Curriculum Statement

Our aim is to provide the very best education and the most exciting opportunities we can to inspire our children.  At St Luke’s, we live out L.I.F.E. – Love, Inclusion, Flourishing, and Empowerment. Together, we strive to shine brightly in the world, living as the Good Samaritan. We nurture and empower one another, enabling every individual to flourish. Rooted in God’s love, our community is a place where everyone belongs. The curriculum we offer is our mechanism for achieving this.  Our vision is based on our mission to:

'Love God. Love your neighbour as yourself: be the Good Samaritan.'  Luke 10: 25-37

We hugely value our relationships with parents and carers who we acknowledge as a partner in this important undertaking.  We are united in our determination that every child will develop and achieve as well as they possibly can educationally, socially, emotionally. spiritually, culturally, mentally and physically. Our curriculum places the learning journey of ALL our pupils at its very heart. It is based on the knowledge and skills laid out in the National Curriculum.  We have shaped the National Curriculum, joined it up, made it relevant and organised it so that children have access to carefully planned teaching which is based upon their individual needs, their lives in EC1, London, England and the world. Children are given opportunities to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills through:

1.Providing a foundation of solid reading, writing and mathematical knowledge, understanding and skills that enables them to fully access the broad curriculum and have the skills they need for the next stage of their education and later life.

2. An understanding of global citizenship in the 21st century including ecological awareness and responsibility, British values, consideration and respect for others. We ensure they understand equality and rights through reinforcement of The Protected Characteristics. We teach children about safe, responsible and positive use of technology as they develop a clear sense of social responsibility. 

3. Building aspiration, resilience and effective learning characteristics. Children in St Luke's do aspire and seek to learn and want to learn and develop confidence to learn.  Aspiration also comes from children's exposure to the working world and to what their futures could look like.

4. Developing social and emotional intelligence  We are a happy school with a stable staff team who are great role models to the children as we nurture them to develop their personalities, emotional intelligence, relationships and desire to learn. We are a trauma-informed school and believe in teaching children how to self-regulate.

5. Building cultural capital and equality of access to the arts including a culturally rich curriculum with creativity at its heart, making the most of London on our doorstep and partnerships that enrich the curriculum. 

Our approach enables us to give children full access to a wonderful curriculum as we embed our vision and develop happy children who are ready for the next stage of their learning who have a strong sense of respect and belonging to their community.

English:

The teaching of English is at the heart of our learning and teaching and is essential to every area of the curriculum. We aim to develop a child’s love of reading through widespread reading for enjoyment. We use ELS- Essential Letters and Sounds' to teach phonics and reading. In addition, we use Makaton and Talk for Writing.  From Y2 to Y6 we have a whole class reading programme.  We promote and encourage children to discover the value of strong communication skills and the importance of reading and writing in all aspects of their futures. (More information can be found in the Curriculum Statement for English, including approaches to teaching Reading, Writing, Spelling and Handwriting).

Maths:

At St Luke's we want our children to receive a high quality mathematics education that ensures all pupils are fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, have the ability to reason mathematically and can apply their knowledge and understanding to solve problems. We also want them to have an appreciation of the power of mathematics and a sense of fun and curiosity about the subject. We use a mastery approach to teaching maths. White Rose Maths - our chosen Singapore Maths scheme uses accessible textbooks to introduce concepts in a highly scaffolded way through concrete, pictorial and abstract learning. This enables children to develop critical thinking skills, make mathematical connections and become confident mathematicians. The Singapore scheme is a whole school commitment.

Other Subjects:

We follow a thematic based approach to the curriculum for Geography, History, Art and DT with strong links to the Science, Computing and English curriculum. We follow separate schemes of work for RE, PSHE, Computing, Music, PE, Spanish and Science making links to topics where appropriate. Themes have been carefully selected so that there is even coverage of the National Curriculum. Priority is given to exploring topics in depth, revisiting and expanding upon previous learning making links between subjects which aides children's recall of what they have learned so they remember facts from their learning experiences.  In English children study quality books, plays and poems that are chosen to deepen children’s understanding of their History topic for example. All themes are built around planned practical learning opportunities such as field work, museum visits and workshops that enrich children’s learning further. We take full advantage of our location in the heart of London through curriculum topics that explore the richness of London past and present. The organisation of the curriculum in this way helps knowledge to “stick”, to join up learning and ensure breadth and depth in the study of all subject disciplines.