In our opinion as parents, St Botolph’s is an OUTSTANDING Primary School. The entire team of teachers and support staff have continually endeavored to challenge our child and sympathetically support his individual needs. The positive ‘can do’ ethos that exists within this school has facilitated tremendous progress in all aspects of his education….Our son says “I love my school”, that says it all!
The school meets every requirement we have. I’m happy with all areas and feel the school in our eyes is outstanding.
As a family we are really happy with St Botolphs. There is so much clarity and communication about all the important aspects of teaching methods, changes and general information.
Our FS curriculum is underpinned by the needs, interests and abilities of the children. The primary reason for doing it this way is because all pupils are individual, leading to each cohort being individual too. We provide opportunities for pupils to acquire knowledge, skills and understanding in a systematic way that builds on abilities and understanding, as well as any prior learning. Our aim is to have a curriculum that is ambitious for all pupils and for it to be broad and balanced as well as being inclusive for all abilities.
Our Y1-Y6 curriculum is underpinned by the Essentials Curriculum by Chris Quigley. The Essentials Curriculum sets out the essential coverage, learning objectives and standards which are required for all subjects. Furthermore, it provides progress measures for all subjects including personal development.
One of the primary reasons we chose this curriculum is because it emphasises the importance of developing the depth of children’s learning. In essence, this means providing children with increased cognitive challenge, allowing them to apply the skills which they have learnt independently in a range of contexts rather than moving them onto the next skill needlessly when they have not truly mastered it.
We believe this curriculum provides us with a coherent, progressive and appropriately sequenced curricular structure to enable our pupils to develop subject specific knowledge and skills to prepare them well for the next stages of their education. The curriculum, builds progressively on from the learning in the Foundation Stage. The milestones (1, 2 and 3) that are built into our curriculum complements our class structure. The curriculum is aligned to the National Curriculum and goes beyond National Curriculum requirements in each milestone to ensure repetition of skills and knowledge.
We’ve ensured that our curriculum is underpinned by our values and key drivers. We believe it is important that the curriculum both explicitly and implicitly develops these attributes so they are meaningful to pupils and they can see how they affect their daily and future lives.
English and Maths form the core foundations of our curriculum to ensure all children have the key knowledge and skills needed to succeed.
We have mapped out the curriculum for each foundation subject across each milestone (a 2 year cycle). Pupils study four countries in depth over a period of two years. Within each country, themes are explored and different subjects are covered. Choosing this approach enables our children to develop meaningful links and opens their eyes to a world beyond their immediate locality. It also builds their cultural capital, preparing them with the essential knowledge for their future success. Planning in this way ensures all children have access to the full curriculum which progresses in skills and knowledge across the year, we know that during each milestone every learning indicator is covered at least twice so children have the chance to work at a Basic, Advancing and Deep level. This way we know that progression will clearly take place across each milestone and as children progress through FS to the end of KS2, preparing them fully for transition to the next phase in their education.
We feel it is so important to inspire the children with a wealth of additional experiences and opportunities. The children need to have the chance to experience new things, to work with those they wouldn’t normally be with, to try things presented to them in a different way. Each key stage has at least one trip and one inspirational visitor per year linked to their country. In addition, each key stage can access an enhancement opportunity linked to an identified desire/interest. There are also whole school annual trips and visitors, the opportunity to take part in two residentials, and a wide range of extra-curricular clubs and opportunities throughout the year.
Our curriculum builds a community of learners with an excellent attitude to learning in a safe and caring environment.
Children shine at St.Botolph’s and have fun.