Author: devlinc10

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School – The Rationale for our Curriculum
At Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in partnership with parents and the school community, we aspire to enable teachers or pupils to achieve their potential by providing a caring, effective learning and teaching environment - well managed, accountable, nurturing and adaptable to change. Alongside our vision the school’s Pupil Council led the children to identify our core values. These values support all children each day in Our Lady of Lourdes Primary.
Respect
Forgiveness
Teamwork
Kindness
Trust
To achieve this vision it is essential that we develop a structured curriculum which ensures that all children are provided with learning opportunities that recognise and celebrate their uniqueness, develop their full potential, allow them to fulfil their aspirations within and beyond the school gates, and prepare them to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
We aim to deliver excellence in learning and teaching and expect all learners to be actively engaged in their own learning. Our curriculum focuses on the child as learner, and allows for breadth and depth of learning, offering challenge and enjoyment. We offer choice and personalisation as well as progression through levels, allowing the opportunity for attainment at the highest level. At every level, an ethos of high aspirations and ambition for all our learners is encouraged and attainment, achievement and participation are recognised and celebrated.
At Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School we are always mindful of our wide demographic
catchment and one of the primary missions of our curriculum structure, is to engage all children in exciting, powerful learning experiences that will allow them to become active leaders in their
community, critical thinkers and life-long learners. In order to achieve this goal, our pupils will have the opportunity to develop an authentic understanding of how the basic concepts they learn about in school are connected to everyday life in their communities.
Therefore, learning experiences will be meaningful and relevant, and education will strive towards equipping our learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to become responsible adults of the future. To meet the challenges of our ever changing society, it is essential to educate all our
children about the need to practise sustainability in our lives.
We need our children to understand their responsibility in the use of technology and Social Media in particular. We all have a role in supporting our pupils to discover new ways to meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Our curriculum recognises the need to support personal development and empowerment so that each child within our care is able to develop as a healthy, balanced, self-confident individual and fulfil their educational potential.
Curriculum for Excellence identifies key values for life, four contexts in which learning takes place, six entitlements for learners, seven principles for curriculum design and eight curriculum areas in which learning is organised. These values, contexts, entitlements, principles and curriculum areas are at the heart of decision making regarding our Curriculum Structures Rationale.

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School – The Rationale for our Curriculum
Skills Development
Skills are developed through an ‘I can’ approach, across all years with the delivery of Experiences and Outcomes. The development of skills is essential to learning and supports our pupils to
become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. The skills and attributes which our pupils develop will provide them with a sound basis for their development as lifelong learners in their adult, social and working lives, enabling them to reach their full potential. Our curriculum aims to foster the development of key skills in communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, inquiry, investigation and analysis, and social and personal
awareness and interaction. In particular, it places key emphasis on the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills. Physical and mental wellbeing are central to our thinking within a health
promoting environment.
Learning and Teaching
The success of our curriculum is through the delivery of high-quality learning and teaching. This is at the heart of our work and the use of a variety of teaching methodologies is an essential feature of our curriculum. A wide range of teaching strategies is implemented by all staff, where approaches to learning and assessment are varied and pupil-centred.
Assessment is for Learning techniques, direct teaching, self and peer assessment, individual and group work, text-based work and practical work, the use of IT to support learning, outdoor
learning, global citizenship, educational visits and visiting speakers are examples of approaches and methodologies designed to actively engage our pupils in their learning.
There is a focus to continually support the professional development of our staff in the field of learning and teaching which involves colleagues sharing practice, within both the school and the Learning Community which has led to further reflection of practice, incorporating new ways of
engaging and supporting our learners. The school’s programme of Sharing Classroom Experience, seeks to promote professional standards. Formal and informal observation, survey outcomes,
attainment analysis and feedback are considered to promote improvement. Resources are revised and enhanced as funding allows.
The Whole Curriculum
In addition to the formal curriculum, the value of other educational experiences is recognised and given emphasis within Our Lady of Lourdes Primary. We wholeheartedly embrace Curriculum for Excellence in that we are continuously improving and expanding opportunities to ensure delivery of the best possible curriculum for all our pupils.
Curriculum Areas and Subjects
The period of education from pre-school to the end of S3 has the particular purpose of providing each young person in Scotland with a Broad General Education. At Our Lady of Lourdes all our learners will experience a Broad General Education which will include all of the experiences and outcomes across all 8 Curriculum Areas, progressing through the Levels, as far as this is consistent with their learning needs and prior achievements.

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School – The Rationale for our Curriculum
The Ethos and Life of the School as a Community
HMIE November 2014 – “Children’s wellbeing is at the heart of the school. Very positive
interactions and mutual respect between children and staff supports learners to develop confidence in talking about their learning. The school works exceptionally well with a wide range of other agencies who help to support children’s needs.”
Our curriculum offers a broad range of learning experiences for our pupils. The children and a wide range of relevant partners contribute to planning themes and topics in order to make learning meaningful.
Our children are encouraged to contribute to the school community at every stage, where they have opportunities to lead their own learning and to be instrumental in bringing about change and improvement. Our shared core values RESPECT, KINDNESS, TRUST, FORGIVENESS and TEAMWORK are indeed at the heart of everything we do. These values are embraced and
celebrated by everyone within our school community. They are further endorsed through
assemblies and the tone of our communication at every level.
Our work within the parish and our charitable endeavours are a further illustration of our core
values within a strong faith–building community. Our faith drives the activity of our school – it develops alongside our learning. We are confident independently and we understand the value of inter-dependence. Good health and good humour are further constituents of this hugely positive school environment. Our inspection of November 2014 described our ethos as “Outstanding”. The value of this culture is felt across the school and shapes the conditions of learning.
Inter-disciplinary Learning (IDL)/ Discrete
This key feature of CFE is reflected in our contextualised planning. This approach leads to
challenging opportunities for our pupils. They make connections across learning within the context of Broad General Education. IDL opportunities exist across two or more subject areas.
ie ( Expressive Arts and Scots Poetry enabling application of skills and deeper learning. Within
historical or geographical contexts, we use a range of aptitudes to initialise and develop learning opportunities). Subject links are increasingly incorporated into planned approaches.
Developments have led to more involved experiences such as Health Promotion, Eco-Schools work and Global Citizenship, Inter-Denominational Experiences, Financial Education, Dementia Through The Eyes of A Child, CPR. Enriched learning experiences for children’s wider
involvement in the world - using skills in real contexts.
We also believe it is very important to teach subject areas discreetly. Subjects in their own right
ensure that building blocks of progression in skills, understanding and knowledge are
systematically put in place to enable children to experience success.
Global Citizenship
Developing global citizenship is a key strength at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary with the Whole School Community recognising our responsibilities towards each other and the wider world. We aim for all pupils to demonstrate themselves as global citizens, able to take up their place in the world, contribute to it confidently, successfully and effectively, understanding the rights and
responsibilities of living and working in a globalised world. We all have a role to play and together we can make a difference.

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School – The Rationale for our Curriculum
Personalisation and Choice
As our pupils progress through their levels, there will be opportunities for personalisation and choice in relation to their learning. Allowing our pupils to make informed choices about their learning encourages and motivates them to become successful learners. Personalisation and choice takes many forms, including what pupils will learn from, and within lessons, as well as to
approaches to learning and assessment opportunities.
Our clearly differentiated curriculum supports children’s particular aptitudes, interests, talents and learning styles. The children get to know themselves as learners.
Personal Achievement
Our achievement kites demonstrate to our school community the value and importance of our
pupils’ personal achievements. Pupils, parents and staff recognise and support wider achievement, personal target setting and the importance of reflection and evaluating across learning.
The school arranges a wide variety of opportunities which showcase the children’s
accomplishments during the session. These opportunities may be experienced across our many and varied after school clubs or as part of the school day.
Our residential experience challenges individual and collective capabilities on a number of fronts. We are generous in our charitable work and take our civic responsibilities very seriously.
The connection between personal achievement and self esteem is exploited through opportunities at class, group, whole school and school community level. Mental health and wellbeing is a key focus for us all and the importance of achievement within this context is understood.
Celebration of our own achievements and those of others link each day to our core values and the culture of the school. These sentiments guide and influence our planning.
Our next steps
As part of our ongoing, self-evaluative processes, we fully recognise the importance of reviewing our curriculum and learning from evolving best practice. We nurture a collective culture of
innovation. Therefore, we must actively source good practice and continue to have staff involved in strategic development at school, cluster and authority level.

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