Curriculum

The school provides a broad and balanced curriculum that is designed to help our children achieve the highest standards. We expect and encourage children to take an interest in, and responsibility for, their own learning process and we teach them how to evaluate their own progress. The partnership with home is extremely important and we ask all our parents and pupils to sign, and then adhere to, a Home-School Agreement that outlines their rights and responsibilities.

At all levels of the school children are taught:

• Literacy – speaking and listening; reading; writing for different purposes
• Numeracy – eg numbers and algebra; shapes and spaces; measurement and data handling
• Science
• Religious Education
• Information Communication Technology
• Design Technology
• History
• Geography
• Art and Design
• Music
• Physical Education
• Modern Foreign language - French
• Personal Social Health Education – mainly integrated within other subjects, although for older children with specific units on drugs and sex education.

We have introduced cross-curricular teaching and learning to good effect in line with the Government’s ‘Excellence and Enjoyment’ strategy. Pupils examine a theme/topic in detail across a range of subject areas with a variety of outcomes.

Homework

We believe that a balance must always be struck between allowing children the time to be themselves and to take part in activities outside school, whilst undertaking work at home that supports and enriches their school learning.

Homework is set and monitored systematically and regularly throughout the school. This includes reading and spelling practice. Children of all ages take home books on a regular basis and are expected to read to an adult. Homework is normally set on a Tuesday for return on a Friday. The homework load may increase in line with the children’s abilities as they approach secondary transfer.