Curriculum

Our Intent

Our curriculum is designed to provide, through inspiring and engaging experiences, the knowledge and skills to become independent, life-long learners.

Click on the year group below to take you to an overview of all subjects taught.

To find out more regarding our curriculum please click here to contact the school office. 

There are many strands to the English curriculum including phonic knowledge, reading fluency, reading comprehension, writing, grammar, spelling, handwriting, oracy, drama, debate and verbal presentations. There are specific lessons focussed on teaching the skills of reading fluency, reading comprehension, spelling and handwriting. These skills are then applied during English lessons as well as other subjects across the curriculum.

At CJS we believe that reading is a skill for life which is essential for all other forms of learning. Our aim is to equip each and every one of our pupils with a love of reading and a secure set of reading strategies.

At CJS, we teach our children to read in a number of ways:

-Phonics: We use the Read Write Inc (RWI) scheme to teach phonics to our early readers. Children develop their phonic knowledge through targeted interventions so they can read and spell accurately and fluently. They will practise their reading using phonetically decodable books.

-Shared reading, where the teacher models strategies needed for successful reading and the children practise

-Guided reading, where children apply the new strategies they have learnt

-weekly comprehension lessons: develop further skills requires for a range of written comprehension

All pupils are expected to read for at least 10 minutes at home, every day. Home reading is rewarded through the collection of stamps which earn certificates and badges. We believe this is so important that any children who do not read at home will need to catch

up in school. We have Class Reading Champions that check the other children’s reading records, encourage everyone to read widely and for pleasure and celebrate those reading regularly in class.

All classes at CJS enjoy story time (or poetry time) at the end of the day. Class teachers will choose engaging and diverse books to share with the children and promote the love of reading.

At CJS, we teach English through a Novel Study approach, which provides children with a wide range of rich and challenging texts. We aim to create a sense of awe, wonder and curiosity about books while teaching all aspects of the English curriculum.

Mathematics at Catherine Junior School.

At CJS, our goals in Mathematics are to enable children:

- to have a deep understanding of mathematical concepts

- to apply their knowledge to solve problems and investigate questions

- to enjoy the challenge of Maths and have a positive attitude to learning to enjoy their work and to develop a life-long appreciation of Mathematics

Our lessons are carefully designed using the Primary Mathematics National Curriculum as a foundation, and teachers draw on a variety of supplementary resources to create interesting, challenging and purposeful lessons.

The atmosphere in a Maths lesson is focused, and teachers work hard to foster a positive Growth Mindset to Maths, valuing mistakes and encouraging hard thinking and good questioning.

What is Project Based Learning (PBL)?

• Based on authentic, real world enquiry and links with the community and ‘professional’ experts.
• Work is in depth, based around an essential question.
• Projects cover the National Curriculum objectives for Geography, History
• Outcomes are expected to be the highest (professional!) standard and apply the Art and Design Technology skills.
• Progression of skills is tracked and monitored via a rubric, which children have access to.
• All final outcomes are exhibited to the parents or the wider community.

Why teach the new curriculum this way?

• Engaging and challenging at all levels.
• The children learn real-world skills.
• Cross curricular learning makes links between subjects
• Promotes the development and application of skills
• Collaborative group work goes hand in hand with the principles of cooperative learning.
• Learning to learn skills (4cs)
• Critical thinking
• Communication
• Creativity
• Collaboration

We are committed to ensure all children study R.E., in preparation for later life.  This encourages a tolerance of all religions and promotes British Values.

• R.E. is taught as a ‘stand-alone’ subject.
• We teach following the SACRE Leicester agreed syllabus, which has been approved by all religious groups in Leicester.
• Additionally, each year the children take part in a celebration assembly performed in front of the whole school and to parents. The assemblies stem from one of the four main religions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism.

Through Relationships Education we teach the building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and with adults.