Our aim at St Luke's Park Primary School  is to offer a broad and balanced curriculum, which inspires children to achieve excellence and enjoyment in their learning. We have devised a range of topics for each year group, which provides wide and varied opportunities for academic achievement across all subjects. These topics allow children to be enthused and engaged through a cross curricular approach. Through this cross curricular approach we aim to nurture and develop pupils' skills and talents through the breadth and creativity of the curriculum in school and in extra-curricular activities.

Art and Design

Art, craft and design embody some of the highest forms of human creativity. A high-quality art and design education should engage, inspire and challenge pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and design. As pupils progress, they should be able to think critically and develop a more rigorous understanding of art and design. They should also know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation. 

Computing

St. Luke's Park Primary School believes computing to be an essential part of a curriculum, which equips children to use computational thinking and creativity to understand the world. Computing plays a significant part of all our daily lives and should therefore be integral to children’s learning both as a standalone subject and also woven into other curriculum areas. We want children to be enthused about computing and equipped with the capability to use technology throughout their lives. We believe that technology can provide: collaborative learning opportunities; better engagement; easier access to rich content; develop conceptual understanding and can support the needs of all our pupils, throughout the curriculum. Computing lessons can provide a wealth of learning opportunities and transferable skills explicitly within the computing lesson and across other curriculum subjects.

It is our intention to provide an exciting, rich, relevant and challenging computing curriculum for all pupils, which instils critical thinking, reflective learning and a ‘can do’ attitude for all our learners. We teach pupils to become responsible, respectful and competent users of data, information and communication technology and to equip them with skills, strategies and knowledge that will enable them to reap the benefits of the online world, whilst being able to minimise risk to themselves or others. We encourage opportunities to use technology imaginatively and creatively and to develop computational thinking beyond the computing curriculum.

On leaving our school, children will have gained key knowledge and skills in the three main areas of the computing curriculum: computer science (programming and understanding how digital systems work), information technology (using computer systems to store, retrieve and send information) and digital literacy (evaluating digital content and using technology safely and respectfully). The objectives within each strand support the development of learning across the key stages, ensuring a solid grounding for future learning and beyond.

Design and Technology

Through the study of design and technology, children combine practical skills with an understanding of material, aesthetic, social and environmental issues which helps them to prepare for the developing world. It should assist children in developing a greater awareness and understanding of how everyday products are designed and made. Our design and technology curriculum encourages children to become creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team. We want to support all children to become discriminating and informed consumers and potential innovators.

Geography

At St. Luke's Park Primary School, we aim for a broad and balanced geography curriculum to inspire pupils. We encourage pupils to become increasingly curious about the natural and human world. We support children in developing a greater understanding of the world and their place in it. 

Geography is, by nature an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills. Geography helps to develop a range of investigation and problem solving skills that are transferable to other curriculum areas and which can be used to promote children’s development. 

History

At St. Luke's Park Primary School, we aim to deliver a broad and high-quality history curriculum. We aim to support children in gaining a strong knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Through our teaching of history we develop skills of enquiry, analysis and problem solving that are transferable and complementary to other areas of the curriculum. 

We supply children with a sense of chronology so that they can better understand when historical events happened around the world and how these events have influenced life today. We hope children can appreciate and understand their place in modern multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better equipped to make their own life choices today.

Reading, early reading and phonics

Reading lies at the heart of our curriculum. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key for academic success. We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of texts. We want pupils to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors, and be able to understand more about the world in which they live through the knowledge they gain from texts.

Reading is taught not only in specific reading lessons but across the wider curriculum too. We provide language-rich classroom environments and a curriculum where children are exposed to, and actively engage with, high quality language in varying forms in a meaningful, deliberate and engaging way. Our aim is that children leave our school as competent readers who can recommend books to their peers, have a thirst for reading a wide range of high-quality texts across the genres, participate in discussions about books and have an established love of reading for life.

Writing

 Our intent is to inspire a passion for writing and to develop the inquisitive mind whilst providing the children with the tools to truly use and develop their own skill set. 

Writing is integral to our curriculum. We are committed to encouraging children to develop an enjoyment for writing. We believe that it is very important for pupils to develop an understanding of how writing interlinks with reading: we want children to write to engage a reader, whether it may be entertaining, informing or persuading a reader. We aim to develop independent writers, who are aware of the process of writing, including writing a first draft, proofreading, editing and improving this draft, before finally publishing writing. We intend for children to develop a good knowledge of grammatical concepts, in order to apply these naturally in their writing. Alongside this more mechanical aspect of writing, we encourage children to develop their own, unique style of writing.

In EYFS we use Little Wandle Handwriting scheme

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/whats-included/for-use-in-class/

In Key Stage 1 and 2 we use Twinkle handwriting scheme

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/twinkl-handwriting-resources/key-stage-1-handwriting-primary-resources-eyfs-to-year-6

In Key Stage 2 children begin to learn cursive writing, to prepare them for joining up from Year 3.

Mathematics 

Our mathematics curriculum is designed to ensure that children are taught to become competent mathematicians who can explain their reasoning and show their understanding using a variety of different representations whilst continually repeating key basic skills.We work to ensure that all children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, are able to reason mathematically and can solve problems by applying their mathematics.

 At St. Luke's Park, we strive to embed the skills and processes necessary to enable children to use and apply their mathematical learning in a variety of contexts.  We aim to develop children’s enjoyment of mathemarics and provide opportunities for children to build a conceptual understanding as well as apply their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges. Our approach to the teaching of mathematics develops children's ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Through mathematical talk and reasoning, children will develop the ability to articulate and discuss their thinking. Within our school, the skills are embedded within maths lessons and developed consistently over time.  We aim for children to achieve the deep and deepest levels or learning.

We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of mathematics in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts.

Modern Foreign Language

The curriculum for a modern foreign language aims to ensure that all children:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
• Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

A high quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. We are committed to ensuring that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. It also helps children develop skills that will open further opportunities later in life. The teaching of French in KS2 provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at KS3.

At St. Luke's Park Primary School we aim to:

• Have fun and experience success in speaking a foreign language

• Have the opportunity to participate in MFL at their own level of development

• Secure and build on a range of skills

• Develop good linguistic and cultural attitudes

• Understand basic rules of language

• Experience positive language contexts

• Have a foundation to build on for lifelong and active use of other languages and leaving primary school as an inquisitive individual.

Music

At St. Luke's Park Primary School, we provide opportunities for all children to create, play, perform and enjoy music, to develop skills and appreciate a wide variety of musical forms. We embrace the National Curriculum purpose of study which states:
“Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement.” (National Curriculum, 2014). 

Personal, Social , Health, & Citizenship Education 

At St. Luke's Park Primary school, we help all children to develop an understanding of the place that they hold in society and in groups within society such as families, school, clubs etc. We aim to enable children to understand their own bodies and how to keep safe and healthy and to encourage a growing sense of self-worth and self-responsibility towards keeping themselves safe and healthy and to build meaningful and happy relationships with others within these groups.

We use The Jigsaw scheme of work and we make meaningful links with other subjects of the curriculum.

We teach children about their rights and responsibilities. We encourage our pupils to play a positive role in contributing to the life of the school and the wider community through participation in clubs, sporting activities, school council and other activities within and outside the school. Through this, they learn to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a diverse and multicultural society.

Our objectives in the teaching of PSHE and citizenship are;

• to know and understand what is meant by a healthy lifestyle and to make healthy choices relating to food choices, exercise and screen time.

• to be increasingly aware of potential dangers and risks they may encounter and how to keep themselves safe.

• to understand how to build and maintain good relationships with others and how to resolve conflict where it may arise.

• to have and show respect for others.

• to be thoughtful and responsible members of their community and their school.

• to become active members of our democratic society.

• to develop self-confidence, resilience and self-esteem.

• to make informed and responsible choices regarding personal and social issues.

• to develop good relationships with other members of the community.

Physical Education

We encourage high levels of participation in physical education throughout the school. We support learning in a safe and supportive environment. We believe it is vital and unique in its contribution to a pupil’s holistic development. It develops an understanding of the many benefits of exercise, such as co-ordination, control, teamwork and skill through a balanced range of relevant activities, covering gymnastics, games, dance, swimming, athletics and outdoor and adventurous activities. The teaching of PE promotes an understanding and positive attitude towards active lifestyles in adulthood.

Religious Education

At St. Luke's Park we are committed to providing our children with a learning environment in which they have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of religions, while contributing to their spiritual, moral social and cultural development. In the EYFS, religious education is taught using RE related early learning goals, whilst in KS1 and KS2 our curriculum follows the Essex Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education.

We seek to ensure that all pupils in our school are educated to develop:

• spiritually
• academically
• emotionally
• morally

Through this, we aim to enable children to understand themselves, and others, and to cope with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world. We recognise that the teaching of religious beliefs usually begins in the home, and that  parents and carers have a valuable role to play in assisting in their child’s learning.

Science

At St. Luke's Park Primary School, we encourage children to be inquisitive throughout their time at the school and beyond. The Science curriculum fosters a healthy curiosity in children about our universe and promotes respect for the living and non-living. We believe science encompasses the acquisition of knowledge, concepts, skills and positive attitudes. We ensure that the working scientifically skills are built-on and developed throughout children’s time at the school so that they can apply their knowledge of science when using equipment, conducting experiments, building arguments and explaining concepts confidently and continue to ask questions and be curious about their surroundings.