Curriculum Overview

St Bede’s Curriculum - Intent 

“Pupils at this school value their learning. All pupils benefit from a broad and ambitious curriculum.

 

OFSTED, January 2023

St Bede’s Curriculum has been designed to meet the needs of all of our pupils and the impact of this is reviewed as a whole school annually and in faculties and departments on a termly and half-termly basis. The ‘golden thread’ in our entire curriculum is our Catholic values and SMVSC curriculum. 

There are a range of implications that dictate how the curriculum is designed and runs such as changes in government policy, key performance indicators, changes to the National Curriculum and assessment at KS2 and KS4, facilities, staff retention and finance. However, our curriculum is planned in conjunction with our MAC schools to ensure pupils follow a seamless curriculum from 4 – 19. We incorporate Catholic Social Teaching into all of our subjects, and it can be evidenced in lessons and is also explicitly shown in the subject intent sheets in the Subject Information Section.

Implementation - Curriculum for all 

At St Bede’s we strive to have a curriculum that engages learners, is broad and balanced and provides pupils with the best outcomes by the end of year 8. SLT regularly review the curriculum and curriculum coverage has been changed in the last two years to adapt to the ever-needing demands of our learners. Outcomes have focused heavily on this as we strive for our pupils to leave us, ready for the demands of GCSE at high school.  The new Virtual Curriculum offers pupils an exciting new curriculum with 40+ extra subjects to study outside of our ‘in school’ curriculum. This offers valuable career pathways and new opportunities to broaden the knowledge of our pupils.  

“Careers education in the school is strong and goes beyond national guidance.”

OFSTED, January 2023 

We have pupil voice as a part of all faculty reviews during the year and SLT hold pupil voice sessions with pupils so that the pupils have a say in how the curriculum looks from their point of view. We ensure the all children receive a specialist delivery in all subjects enabling pupils to make outstanding progress from entry to exit in all curriculum areas. Further details on the impact can be found in our results 

As with any school we have pupils of different abilities. We have a unique St Raphael’s group for SEN pupils who are struggling to access the National Curriculum. This group has shown enormous progress and improvements in pupil attitudes and attendance due to the way that is designed. Our JAP group is also targeting specific pupils with pastoral and academic needs, through hands on engaging projects both on and off site. Forest School has also been set up to engage some of our KS2 pupils and the JAP group helped build much of this area. 

SMVSC and RE are taught on specific drop-down days on a half-termly basis. The focus on what is covered on these days can be found on the curriculum map, but there is an increasing amount of work looking at attitudes and the mental health of children. This is done on a rotational basis so that disruption to other subjects is kept to a minimum. 

Extra-curricular activities are an essential part of St Bede’s life and our broad and balanced curriculum. It is designed to meet the needs of all pupils with a wide range of clubs and activities available. This informal curriculum is monitored and managed alongside the formal curriculum. 

Key Stage 2

Year 5

Year 6

Key Stage 3

Year 7 

Year 8

Curriculum Coverage for Academic Year 2023-2024