Curriculum
We use 'The Way, the Truth and The Life' for our RE teaching. It begins in Reception and goes through to Year 6. It is broken into 6 topics across the year. We also teach other major faiths across the school in Multi-Faith weeks that reflect the diverse world in which the children live. We have daily Collective Worship; Whole School Assemblies on Monday and Friday mornings, class based Collective Worship on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Hymn Practice on Wednesdays. We use the 'Pray Together' resource by Pat Ainge for our class based worship. We have regular whole school masses and each class celebrates an intimate class mass each term.
We teach Literacy and Maths using a variety of schemes and resources including Collins & Abacus. We are also using a Literacy resource devised in part by the famous poet Michael Rosen. Maths is very hands on, with problem solving running throughout.
We introduced the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) in 2009 - it is an exciting, high quality, skill based creative curriculum that encompasses all the other Foundation Subjects to meet the needs of all of our children in the 21st century.
It is based on....
Fun
High Standards
Life Long Learning
Creativity
Cross Curricular Links
Engaging Minds
Celebrating Achievement
We are extremely proud of all that goes on at St. Joseph’s and we often invite parents in to celebrate our work at the end of each unit.
International Day - Friday 28th May 2010
St. Joseph's Primary School has enjoyed fun and festivities today 28th May, whilst celebrating its first 'International Day.' In order to promote understanding and acceptance of cultures both similar and different to our own, the school has hosted a variety of exciting activities from all around the globe.
Each classroom was transformed overnight into its chosen country, with displays from China, South Africa, the USA, India, Australia and Egypt adorning the walls and corridoors. Children moved from country to country taking part in a huge variety of activities, such as making Chinese lanterns, performing African music, and panning for gold in the USA in Key Stage 1. In Key Stage 2, pupils spent their day experiencing Indian clothes and foods, creating Aboriginal art in Australia, and bandaged their friends as Mummies in Ancient Egypt.
Even the dining hall joined in with the celebration and was decorated with brightly coloured paper chains and Mexican flags to allow pupils to have an immersive taste of Mexico. Four lucky pupils were invited to break open a Pinata to signal the end of the lunchtime fiesta.
The then Headteacher, Mrs Smith, put on her best suit and hat for the day and hosted small tea parties for pupils who had shown good manners and behaviour throughout their travels, and Mrs Boswell in the office joined the theme by donning sports clothes and giving out medals for winners of the 2010 St Joseph's Olympics.
Children left the school with smiles on their faces as the teaching staff, all dressed for the occasion waved them goodbye for their half term vacation. Around the world in 80 days? We did it in one!
African Dance & Drumming Workshop - Summer 2011
Each class had 45 minutes of African Dance to perfect - and it turned out to be very hard work! Each movement had to be followed closely to ensure that the storytelling aspect of the dance was clear.
The drumming was tricky to get in the rhythm of - but we managed it in the end! We used our outdoor classroom (so only the birds were disturbed) and we followed the rhythm of the leader as he beat his drum. We then made our own rhythms and the rest of the class had to follow them - with great success!