Curriculum

Love God, Love One Another

 Curriculum Intent and Rationale

Saint Aidan’s is a one-form entry Catholic primary school situated in Wythenshawe. We are keen to provide a curriculum that ensures everyone in our community feels valued and accepted. We are a happy, caring school with a strong sense of community, we benefit from family support across generations. Our Catholic ethos is central to all we do and we are a truly ‘Christ-centred’ school.

Saint Aidan’s is a school where we teach our pupils to believe they can succeed linked to the choices they make and accessing the opportunities that are available to them. Our curriculum looks to raise aspirations, by providing pupils with a wide range of experiences, developing their cultural capital, as well as teaching them about human creativity and achievement.

We want our pupils to be outward-facing, helping them to recognise the potential they have to make a positive contribution within, not just our own community, but on a global scale.

The school mission statement helps frame our curriculum intent

Christ is at the centre of all we do

Here, we value each other as a unique child of God and citizen of the future

Respect for everyone and the world we live in is at the heart of our Catholic teaching and learning

In our Catholic primary school we nurture, educate and inspire the whole child to develop independence and confidence so as to reach their full potential

Spiritual, social, moral and cultural growth is actively encouraged through prayer, study, worship and creative liturgy, also the wider life of school

Together we create a safe, happy, healthy and welcoming environment for all who enter our school community

We are committed to helping our pupils make links across themes and subject disciplines, by providing a cohesive, progressive learning journey. We believe the curriculum should be connected in a meaningful way, evidencing clear progress in knowledge and skill-building, and should demonstrate a consistent approach throughout school.

 

Rationale for Implementation

Our curriculum links with the seven principles of Catholic Social Teaching, which are:-

Life and dignity of the human person 

Solidarity

Care for God’s creation 

Call to family, community and participation 

Option for the poor and vulnerable 

Rights and Responsibilities 

Dignity of work and rights of workers 

 

As a school, we have chosen the following key values, 

Equality, Understanding, Respect, Co-operation, Kindness 

Tolerance, Respect, Resilience, Courage, Humility 

Happiness, Friendship, Inspirational, Respect, Tolerance 

Responsibility for God’s World, Respect, Hope, Determination 

 

As a school we want our pupils to fully appreciate and embrace cultural diversity, learning about and experiencing a range of different cultural and faith heritages. We actively and explicitly promote cross-cultural friendship, respect, tolerance and understanding through our curriculum.

We believe that communication is key to accessing learning and securing pupils’ future success. We are committed to developing language skills and, with a school focus on speaking and listening, we are able to develop pupils’ skills through the communication focus by giving children a voice.

We also feel our pupils need a more structured approach to developing greater awareness and appreciation of local, national and global conservation issues and initiatives, learning how they have an important role to play in sustainability.

We want to maintain the high standards of behaviour we see around school and help pupils to become increasingly responsible, educated citizens, who are able to develop their self-regulation skills and able to recognise the triggers to conflict and learn how to disagree well.

Our curriculum offer will ensure our children grow in confidence in their learning and are able to develop their skills and talents in all areas.