5.1 – The Curriculum Our Lady and St. Joseph’s Primary and Nursery North Lanarkshire

Core Business in classes Good quality learning and teaching throughout the school and nursery. CPD and PRD – up to date training. Effective quality assurance procedures in place to check there is consistency and good practice leading to positive impact for learners. Effective planning for what is being taught and assessed. Evaluative language to describe progress. Meaningful tracking which ensures that there is continuity and progression for all learners across all areas of the curriculum.

Core business as the Leader Be clear about how you want the curriculum to look in your school…..the totality of the experiences on offer - a joined up approach. Monitoring and incidental monitoring. Model how you want things to run eg daily class drop in – 2 key questions….. Tell me something you learned today in…..? Why do you think it is important to know that in real life? HT’s need to have credibility as lead learner and lead by example. Show staff what you want.

Theme 1 – The Rationale and Design of the Curriculum Vision and Values  Development of a three year strategic plan with staff and stakeholders. Design Principles  Development of a curriculum where there is sufficient opportunities for real depth of learning and application of skills. Key implications for planning and challenging staff…..where are you planning for personalisation and choice etc? An Inclusive Curriculum  Sufficient flexibility to meet the needs of individuals, including those with additional support needs. ASN tracking / Additional Support Plans / appropriate target setting.

5.1 Promote Pupil Entitlements  Life and ethos of the School and Nursery.  Curriculum areas and subjects.  IDL.  Planned opportunities for wider and personal achievement. Develop the Four Capacities  Curriculum for Excellence awards.  Tea with Mrs. T!  PLP/ Learning Log - target setting and review.

Does the curriculum leave scope for well considered innovations? Focus Fridays Philosophy for Children Friday Focus Groups – Enterprise, Fairtrade, Eco and Website Thinking Circles Intergenerational Learning Re – structured Golden time Forest Kindergarten Nursery Home-link Activity Bags – Early Years Collaborative

Theme 2 – The Development of the Curriculum Refreshing our Curriculum to incorporate change and innovation.  Three year strategic plan created with all staff and stakeholders. SWOT and PESTLE Analysis  Improvement Priorities identified in School Improvement Plan – tied in to 3 year plan.  Ongoing self evaluation to inform next steps and areas for focused attention.  Opportunities for Distributed Leadership, working parties and collegiate working.  Being pro-active to access opportunities for enhancing the curriculum for children.

Numeracy Focus Feedback from Stakeholders Analysis of GL Assessment results and other assessment data Aim to be E’s and O’s led – less textbook Ensure children have opportunities to use skills in unfamiliar situations – contextualised assessments. Has there been retention of learning? Can they use what they have learned to problem solve? Has there been real depth to the learning that has been going on over the block of work?

Theme 3 – Programmes and Courses All areas have a programme of study in place. Some areas have not been addressed yet through school improvement but a planned, progressive programme is in place to plug gaps until the area can be looked at in depth. Three year rolling programme of Science and IDL topics to ensure continuity and progression. Skills development at the core of the programmes e.g a local authority produced art pack Clear guidance on the basics – Timetabled lessons weekly for discrete subjects eg Art / Science.

Theme 4 - Transitions Pastoral Transitions Induction days for P1 and for new nursery pupils. Buddy programmes / P1 Chums Induction days P7 – S1 Half day visit for P6 to high school Pupil and group information passed on from teacher to teacher. Handover information at the end of the year.

Curricular Transitions How are we ensuring that there is continuation of learning at Early Level and taking cognisance of the work covered already? PT / P1 teacher – covers the Nursery teacher McCrone session. Alternating between morning and afternoon sessions to get to know all the children and the work being covered. How are we checking security at a level before moving to First? Second? – Variety of evidence (Make / Say / Do / Write) over time. Pupil tracking and Pupil progress meetings as well as weekly planning evaluations.

What next for OLSJ? Continue to review and develop curricular areas on a rolling programme. IDL / Art / RE next! Include Numeracy as a Year three priority in the school improvement plan. Focus now on problem solving and planned opportunities for numeracy across the curriculum. Continue and expand the Friday Focus Work. Further develop links with the community to enhance opportunities we offer the children.