Expectations & Priorities

At Our Lady & St Patrick's, children are expected to work hard and demonstrate positive learning behaviours in order to achieve their own potential, as well as contribute to the school and wider community.

We have high expectations of attendance, achievement, effort and behaviour. We are committed to working in partnership with parents as we believe that when home and school work closely together we get the best outcomes for our pupils.

Our pupils have access to a wide range of opportunities which promote personal safety and pupil voice, with all children being actively involved in whole school decision-making through the School Council and many positions of responsibility. 

Our curriculum also recognises the importance of pupils’ physical and mental well-being in shaping their long term life-style choices.

Reading across all curriculum areas is a priority to extend and deepen pupils understanding and use of vocabulary. We want pupils to develop a love of reading during their time at OLASP and be exposed to a range of classic and contemporary literature. The use of the school library and class shared texts are pivotal to this.

Children across the school have access to a wide range of extra-curricular activities in both sport, music and the creative and performing arts. Visitors are regularly invited into school, educational and residential visits are carefully chosen to deepen understanding and we make the most of our beautiful local environment to enhance children's learning experiences.

Delivering our Curriculum

We use a range of successful leaning programmes to enable us deliver our curriculum at OLASP:

• In English, we adopt the 'I am a Clever Writer' approach, with specially selected, high-quality texts at the heart of each unit of work.

• In Maths, we adopt a mastery approach through the implementation of the White Rose Maths Scheme.

• In computing, we follow the DfE approved 'Teach Computing' scheme of work.

• From Summer 2024, we will implement the KAPOW Primary schemes of work to provide engaging, knowledge-rich and progressive learning sequences in the Foundation Subjects (history, geography, MFL (Spanish), art & design & design technology). 

• In RSHE, we implement the Ten:Ten Scheme 'Life to the Full'

• In PE & Music we offer a bespoke curriculum, utilising the expertise of specialist sports coaches and a professional music teacher

Teachers as Learners

Continuing Professional Development for all staff is a priority to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver the highest standards across the entire curriculum.

Music and sports specialists work alongside teaching staff to enhance curriculum delivery. Subject Leaders have the necessary expertise to play a pivotal role in both the design and delivery of their subject area; ensuring a clear progression of both skills and knowledge across all year groups, underpinned by a robust assessment system. They can confidently articulate how learning is re-visited and developed year-on-year, to ensure depth of learning across the school.

Planning

The fundamental starting point for our curriculum is The National Curriculum, which sets out the standards and coverage for all subjects to be taught in Primary Schools, through its Programmes of Study. 

This is supported by careful consideration of the progression of skills for each subject and year group - both within year and year on year as children move through school.

We also give careful thought to how these essential requirements for learning can be matched to our school's specific Curriculum Drivers which underpin what we want our children to learn specifically - including how and why it is important for them as learners in our school. 

Teaching

Next, and very importantly, we ensure Quality First Teaching for all children, through careful planning, resources and differentiation in all lessons.

This means that all children can enjoy, engage and achieve in their daily lessons, regardless of their background, ability, additional need or any other potential barrier to learning. Teachers work closely with our SENCo to ensure that teaching approaches are suitable for the needs of all our learners.

Assessment

Our Assessment Schedule ensures that we carefully assess and review children's progress and attainment at  regular intervals throughout the year. These formal assessments are combined with teachers' ongoing 'Assessment for Learning', which underpins the teaching sequence in all our lessons.

Teachers work together to moderate the results of these assessments to enable them to reach holistic overall judgements about how well children are doing at regular intervals through the year, as part of our assessment cycle.

This assessment process means we have a very clear picture of learning and can adapt our plans or provision quickly to address any problems or gaps, in order to ensure that all children enjoy and achieve, to the very best of their ability. 

It also enables us to implement swift & timely evidence-based interventions where necessary, to address any issues which may arise and enable children to 'catch up' quickly.