To find out more about the curriculum at St. Mary's Bluecoat, please contact us to arrange an appointment to visit and see our curriculum in action!

The Curriculum at St. Mary's Bluecoat Church of England Primary School

Curriculum Vision of The Trinity Federation:

As a federation of Church of England Schools, at the heart of each school’s curriculum is a vision inspired by Jesus’ promise of ‘life in all its fullness’. Our aim is to bring learning alive for our pupils. We want to support our children to flourish and grow in knowledge, skills, talent and wisdom.

At the heart of our curriculum is a set of core Christian values. These underpin our curriculum and the ethos of the school. We place great importance on offering a broad curriculum which develops the whole child. Through our core Christian values, we foster an environment where the social, emotional, physical, academic, moral, spiritual and cultural development of each child is considered.

We firmly believe that everyone is entitled to an ambitious curriculum and where high aspirations benefit all learners. Our curriculum is accessible for all, including children with SEND and from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our curriculum considers the needs of a 21st Century child and is ambitious in providing our children with the knowledge, skills and learning behaviours required to become lifelong learners.

We aim for all children to leave our school with a secure knowledge and understanding of the academic content and with the understanding of how to be socially, morally, and culturally responsible and aware; make positive contributions to their community and endeavour to be the best that they can be; ambitious and with a thirst to live life in all its fullness.

In designing our curriculum, we wanted to ensure;

• It is ambitious for all pupils and provides additional opportunities to inspire ambition within our pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• It is well sequenced and ensures children can systematically build on prior knowledge and skills to know more and do more, securing core skills, creative thinking and essential knowledge and understanding to an age-appropriate level and beyond.
• It is expertly adapted for our pupils with additional barriers to learning.
• It provides careful coverage of the National Curriculum with clear progression from Y1 to Y6 that would provide all children with the opportunity to achieve our curriculum intention in each subject area.
• It provides enrichment opportunities to broaden and enhance the learning experience for all pupils, allowing them to learn through first-hand and practical experiences, make connections and enjoy learning.
• It prepares children for life in modern Britain through a celebration and appreciation of diversity in modern Britain.
• It is flexible and responds to pupils’ feedback, the evaluations of how well pupils learn and make progress, and in pupils’ performance in external and internal assessments.
• It is tailored to meet the needs of our school, in the context of our school’s location and rooted in the needs of our community, drawing on the community, and specifically making links with our church community.
• It provides opportunities for pupils to understand and develop our Christian values.

What is taught?

Our curriculum is a programme of education which sets out the important knowledge and understanding to be gained at each stage of a child’s journey through our school. Our broad curriculum supports children to develop as creative thinkers who think deeply about their learning and because of the careful way in which our curriculum has been sequenced, ensures children are able to make links to and build upon prior learning experiences.

Our curriculum starts in Early Years. We have developed our EYFS curriculum using the Development Matters non-statutory curriculum guidance for the Early Years. Please click on the star below to find out more!

Our Year 1 curriculum builds on what our children know and can do upon transition from EYFS.

At St. Mary's Bluecoat CE Primary School from Years 1 to 6 we follow the National Curriculum, but our curriculum offer is so much more than just the National Curriculum!

The ‘basic’ school curriculum includes the ‘National Curriculum’, as well as relationships, sex and health education, and religious education.

The National Curriculum covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in  English, Mathematics, Science, Art & Design, History, Geography, Music, Computing, Design and Technology (D&T), and Physical Education (PE).

Religious Education is taught in accordance with the Shropshire Agreed Syllabus. This RE syllabus is designed to deepen pupils’ knowledge about religions and develop their ‘religious literacy’ by studying one religion at a time (‘systematic’ units), and then including ‘thematic’ units, which build on learning by comparing the religions, beliefs and practices studied. Understanding Christianity offers an approach to teaching and learning about Christianity with units

of work and supporting resources from EYFS to Year 6. The teaching of RE forms part of the Early Years curriculum for PSED and Understanding the World. The resources have been created by the Church of England Education Office and RE Today and are only available through attendance at a training programme ran by an accredited trainer. Staff have completed this training. Understanding Christianity supports teachers to explore the core concepts of Christianity in a progressive way. The teaching approach is one of theological enquiry and the units of work support both continuity and progression.

Personal, Social and Health Education is also taught. From September 2020 all primary schools in England are required to teach Relationships Education and Health Education. In June 2020 the DfE released an update advising schools that due to disruption caused by Coronavirus they could delay starting teaching RSHE to no later than the beginning of the summer term 2021 if they feel they need additional planning time.

There is no statutory requirement for primary schools to teach sex education beyond what is required in the Science National Curriculum. However, the department for education recommends that children are taught about how a baby is conceived and born prior to leaving primary school and therefore we have included conception and birth in our content at Years 5 and 6. 

You can find full details on what schools need to teach and further guidance below. 

Cultural Capital

Our well-sequenced delivery of the Nation Curriculum is complemented by an exciting variety of visitors and trips, including residential visits for some year groups, sporting activities, citizenship and Forest School.

The government have placed great emphasis on schools developing Cultural Capital. Cultural Capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. We see Cultural Capital as the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits and language that enables individuals to demonstrate their cultural competence and social status. Our school plays a crucial role in developing this through immersing children in dance and music, and planning theatre and gallery visits and historic site visits and by introducing them to literature and art.

Embedding cultural capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children from all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential.

We take great care to enrich learning across the National Curriculum through first-hand and practical experiences; we believe that experiential opportunities are central to children’s learning. Our curriculum is further enriched through the wide range of after-school club provision and sporting competitions, led through our links with the East Shropshire Sports Partnership.