St William’s is a community where all are provided with the opportunity to achieve their full potential in a way that is rooted firmly in the values of the Gospel. We are committed to a purposeful, progressive and inclusive curriculum with Christ At The Centre, Children At The Heart. We celebrate diversity of experience, need, interest and achievement.
Our curriculum celebrates our local heritage and nurtures pupil’s understanding of the communities in which they live. It fully prepares pupils for the next steps in their learning journey and opens the doors to the wider world as life-long learners.
Everything begins with our curriculum drivers. They are woven through all that we do and underpin our shared belief that our role is to support children in understanding their place as a global citizen, having aspirations to achieve, broadening horizons and living the Gospel of life through Catholic Social Teaching.
Our curriculum is carefully planned and designed to provide academic, spiritual, social, and cultural, opportunities for all to develop their character through a focus on virtues and Catholic Social Teaching.
The virtues of respect and responsibility, justice and compassion, confidence and resilience, honesty and self-belief, run through our curriculum and are designed to help pupils develop their sense of self and be ready to move with confidence onto their next chapter.
To promote fundamental British Values and Citizenship we have embedded democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs within our sequences of learning.
Individual subject disciplines are taught explicitly with coherent links created. Our curriculum is sequenced to ensure that knowledge is cumulative.
Substantive and disciplinary knowledge is at the heart of each subject and linked areas of study are exploited to consolidate and embed learning, meaning that mental models are developed over time. We pride ourselves on evidence-informed practice and the highest quality professional development. We understand that memory lies at the heart of learning, we strategically plan opportunities for pupils to recall and remember. This allows memories to be strengthened, meaning that children can draw on previous learning with confidence enabling them to build and connect.
Our curriculum is purposeful and responsive - it aims to:
- Create a positive and supportive environment for all pupils without exception;
- Build an ongoing, holistic understanding of our pupils and their needs;
- Ensure all have access to high quality teaching and access all areas of the curriculum;
- Ensure that the fundamental skills of reading, writing, oracy, listening and numeracy are well established in all subjects from EYFS with academic rigour that challenges all.
- Exposure to the richness of English language so that pupils can access the pleasure of reading, the excitement of writing and to explore new learning concepts.
- Take a metacognitive approach to learning to reduce cognitive load and provide opportunities across the curriculum to engage in debate and critical thinking.
As our children are arranged into mixed aged classes we have developed, cycles of learning (rolling programmes) to ensure that pupils meet threshold concepts for their year group without repeating the same theme of learning.
Our curriculum is central to our school culture and everything that takes place at St William's. Information about all aspects of our curriculum and our culture can be found in our curriculum narrative below.
Curriculum Narrative
Our curriculum is regularly reviewed and updated. Please find the latest copy of our curriculum map below. Included in the curriculum map are links to key documents detailing the skills and knowledge that children will be taught within each subject.
Curriculum Map
Intent, implementation and impact are the key drivers when it comes to our curriculum. More information can be found below.
Curriculum Overview
Our approach to teaching is detailed below.