Curriculum

Curriculum Intent Statement

The aim of the curriculum at St Anne’s Catholic Primary School is to ensure that our children live out the school mission statement to Live, Love and Learn together with Christ. We provide opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident, successful learners with high aspirations who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.

 As a thriving Catholic School, our Catholic ethos is central to our curriculum. We ensure that all of our pupils respect each other and respect those of other faiths, race and gender.  Everyone has the right to be treated with respect and dignity.  Our children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding is enhanced using the Catholic School’s Pupil Profile.  

St Anne’s Catholic Primary School ensures that all children are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

St Anne’s Catholic Primary School is recognised for its outstanding attainment in KS1 and KS2 and it will strive to ensure that all pupils access a curriculum designed to challenge and stretch them. A curriculum that is rich in knowledge and supplemented by enriching experiences and activities. St Anne’s Catholic Primary School provides a highly inclusive environment where learners enjoy their education. Pupils at all levels are helped to achieve their full potential. Those who are most able are challenged, by being encouraged to expand their skills and knowledge through varied curriculum opportunities. Those who find learning more difficult are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills in order to support them to develop at their own pace and to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.

Reading is a high priority at St. Anne’s School, we try to promote a real love of learning in all of our pupils from the youngest to the oldest.  The philosophy in school is to foster within the pupils a love of reading that will stay with them for life.  Standards in reading at the end of Key Stage 2 are outstanding, we strive to maintain this for future cohorts, but more significant to us, is that we expose all pupils to texts that will engage and enthuse them and that they will enjoy reading.  Reading is given the highest priority across the curriculum.  High quality texts are used when reading to, and with, the children and when pupils choose their own texts from class libraries for independent reading.  We aim therefore for the children to have a positive reading experience at St. Anne’s, encouraging a life-long love of reading.

Mathematics has its own unique place in the curriculum at St Anne’s. It provides pupils with powerful ways to describe, analyse and change the world. Pupils can experience a sense of awe and wonder as they solve a problem for the first time, discover a more elegant solution and make links between different areas of mathematics.  Mathematics makes a significant contribution to modern society, Children are encouraged to recognise the significance of Maths in their daily lives.

The basic skills of mathematics are vital for the life opportunities of our children, these are embedded throughout our year groups and the contribution that they make to other areas of maths is valued by all staff members and pupils. The curriculum at St. Anne's ensures that staff revisit mathematical concepts, giving children lots of opportunities to consolidate learning - repetition of key concepts is valued by all.  Standards in maths at the end of Key Stage 2 are outstanding, we strive to maintain this for future cohorts, but more significant to us, is that we encourage pupils to foster a love of maths, engaging in the challenges that it provides. 

Pupils at St Anne’s study mathematics to become functioning adults who are able to think mathematically enabling them to reason and solve problems in a range of contexts. We want St. Anne's pupils to leave here ready for their high school mathematics, knowing that they have a very secure understanding of the Maths curriculum. 

The focus on curriculum development is always carefully designed to ensure coverage and progression. St Anne’s Catholic Primary School provides pupils with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills. A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, provide a purpose and relevance for learning and ultimately to help every student to find strengths and interests.

Sport has a very high profile so pupils at St Anne’s Catholic Primary School are introduced to a huge variety of activities. Traditional sports such as netball and football are complimented by cricket, athletics, tag rugby, dance, gymnastics, dodgeball and weekly swimming sessions. Giving sport a focus has engaged many children including children with SEN. In addition we host Forest School sessions  where children are encouraged to learn life skills such as teamwork, determination, perseverance and acceptance of winning/losing. The introduction of the Daily Mile has improved fitness levels in all pupils and we will continue to enhance this provision with more challenges, this academic year.

The school also excels in art, music and drama by providing quality opportunities for students to mature and share their creative talents. Our artwork is displayed throughout the school.  We are currently working on producing artwork, from recycled materials. Our productions at Christmas, Easter and Summer, give pupils the chance to demonstrate their creative talents. We are very proud of our Drama Club, last year's production of Matilda was an overwhelming success - it was fantastic to watch the confidence of the children as they completed their 'Flashmob' performance in London in June 2022. We look forward to the 2023 production.

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St Anne’s Catholic Primary School provides the full core offer of extended school provision. To promote physical health and wellbeing, as well as increasing the love and curiosity of topics, a wide variety of clubs both after school hours and at lunchtimes are offered including multisport, tag rugby, cricket, games, Digital Leaders, Art & DT, ICT and story time.

Subject leaders play an important part in the success of the curriculum by leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review. The innovative practice across St Anne’s Catholic Primary School provides a strong foundation and allows opportunities for children to work in teams and develop social skills both indoors and out. The curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high-quality teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate.

In this way, it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on pupil outcomes. Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour. Children feel safe to try new things.

What does your child learn at school each day? Find information about our curriculum subjects here.

This is the Eco Council at Saint Anne’s. We know it is important to make small steps to help secure the future of our planet. This term’s projects are recycling. We are taking part in 2 projects to recycle batteries and textiles. We are also ensuring our school and local area is free of litter by organising clean up weeks. Watch this space!

This is the Saint Anne’ s debating team. We are learning how to debate contentious topics by presenting our arguments in clear and thought provoking ways. Each topic we focus on is related to the environment. Our first debate asked the question: Should Sutton Coldfield have a clean air zone? Our debate took place with a KS2 audience who asked interesting questions and provided excellent counter arguments to the debate panels suggestions. Next we will ask : Should Saint Anne’s ban single use plastics? We look forward to hearing all the arguments for and against!