Curriculum (ID 1021)

• Art
  Art

  Art and design teaching at St Wilfrid’s fosters an appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts by promoting careful observation of the world around us. We provide a high-quality art and design curriculum which stimulates children’s imagination and creativity; involving them in a range of visual, tactile and sensory experiences whilst enabling them to communicate what they see, think and feel through the use of the elements of colour, texture, form and pattern.? 

  For detail about how and why art is taught in each year group please view our curriculum policy. 

• Computing
  Computing

  We aim to ensure every child can enjoy and succeed in computing, by providing an ambitious, creative and engaging curriculum, developed by an experienced specialist teacher and building on the National Curriculum guidelines.  It is designed to develop resilience, persistence, and confidence in our pupils computing abilities - real life skills than can be transferable to the ever-evolving challenges of life.  We believe that mastery in computing is the acquisition of a deep, long-term, secure, and adaptable understanding of the subject in its totality.

• Design Technology (DT)
  Design Technology (DT)

  We aim to ensure every child can enjoy and succeed in computing, by providing an ambitious, creative and engaging curriculum, developed by an experienced specialist teacher and building on the National Curriculum guidelines.  It is designed to develop resilience, persistence, and confidence in our pupils computing abilities - real life skills than can be transferable to the ever-evolving challenges of life.  We believe that mastery in computing is the acquisition of a deep, long-term, secure, and adaptable understanding of the subject in its totality. 

• English
  English

  English and the teaching of English is embedded across the curriculum. Our aim is to ensure that every child progresses in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. We believe in supporting our children to love reading and writing. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We set high standards in the presentation of writing along with setting the important foundations in spelling and grammar. We aim to inspire children in their writing by providing opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. We value reading as a key life skill and we are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe that through supporting our children to learn to read, they will be able to read to learn for the rest of their lives. Reading is key for academic success. 

• Geography
  Geography

  The teaching of Geography follows the National Curriculum. In order to ensure the children get quality and meaningful exposure to geography, we have a multifaceted and flexible approach. This means that geography is taught both discreetly and as part of our termly topics.  Consequently, we can teach the children about relevant current issues and larger global concepts such as humankind, place, significance, processes and change. In addition to this, great emphasis is place on acquiring geographical knowledge, vocabulary and skills. 

  The geography element of our school curriculum aims to inspire pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Our geography curriculum enables children to develop a sense of place, whilst exploring, investigating and understanding the man-made and natural processes that impact on our planet. We aim to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. 

• History
  History

  A well-rounded History curriculum allows children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Our History curriculum draws upon the immediate and wider local area, enabling children to develop a deeper understanding of their locality. 

  Through our History curriculum, children are the historians. We ensure that children: 

  • Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of the past 
  • Have opportunities to be curious and ask questions 
  • Think critically 
  • Debate different viewpoints 
  • Understand the complexity of people’s lives and the process of change. 

• Maths
  Maths

  Maths is integral to our ability to function in today’s world. Every child needs to be able to apply these foundational skills to understand, grow and succeed in society from catching a bus to finding opportunities for their future and even making the world a better place. We know maths is a creative and deep thinking skill with links to the everyday all around us.  Therefore, we want all pupils at St Wilfrid’s to experience the enjoyment, challenge and resilience needed to make the connections, explore ideas and question what they see to ultimately become confident mathematicians. 

  We encourage all learners to have the positive ‘can do’ attitudes and promote the fact that ‘We can all do maths!’ We believe all children can achieve in mathematics, and therefore teach for secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts through small manageable steps. We use mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of learning and adapt our teaching to respond to the children’s needs.   Learning is broadened to provide challenge opportunities and problem solving within similar concepts. 

• Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)
  Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

  Modern foreign language learning is a valued part of our curriculum as we are aware of the internationalist future of our children, recognising the significance of learning another language. We have decided to focus on Spanish, since it is spoken in twenty countries globally.  

  Another reason for choosing Spanish is that it can be a good choice for children with dyslexia. It's more predictable than many languages — it has fewer rules and exceptions. It shares many of the same root words as English. And it has only five vowel sounds to learn. 

• Music
  Music

  Our music curriculum intends to inspire creativity, self-expression and encourages our children on their musical journeys as well as giving them opportunities to connect with others.  We hope to foster a life-long love of music by exposing them to diverse musical experiences and igniting a passion for music. By listening and responding to different musical styles, finding their voices as singers and performers and as composers, we will enable them to become confident, reflective musicians.

• Physical Education (PE)
  Physical Education (PE)

  PE is a vital part of school life and ultimately children’s future well-being.  It is therefore our intent to provide an inclusive, broad and balanced PE curriculum that ensures all children will benefit, whether through enhancing existing skills, learning new skills or being introduced to new sports, clubs, teams and organisations. We offer a range of creative and exciting PE lessons, delivered by our well-trained teaching staff, giving the children opportunity to learn and try new activities, gain physical skills but also develop their skills of sportsmanship for future life. We strive to offer as many experiences to the children as possible, to ensure that they develop a passion for physical activity and a deep understanding of physical literacy and health and wellbeing. 

• Personal, Social and Health Education
  Personal, Social and Health Education

  Our PSHE programme of study brings together citizenship with personal, social, health and economic well-being.  The PSHE and RSHE curriculum supports our Catholic ethos and our school Learning Values of Ambition, Appreciation, Collaboration, Creativity, Independence and Resilience.  

  We aim to achieve this by creating a happy, vibrant environment where inclusivity, diversity and individuality are celebrated every day. We nurture and inspire our children so they feel valued and flourish. We fully support our duty to our pupils to provide a Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education whilst promoting the British Values of Democracy, Individual Liberty, the Rule of Law, Mutual Respect and Tolerance. Find out more about how PSHE is taught here.

• Religious Education (RE)
  Religious Education (RE)

  We use ‘Come and See’ which is the syllabus agreed with the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton as the basis for our Religious Education Curriculum. Religious Education has a significant role for the development for the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. At St Wilfrid’s we put our spirituality and Religious Education at the heart of our school curriculum in order to develop the Catholicism and spirituality of our pupils. Read more about our approach to Religious Education here. 

• Science
  Science

  We aim to give every child a broad and balanced science curriculum which enables them to confidently explore and discover what is around them, and question the world that we live in.  We want our children to love Science and feel confident to ask questions and search for answers about the world around them. We want to foster a life-long curiosity and interest in Science.  

   

  When planning for science, we intend for children to have the opportunity to learn through varied systematic investigations, leading to them asking and answering scientific questions about the world around them. As children progress through St. Wilfrid’s, they build on their skills in working scientifically, as well as their scientific knowledge and vocabulary, as they develop greater independence in planning and carrying out fair and comparative tests to answer a range of scientific questions.  

   We want all children to have access to a varied, progressive and well-mapped-out Science curriculum that provides the opportunity for progression across the full breadth of the national curriculum.