HW Secondary
Curriculum
St Michael’s Catholic School Curriculum
Rationale:
The curriculum at St Michael’s Catholic school must be flexible, personalised and fully inclusive, supporting students’ learning, progress and achievement. It must raise standards, stretch the most able, and narrow any gaps in achievement and attainment for all our students. The curriculum focuses on cumulative knowledge attainment and is designed so that students develop the depth of understanding required to access all GCSE subjects as they progress through their education.
Curriculum Intent:
To provide a well-rounded and ambitious curriculum that offers the students at St Michael’s both breadth and depth in terms of the subjects they study and the expertise that they gain through the pursuit of those subjects.
Achieve: Our curriculum focuses on the individual needs of all students to ensure that they gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to pursue their future goals and aspirations.
Faith Filled: Through our curriculum we focus on the growth of the whole person and educating them to become morally and socially conscientious individuals.
Community: The needs of all students are carefully considered to ensure that each student receives a balanced diet to suit their individual needs to thrive in our community.
Curriculum Implementation:
Each department must have schemes of learning related, where appropriate, to the National Curriculum and to examination board requirements. Schemes of learning must be followed by all departmental staff and monitored by Heads of Department. Schemes of learning must establish how the course content is structured, so that students’ skills, knowledge and understanding are developed progressively.
Our teachers will have a detailed understanding of the curriculum structure and sequence, recognising how each lesson’s learning fits into the pupils’ broader development within the subject. Teachers will know what skills students are expected to have gained at each stage of the curriculum and how these cumulatively prepare students for the rigours of the GCSE exams in their subject.
Relevant and appropriately challenging home learning must be provided for all students, with appropriate time given for students to complete the tasks set. Teachers are expected to use various online programmes including GCSE Pod, SPARXs, and Lexia to support them. All home learning will be posted on Class Charts to ensure that all students have a clear understanding of all homework set.
All lessons implement various strategies to ensure that all students, regardless of their contexts or backgrounds, succeed. At St Michael’s we focus on quality first teaching as the primary method to secure pupil attainment. For those students who struggle to access the curriculum, we work with our teaching staff through a carefully crafted CPD programme to devise and put in place the necessary ‘ladders’ to support them within lessons. In addition to this, our inclusion of ability groups in Maths, English, Science, and Religious Education allows for us to ensure that our class sizes are relatively small for those students who may find it challenging to access some of the complexities of the curriculum. This nurturing approach is fundamental in allowing all the opportunity to take part in a broad and balanced curriculum.