Here at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School we provide a creative curriculum based around the Cornerstones Curriculum, a nationally recognised approach for delivering outstanding learning opportunities for children.
What is the Cornerstones Curriculum?
The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. Our new curriculum will be delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) which will provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of our children’s learning. We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our new curriculum will provide lots of learning challenges throughout the academic year that will require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively across the curriculum. Cornerstones also provide a rigorous essential skills framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These essential skills are tied to activities and are age related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.
How it Works?
Children will progress through four stages of learning in each ILP – Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express. To find out more about these stages please click on the link through to Cornerstones website:
https://cornerstoneseducation.co.uk/why-cornerstones/
Phonics
At St Joseph’s we follow ‘Letters and Sounds’ and follow the recommended planning and lesson structure. To supplement ‘Letters and Sounds’ we also use ‘Jolly Phonics’ which allows a kinaesthetic approach to the teaching of Phonics. We use ‘Phonics Bug’ on the interactive whiteboard.
Reading
The school does not use a specific reading scheme, but the following schemes are used and colour banded according to reading ages: Oxford Reading Tree, Phonic Books and Collins.