Our Curriculum

Our Wider Curriculum

We launched the ‘Our World Curriculum’ at St Bernadette’s in the academic year 2019-20 and continue to develop our curriculum offer.

This curriculum is dynamic, ambitious, rich and varied. It is coherently planned and sequenced to build on pupils’ knowledge and skills. It covers the requirements of the NC whilst providing meaningful, contextualised opportunities for pupils to learn to be responsible, respectful, active citizens of the world who use their God-given talents to contribute positively to society. We have a focus on science, art, music and creativity to enrich the pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

The whole school focuses on 3 overarching themes across the year, with specific topics relating to the overarching theme studied by each year group.

The termly overarching themes are:

1. Our World – our responsibility
2. Our World -  the people and events that shaped it
3. Our World – learning from the past and shaping our future

These were our key priorities in developing our wider curriculum:

• The wider curriculum promotes personal development and wellbeing and supports pupils’ sense of responsibility as citizens of Milton Keynes, the UK and the world.
• The curriculum is ambitious, inspiring and of high quality and promotes high expectations for all groups of pupils  with priority focus on improving outcomes for the vulnerable, disadvantaged and those with SEN
• Lessons are coherently planned and sequenced to ensure pupils build up relevant skills and knowledge for next stages of learning
• Pupils are able to demonstrate that they can remember knowledge taught long term and apply and extend it in new contexts

How can YOU influence our curriculum development?

Our wider curriculum will continue to develop and grow throughout this year and into the future. If you feel that you can contribute to this development, please do not hesitate to contact us. Can you support us in enriching our curriculum by sharing your own experiences, knowledge or by linking us with your business/line of work? Can you support our careers education or any other aspect of our curriculum? We would love to hear from you.

Thank you to the parents who came to the curriculum consultation in October – the feedback was extremely positive. Please click below to see the presentation.

If you would like any further information about what your child will be learning, please speak with your child's teacher or the headteacher. You can find out more about our curriculum through the 'Curriculum Newsletters' page of the website - accessed via the 'Our Learning' tab.

The Curriculum Intent at St Bernadette’s

English and Maths skills are taught daily to ensure our children become competent and proficient learners. Our wider curriculum - Our World - allows the children to apply those skills in a variety of contexts with increased confidence. Reading is prioritised to ensure children access our full curriculum and leave with the skills to support them in their future lives. Mathematical fluency and confidence is key and concepts are embedded to ensure competency and are extended to provide challenge. Through our curriculum we endeavour to make our children successful users of a range of computing skills so they can embrace the social, cultural and economic opportunities that instant global communication offers. Homework tasks support and consolidate learning as well as providing challenging opportunities to explore, research and investigate further.

Our curriculum is designed to give all pupils, including those with SEND or those with different experiences or starting points, the knowledge and skills they need to be independent, confident learners and to be prepared for the next steps in their learning journeys. 

Our classrooms are bright, active places to learn; displays value achievement and working walls aid children through mapping the stages of a learning task, identifying the steps to success and key subject vocabulary. ​

We enrich our curriculum through the use of visits and inspiring experiences. For example, when learning about transport, our Year 1 pupils took a trip on a train. Year 6, when studying the Victorians, learn about early fairgrounds and go on to explore fairground rides at our local theme park. Our older pupils experience a residential visit and throughout the course of academic year there are many themed learning days/weeks such as Smashing Science days, Maths Investigation Days, Healthy Community Week and WOW enrichment days linked to curriculum themes. As a school we recognise the importance of The Arts in promoting creativity, confidence, self-discipline, collaboration, patience, perseverance, and problem-solving – all crucial life skills. We have registered for ARTs mark Award.

Sport and physical exercise are integral to our children’s well-being and so are prominent within our curriculum. We have a Sport Coach who enhances our sport provision and we have introduced the daily mile at St Bernadette’s. We provide numerous opportunities for our children to be involved in representing our school in a variety of disciplines. Throughout Key stage 2, a native French speaker delivers our French lessons. In music, we follow a scheme for non-specialist teachers and make links to our wider curriculum themes where appropriate. Music specialists deliver singing, world percussion and stringed instrument lessons.

Our staff and our parents have high expectations of our children and set aspirational goals. As a result, we provide character-building opportunities for children to develop their leadership skills and promote positive attitudes to learning, valuing achievements both within and outside the school day. We are proud of the way in which we develop our children as leaders and share our strategies with student teachers as part of the Tommy Flowers SCITT training programme. We encourage ‘pupil voice’ and our pupils are instrumental in shaping the vision and direction of our school.  Our Mini Vinnies and Park Rangers work actively with teachers, pupils, governors and the community to address and develop key aspects of the school and local area. We have recently developed an allotment and our own on-site Forest School area – we recognise the value of outdoor learning opportunities. During the academic year 2019-20, we were delighted to be the first school in Northampton Diocese to be awarded the Live Simply Award – a reflection of our unrelenting focus on personal development at St Bernadette’s. Our children are confident communicators who are continually developing and learning and, through encouragement and good modelling, they learn how to work together respectfully and tackle new challenges with resilience. 

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding (SMSC) is integral to our school curriculum and our ethos forms the foundation of all we do at St Bernadette’s. We have an expectation of good manners and behaviour and this is evident in the relationships established between children themselves and between children and adults in our school.

You can find out more about what your child will learn each term via the Curriculum Newsletters page of the website - accessed via the 'Our Learning' tab. If you would like any further information, please speak with your child's teacher or the headteacher.

Don't forget to look at our Class Blogs too!