Intent

At St Michael’s CE Primary School our curriculum is built upon a knowledge-rich, spiral design that ensures pupils revisit and deepen understanding as they move through school. Learning is carefully sequenced in small, well-modelled steps so that every child can build secure knowledge, practise retrieval, and make meaningful connections across subjects and concepts.

Through a broad and balanced curriculum, closely aligned with the National Curriculum, we aim for all pupils to develop strong foundations in knowledge, skills, and vocabulary that enable them to understand and engage with the world around them.

Our curriculum is driven by four key principles that underpin everything we do:

• Engagement and Curiosity – igniting a passion for learning and a sense of wonder about the world.
• Understanding and Remembering – enabling pupils to know more, remember more, and do more through deliberate practice and retrieval.
• Equity and Independence – ensuring every learner is supported, challenged, and empowered to take responsibility for their own learning.
• Confidence – developing resilient, reflective learners who take pride in their achievements and persevere when faced with challenge.

Implementation

Our teaching is underpinned by evidence-based pedagogies designed to ensure that learning is inclusive, challenging, and memorable. Teachers model concepts explicitly, break learning into small, achievable steps and use frequent assessment to identify gaps and guide next steps.

We implement our vision through:

• Scaffolds and Challenge: Support structures and targeted questioning that enable all pupils to access high-quality learning while ensuring challenge for every learner.
• Vocabulary Instruction: Systematic teaching of subject-specific and tiered vocabulary so pupils can think, speak, and write with precision.
• Critical Thinking: Encouraging pupils to reason, justify, and apply knowledge creatively across subjects.
• Oracy and Questioning: Structured talk and purposeful questioning that deepen understanding and develop articulate, confident communicators.
• Active Learning and Enrichment: Opportunities beyond the classroom – such as educational visits, visitors and clubs – that bring learning to life and strengthen real-world connections.

Teachers employ retrieval practice and cumulative review to ensure that prior knowledge is regularly revisited and embedded in long-term memory. Each subject follows a clear progression model, showing how knowledge builds and connects as pupils move through the school.

Impact

Our curriculum enables pupils to:

• Know more and remember more, demonstrating secure understanding of key concepts and the ability to apply learning in new contexts.
• Communicate confidently, using rich vocabulary and reasoning to express their ideas clearly and thoughtfully.
• Think critically and creatively, making connections across subjects and to the wider world.
• Demonstrate equity and independence, showing resilience, self-motivation, and responsibility for their learning.
• Show curiosity and engagement, developing a lifelong love of learning.

The impact of our curriculum is measured through pupil outcomes, engagement in learning and readiness for the next stage of education. By the time pupils leave our school, they will have developed the knowledge, skills and confidence to thrive as learners and citizens in an ever-changing world.