St Luke's Curriculum

Our Vision and Values

Through  our core Christian values of Thankfulness, Love and Hope, within a distinctively Christian context, our vision is to ‘Lay the Foundations for Life’, ensuring that all children are happy and confident; achieving their full potential through focused, high quality teaching and high expectations. 
 

Our Aims

We aim

• for our school to be a place where everyone is loved, cared for and valued. 
• to listen with respect to one another and to promote kindness, caring and good manners.
• to value and appreciate one another, irrespective of age, gender, creed or race, and to acknowledge that everyone has a part to play within our school community. 
• to prepare children for the responsibilities, opportunities and experiences of adult life. 
• for everyone to have every opportunity to fully realise their talents, increase their knowledge, skills and nunderstanding and so make a positive different to the lives and lives of others. 
• to ensure that learning underpins everything we do, helping children to learn academically, socially, spiritually, morally, emotionally and physically.
• to teach children how to be successful learners and to develop good learning behaviours.
• to share the very best of what has been thought and said.
• to try our best at everything we do.
• to develop in children an international mindedness, encouraging children to be active global citizens.
• to foster a caring attitude for the school environment, including the building inside and outside areas, equipment and personal effects.

Learning at St Luke’s

Children’s learning will respond to their current and future personal needs, their future career needs and the needs of the varied societies and cultural groups in which they are likely to play a part. Children’s learning underpins everything we do.  Helping children to learn – academically, socially, spiritually, morally, emotionally, and physically – is key.

At St Luke’s, we define learning as a change to long-term memory. 

We aim to ensure that children experience a wide breadth of study and have by the end of each key stage, long-term memory of an ambitious body of procedural and semantic knowledge. 

Procedural knowledge develops slowly with lots of repetition and is about knowing ‘how to do things’. Once you know how to do something it becomes implicit and you do it automatically, e.g riding a bike, cutting with scissors.

Semantic knowledge is about recalling general facts that have meaning, e.g. the sounds of letters, the capitals of countries, times tables, spellings. It is more likely that children will retain semantic knowledge if they learn through repetition. Retention of semantic knowledge relies on active learning, repetition and recall. 

Our Curriculum

 Our curriculum design ensures that:

• children are provided with opportunities over time, to gradually build up their long term memory of procedural and semantic knowledge in learning activities that are well sequenced and active. We aim to include learning that is active, not passive where children have to think and respond and engage with their own learning
• children have the opportunity to link knowledge in subjects together, repeat learning and return to key concepts over and over, gradually building understanding of them. 
• learning activites revisit key ideas and concepts with opportunities for repetition and recall to support the development of long term memory.
• children are provided with appropriate, ambitious broad and balanced curriculum opportunities. Whilst we ensure a clear focus on the teaching of phonics, reading, maths and writing, we also want to ensure high quality learning in the arts, music, computing and sport.

• in each subject, children have an opportunity to learn key objectives as outlined in the National Curriculum.
• teachers focus on delivery of objectives as outlined in the National Curriculum. 
• our Subject Guidelines and Overviews based on the National Curriculum requirements, outline clearly the expectations in each subject and the sequence of learning in each subject.
• In learning activities, teachers when teaching, explicitly refer back to previous year group learning in a subject, making links so that children can be reminded of previous learning and then as a result, children better develop their long term memory. For example, when learning about chronology in History, teachers in Year 1 remind children of the timeline they did in Year R outlining key events during their time in Year R and then move on to compare this with a timeline of toys that they have played within their lifetime. Year 2 develop their understanding of chronology further by developing timelines of events beyond living memory. In each subject, at the at the planning stage, teachers look at subject overviews and know what previous learning has taken place so that key concepts, previous learning can be referred to in lessons. 

• because we want to share the very best of what has been thought and said by many generations of academics and scholars, there are opportunities for children to develop further their knowledge and understanding, developing their cultural capital beyond the National Curriculum – gaining a vital background knowledge required to be informed and thoughtful members of our community. For example, teachers provide children with the opportunity to read great literary works and to develop their knowledge of a wide range of music, for example, iconic music that has shaped our culture. Our Drop Everything and Listen Area in Google Classroom has a wide range of music that children can listen to.
• children share responsibility for their learning with their teachers, parents and carers.  The proportion of responsibility each bears will depend on the age and characteristics of the children.  Nevertheless, learning is constructed in such a way that, by the end of the primary years, children begin to see and experience the potential for taking responsibility for their own learning and choosing their own level of challenge. They will be able to identify their strengths and where they need to target their own efforts to improve.  
• wherever possible, links between subjects are made and teaching is always planned to be enjoyable. Learning each term will include an exciting ‘Entry Point’ and a motivating ‘Hook’. 
• at the start of a unit, a subject title page may be used to record progress in learning: For example, in History, a unit title page will include - What I Already Know, My Questions about …, How I will I find out about? What sources will I use? Answers to my questions and how I found out. The unit title page will also record the key learning objectives and key vocabulary.
• assessment is used to inform planning and next steps. Assessment will also be used to guage progress in relation to core concepts / big ideas.  For example, in history, assessment can judge how children use evidence to tell us about the past, their understanding of chronology, and historical vocabulary.  See our separate Assessment policy for further information. Assessment at St Luke’s 

Our Learning Heroes / Secrets of Success
One of our key aims is to teach children how to be successful learners and to develop good learning behaviours. We do this through the use of our Learning Heroes and our Secrets of Success. Through the story of Bear and Elli the elephant, we introduce our Learning Heroes to remind children about different learning characteristics through the imagery of animals in the story.  
Every classroom has a set of learning heroes – an owl, tortoise, bee, chameleon, unicorn, cat and spider. We continually refer to these at all times and the whole school focuses on the traits on one learning hero each half term. 

• Resilience the Tortoise reminds children to be resilient and to persevere. 
• Team Bee reminds children to work with others and to collaborate.
• Flex the Chameleon reminds children to be adaptable and flexible.
• Sparky the Unicorn reminds children to be creative.
• Curiousity the Cat reminds children to ask questions and to be inquisitive. 
• Links the Spider reminds children to make links and connections. 
• Wise Owl reminds children of the importance of problem solving.

To find out more about our Learning Heroes, visit https://www.st-lukes.hants.sch.uk/our-learning-heroes/

Our ‘Secrets of Success’ remind children of the eight traits that will bring success. All children have a Secrets of Success bookmark.

• Try new things – If you never try, you’ll never know.
• Work hard – It’s not luck or looks that make you successful, it’s all about the effort
• Concentrate – Learn to focus, tune out distractions and be mindful.
• Push yourself – Fight your fears and learn to push past doubts.
• Imagine – Have ideas and don’t be scared of being wrong.
• Improve – Keep advancing, bit by bit. Success never comes in one giant step.
• Understand others – Learn to listen, listen to learn about others.

International mindedness/ Adopted Countries / Global Neighbours

Another key aim is to develop in children an international mindedness, encouraging children to be active global citizens. 

For our children at St Luke’s, we recognise the constraints on cultural provision in a rural area of the U.K.  By promoting international mindedness, we believe we are part of a global learning community. The elements of the International Dimension for our children are to:-

• Recognise their own culture and have a sense of identity. In our New Forest context this means to value our unique setting as a coastal forest school in an area of outstanding natural beauty
• Be open-minded
• Be respectful of other cultures and beliefs (be sensitive to other cultures and beliefs)
• Be aware of and be able to celebrate diversity AND commonality
• Have respect for and value other people and their ideas and opinions
• Be able to communicate (have good interpersonal skills)
• Be adaptable
• Be aware of and have an interest in global issues.

The promotion of ‘International mindedness’ specifically ensures that children gain: 

• Knowledge and understanding beyond their own nationality
• Understanding of the independence and interdependence of people cultures and countries
• A degree of focus on the class adopted country. 

Adopted Countries

In order to promote international mindedness at St Luke’s, each class chooses an adopted country. Wherever possible, children learn about this country and use it as part of a comparative study. In 2021-22, the adopted class countries are:

• Year R – Great Britain
• Year 1 – France
• Year 2 – Rwanda
• Year 3 – Italy
• Year 4 – Indonesia
• Year 5 – Brazil
• Year 6 – Australia

At St Luke’s School, as well as promoting an international mindedness, our broad and balanced curriculum also promotes the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance, our unique curriculum has a strong element of internationalism built into learning.  
 

As a Gold Global Neighbours school, we aim to empower children to show courageous advocacy by being active global citizens and to see the connections which link all human beings together. Global Neighbours equips our children with the knowledge, skills and confidence to act against inequality and works towards empowering themselves to be active global citizens. In this way, they can become active in the hope of a more just and joyful world. It combines their needs and aspirations, their character, and their hopes for the world in which they are growing up. In exploring these concepts, Global Neighbours contributes to improved outcomes across the curriculum and in pupils’ personal development, through enhanced skills in critical and creative thinking, reasoning and communication. Formal opportunities for learning about being a good Global Neighbour are planned across the curriculum whilst we also respond to global events as appropriate.

To find out more about Global Neighbours, visit our Global Neighbours webpage. 
Global Neighbours at St Luke’s

Maths Mastery Approach
At St Luke’s we use a Maths Mastery approach and Maths No Problem. Children are encouraged to develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills through a concrete pictorial approach. In lessons, children use Maths No Problem textbooks and workbooks. To find out more about Maths at St Luke’s, visit our Maths webpage. 
Maths at St Luke’s

Phonics / Reading
We prioritise the teaching of phonics and aim for all children to master the phonetic code as quickly as possible. Believing that reading is the key to success and underpinning all learning, we have high expectations and a consistent approach to phonics ensures children are given the best possible foundation for reading, writing and language skills. We teach phonics daily from Year R to Year 2. We follow a scheme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and the priority is that children develop their knowledge of the 26 letters in the alphabet, the 44 phonemes and 140 letter combinations. By teaching high-quality phonics sessions that allow for progression and continuity, we plan and deliver engaging and well-paced phonics lessons as part of a broad and rich curriculum. Ongoing assessment of children’s progress against phonemes learnt takes place and the books children take home are carefully linked to each child’s next step in reading. Children take home a fully decodable reading book based on their secure phonics knowledge (that a child can read at 90% fluency). Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children. To find out more about reading and the teaching of phonics, visit the webpages below.

Reading at St Luke’s

Phonics at St Luke’s

Specialist Music Teachers and Sports Coaches
At St Luke’s, we believe that high-quality music and physical education are important and we use Sports coaches to teach sport  and specialist music teachers from Hampshire Music Service  in Year 2 to Year 6. To find out more about music, visit the webpage below. 
 

Music at St Luke’s

HeartSmart
We are a HeartSmart School. HeartSmart is a creative approach that we use to build character, emotional health and resilience. Equipping children with foundational principles and skills that will improve mental health and relationships and academic achievement. At St Luke’s. we want everyone to know that they are loved, cared for and valued. We recognise the value of educating the heart alongside educating the mind. We use HeartSmart to do that. Through the story of Boris the Robot, children learn to be HeartSmart.  

Our High 5 Heartsmart principles are displayed around the school and in every classroom and referred to regularly. 

Relationships, Health and Sex Education (RHSE)

In line with Department of Education Guidance, our school has a clear policy for Relationships and Health Education and Sex Education. This sets out clearly how content will be covered in Relationships, Health and Sex Education. 
 

To find out more about our RHSE curriculum, visit Relationships, Health and Sex Education

Religious Education

We value and are committed to high quality teaching of R.E. The school follows ‘Living Difference IV’, the locally agreed syllabus for R.E., and also makes use of Understanding Christianity.  Our R.E. policy contains further information. To find out more about R.E. visit our R.E. webpage. R.E. at St Luke’s