Curriculum

St James’ Curriculum Intent

 In the loving peace, justice and joy of Jesus, we achieve. 

Our mission statement is the starting point of our curriculum intention. Every child is a child of God. Every child deserves to succeed and experience the joy of their God given gifts as they come to learn to serve others for the benefit of all. 

Our intention is that the curriculum is ambitious and aims to give all children, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge, cultural capital and experiences they need to fulfil their potential and succeed in life. 

To this end, our curriculum is based on the Core Knowledge Sequence, developed by ED Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Foundation for elementary schools in the United States, but adapted for English primaries. This curriculum was first introduced in the UK by the charity Civitas. The idea behind it is that all children should complete their primary education with a storehouse of general knowledge, along with the self-confidence and skills to use it.

We have worked closely with consultants from the West London Free School to design a content rich curriculum which is coherently sequenced to promote cognitive development and knowledge retention, reflecting current pedagogical thinking and evidence. The curriculum is designed to support all learners and equip our children with sufficient knowledge and skills for their transition to secondary education, future learning and employment.

It is our intention that our curriculum is accessible to all and will promote God’s unique plan for every child.