St Philip’s Primary School is committed to meeting the requirements of the Primary National Curriculum and takes into account the recommendations following the National Curriculum Review.

As a church of England School we hold Christ at the centre of all that we do and we have designed a curriculum to enable children to have a sound knowledge base alongside a hierarchy of cognitive skills which they can utilise to make a difference to themselves, to those around them and to their futures. Our children are encouraged to take an outward look at the world around them and our curriculum enables specific time to be given to this.

Our curriculum has recently undergone a number of significant changes however the golden threads running throughout remain constant.

We aim to educate for Wisdom, Knowledge and Skills, educate for Hope and Aspiration, educate for Community and Living Well and educate for dignity and Respect. 

Our ambitious, Whole School Curriculum is defined by  Three  Rich Seams which run throughout each discrete subject. The rich seams for each learning area have been specifically chosen as they link learning from one year group to the next.  They build upon children's knowledge base from one year to the next, covering Year Group Expectations.  These three repeated, rich seams run from Reception to Year six for each subject.  

Our schemes of work reflect the content and challenge required for our learners to achieve all that they are capable of.  Subject Leaders play a key role in the design, implementation and monitoring cycle for which they are accountable.  Teachers have received training in key areas of curriculum change and work hard to provide excellent, well considered curriculum provision.  Children work towards completion of skills ladders for each subject for each unit of learning. 

Skill and knowledge acquisition is progressive and demonstrates breadth and balance as evidenced by the external validation that we have received in a range of curriculum areas including Gold History Mark, School Games Mark and Church School Partnership Awards. Home learning plays an important part in our curriculum delivery in the form of pre-learning, reinforcement, research and partnership with parents.  The curriculum enables strong links with our community and takes account of the ever-changing local and national picture. 

We have designed knowledge organisers for all subject areas.  Teachers design lessons around our golden threads, school vision and values and ensure that children have a secure schema upon which to layer learning -  lessons are lively, engaging, enable recall, repetition and recall of prior learning and importantly include practical elements or active learning.

We ensure that Parents have enough curriculum information to support their child's learning with curriculum subject newsletters, regular parents workshops and opportunities to come into school and share experiences. 

A number of our children are following an individual, more personalised curriculum designed around their own particular need at a pace or depth more suited to their individual requirements.  We work hard to ensure adaptive teaching is at the heart of our offer and we enable all children to access whole class teaching as a result of a carefully planned curriculum offer. 

British Values are woven throughout our whole school curriculum and are rarely taught in isolation. We provide opportunities for children to evoke change, develop leadership skills and explore their own individuality and spirituality.

Each Curriculum map is updated regularly on the class pages to ensure that we are keeping up with "what's hot and what's not!"

The best way to find out about our curriculum is to ask the children and look at each year group page where you will find lots of photographs showing you what's been going on.  Class and subject specific information can be found throughout the website but please ask if you can't find what you are looking for. 

If you would like additional curriculum information we would be delighted to help.  Please contact the school office and speak to the Head Teacher, Subject Lead or Class Teacher.

At St Philip's we believe that the role of subject leader is key to securing success for all our learners. We invest time and money into Continued Professional Development for all lead teachers.  Subject information is then cascaded to all staff during staff meetings, via separate training sessions for key staff or via INSET. If you would like additonal information about individual subjects you are very welcome to contact our Subject Leaders directly. 

Pupil leadership opportunities are woven into our curriculum to enable children to begin to practise transferrable skills. 

Our aim for our children is healthy, happy, fulfilling futures. They begin to gain experience of leadership, organisation, commitment and other "soft" skills which they will need to access the world of work in their first leadership roles here at St Philip's.