knowledge they need to function and flourish as young global citizens and adults in the 21st Century.
Our Vision is the thread that runs through our curriculum. Reflecting on God’s creation provides pupils the opportunity to become stewards of the future. When we ask ourselves, ‘Who are we and how do we live’? we answered, ‘We are learners who take responsibility for and as global citizens protect our environment so that we can flourish together'.
Key themes such as ‘stewardship’ and ‘equal respect’ are the core part of our curriculum; learning in geography, PSHE, RE and Science look explicitly at our responsibility for looking after our immediate locality and the world beyond.
Our curriculum is carefully linked to building on both explicit and implicit knowledge. Our assessment is based around ‘The Pilgrim Progress, Review, Teach, Practise, Apply’ approach to acquiring knowledge.
School Context
St Mark’s is a Church of England primary school in the heart of the village of Eccles. It is a member of the Pilgrim Multi Academy Trust and its local authority is Kent County Council. It is a rural twenty pan primary school with five mixed classes;
- Mixed classes can be a challenge for planning but provide strong opportunities for stewardship, where younger children learn from the role modelling of their older peers.
- The rural aspect affords the school exceptional grounds in which children develop equal respect for their immediate environment and each other.
- Being part of a trust of schools affords a small school a much wider diverse community which in turn offers a greater range of learning and social opportunities. (Year six residential trip being a shared trust experience, enables friendships and large group experiences to prepare pupils for the larger environments of secondary education.)
- Staff benefit from Trust collaborations, in terms of refining practice, sharing expertise and supporting each other’s well-being.
- The changing landscape of education within our local authority and expanding communities in the South East, has resulted in increasing mobility at St Mark’s. Therefore, children benefit from Christian welcome provided by the school and the thoughtful preparation for moving schools, which can be a significant event in child’s primary school life.
The St Mark’s ethos and curriculum is built around the key features of our context.
There are many aspects of our provision which we feel enhance learning for our pupils and make for a unique St Mark’s experience; these include our provision for the Intent, Implementation and Impact of our curriculum.
Our Curriculum of Intent at St Marks
We intend to;
- Enable each child to develop identity - a strong sense of ‘who they are’ from the world around them.
- Create a stimulating and rich learning environment and foster a keen sense of responsibility for that environment.
- To use the class arrangements in our small school to ensure continuity and progression to every child’s learning.
- Effectively adapt and differentiate learning opportunities
- Use our Christian Vision and unique environment to provide a broad and balanced curriculum
- Through our curriculum, resources and site, inspire children to explore and develop passions, aspirations, strengths, responsibilities, and interests
- Build on solid foundations for growing knowledge and applying transferable skills
- Practise skills leading to independence, resilience, adaptability, deeper thinking, collaboration, and a curiosity for challenge.
Our Curriculum Implementation at St Mark’s
The priority of implementation at St Mark’s is to provide quality first teaching and pay particular attention to our school context. St Mark’s community purposefully choose not to be tied to a particular published scheme; instead, we have chosen to use the ‘Pilgrim Progress’: a bespoke series of documents which forms the backbone of our own curriculum, ensuring appropriate subject knowledge and high expectation. A curriculum for us, created by us.
Our Pilgrim Progress assessment supports our pupil progress tracking. It informs next steps of teaching and learning for individuals and provides opportunities for collaborations and connections across the curriculum and across the school and ensures efficient and effective continued targeted challenge and support.
Our Curriculum Impact at St Mark's
St Mark’s School children and staff have active ownership of their curriculum. They will recognise how their knowledge and skills build and grow, and how they develop the interest and capacity to further this learning beyond our setting.
St Mark’s children have a sense of belonging, an understanding of their place in the world and of their responsibility and capacity to positively influence the future.
Outdoor and learning
A child centred curriculum that starts with the environment around us The broad and balanced curriculum is tailored to individual needs to allow all to flourish. We have worked on creating a clear progression of learning goals for every subject. Teachers use a range of planning and teaching resources to support this.
History
We believe that our children should learn about significant events and people in History so that they can develop an enquiring and questioning mind. Through following the National Curriculum we develop a sense of identity and place, give children the opportunity to reflect on their school, community and local area and encourage all our children to be historians who see how the past has impacted on their lives.
Science
In science we follow the National Curriculum, exploring Chemistry, Biology and Physics to foster children’s natural curiosity about the world around them. We teach essential aspects of the knowledge, skills, methods, processes and uses of science. We are inspired by famous scientists and believe all children are scientists. We encourage children to use their science skills to think about how to improve our environment and the world around us for all of our futures.
RE
In order to teach RE we follow the Kent/Medway syllabus incorporating ‘Understanding Christianity’ and the Diocesan units for other faiths. This ensures a progression of knowledge and skills as children move through the primary phase. An emphasis is placed on enquiry led learning in order to develop the whole child’s ability to make connections on their own lives.
PE
Through the PE curriculum we ensure that all children are physically active for sustained periods of time. We implement the NC through both knowledge and skill-based activities and promote a healthy and active lifestyle. Children are given the opportunity to engage in competitive sports and activities both inter and intra schools which builds character and helps to embed our Christian Values.
Mathematics
Our mathematics teaching follows the national Curriculum, which ensures that the children are fluent in the fundamentals and have conceptual understanding so that they can reason mathematically. The intent of our curriculum is to allow children to flourish with their knowledge and understanding in mathematics throughout their school life, enriching their passion and enthusiasm for this subject. We believe giving all children a secure knowledge base will enable fluency across maths, science and technology, allowing them to be financially equipped for everyday life.
Outdoor Learning
We believe that our outdoor environments provide the opportunity for children to explore their surroundings, confidently taking risks as they enjoy building relationships, developing physical skills and learning about the natural world and how to care for it.
English
In our MAT, with the children, we develop an excitement for English through building a knowledge and skills based toolkit which, together, we personalise through creative application. The expectations for every year group are underpinned using the National Curriculum for each of the elements of English. We use our Review, Teach, Practise and Apply process to establish the next steps for progress in each child’s learning Journey. We invest time and prioritise English learning in order that it may be applied to enhance every other aspect of the curriculum and in daily life.
Geography
We want our pupils to become responsible, global citizens, who have a solid understanding of place, and appreciate and respect the diverse cultures and traditions of our world. Starting by developing a sound knowledge of locality and community, our learners develop their understanding of their effect on the wider world and their responsibility to protect it. Pupils are taught about the physical features of the Earth and about human activity, including populations, politics and economics. We use our outdoor space and opportunities to compare and contrast locations, settlements and societies. Global facts and subject specific skills combine to produce well rounded Geographers.
Art and DT
We want our children to appreciate Art as a subject for the rest of their lives. We do this by offering a range of opportunities that develop our pupils' skills in the subject, further their knowledge of art and artists and allow them to see links to other subjects within our curriculum. We equip our pupils with the skills required to have an understanding of the language of art and design and to understand its value when exploring other cultures and times in our history.
Our children have opportunities to work in exciting projects and with our MAT schools which enhance our whole school environment.
Music
We provide a music education that emboldens pupils and allows them to enjoy soaring confidence and self-esteem. We do this through providing opportunities for appreciation, composition and singing, alongside new opportunities and chances to showcase talents within and beyond our school community. We offer lessons in cornet and keyboard and fully celebrate those children who choose to take these opportunities in our school.
Computing
At St Mark’s we strongly believe that the use of ICT and the development of computing skills are crucial for our pupils’ education and as a part of their everyday life skills. In order to equip our children for the modern world, we will use technology to develop their critical thinking, collaborative skills, communication and creativity, not just in our computing lessons, but throughout the curriculum. To ensure that our pupils receive the highest level of Computing and ICT education, we are teaching the latest National Curriculum guidelines.