Curriculum Overview

Please note that we are currently updating all of the curriculum pages on the school website and some subjects may contain more detailed information than others. If you have any questions or require any further information, please contact school and arrange to speak to our curriculum lead, Mr J Barnes-Moran.

At St Luke’s we have put together a knowledge-rich curriculum, which places knowledge at the heart.  The content has been carefully chosen and organised in a coherent way to ensure that it builds from year to year.  In this way the knowledge in the curriculum is cumulative and creates firm foundations from which the children can build understanding and skills over time.

In 2014 The National Curriculum encouraged schools to place more emphasis on teaching knowledge.  From this we thought carefully about the content and the order in which it is taught.  We also placed a large emphasis on vocabulary.  An essential element in all year groups is the development of a broad and rich vocabulary, and the explicit teaching of vocabulary.

At St Luke’s we are producing ‘Knowledge Organisers’ which are the ‘go-to’ documents outlining the essential knowledge that the teachers will be covering across a unit of work; including dates, key people, vocabulary, definitions, and other contextual or technical information. These ‘Knowledge Organisers’ will be shared with pupils, parents and carers – with the aim that everyone knows exactly what is being taught, and what the children need to learn.

Here are some of the ways we will use the ‘Knowledge Organisers’ in school.

1. Send the knowledge organiser home with the children before the start of a topic to encourage discussion and prior research.
2. Talk through the knowledge organiser at the beginning of the topic. Use the knowledge organiser to identify knowledge gaps throughout the topic.
3. Share the knowledge organisers with the parents, to help with home learning.
4. Use knowledge organisers to strengthen teacher knowledge in a subject area.
5. Stick the knowledge organisers into the children’s topic books for regular reference, or cut up the sections to focus the children and deepen their knowledge in a particular area.
6. Make links between knowledge organisers to help children understand how their learning connects. For example, remind the children of a previous year’s knowledge organiser and compare it with what they know now.
7. Use the knowledge organiser as a revision tool. This is best done as ‘low stakes’ quizzing during or at the end of a topic, rather than a formal test. Do the children know more than is included on the knowledge organiser? Can they add detail to it? This is the ideal scenario, as it means they have deepened their knowledge beyond the baseline outlined on the knowledge organiser.
8. Use the knowledge organiser as a handy spelling and vocabulary reminder. Keep it visible at all times and expect the children to use the proper vocabulary correctly.
9. Use the knowledge organisers as guided reading texts (this way, you can help children read the information and check they understand it).

Below you will find links to each year group's curriculum map which outlines the topics and areas of study for each year group.