Curriculum Overview

Our Intent

At St Thomas of Canterbury, our mission is to inspire each child to achieve their full potential through excellent teaching in our Catholic school. 

We seek to develop the ‘whole child’ through our curriculum, which aims to develop their academic knowledge and skills, their spirituality, their creativity and their sense of well-being, to prepare them for the next stage of their learning journey.

Our broad, balanced and inclusive curriculum provides equal access to all learners, including children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with SEND.

Academic

Our curriculum:

  • Sets high expectations for each learner, which enables all children to develop appropriate knowledge and skills across all national curriculum subjects.
  • Provides opportunities for all children to develop their cultural capital through engagement and strong partnerships with the local area.
  • Promotes critical thinking to enable them to make informed choices and decisions.

Spiritual

Our curriculum:

  • Fosters a sense of awe and wonder, which opens the child’s eyes to the possibilities and beauty of the world in which they live.
  • Promotes fundamental British Values and encourages a respect for everyone, embracing all backgrounds and differences, enabling them to become conscientious citizens of the world.
  • Teaches our children to be active Christians, living out their beliefs through acts of charity, love and forgiveness.

Creativity

Through all areas of the curriculum and especially through Music, Art and Drama (The Arts), our curriculum:

  • Provides all children with the opportunity to express themselves through different artistic mediums.
  • Promotes a love and appreciation of The Arts, which develops their analytical and interpretative skills and expands their cultural capital.
  • Sparks the creative process, providing children with opportunities to explore and develop ideas.

Sense of Well-Being

Our curriculum:

  • Aims to develop the physical and mental health of all of our children, enabling them to make healthy lifestyle choices and lead full and productive lives.
  • Aims to develop their ‘Growth Mindset’ (Dweck, 2006) so that they are resilient and confident learners, able to face challenges, manage risks and learn from mistakes.
  • Provides opportunities for our children to have ‘a voice’ and be able to articulate themselves and communicate effectively with others.

Our Implementation

We use the national curriculum statutory requirements as the basis for our long term and medium term planning.

The curriculum is planned to provide opportunities to revisit learning to enable children to ‘learn more, know more, remember more’ (Ofsted framework, 2019).

Appropriate knowledge and skills are taught in a well thought out and progressive way.

Links between subjects are made where possible. Lessons are tailored to suit the needs of every child.

The curriculum is delivered through secure teacher subject knowledge in all subjects and the use of specialist teachers, where appropriate.

Our Impact

For more information on each individual subject’s impact, please click on their respective tabs under ‘Curriculum’.