“Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.”
St Padre Pio
A broad and balanced curriculum:
We have daily phonics, writing and maths lessons. We follow the RWI scheme for phonics and we also do daily supported reading sessions. We follow the White Rose maths scheme. Writing is based on the national curriculum and inspired by books which have been specifically chosen to be inspiring and with characters and authors who are diverse and representative of our pupil population.
We have two and half hours of religion lessons per week and daily act of worship. On the last Friday of every half term, we learn about a different principle of Catholic Social Teaching.
We teach topic each week. We switch between teaching either geography or history every term. Our Art and DT are linked to our topic for each half term. We have a different science topic each half term and we complete an experiment at the end of each topic. In Summer term 2, we have a STEM week where we focus on one topic and develop our science skills by doing lots of experiments. In Summer term 2, we have a variety of special weeks including sports week, social action week, STEM week, work week, Spanish week and art week.
PE, music and Spanish lessons are carried out by specialist teachers and taught every week. We have celebration assemblies every Friday where children get their head teachers awards and parents/carers are encouraged to attend. We also have class assemblies each term. Every year KS1 perform a nativity at Christmas.
School procedures:
- Children must come to school in full uniform and with all items labelled.
- We encourage all students to bring a reusable plastic bottle with water to school each day.
- Medication: Please ensure all medication goes through the office where you wil be asked to complete a form. Parents/carers should not leave any medication in their child’s bag.
- Birthdays - Children are allowed to come to school in their own clothes on their birthday. We do not allow any snacks or party bags to be given out in school.
Homework
We change reading books every Tuesday. It is important that children bring their books and reading records every day to school. Teachers and support staff read these books with the children in the mornings and make comments in their reading journals regularly. Teachers will also move children to the next reading level when appropriate.
Maths and literacy homework are set on Education City every Tuesday. Children are given out passwords and logins at the start of the year.
Parental/ carer support:
The best way parents can help is by taking an interest in learning and progress. This can be achieved simply by asking children about their day, checking Class Dojo for updates and supporting children with their homework. It is also important that children get a good night’s sleep and that they come to school in full uniform with their reading record and books ready to learn.
We are committed to developing a good relationship with parents and feel communication is key to this. We have parents evening in the Autumn and Spring terms. A written report is ent home at the end of the Summer Term with an optional parents meeting should parents wish. If you want to speak to teachers about something briefly you can speak to them in the morning or evening at the door. If you wish to organise a meeting with the teacher, you can do so through the office.
How parents/carers can help with reading:
- Listen to your child read every night for at least 15 minutes and record in reading record.
- Join and visit your local library regularly
- Read picture books to you child before bed to promote a love of reading.