Our Curriculum
Curriculum Intent
At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Ulverston, our curriculum is driven by Gospel values, high expectations, and the ambition for every child to achieve their full potential. We see each child as Unique, Talented and Valued.
We provide a broad, balanced, and ambitious curriculum that nurtures academic excellence, personal growth, and spiritual development. Learning is carefully sequenced to ensure knowledge and skills are built progressively, enabling pupils to be confident, resilient, and independent learners.
Rooted in our Catholic faith, our curriculum enables pupils to recognise that they are made in the image and likeness of Christ. They are encouraged to follow His example, to see Him in others, and to let their light shine in all that they do.
Our inclusive approach ensures that every pupil, regardless of background or barrier to learning, is supported and challenged to succeed. In doing so, we prepare them not only for the next stage of their education but also to contribute positively to society as compassionate, responsible citizens.
We enhance the curriculum for our children by considering our locality and cultural capital. Our drivers are: Outdoors, Growth, Diversity and Curiosity.
Our Implementation
St Mary's has a coherent school wide model of pedagogy across the school and across subjects. This can be seen in the responsive teaching model:
Our lessons at St Mary's are structured in the following way:
- Retrieval/Connect
- Vocabulary
- Model/Explain (I do)
- Check for Understanding (We do)
- Independent Application (You do)
- Challenge (Thinking Hard)
- Review
Our curriculum plans are well structured and set out in a way which builds on prior learning, ensures high expectations and supports teacher workload.
Teachers demonstrate a high level of ambition for their pupils and the ongoing use of questioning; vocabulary building and application are features of agreed pedagogy.
The Curriculum for Unity School’s Partnership (CUSP) is used for English, science, history, computing, music, French, art, DT and geography. This is an ambitious, evidence-based curriculum with a focus on vocabulary. End points are identified and carefully planned for, building on previous knowledge. Long term plans comprehensively map out what is taught across the school in all subjects.
See our CUSP sequence below:
We have mixed aged classes and we follow a two year cycle for our foundation subjects. No matter where the children begin the cycle, whether it be year A or B, they will build on and deepen prior knowledge and develop skills.
