CURRICULUM RATIONALE

Please click here to view our school’s Curriculum Rationale

Click here to see more about the P1 Curriculum

You can view our school’s Homework Policy here

St Ninian’s Primary School endorses the following documents which were used to develop our policy.

Building the Curriculum 1, 2 and 3, Towards a Curriculum Rationale, Journey to Excellence

Policy Rationale

At St Ninian’s we aim to provide a broad, general, relevant and experiential curriculum that meets the needs of all of our pupils and which develops skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work. In doing so, we will prepare our pupils to take their place in a modern society.

This means that every child is entitled to a curriculum which is:

• Coherent from nursery through to their transfer to secondary education
• Founded on sound learning and teaching practices including well- planned learning experiences which are active and engaging and based upon sound pedagogical research
• Based upon developing skills and competences in literacy and numeracy and an ability to make informed choices about their health and well being
• Real and relevant now and in the future

All staff have a responsibility to build our pupil’s capacity to become:

• Successful learners
• Confident Individuals
• Responsible Citizens
• Effective Contributors

By developing a curriculum which is based upon the seven key principles of:

• Challenge and enjoyment
• Breadth
• Progression
• Depth
• Personalisation and choice
• Coherence
• Relevance

Staff knowledge and understanding of curriculum and a collegiate approach to developing experiences and outcomes in our school context will underpin development. This in turn will provide teaching and learning of the highest quality for the pupils in St Ninian’s School.

AIMS

The key aims for our curriculum are:

• to have a clear focus on learning and teaching thus providing an appropriate progression from N-P7
• to provide high quality teaching of core skills (literacy, numeracy, ICT, Health and Wellbeing, Problem Solving).
• to provide real contexts for learning and link learning to support pupils’ understanding of the world around them.
• to develop the key personal qualities of resilience, perseverance and a positive attitude to learning.
• to encourage life long learning.

Organising Learning

The ethos of the school is a crucial element in the delivery of a Curriculum for Excellence. The experiences of our pupils will be based on sound pedagogy. We will deliver experiences that develop the values and principles through:

• active learning.
• independent and collaborative learning.
• problem solving through investigating and exploring.
• play which is teacher directed or initiated and pupil initiated across the stages.

Citizenship, Enterprising Learning and Teaching, Creativity and understanding of Sustainable Development are core elements which underpin our ethos and all learning should be planned to reflect these basic themes and principles.

Supporting all our pupils to become literate and numerate is a key factor. This will have implications for the organisation of our learning:

• In the early years developing literacy and numeracy will be a priority and the balance of curriculum will reflect this.
• Collaboration and participation will be embedded at these early stages and time will be taken to support our pupils to learn, practise and become active learners.
• Opportunities to embed literacy and numeracy in all curriculum areas will be a priority. Real and relevant contexts will support this. Teachers will be explicit about the use of literacy and numeracy skills in differing contexts to underpin our pupils’ understanding.
• At all stages this learning should be linked to skills for life and skills for work.

Organisation

The curriculum has been organised in 8 areas:

• Languages
• Mathematics
• Health and Well-Being
• Social Subjects
• Sciences
• Technologies
• Expressive Arts
• RME

As we become more familiar with Curriculum for Excellence and our knowledge and understanding of experiences and outcomes increases, we can begin to audit our planning and programmes of work to ensure that they are cohesive, provide continuity and are progressive.

It is anticipated that there will be a balance of discrete subject learning and contextualised learning in addition to learning across curricular areas. Skill development should be linked to practical application rather than worksheet completion

‘Planning should encourage participation by, as well as being responsive to, the learner, who can and should influence and contribute to the process.’                                                             Building the Curriculum 3

Consideration will be given to the way we plan. Studies should be planned collaboratively with pupils and at this stage of planning, learning should be linked to the four capacities. Termly planning will be broader and more flexible. Daily planning will need to reflect what is happening in the classroom and should include curriculum areas, learning intentions plus activities and outcomes. Frequent evaluations will allow learners to influence the process. Where possible, planning with a stage partner should be collaborative.

Assessment is for Learning principles and the supporting strategies, including personal learning planning, will continue to be used as a key tool in assessing the effectiveness of learning and teaching in our school and will be embedded within all learning and teaching.

Gathering evidence will be crucial in this process and we will use dedicated assessment folios for each class on the server to track progress. It is expected that there will be extensive use of digital photography and audio files in addition to any written work/presentations. This will allow us to track individual and group achievement and attainment.

The Head Teacher and all staff will work together to maintain a folio of school initiatives and learning in the community.

Learning and teaching will continue to be monitored through existing policies and with clear reference to our Quality Assurance calendar, peer visits, management class monitoring and support for learning consultations. This in turn will feed in to our self-evaluation processes to ensure that St Ninian’s continues to improve and provide the highest quality learning experiences.

We will continue to work closely with parents/carers and our community. We will take every opportunity to involve them in the life and work of the school, to share our achievements and to build links which enhance our curriculum.

This rationale will be reviewed annually to ensure that it reflects our growing understanding of and confidence in delivering a Curriculum for Excellence.

Change/Implementation

As we move towards a Curriculum for Excellence, it is envisaged that, during this transition, some existing 5-14 structures will still be in place. It is therefore important that these are included within school policy.

In Fife we have joined up our approach to CfE with our other partnership strategies, in particular Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), but also taking in the Early Years Framework (EYF)