At Our Lady & St Kenelm, we designed our own curriculum, to make learning at OLSK really special. We weave the new subject content and skills through all core & non-core subjects, to form our Creative Project Based Learning Curriculum. As a result, these strands are woven together to form an exciting, innovative and relevant curriculum for our pupils.
 
All our pupils have access to the full 2014 National Curriculum as it stands, differentiated to take into account individual learning needs. We organise learning into termly themes as part of our creative curriculum approach, designed to make learning stimulating, relevant and exciting for all.

The new primary school curriculum came into force in September 2014 and details the subject content and skills for all the National Curriculum subjects.

Our Lady & St Kenelm Curriculum

 Intent, Implementation &

Impact, Statement 2021-22

Our curriculum is Rooted in our Gospel Virtues – sense of community and parish, respecting and caring for others, spirituality and being the best that we can be, lead assemblies and Masses, time for prayer and reflection.

It is based on the following principles:

• Grateful for their own gifts, for the gift of other people, and for the blessings of each day; and generous with their gifts, becoming men and women for others.
• Attentive to their experience and to their vocation; and discerning about the choices they make and the effects of those choices.
• Compassionate towards others, near and far, especially the less fortunate; and loving by their just actions and forgiving words.
• Faith-filled in their beliefs and hopeful for the future.
• Eloquent and truthful in what they say of themselves, the relations between people, and the world.
• Learned, finding God in all things; and wise in the ways they use their learning for the common good.
• Curious about everything; and active in their engagement with the world, changing what they can for the better.
• Intentional in the way they live and use the resources of the earth, guided by conscience; and prophetic in the example they set to others.

We designed our own Enquiry Based Learning curriculum which is delivered through inspiring and imaginative learning experiences. They are designed to engage children’s imaginations and inspire high quality teaching and learning. Children have opportunities to decide what they would like to learn within each of the three themes that they explore throughout the year.

The thematic projects are directly aligned with the Programs of Study for each year group. They include meaningful, cross-curricular links between Programs of Study and each subject area and essential skills for each year group.

Some individual subjects might be taught as standalone lessons such as RE & Science; we are the lead school in Halesowen for science and we are part of the Ogden Trust. We have a National Leader of Science in school, who is a member of SLT and she supports the teaching of Science across the whole school, including planning relevant theme days for the children and the children in the wider community e.g. Space Dome, CPD for teachers and teaching  Assistants, science project days at Birmingham University.

The curriculum offer is regularly reviewed to check that children have learned what was intended and iteratively improved to keep it ambitious. The transition from Y2 to Y3 is carefully designed to minimise the junior school dip. We ensure equality of access for all children, including providing rich experiences to complement the curriculum and life beyond school. We ensure an extensive music and sport provision and prioritise social and emotional development to build character. We celebrate diversity and difference through whole community events.

Above all, we are committed to providing the pupils at Our Lady & St Kenelm Catholic Primary School with a learning experience which stimulates and inspires them whilst preparing them for life outside school. We aim to develop pupils as true lifelong learners, hungry for knowledge and understanding, and skilled in transferring learning skills into a wide range of areas.

We believe that ‘Enquiry Based/Project Learning’ underpins the knowledge, understanding and skills of our curriculum. The idea of this learning is to reflect our desire to explore, develop & enhance our fundamental concepts in every year group, over time.
The following principles formed the basis in developing our ‘Enquiry Based Learning:’
    

We have personalised our Curriculum to ensure it is:

• Creative and Fun – and will motivate staff and pupils
• Interconnected – exploiting real life and cross curricular links
• Enquiry-based – allowing children to explore the world around them and discover new and exciting things
• Personalised and Meaningful – to our pupils personally and within the context of our locality and the world today
• Flexible – to take advantage of pupils’ own interests and local/national/international events
• Full of higher-order thinking opportunities
• Skills-based – social and practical, talk for learning
• Develops personal growth and independence – confidence, self-esteem, challenge, citizenship, celebrating achievement, assessment for learning, developing life-skills, decision making, taking risks, learning from mistakes, Pupil of the Week, Term & Year, responsibility & collaboration
• Includes lots of opportunities for curriculum enrichment – OlSK band, choir, art, drama, music, sport, dance, forest school, residential trips, educational visits, wide range of extra-curricular clubs, competitions, tournaments, high quality plays and productions & concerts
• Has a strong element of pupil voice – Mini Vinnies, Liturgy Leaders, Bible Group, Eco Warriors, School Council, Prefects, Head Boy/Girl, DABs, Sports Council/Leaders, ICT Wizards, Research Centre Managers & Prayer Buddies.

To reflect our desire to explore, develop and enhance our fundamental concepts in every year group over time, the following principles formed the basis in developing our curriculum:

• Knowledge is at the heart of effective teaching & learning, and we believe that the more knowledge children have the more they will make sense of the concepts taught.
• Learning is most effective when children have the opportunity to build on prior knowledge. Knowledge, skills and understanding must be carefully planned and organised so learning is sequential and developments.
• For knowledge to become embedded into long term memory, children need to develop understanding by applying knowledge into real contexts, contexts which excite and engage the children.
• Children need to be provided with a breadth of contexts to ensure their understanding does not become context bound resulting in children struggling or unable to transfer knowledge from one context to another.

To prepare our children for High School and the wider world, we will strive to give them opportunities and encouragement which builds on prior learning, provides them with knowledge to ensure that they can make informed choices in the wider world, through defining personal development; our secret to success.