At St Herbert’s School, our curriculum is determined by several key “drivers”, which range from our Whole School Vision and Values, our locality, developing oracy and building our children’s cultural capital.

Our Vision

 

“Learn to Love as we love to learn”

Alongside encouraging high academic standards, we aim to grow accepting, self-aware young people, who are offered a broad range of experiences, (creatively focussed in the outdoors and through the Arts), learn to feel they can “make a difference”, become resilient and are able to make the right choices for a fulfilled life, where they can face all that life brings, the good times along with the challenges.

Our pupils learn to love themselves and each other, while growing intellectually.

The Church of England’s Vision for Education strives to ensure that all pupils live “life in all its fullness” John 10:10.

…I came to give life—life in all its fullness

John 10:10

We know that a fulfilled life brings many positive aspects (learning, growing, celebrations, being fulfilled, being busy, giving, joining in, taking opportunities) as well as many sad and difficult times and challenges (death, worry, grief, challenge, conflict). This complete view of life’s experiences is how we at St Herbert’s view “life in all its fulness”. We all need to support and help each other through good and bad times, so, alongside loving to learn, we also place high value on learning to love one another.

Our Values

As a whole school community, we ensure that our vision is realised through 4 core Christian values. These values are embedded in the life of our school and all members of our community work hard to ensure they are at the heart of all we do. They are:

Wisdom

Hope and Aspiration

Dignity

Community

Our children will thrive through experiencing:

1. A safe learning environment
2. High expectations for academic and personal achievement
3. A team based ethos throughout the school
4. A supportive, passionate teaching team
5. Opportunities for adventure
6. Strong partnerships with families
7. Very strong links with the Keswick community
8. An exciting and engaging curriculum, providing adventurous opportunities for children and staff to take risks and feel challenged within a supportive framework
9. A clear understanding of where they are in their learning and what they need to do next
10. A World class local environment, which enables a regular, developmental programme of residential and outdoor learning opportunities

 

Our Setting and local area

At St Herbert’s we are extremely fortunate to have very spacious grounds which include fields and playground areas, as well as a pond, a Forest School campfire and shelter building area, several gardens, a maze and two trim trails. We encourage teachers to take all forms of learning outdoors wherever possible and we hold regular outdoor learning afternoons where we teach tool and forest skills.

We live in the heart of the English Lake District and Keswick is known as the Adventure Capital of England, so our surrounding area is a huge asset for our learning. We make the most of every opportunity to use the local area and children regularly enjoy exploring the wilderness, whether it be the lake (Derwent Water), our local fells (Latrigg, Barrow, Walla Crag, Catbells, Bleaberry Fell and Blencathra), the woods (Manesty Wood, Castle Crag, Whinlatter Forest etc). We have a bespoke developmental programme of residential visits and outdoor learning skills.

Developing oracy skills

At St Herbert’s, monitoring over recent years has shown that oral language on entry is below the age expectations for pupils. Therefore, our curriculum is planned to focus on this key area and we take every opportunity we can to use spoken language and to include visits and visitors in our daily programme. Through this approach, we can enhance learning in the classroom, ensuring that children enjoy a range of exciting and real experiences while developing their spoken language and broadening their horizons. Technical vocabulary and oral skills are built in at the start of each theme we teach and every opportunity is taken for children to see the wider world, meet as broad a mix of people as possible and enjoy as wide a range of experiences as we can offer.

Cultural Capital and Diversity

At St Herbert’s, we recognise that our children aren’t exposed to a wide range of cultures or diversity within our local community. Throughout our curriculum, we utilise every opportunity to give our children a wide range of experiences to enhance their cultural capital and develop children’s understanding of a diverse society. We plan visits to different places of worship to develop children’s understanding and respect of different religions. Through our reading spines, we ensure children are exposed to a wide range of cultures which reflect the multi-cultural society we live in today. We have developed a range of residential experiences starting in Year 2, which progress during their time with us to build upon previous experiences.

Subject content:

• In Early Years and KS1 we use Read, Write Inc for phonics teaching and English in ability groups at their challenge point. In KS2, when children have finished the grey group at RWINC, English is taught in mixed ability groups and is planned through the Literacy Tree scheme of work. This has been used to develop our school’s reading spines and guided reading, as well as developing SPAG, comprehension, fluency and vocabulary skills. We use Allan Peat’s Progression in Sentences, VIPERS approach to further enhance the curriculum. In KS2, spelling is planned using Spelling Shed.
• Maths is planned using the White Rose Hub materials using concrete, pictorial and abstract methods at all stages. We use the Mastery Approach in our lessons. Times Tables Rock Stars is used at KS2 for table practice.
• Science is taught following the CUSP curriculum, which is built upon research from cognitive science.
• PSHE is taught using the Jigsaw scheme. This also links with circle times and assemblies.
• Music is taught using the Charanga scheme and support from Cumbria Music Hub.
• Computing is taught using the recently acquired iLearn2 Computing resources.
• PE is taught through the iPEP scheme, supported by professional coaches.
• RE is taught using the Questful RE scheme of work, supported by Understanding Christianity.
• MFL (French) is taught using Language Angels.
• History and Geography are taught using the CUSP curriculum, which is built upon research from cognitive science.
• Design Technology is taught through a scheme called Kapow.
• Art and Design is taught through a scheme called Access Art.