St Gregory's Catholic Primary School 'Loving and Learning'

St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School 

‘Loving and Learning’ 

The St Gregory’s Curriculum  

At St Gregory’s, our curriculum is inspired by our motto, ‘Loving and Learning’. We aspire to be a learning community, guided, and inspired by the love of Christ. To achieve this, our Mission Statement provides the foundations for our St Gregory’s Curriculum: 

We love all those with whom we come into contact as taught to us by Jesus through the Gospels. 

We learn to the best of our ability and serve others using our God given talents. 

As a Catholic school, our curriculum is focused on developing the whole child – emotionally, spiritually, socially, and morally as well as academically. At the ‘Big Assembly’ at St Mary’s University in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said this to a group of pupils from across the whole U.K.: 

‘In your Catholic schools, there is always a bigger picture over and above the individual subjects you study, the different skills you learn. All the work you do is placed in the context of growing in friendship with God, and all that flows from that friendship. So, you learn not just to be good students, but good citizens, good people…A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.’ 

That is the guiding principle behind our St Gregory’s Curriculum.  

At the centre of our curriculum and the life of our school is Jesus Christ.  

Our curriculum has been designed to enable our pupils to develop the following characteristics: 

• Reflective Thinkers: Pupils examine what they have learned and develop their own actions. Pupils will be open to new experiences which will develop their own reasoning skills, that will enhance their learning further
• Resilience Builders: Pupils will be persistent and determined within a variety of situations; pupils will overcome problems with a ‘can do’ attitude. 
• Curious Enquirers: Pupils will have a thirst for knowledge and are taught to delve deeper by questioning and challenge. Pupils are inspired and enthusiastic to learn through engaging sequences of lessons, each of which builds on prior knowledge leaving pupils intrigued to know more and to be proactive in their next steps. 
• Connection Makers: Pupils to make links within their learning enabling them to apply their knowledge and skills to different situations. Pupils will embed their learning by practising taught skills and acquiring new knowledge for them to make progress. 
• Problem Solvers: Pupils to be able to overcome problems positively within their daily lives and their learning by systematically exploring alternative routes and strategies to get to their end destination. 
• Creative Visionaries: Pupils will be taught strategies to creatively respond to different activities by being innovative, exploring and by being imaginative thinkers.
• Relationship Builders: Pupils to be able to work on their own, in pairs and teams- listening, supporting, and valuing what each person brings to the group; pupils will work on empathising with others in different situations.

Our school mission is to ensure every pupil knows that God has created them to be unique, to live out the Gospel values and to become trusting, forgiving, and loving people.  Our curriculum reflects these values, and everyone is encouraged to use God's gifts fully to be challenged to reach his or her full potential. Our pupils will be taught knowledge and skills that enable them to lead purposeful, successful lives and make a positive contribution to 21st Century British society.  

We will achieve this through a well-sequenced, coherent curriculum which is: 

• influenced by the Catholic values, principles of Catholic Social Teaching and Fundamental British Values which are at the heart of our school ethos 
• broad and balanced to ensure our children learn across a wide spectrum of subjects 
• a language rich culture that enables pupils to articulate their thinking and express themselves 
• inclusive and accessible for all pupils. 

Implementation 

The St Gregory’s Curriculum is designed to be: 

• sequential with learning set out to revisit and dig deeper into key knowledge and skills as children get older 
• set out in subject areas with links made where appropriate 
• includes real life experience and enquiry challenges to engage children 

• focused on language and connecting reading and writing to oracy - by providing cross curricular opportunities for reading as well as reading for pleasure approaches 
• well planned, with engaging lessons that aim to positively impact the learning of all pupils in our school and, as a result, improve outcomes. 

Whilst this curriculum is taught and learned, it will continue to be developed, where necessary, to reflect the needs and lives of our learners and the changing demands of the 21st Century West Midlands, the U.K., and the wider world.