Curriculum
Curriculum Intent Statement
Through our curriculum, children are encouraged to “Bring Forth Christ” and reflect our school’s values in all that they do. We want to utilise resources the surrounding area offers whilst also learning from its rich history. Developing greater links with our parish and local community will help us achieve this and also strengthen our faith. We will cater for the needs and desires of all our children by offering varied and experiential learning opportunities whilst developing an awareness of their responsibilities to the environment as future global citizens. Challenging each child through our inclusive curriculum is important to us but we also want them to learn from their mistakes through the development of their resilience. Finally, we want the children to demonstrate pride in all they do and develop clear aspirations for the future based on their knowledge of the wider world.
The Curriculum at St. Charles'
Religious Education is a central element of our curriculum. We follow the Salford Diocesan scheme – Come and See. Assemblies areheld three times a week and collective acts of worship are a dailybfeature. All children are taught about the Catholic faith, however, parents have the right to withdraw their children from Religious Education lessons, assemblies and collective worship.
Like all schools, we follow the National Curriculum for English, Mathematics, Science, Design and Technology, Geography, History, Music, Art and Design, Physical Education, PSHE and Computing, with Spanish taught in KS2.
Two main methods of teaching are used in school. The first is the teaching of subjects separately and the second is the teaching of subjects using a topic or cross-curricular approach. Maths and English are mainly taught as separate subjects but creative links are made where possible. A high priority is attached to the development and application of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy. Other subjects which tend to be taught separately include Science, Computing, PSHE and PE.
Art and Design, Design and Technology, Geography, History and Music are taught in a block formation. Each subject is allocated 7 weeks throughout the school year and broken down into 2 x 2-week blocks and 1 x 3-week block. This approach allows for great exploration of subject specific skills and aims to ensure appropriate coverage of each. These blocks can be arranged to cover various topics which have a theme that runs through them, e.g. 'Houses' or 'The Romans'.
The times allocated to teaching all the subjects of the Curriculum are:-
Key Stage 1 = 22 hours 15 minutes per week
Key Stage 2 = 23 hours 30 minutes per week
Click on the links below to find out more about the subjects we learn at St. Charles'. There are also links to some helpful resources and websites.
