Our Curriculum

At St Joseph's we follow the requirements and expectations of the National Curriculum set out by our government.

We strive to ensure that all of our children are challenged to achieve their very best by offering a rich, diverse curriculum that enables each one of them to develop academically, physically, socially, morally, spiritually and culturally - to the best of their unique talent and ability.

Our Early Years and Foundation Stage has a strong focus on developing confident and independent learners in an environment of praise and encouragement. We were proud to be awarded the Quality Mark for Early Years in 2018.

We initially overhauled our curriculum in April 2020, to meet the unique needs of our children and our local community. Our teachers work in teams to share ideas and deliver a two-year rolling programme in KS1, Lower KS2 and Upper KS2; building on previous learning and incorporating new knowledge and skills. However, when we put the curriculum into practice over the Summer and Autumn terms of 2021, our teachers (and children) found the curriculum to be too rushed for the children to really embed what they'd learned as we tried to fit in every National Curriculum subject in the school week. Therefore, we have now blocked the subjects we teach together so that children are really immersed in whatever aspect they are focused on and can therefore retain what they've learned much more securely. Have a look at our half-termly curriculum overviews to see exactly what your child is learning at school and how you can help at home.

We also place great emphasis on reading and developing new vocabulary across the curriculum. All our staff have been retrained in the delivery of Phonics in Autumn 2021 so that we can identify exactly which phonic phase your child needs to work on and how we can help them to be secure in their learning. We have bought brand new books and resources so that every reading book that we send home for our infant children matches what they're being taught in class and is phonically decodable. We also hold Phonics training for parents to help with home reading.

As our children returned from the long periods of lockdown following the Covid-19 pandemic, we placed great focus on developing opportunities for them that they had missed, whilst learning was delivered remotely. Our curriculum focused heavily on building social skills, independence, confidence in themselves, physical fitness, mental health and well-being and opportunities to develop knowledge and skill in areas that they weren't able to access when the world stood still...we found that our children blossomed and thrived so our 'Building the Kingdom' curriculum has become a unique part of who we are and what we offer. Have a look at some of the wonderful opportunities our children have enjoyed: