The Curriculum at St Andrew’s School is based upon the National Curriculum for schools in the United Kingdom. At the centre of the National Curriculum there are  three subjects commonly referred to as “Core subjects”, indicating that they are a compulsory part of each school’s curriculum. These subjects are English (also known as Literacy), Mathematics and Science. In May each year, children in Year 6 are assessed for their knowledge and understanding of these Core subjects, and these tests, popularly known as the “SATs”, are administered in every school in the country. Our results for the most recent of these tests can be seen here

It has been our practice at this school to give core status also to Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and the staff responsible for leading these four subjects meet regularly to discuss ways of assessing and improving the children’s learning in these vital areas of the curriculum. These staff are Miss Littlechild (Literacy), Mrs Andrews (Mathematics), Mrs Dixon (Science) and Mrs Collett (ICT), and their meetings are half-termly, along with the Deputy head (Mr Morris).

Religious Education is not included in the National Curriculum, but, as with the core subjects, it is a legal requirement that we include it in our timetable. The subject leader for RE is Mrs Wayne. We also offer a regular course of lessons in Personal, Social and Health Education, which includes Citizenship. The teacher in charge of PSHE is Mrs Pook.

There are seven “Foundation Subjects”, which we offer in every class. These are:

• Art (Miss Brown)
• Design Technology (Miss Brown)
• Geography (Mr Kendrick)
• History (Mr Kendrick)
• Modern Foreign Language (Mrs Sampson)
• Music (Mrs Elliott)
• Physical Education (Mrs C Collett)

Each of these subjects is also under the leadership of a member of staff, who will, during the course of each year, attend courses, organise in-service training for staff and ensure that the needs of all children are fully met in that subject.  

For each curricular area we produce a written school policy, guidelines for staff and schemes of work. These are reviewed and updated annually. The children in each class are taught by a variety of methods including class teaching and group or individual work. Whatever the methods, we aim always to challenge each child’s level of understanding.

The following notes have been prepared by the teaching staff, to give an impression of what we seek to do in each of the subjects of the curriculum.