Our Curriculum
At Our Lady of the Annunciation Primary School, we aim to provide a broad, balanced and engaging curriculum which enables every child to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need for learning, life and work.
Our curriculum is underpinned by Curriculum for Excellence, Scotland’s curriculum for children and young people aged 3–18. We aim to provide learning experiences which support and challenge every learner, recognise individual needs and encourage children to become active and enthusiastic participants in their learning.
As a Catholic school, our faith and Gospel values are at the heart of school life, shaping our curriculum, relationships and the opportunities we provide for our children.
🌟 Curriculum for Excellence
Curriculum for Excellence aims to support every child and young person to develop as a:
Successful Learner
Confident Individual
Responsible Citizen
Effective Contributor
These are known as the Four Capacities and are developed across all aspects of school life and learning.
📚 Our Curriculum Areas
Children experience learning across eight curriculum areas:
- Literacy and English
- Numeracy and Mathematics
- Health and Wellbeing
- Religious and Moral Education
- Sciences
- Social Studies
- Expressive Arts
- Technologies
Literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing are developed across learning, giving children opportunities to apply these important skills in a range of contexts.
Within our Catholic school, Religious Education is taught through This Is Our Faith, supporting children in developing their faith and understanding as they progress through primary school.
📈 Progression Through Primary School
Curriculum for Excellence is organised into different curriculum levels. During the primary years, children generally progress through:
Early Level – typically Nursery and Primary 1
First Level – typically Primary 2 to Primary 4
Second Level – typically Primary 5 to Primary 7
These levels provide a guide to progression rather than a fixed timetable. Children learn and develop at different rates, and teachers plan learning to provide appropriate support, pace, challenge and depth for individual learners.
🤝 Learning & Teaching at OLA
We want learning at OLA to be active, engaging, inclusive and appropriately challenging.
Children are encouraged to take an active role in their learning. They have regular opportunities to talk, collaborate, investigate, problem-solve, create, make choices and reflect on their progress.
Kagan Cooperative Learning
Kagan Cooperative Learning is an important part of our whole-school approach to learning and teaching.
Through carefully selected cooperative learning structures, children have regular opportunities to work together purposefully, share their thinking, listen to others and contribute to their team’s learning.
Kagan helps us create classrooms in which every child is actively involved and every child has a voice, while developing important skills such as communication, cooperation, confidence and responsibility.
Teachers use Kagan alongside a wide range of other teaching approaches, selecting the methods which best meet the needs of learners and the purpose of the lesson.
🌍 Learning Beyond Subjects
Children are given opportunities to make connections across their learning and apply their knowledge and skills in meaningful contexts.
This includes opportunities for digital learning, outdoor learning, interdisciplinary learning, sustainability and Laudato Si’, pupil leadership, creativity and engagement with our school, parish and wider community.
Through these experiences, we aim to help children understand that learning does not happen only within individual subjects, but connects to their lives and the world around them.
🔄 Scotland’s Curriculum is Evolving
Scotland’s curriculum is currently undergoing a national programme of curriculum improvement, building on the foundations of Curriculum for Excellence.
At OLA, we will continue to review and develop our curriculum in response to national and local guidance, ensuring our approach reflects current expectations while continuing to meet the needs of our children.
🏠 Keeping Families Informed
We believe that parents and carers are important partners in their children’s learning.
Our termly Curricular Newsletters provide families with an overview of the learning taking place in each class and highlight key areas of learning for the term.
Curricular Newsletters for each class can be found on our Curricular Newsletters page.
