Overview

OUR CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

 

Curriculum Intent:

The curriculum at St James’ is inspired by John 10:10. It aims to give every child, regardless of starting points, background or ability, the opportunity to live life to the full and use their gifts and talents for the common good

The whole curriculum is underpinned by our VERITAS values:

• Excellence: a challenging academic curriculum 
• Resilience : a responsive PSHCE and RSE curriculum 
• Integrity: a curriculum tailored to meet the needs of individuals  
• Trust: a pastoral curriculum that supports each child at every stage 
• Aspiration: a broad and varied extra curricular offer 
• Service: a well established house system and pupil leadership programme  

 

Therefore our curriculum:

• Is holistic, encompassing academic disciplines, enrichment, cultural capital and character development
• Develops mastery, with knowledge being developed from Year 6 to Year 13 through detailed curriculum plans which track back from KS5 to KS2
• Is knowledge based and planned for the layering of knowledge in order that students can build a ‘web’ of information.
• Is engaging and challenges students to think and speak ‘like experts’
• Promotes literacy and oracy
• Promotes VERITAS and the individual search for truth by teaching critical thinking. 

Information about our curriculum can be fouind below: 

The curriculum at St James’:

• Is holistic, encompassing academic disciplines, enrichment, cultural capital and character development
• Develops mastery, with knowledge being developed from Year 6 to Year 13 through detailed curriculum plans which track back from KS5 to KS2
• Is knowledge based and planned for the layering of knowledge in order that students can build a ‘web’ of information.
• Is engaging and challenges students to think and speak ‘like experts’
• Promotes numeracy, literacy and oracy
• Promotes VERITAS and the individual search for truth by teaching critical thinking. 

 

Holistic, encompassing academic disciplines, enrichment, cultural capital and character development

 

In Years 7&8, all pupils study the full range of national curriculum subjects. Pupils in Years 7 and 8 are given independent careers and further education advice and guidance as part of their PSHCE curriculum and via the tutor programme. At the end of Year 8, pupils choose options for GCSE.

 

We have designed Year 9 as a transition or gateway year, where students begin building the knowledge for GCSE in their chosen option subjects but continue to have access to as broad a range of subject disciplines as possible through a year-long cross-curricular extended study taught in a carousel. History, Geography, Art, Music and Drama therefore continue to be taught to all students in Year 9 regardless of options choices.

Trips and visits are carefully planned to enhance the taught curriculum and provide a “window on the world”. We recently introduced the St James’ Student Portfolio, in which students record their participation in the range of activities that we consider necessary to a full and rounded academic and character education.

 

Our extra-curricular offer is broad and varied, and participation is carefully tracked to ensure that all students benefit. 

 

Develops mastery, with knowledge being developed from Year 6 to Year 13 through detailed curriculum plans which track back from KS5 to KS2

 

Middle and senior leaders have worked together to develop a clear and coherent vision for curriculum at a whole-school and subject level. Curriculum ‘one-pagers’ outline the intent and implementation of the curriculum for each subject; detailed curriculum maps enable teachers to have a clear understanding of the journey the curriculum is taking the students on and then plan their lessons to fit that journey. Information is shared with students and parents via the subject websites which form the curriculum section of the school website, and through the student-friendly version of each subject’s one-pager which is shared with students and stuck into their books.

 

All subjects have planned their curriculum around threshold concepts. This requires teachers and subject leaders to have a deep understanding of what makes up the foundations of each subject, as threshold concepts are  the ‘conceptual gateway’ that  enhance the ability of learners to master their subjects. Essentially they are fundamental concepts which allow students to “make contextual sense” of what they are being taught, allowing them to integrate ideas within a certain discipline, build upon or layer knowledge in their heads as well as enhance their communication of subject specific terminology.

 

The school has a comprehensive transition programme whereby the KS3 leads in English, Maths, Science and RE liaise closely with colleagues from our primary feeder schools to ensure that our curriculum in Year 7 builds on what students have learned in KS2 and that there is no overlap. This programme will extend to non-core subjects over the next academic year. SATs data is analysed carefully for each cohort in order that whole cohort strengths and weaknesses can be identified, ensuring that teachers are identifying and closing any gaps as quickly as possible.

 

 

Is knowledge based and planned for the layering of knowledge in order that students can build a ‘web’ of information.

 

With threshold concepts at their heart, we have created subject curricula that are:

Transformative, because they enable a “new way of seeing” meaning that students can move onto the next stage in their learning and apply their knowledge in more complex ways;

Interconnected because threshold concepts enable students to access new knowledge at a deep level, allowing the new knowledge they gain to be organised into a ‘knowledge web’ to be drawn upon later;

Integrative, because they allow students to clearly understand the interrelatedness of subject content, allowing them to draw upon a wealth of interrelated information and use it to approach new problems.

 

Our curriculum vision is underpinned by an understanding of the difference between content (knowledge), skills and concepts. Once students understand the key concepts or big questions that underpin each subject discipline, they are able to contextualise their learning and apply their knowledge in a more sophisticated way, enabling them to become ‘experts’ in each subject. Therefore, teachers have worked to design a curriculum which combines all of these features and allows students to layer their knowledge over time, returning to the foundational concepts over and over again to reduce cognitive load.

 

In summary, it is the aim of the school that through a carefully planned curriculum all students in all subjects will be hitting the ‘Golden Zone’; that is, a critical understanding of each academic discipline which allows for a balance between knowledge, concepts and skills.

 

Is engaging and challenges students to think and speak ‘like experts’

 

Heads of Department and senior staff have worked together around the continued promotion of academic language. Students and staff both understand the importance of high quality verbal contributions in class. Teachers will regularly prompt students to speak using a higher academic register, either by reminding them to speak in full sentences or asking them to verbally redraft their contribution using more explicit academic vocabulary. Every lesson taught in the school is planned around a high level of challenge, with regular modelling so all students are aware of what excellence looks like and what they should be aiming towards.

Promotes numeracy, literacy and oracy

Literacy, oracy and numeracy are a key focus for all staff in all subjects. Numeracy is not something just left to the Maths department nor is literacy/oracy something exclusively tackled by English.  Discussion in groups, pairs or as a class is a feature of all lessons (excluding assessment lessons). All staff actively promote the St James’ ‘Rules for Talk’ so students can master the soft skills required for successful debate and discussion and the pedagogical strategy of the Socratic dialogue is known to all years.

Reciprocal reading is a strategy embedded across all subjects, and is further used to promote literacy during tutor time at KS4 and KS5. This allows for students to work together and take an active role in their reading; engaging with the meaning of the text itself, clarifying key vocabulary and having the opportunity to discuss any questions raised by the text. In KS3 students also complete the accelerated reader programme, taking responsibility for their reading by choosing their own books and completing online quizzes to support their understanding. Parents have the opportunity to review books their children are reading as part of their ‘online bookshelf’.

Reading for pleasure is consistently promoted across all year groups as all students have allocated ‘reading lessons’ both in class and in the library.  Literacy is further supported by the annual celebration of world book day where a variety of authors are invited into the school to speak to students and students take part in the school ‘readathon’.

Academic literacy is promoted across subject areas through widespread use of glossaries and key word banks. These are shared with students in lessons, make up part of displays within classrooms and are accessible to students outside of lessons via their Google Classroom.  Teachers will regularly set spelling tests for students in class in order to build up their knowledge of key words and academic literacy over time.

Literacy, numeracy and oracy are also promoted through our house system. Students have the opportunity to take part in our annual spelling bee and number quest as well as the Jack Petchy Speak out challenge.

 

Promotes VERITAS and the individual search for truth by teaching critical thinking. 

All lessons at St James’ are planned around our enquiry learning based pedagogy. All lessons open with a question instead of a title which students will either be able to answer by the end of the lesson or by the end of the scheme of work.

 

This allows for mastery and application, as learning is contextualised and connected rather than in random ‘buckets’ of stand alone information. Every lesson at St James’ is planned around maximum student independence, with the teachers role being that of facilitator rather than instructor.

 

Each subject at St James’ has an individual pursuit for truth as part of their curriculum intent and a high level of challenge planned into each curriculum means students are taught from Y7 to think both critically and independently.

 

St James’ is unique in offering the EPQ level 1 project to students in Y7 and 8, allowing them the opportunity to write a critical research paper on a topic of their choice.

 

 

 

The outline of our current curriculum is detailed below

KEY STAGE 3

 

Set Groups

English, Mathematics, Science, Modern Foreign Languages, Geography, History, Religious Education

Mixed Ability Groups

Art, Drama, Design & Technology, ICT, Music

 

KEY STAGE 4

Religious Education	Hair & Beauty
Art	History
Art Photography	Languages
	French
Business Studies	Spanish
Construction	Mathematics
Design & Technology:	Media Studies
Product Design
Food Technology	Music
Drama	Physical Education
English Language	Psychology
English Literature	Science
	Biology
ICT & Computing	Chemistry
Creative iMedia	Physics
	Additional Science
Geography

 

Set Groups

Mathematics, English, Science, Religious Education and ICT & Computing

Other subjects are in mixed ability groups

 

KEY STAGE 5