Our Curriculum

Our Curriculum has been designed to ensure each and every child is valued as an individual, included and inspired to be a creative and thoughtful life-long learner. We strive to provide engaging and memorable learning experiences that connect subjects and demonstrate clear links, inspiring all of our children to confidently ask challenging questions. Through our ambitious and engaging curriculum, we want to motivate our children to acquire critical thinking skills so that they can become independent, positive, resilient learners, who have high aspirations for their future.

Our children are encouraged to aim high with stimulating lessons and enriching extra-curricular activities and visits linked to our subjects. Our curriculum is progressive, building on prior knowledge and supporting our children’s personal development, nurturing respect for themselves and others, not only in our school but in our local community and the wider world; as part of our school vision and ethos. It develops imagination, flexibility, curiosity, independence, investigation and problem solving.  In this way, children can achieve and become creative learners, who are inquisitive, self-motivated and independent; this enables all of our children to develop as unique individuals as part of our ‘Character Education’.

Our rich and varied learning environments promote and celebrate learning.  Teachers’ excellent subject knowledge ensures that subject matter is presented clearly, which enables pupils to learn effectively, make connections and remember the content that has been taught.  Skilled staff are also able to provide high-quality support for colleagues who are teaching outside their own areas of expertise by providing face-to-face coaching or on-line systems, which support teachers’ planning and delivery of lessons. 

Assessment is used effectively to check pupils’ understanding, identify misconceptions or next steps so that immediate, personalised feedback can be given to support or challenge our learners.

Children at St Michael’s are successful: they achieve well, both academically and pastorally. They develop healthy relationships and, through our promotion of Equality and Diversity, our children become well- balanced individuals that will flourish in modern Britain.

For more information on the National Curriculum click here. For more information on our curriculum, please contact the subject lead (found in each year group’s Curriculum Outline) via our email address .

Staff Training

“Learning is memory – or to put it another way, if what we teach doesn’t enter the long-term memory of our students then actually, we haven’t taught them anything. So, then, how can we hack the memory process so that learning (and progress, achievement and better grades) can happen? I give you the up-to-date neuroscience (in very manageable and memorable chunks) and link that neuroscience to specific teaching approaches and strategies”. Robin Launder.

The staff at St Michaels recently had a training session with Robin Launder, that investigated 12 strategies to improve memory in our classrooms. Memory and how to hack it! might be a useful link for everyone in our school community.

                               

                                                                         FOREST SCHOOL

Forest School is an inspirational process that offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem, through hands on learning experiences in our school area.

Forest School is a specialised approach that sits within and complements the wider context of outdoor learning. St Michael’s aims to provide holistic, learner led forest school sessions for all our Junior School children, in our Forest School areas. Our sessions in the outdoor environment offer children opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem through hands on learning experiences. Learning experiences are loosely structured in order to accommodate the interests and curiosity of each child.

Today’s children are not always as confident in taking risks. Forest School enables children to experience managed risk and make their own decisions and therefore help produce more confident individuals. Physical activity through games, crafts and play encourages better development of gross and fine motor skills; a more balanced and a fitter child. Forest Schools differ from other forms of learning in that they focus on the whole person. In an environment outside the formal educational settings of classrooms, it creates its own learning environment framed by safety routines and established boundaries. Children experience active learning, in a less structured manner which suits the individual learning styles of many children.