St. Andrew's Primary School High level curriculum summary

There's no place like St. Andrew's
We have a clarity of purpose, we tell everyone we meet there’s no place like St. Andrew’s and we truly believe it. We need to provide the very best opportunities possible for all our pupils, to engage them through first-hand experiences and enrich their curriculum as widely as possible. To do this we work together to create an environment for learning, through a blended approach, that allows our children to be happy and safe; an environment that allows stimulating, interactive, experiential play and learning opportunities fit for the 21st Century.

St. Andrew’s is proud of the way it has developed as a learning organisation and engaged with all stakeholders during the curriculum design process. The professional practices from the professional standards are a driver for all staff; the way in which these impact on pedagogy permeates through this summary. The curriculum is regularly kept under review through robust self-evaluation processes and a monitoring, evaluation and review cycle that is reviewed and revised annually.

EMBRACING ALL

Wellbeing lies firmly at the heart of St. Andrew’s Primary School. We have a clear commitment to do the best for all children, their families, staff, and other stakeholders of the school. Our whole school approach to wellbeing is firmly embedded within our ‘REACH’ curriculum where we aim to develop learners who are:

RESPECTFUL

ENGAGED

AMBITIOUS

CONFIDENT

HAPPY AND HEALTHY

Metacognition, self-care and behaviour regulation are a primary focus of this curriculum. Learning dispositions are integral to REACH enabling interdependent learners.

St. Andrew’s is an accredited National Nurturing School; our nurturing approach is both literally and metaphorically the fundamental building blocks of the school. Nurture is imperative to the wellbeing, safety, and relationships of children for them to become successful independent learners. The Boxall Profile is fully utilised to assess pupils’ social and emotional development in order to effectively plan to support this.

Family and Community Engagement (FaCE) is central to our curriculum; the school recognises the diverse, ever-changing needs of our learners and we take pride in the positive relationships we have with our community to embed FaCE across all areas of school life. St. Andrew’s invests in a FaCE team who aim to:

  • improve community voice, engagement and collaboration with parents and carers
  • deliver an annual timetable of family and community workshops
  • reduce the impact of food poverty
  • build a recognised community hub at St. Andrew’s.
Family and Community Engagement (FaCE)

The school is committed to Additional Learning Needs (ALN) transformation. Learners on the existing ALN register, and within the mandated cohorts, have been transferred to the new system after in-depth discussions with parents / carers and staff. Person Centred Planning (PCP) meetings regularly take place for learners requiring further support. Edukey is used to manage, monitor and analyse the effectiveness of provisions in place for all leaners.

EMPOWERING EVERYONE

High quality professional learning for all is paramount to developing the best possible curriculum and assessment arrangements. The school has robust induction arrangements for staff who are new to the school. All staff are included in weekly in-house professional learning sessions that are responsive to national, local and school needs. In addition, the school recognises and supports individuals to follow their personal professional learning and leadership pathways. Since its involvement as a Partner Enquiry School in the National Professional Enquiry Project (NPEP) the school is proud of the way professional research and enquiry have evolved and are now an integral part of improving teaching and learning.

Through continued collaboration with cluster colleagues the school has co-constructed and agrees to work towards a Lliswerry cluster vision where every stakeholder should:

INSPIRE . ACHIEVE . BELONG

The school values the transition from Initial Teacher Education (ITE) into the profession and over the past 5 years has strengthened collaboration with ITE partners. St. Andrew’s recognises the importance of developing the best possible teachers and leaders of tomorrow and prides itself on the following ITE partnerships:

  • Employer school with the Open University Wales for salaried PGCE students
  • Clinical Practice School with University of South Wales
  • Lead Partnership School with Cardiff Metropolitan University

The hard work, resources and dedication the school invests to develop the best possible provision for St. Andrew’s learners is acknowledged in its role as a Regional Professional Learning and Curriculum for Wales School and, in addition, a Learning Network School for Early Years and Mathematics, St. Andrew’s regularly shares practice with others. This is a two way process; whilst supporting and sharing with others across the cluster, local schools, the consortium and Wales we are open-minded, inquisitive and open to new learning that could be included in future school development.

Learners are empowered to engage in all areas of the curriculum through Learning Leader teams. The 10 teams devise termly action plans, meet fortnightly and then share progress with our School Council ahead of our termly Senedd meeting with our Senior Leadership Team, Head Boy and Girl and School Council representatives. They are open, honest and instrumental in identifying priorities in the pupil version of the school development plan.

ENSURING PROGRESSION

Collectively, St. Andrew’s community designed a curriculum which enables all children between the ages of 3 and 16 to realise the four purposes of being:

  • ambitious, capable learners
  • ethical, informed citizens
  • healthy, confident individuals
  • enterprising, creative contributors

At St. Andrew’s, learning is achieved with purpose for purpose and is far more than a regurgitation of the statements. Stakeholders have worked collaboratively to develop a shared understanding of how the purposes can be realised in a progressive way through authentic contexts. During co-construction all stakeholders were encouraged to shape the design of the six areas of learning and experience (AoLEs)

  • health and wellbeing
  • humanities
  • mathematics and numeracy
  • languages, literacy and communication
  • expressive arts
  • science and technology

The school uses a progressive cohort tracker which is cyclical in its nature, building on prior knowledge, skills and experiences to inform future teaching and planning. The cohort tracker ensures the What Matters statements and Descriptions of Learning drive our authentic, purposeful projects. It ensures flexibility to allow for learners to make meaningful choices about their future learning.

Progression and assessment is indistinguishable from teaching and learning, ensuring all learners make appropriate progress during their time at St. Andrew’s. We use a range of assessment tools that builds a holistic picture of learner progression and wellbeing. All stakeholders are engaged with learner progress. Learners are active participants in their learning by reflecting on their progress throughout the year, which they share with parents / carers in their end of year reports.

St. Andrew’s curriculum was designed to ensure it values the integral skills of: creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, personal effectiveness and planning and organising which underpin the four purposes. Much of this is achieved through the REACH curriculum as well as a whole school approach to Inquiry Based Learning.

St. Andrew’s acknowledges Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE) is a statutory element to the curriculum and allows learners to explore and critically engage with a broad range of religious and non-religious concepts. We provide rich contexts, encouraging our learners to develop their curiosity of worldwide beliefs whilst embedding a sense of cynefin and self-awareness.

Relationships and sexuality education (RSE) is a key part of the curriculum. Under the new Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021, there will no longer be an option for parents to withdraw pupils from RSE provision. It is statutory for all pupils aged 3 -16, from September 2022. In an age and stage appropriate way, the RSE curriculum will focus on:

  • healthy and safe relationships and what they look like;
  • support and advice for those experiencing, or witnessing, unhealthy relationships;
  • a better understanding of the different types of relationship others may enter into;
  • a clearer understanding of how people might express their sexuality and how this can affect their identity.

St. Andrew’s adopts a Blended Learning approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for face to face learning. Our Together Learning website offers a blend of information, learning opportunities and community engagement experiences. We also regularly update our year group Twitter pages and class Seesaw portfolios to celebrate learning experiences.

EXPECTING EXCELLENCE

The statements of what matters, principles of progression and the descriptions of learning articulate the essence of what underpins learning and provide the same high expectations for all learners. In addition, St. Andrew’s understands the importance of applying the cross-curricular skills of literacy, numeracy and digital competence.

LITERACY

We provide high quality, engaging learning experiences to develop our learners as confident speakers, empathetic listeners, competent readers and creative writers. Purposeful opportunities are planned for to allow learners to transfer newly acquired skills in different, meaningful contexts. We celebrate diversity and inclusivity through the range of media we use to inspire our learners.

NUMERACY

St. Andrew’s provides engaging and purposeful learning opportunities to develop our learners as resourceful, enthusiastic and resilient mathematicians. We promote learners to be active participants in their learning through a range of ‘show me’ strategies. Mathematical concepts are built on, deepened and connected through open ended, exploratory experiences, including utilising the outdoor learning environment.

DIGITAL COMPETENCE

We use a range of innovative toolkits centralised around authentic experiences and opportunities to develop, extend and apply high levels of competence in digital skills in meaningful ways that learners will be able to utilise for the rest of their lives.

Cymraeg Campus Language Charter has raised the profile of Welsh, both in and outside of the classroom, providing children with enriching activities that has propelled their enjoyment of learning Welsh. It has helped to develop a visual Welsh ethos and a more coherent approach to the teaching of Welsh has been established, with a list of ‘non-negotiables’ compiled to ensure consistency across our school.

Curriculum design and review pays due regard to the twelve pedagogical principles with stakeholders regularly encouraged to ask how the curriculum:

ENABLING LEARNING

Effective environments indoors and outdoors at St. Andrew’s are carefully considered to support and challenge all learners. Our physical environments and emotional climate motivate children to explore, solve problems and become independent creative learners. We offer authentic resources and experiences that provide frequent and extended opportunities to practise, rehearse and embed taught skills in a wide range of purposeful contexts.

St. Andrew’s is passionate about providing learners with engaging experiences to enthuse and inspire; authentic resources and onsite and offsite visits are regularly planned. In addition all learners experience the following diet:

The school commits to all learners experiencing music and sport enhanced by external providers.

Outdoor areas are timetabled so that all children engage regularly in forest schools sessions.

Our very own radio station Radio Reach provides a platform for our learners to build confidence, develop oracy skills and showcase the incredible things happening at St. Andrew’s on a day-to-day basis. It’s the soundtrack to St. Andrew’s life!

St. Andrew’s 50 Things are 50 experiences that stakeholders believe every learner should be afforded during their time at St. Andrew’s. Each learner keeps a physical copy which they stamp each time an experience in completed.

The school has embraced Commando Joe’s resources; the programme has been utilised and enhanced to further embed REACH and the realisation of the four purposes. Commando Joe sessions focus on teaching life skills that children need to survive. It supports learners to be ambitious, resilient and confident whilst developing knowledge of inspiring people, both past and present, from around the world.

Trying to explain how special St. Andrew’s is, is like trying to count the stars!