St Patrick’s R.C. Primary School opened in 1958. Parishioners from St. Patrick’s Church saved for many years to raise the funds needed to build the school. Many of the first pupils to attend St. Patrick’s still live in the local area and some of them now bring their grandchildren to the school. We are proud of our links with the Parish and the whole of the community we serve.
There are currently 242 pupils across the school. 69% of pupils are baptised Catholics and 20% of pupils are entitled to receive free school meals.
The school is situated in a residential area just over a mile south east of the centre of Newport and the M4. It sits within the community it serves in a quiet cul-de-sac and is overlooked by Somerton Park, the former football ground of Newport AFC and speedway track but now a residential area in itself. The area the school serves has seen a great growth in development; mixed housing schemes along the banks of the river and on former industrial sites, the expansion of retail parks, leisure facilities and small industrial units off the link road. The school has grown in numbers to accommodate the population growth and has seven-year group classes as well as a nursery that opened in September 2014.
St Patrick’s is a very diverse and multicultural community that encourages pupils to develop confidence in their own individual identity, whilst also developing a healthy respect for others. 31% of pupils have English as an additional language.
Our school motto, "Together we are One" and our mission statement serve as the foundation for our school curriculum vision. When planning towards the Curriculum for Wales 2022, all stakeholders of St Patrick’s RC Primary School contributed to reviewing our previous practice and building ideas collaboratively for a new and exciting curriculum for the future. Through the daily living of our faith and learning together, celebrating our strengths and embracing our areas for development, with the children’s best interests in our heart, our curriculum intention is to give each individual room to grow on their lifelong learning journey.
We strive to make this vision a reality through the belief that "Together we are one"
Our Pupil Voice Mission Statement (written by the pupils of St Patrick’s R.C. Primary)
We are all different people but belong to God and St Patrick’s School.
Our beliefs overpower the negative energy and our minds learn together.
Knowing that our strengths shine brightly and we can always improve when we find things difficult.
We all have different talents, personalities and family lives but we should all be treated fairly.
We are finding our own paths to follow Jesus’ footprints.
With Christ at the centre of all that we do, together we explore, excite, empower, excel and embrace every individual.
- Explore – to explore and discover new experiences, interests, skills and challenges that will shape them into ambitious, capable learners
- Excite – to excite and ignite a passion for learning across the whole curriculum
- Empower – to empower and nurture a confidence in their own faith, abilities, voice and talents
- Excel – to excel and be the best that they can be
- Embrace every individual – to embrace and celebrate our individuality and feel loved and accepted by all
St. Patrick's Pupil Profile
As a Catholic school we adopt eight pairs of virtues that define what a pupil in St Patrick’s R.C. Primary school aspires to be in order to become a global citizen of the future. We want our pupils to develop a positive and loving relationship with God and lead a Christian life inspired by the Holy Spirit, following in Jesus’ footsteps.
Four Purposes
There are four purposes at the heart of our new curriculum. They are the starting point for all decisions on the content and experiences developed as part of the curriculum to support our pupils to become:
- ambitious, capable learners ready to learn throughout their lives.
- enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work.
- ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world.
- healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.
We have developed a character with a story for each purpose, helping the pupils to understand what each purpose means. The pupils use these to reflect upon the learning dispositions they have used during their lessons. The dragon characters are used widely across the school to self-assess and reflect upon the learning that has taken place.
Meet the dragons!
12 PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES
When planning, staff reflect effectively and develop their teaching practices for the needs of the learners based on the 12 Pedagogical principles.
These principles ensure highly effective teaching and learning:
- Focuses on the 4 purposes of the curriculum.
- Challenges pupils to sustain their efforts to reach high but achievable targets.
- Employs a broad repertoire of teaching approaches
- Promotes problem solving, creative and critical thinking.
- Builds on previous knowledge and experience and engages pupils’ interest.
- Creates authentic contexts for learning.
- Employs assessment for learning principles.
- Makes connections within and across Areas of Learning and Experience.
- Reinforces Cross-curriculum responsibilities including literacy, numeracy and digital competence.
- Encourages pupils to take ownership of their own learning.
- Supports social and emotional development and positive relationships.
- Encourages collaboration.
Cross cutting themes
At St Patrick’s our curriculum incorporates, where appropriate, opportunities for learning and consideration of the following cross-cutting themes.
- Relationships and sexuality education (RSE).
- Human rights.
- Diversity.
- Careers and work-related experiences.
- Local, national and international contexts.
Frameworks that Support the New Curriculum for Wales
St. Patrick’s understands the importance of applying the cross-curricular skills of literacy, numeracy and digital competence. The National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) is designed to help teachers embed literacy and numeracy into all subjects for learners. Digital competence is the set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that enable the confident, creative and critical use of technologies and systems.
At St Patrick’s we are developing a curriculum that has the needs of the child at the centre of everything that we do! Learning needs to be fun, exciting and purposeful. Authentic and meaningful learning experiences are essential in contributing to the pupil’s all round success and achievement. Below are some examples of how this looks at St Patrick’s:
- Woodland Schools
- Senedd groups
- Children’s University
- Life Skills sessions
- Visits and Visitors
Progress and Assessment
The Curriculum for Wales is designed as a continuum of learning which is mapped across progression steps. Through school to school work with our Newport Catholic Primary and High School Cluster we ensure our schools have a shared understanding of progression and assessment.
All teachers make ongoing assessments during lessons through observation, marking and talking to the pupils about their work. Teachers will also use a wide range of other information such as, well-being, ALN, attitudes to learning and formal assessments to inform future planning and support for pupils of all abilities.