Curriculum

Curriculum Statement 2022/23

At St Luke's our aim is to provide the very best education and the most exciting opportunities we can to inspire our children. Every child is unique and valued. The curriculum we offer is bespoke and is based upon our vision which is central to every decision we make. This vision is based on our mission to:

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

Our vision is alive within our curriculum, in our actions and relationships with one another in our culturally diverse, rich school community. Our expectations are high of the children and for the children and we ensure the achievement of every child compares favourably with the best in the country. We very much value our relationships with parents and carers and 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 an inspiring curriculum 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. We focus on children learning how to learn and think, and enquiry led learning enables children to  become critical thinkers able to apply skills and knowledge. 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 including our learning for life strategy. Children in St Luke's do aspire and seek to learn and want to learn and develop confidence to learn. We promote Growth Mindset, helping children to build their confidence to feel able to learn and have high expectations of themselves as we do of them. 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 through our vision, our learning from the Bible, through our promotion of our four Christian values- Wisdom, Compassion, Perseverance and Thankfulness and also through our extensive PSHE curriculum. 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.

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  'Learning for Life ' strategy is based on the UNESCO report 1996 which unifies what we do at St Luke's and why we do it:

"Learning to live together: develop an understanding of others and their history, traditions and spiritual values and, on this basis, creating a new spirit which, guided by our own growing independence and common analysis of the risks and challenges of the future, would induce people to implement common projects or to manage the inevitable conflicts in an intelligent and peaceful way.

Learning to know: combining a significantly broad general education with the possibility of in-depth work on a selected number of subjects. Such a general knowledge background provides, so to speak, the passport to a lifelong education, in so far as it gives people a taste- but also lays the foundations- for learning throughout life.

Learning to do: entail the acquisition of a competence that enables people to deal with a variety of situations, often unforeseen, and to work in teams.

Learning to be: develop and exercise greater independence and judgement combined with a stronger sense of personal responsibility for the attainment of common goals."

Our approach enables us to give children full access to a wonderful curriculum as we embed our vision and the school's Learning for Life ethos as we 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 topic based approach to the curriculum for Geography, History, Art and DT (with strong links to the Science, Computing and English curriculum also). We follow separate schemes of work for RE, PSHE, Computing, Music, PE, Spanish and Science making links to topics where appropriate. Topics 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 topics 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.

Please see the Teaching and Learning Policy and curriculum statements for each subject for more information.