The whole approach to developing young people aged 3 to 16 will change. The new curriculum will have more emphasis on equipping young people for life. It will build their ability to learn new skills and apply their subject knowledge more positively and creatively. As the world changes, they will be more able to adapt positively. The new curriculum will bring this about by making learning more experience-based, the assessment of progress more developmental, and by giving teachers the flexibility to deliver in more creative ways that suit the learners they teach.

ST JOSEPHS NEW CURRICULUM

The four purposes are the shared vision and aspiration for every child and young person. 

They are: 

• Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives;
• Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society;
• Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work;
• Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

Our Vision at St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School
At St. Joseph's children experience an inspiring and innovative curriculum where they become resilient, progress, and achieve both in and out of the classroom. We believe in a creative curriculum with literacy and numeracy at it's heart .We inspire our children and everyone who comes here to be:                       

‘Together in Christ - Living, Learning and Growing.’

School Aims

 To provide a living and working example of a Catholic Christian Community.

 To create a pleasant, secure and stimulating environment in which everyone has the opportunity to develop spiritually, morally, socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually in an ethos informed by Catholic Christian values.

 To enhance the ethos of the school by fostering Catholic Christian values and actions through caring, warm and compassionate attitudes from staff, governors, parents and children.

 To nurture in all persons positive attitudes to learning enabling them to adapt to new ideas and methods and thereby achieve their full potential through the acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills.

 To help all pupils develop lively, enquiring minds, the ability to question and argue rationally and apply themselves to tasks and physical skills.

 To help pupils acquire knowledge and skills relevant to adult life and employment in a fast changing world.

 To promote equality of opportunity within the school and respect for all irrespective of sex, nationality, colour, creed, background, and intellectual ability, emotional, social or physical handicap.

 To preserve and develop our own cultural identity within Wales, while at the same time promoting an awareness of and respect for cultures and creeds different from our own.

 To foster links with the Parish, wider community, local businesses and industry. 

Children's learning will be broad and balanced and focus on six areas of learning: Language, Literacy and Communication, Mathematics and Numeracy, Health and Well-being, Humanities, Expressive Arts, Science and Technology. Literacy, Numeracy, Welsh and DCF will be cross curricular and feed into all areas of learning. There will be progression reference points at ages 5,8, 11, 14 and 16 (Phases). 

NEW CURRICULUM

Languages, Literacy and Communication

The Languages, Literacy and Communication Area of Learning and Experience (Area) addresses fundamental aspects of human communication. It aims to support learning across the whole curriculum and to enable learners to gain knowledge and skills in Welsh, English and international languages as well as in literature.

The four statements that express what matters in this Area should be addressed holistically. This means that different languages should be explored in relation to one another, so too the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It also means that learning about and through literature should be seen as contributing to all aspects of learning about languages. The statements support and complement one another and together they contribute to realising the four purposes of the curriculum.

Learning and experience in this Area aims to enable learners to communicate effectively using Welsh, English and international languages. It aims to encourage learners to transfer what they have learned about how languages work in one language to the learning and using of other languages. This multilingual and plurilingual approach is intended to ignite learners’ curiosity and enthusiasm and provide them with a firm foundation for a lifelong interest in the languages of Wales and the languages of the world; and thus to make them ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives.

This readiness to learn is further supported since effective language skills help learners to make sense of concepts across the curriculum, for example by enabling them to articulate their reasoning when solving problems and analysing information. Effective multilingual skills deepen this ability as they enable learners to respond in many more contexts.

Given that a key aspect of effective language learning is the willingness to experiment and take risks in trying out new structures, sounds and patterns, learning and experience in this Area can empower learners to be creative and to persevere when facing challenges. Together, these skills can build learners’ confidence to grasp new opportunities and to adapt to different roles which in turn can develop them as enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work.

In this Area, languages are seen as a key to social cohesion, which can promote better local, national and global understanding. The aim is to encourage learners to engage critically with languages and literature in order to help them develop not only their own sense of identity, but also an understanding of the relationship between their own cultures and communities and those of other people. This understanding can be deepened as learners are afforded opportunities to learn multiple languages. This linguistic knowledge and these skills are needed to participate confidently and empathetically in society, which contributes to developing learners as ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world.
Engaging with this Area also helps learners to become healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society as the skills promoted through languages, literacy and communication are key to enabling learners to express themselves effectively, to be open to other people’s points of view and to develop positive relationships.

Maths & Numeracy

The development of mathematics has always gone hand in hand with the development of civilisation itself. A truly international discipline, it surrounds us and underpins so many aspects of our daily lives, such as architecture, art, music, money and engineering. And while it is creative and beautiful, both in its own right and in its applications, it is also essential for progress in other areas of learning and experience.
What is more, numeracy – the application of mathematics to solve problems in real-world contexts – plays a critical part in our everyday lives, and in the economic health of the nation. It is imperative, therefore, that mathematics and numeracy experiences are as engaging, exciting and accessible as possible for learners, and that these experiences are geared towards ensuring that learners develop mathematical resilience.
In the early years, play forms an important part in the development of mathematics and numeracy, enabling learners to solve problems, explore ideas, establish connections and collaborate with others. In later years, learners need to have opportunities to work both independently and collaboratively to build on the foundations established in the early years.
Progression in the Mathematics and Numeracy Area of Learning and Experience (Area) involves the development of five connected and interdependent proficiencies which have no hierarchy. These are crucial considerations for schools when designing their curriculum to ensure the progression of learners.
Conceptual understanding
Communication using symbols
Fluency
Logical reasoning
Strategic competence
What matters in this Area has been expressed in four statements which support and complement one another and should not be viewed in isolation. Together they contribute to realising the four purposes of the curriculum.
Formal mathematics has developed through rigorous logical reasoning. It involves inventing or discovering abstract objects and establishing the relationships between them. It also teaches the difference between conjecture, likelihood and proof.
Mathematical thinking involves applying similarly logical reasoning, this time to the investigation of relations within and between concepts, along with justifying and proving findings. Indeed, understanding mathematical concepts and being able to apply and reason with the abstract representations of concepts is central to learning mathematics. And essential to this is comprehension of, and proficiency with, the symbols and symbol systems used in mathematics.
Applying mathematics requires strategic competence in the use of abstraction and modelling, and learners develop resilience, as well as a sense of achievement and enjoyment, as they overcome the challenges involved. Subsequently, mathematical activities teach learners not to be afraid of unfamiliar or complex problems, as they can be reduced to a succession of simpler problems and, eventually, to basic computations. As they reflect on the approaches used, and on their own mathematics and numeracy learning, learners can develop metacognitive skills which can help them identify steps to take to improve performance. Through this they can become ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives.
Experiences in this Area also contribute to developing enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work. These can encourage learners to be creative because it asks them to play, experiment, take risks and be flexible in tackling mathematical problems.
Because mathematics is essentially abstract, it allows learners to operate with objects that do not physically exist, and to use and develop their creativity to imagine and discover new realities. It also supports numerical modelling and forecasting which can in turn encourage entrepreneurial thinking.
Mathematics and numeracy can also help learners become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world by providing them with tools to analyse data critically, enabling them to develop informed views on social, political, economic and environmental issues. It encourages clarity of thinking, allowing learners to understand and make reasoned decisions.
In this Area, learners can encounter contexts involving health and personal finance, where they may develop the skills needed to manage their own finances, make informed decisions and become critical consumers. Experiences in this Area will help them learn to interpret information and data to assess risk, and to use their numeracy skills across the curriculum to make effective choices, all of which can help them become healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Humanities

The Humanities Area of Learning and Experience (Area) seeks to awaken a sense of wonder, fire the imagination and inspire learners to grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom. This Area encourages learners to engage with the most important issues facing humanity, including sustainability and social change, and help to develop the skills necessary to interpret and articulate the past and the present.
The Area encompasses geography; history; religion, values and ethics; business studies and social studies. These disciplines share many common themes, concepts and transferable skills, while having their own discrete body of knowledge and skills. Learners may also be introduced to other complementary disciplines, such as classics, economics, law, philosophy, politics, psychology and sociology, if and where appropriate.
What matters in this Area has been expressed in five statements which support and complement one another, and should not be viewed in isolation. Together they contribute to realising the four purposes of the curriculum.
Humanities is central to learners becoming ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world. In contemporary and historical contexts, investigation and exploration of the human experience in their own localities and elsewhere in Wales, as well as in the wider world, can help learners discover their heritage and develop a sense of place and cynefin. It can also promote an understanding of how the people of Wales, its communities, history, culture, landscape, resources and industries, interrelate with the rest of the world. Contemplating different perspectives will in turn help promote an understanding of the ethnic and cultural diversity within Wales. Taken together, these experiences will help learners appreciate the extent to which they are part of a wider international community, fostering a sense of belonging that can encourage them to contribute positively to their communities.
It is important that learners reflect upon the impact of their actions and those of others, and how such actions are influenced by interpretations of human rights, values, ethics, philosophies, religious and non-religious views. Through being encouraged to engage with, respect and challenge a variety of worldviews, as well as to understand how to exercise their democratic rights, learners can imagine possible futures and take social action. Such critical engagement with local, national and global challenges and opportunities past and present will help learners become enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work.
As they explore their locality and Wales, as well as the wider world, learners can establish a solid base of knowledge and understanding of geographical, historical, religious, non-religious, business and social studies concepts. This exploration will encourage learners to participate in different methods of enquiry, evaluate the evidence that they find, and apply and communicate their findings effectively. These experiences, in and outside the classroom, will help them become ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives.
It is important that learners have opportunities to discuss and explore their personal perspectives on religious and non-religious worldviews, ethical challenges and social inclusion issues. Likewise, opportunities to explore the natural world, locally, within and beyond Wales, will help foster in them a sense of place and of well-being. These experiences will help develop learners’ resilience, build independence, and increase self-confidence and self-esteem. This will support the development of healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Health & Well-being

The Health and Well-being Area of Learning and Experience (Area) provides a holistic structure for understanding health and well-being. It is concerned with developing the capacity of learners to navigate life's opportunities and challenges. The fundamental components of this Area are physical health and development, mental health, and emotional and social well-being. It will support learners to understand and appreciate how the different components of health and well-being are interconnected, and it recognises that good health and well-being are important to enable successful learning.
Engagement with this Area will help to foster a whole-school approach that enables health and well-being to permeate all aspects of school life.
What matters in this Area has been expressed in five statements which support and complement one another and should not be viewed in isolation. In order to achieve this holistic approach, teachers should seek to draw across all five statements when planning activities. Together they contribute to realising the four purposes of the curriculum.
Effective realisation of the vision described in this Area is fundamental to developing healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society. By developing learners’ motivation, resilience, empathy and decision-making abilities, they can be supported to become ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives.
Learners can also be supported to become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world by developing their ability to show respect, to value equity, to listen to others and to evaluate the social influences affecting them.
Through enabling learners to manage risks, express ideas and emotions, develop and maintain healthy relationships, and take on different roles and responsibilities, the learning and experience in this Area can support learners to become enterprising, creative contributors ready to play a full part in life and work.

Expressive Arts

The dynamic nature of the expressive arts can engage, motivate and encourage learners to develop their creative, artistic and performance skills to the full.
The Expressive Arts Area of Learning and Experience (Area) spans five disciplines: art, dance, drama, film and digital media and music. Although each discipline has its own discrete body of knowledge and body of skills, it is recognised that together they share the creative process.
What matters in this Area has been expressed in three statements, which support and complement one another and should not be viewed in isolation. Together they contribute to realising the four purposes.
Learning and experience in this Area encourages the development of knowledge, skills and values that can help learners grasp the opportunities and meet the challenges that arise in their lives.
Whether as creators or as audience, through engaging with the expressive arts, learners can gain an understanding and an appreciation of cultures and societies in Wales and in the world. Such engagement can equip learners with the skills to explore cultural differences through time and place.
Importantly, this Area wants to make the expressive arts accessible to all learners and, through this inclusive approach, expand the horizons of every learner. Experiencing the expressive arts can engage learners physically, socially and emotionally, nurturing their well-being, self-esteem and resilience. This can help them become healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.
Experiencing the expressive arts can also encourage learners to develop not only their ability to appreciate the creative work of other people, but also their own creative talents, artistic skills and performance skills. The aim is to provide learners with opportunities to explore, refine and communicate ideas while thinking creatively and engaging their imagination and senses.
Engagement with this Area requires personal application, perseverance and close attention to detail, dispositions that contribute to making learners ambitious, capable learners ready to learn throughout their lives.
Experiences in this Area can provide inspiration and motivation as it brings learners into contact with creative processes. This means providing learners with opportunities such as visits to theatres and galleries and bringing the expertise of external practitioners into the classroom.
Engagement with the expressive arts can enhance learners’ employability as they are encouraged to manage their time and resources to achieve meaningful work and meet deadlines. It can foster critical inquiry that can lead to change. Together, these skills can support learners to become enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work.
In addition, the evaluation involved in the creative process enables learners to explore complex issues, to challenge perceptions and to identify solutions. This can lead learners to a better understanding of their own cultural identity and that of other people, places and times. From this experience they are supported to become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world.
Finally, through the enjoyment and personal satisfaction they gain from creative expression, learners can become more confident, which can contribute directly to enriching the quality of their lives.

Science & Technology

The importance of science and technology in our modern world cannot be overstated. Developments in these areas have always been drivers of change in society, underpinning innovation and impacting on everyone’s lives economically, culturally and environmentally. As such, the Science and Technology Area of Learning and Experience (Area) will be increasingly relevant in the opportunities young people encounter and the life choices that they make.
Ready access to vast amounts of data requires all learners to be able to assess inputs critically, understand the basis of information presented as fact, and make informed judgements that impact their own behaviours and values. They need to develop the ability to meaningfully ask the question, ‘Just because we can, does that mean we should?’
What matters in this Area has been expressed in six statements which support and complement one another, and should not be viewed in isolation. Together they contribute to realising the four purposes of the curriculum.
Through robust and consistent evaluation of scientific and technological evidence, learners can become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world, who will be able to make informed decisions about future actions. Healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society are informed by knowledge of their bodies and the ecosystems around them, and of how technological innovations can support improvements in health and lifestyle.
Ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives should engage with scientific and technological change. The knowledge and deep understanding gained through experiencing what matters in science and technology can help learners live independent and fulfilling lives that sees them contributing to society and culture in a variety of ways. Learners who are enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work embrace such challenges, as they are encouraged to take risks, to innovate and evaluate, and learn to develop solutions. Thus, they can become more resilient and purposeful learners across all areas of learning and experience.
This Area draws on the disciplines of biology, chemistry, computer science, design and technology, and physics to enhance learners’ knowledge and understanding of the world.

Pedagogy

Pedagogy is at the heart of the new curriculum. In designing our own bespoke curriculum, we have considered the different pedagogical approaches we need to employ to support learners in realising the four purposes. We have a strong vision of learning and teaching which considers the ‘why’ and ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’. Our vision recognises the integral role of the learning environment in supporting effective learning.
At St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School we provide teachers with:
The skills to demonstrate higher level understanding of the 12 Pedagogical Principles included in the Curriculum for Wales guidance documentation.
The understanding to collaborate effectively with colleagues in their own school and in other schools to raise standards.
The capacity to create a proactive school ethos, where a deeper understanding of the underlying values and principles of pedagogy inform classroom practice and influence all our teaching approaches for our learners.
 
The Pedagogical Principles
Curriculum design for all learners is underpinned by twelve pedagogical principles.