Curriculum Overview

A ‘curriculum’ is a list of content to be taught and learnt – a course of study for schools, colleges and universities. From September 2014, schools in England follow a new National Curriculum – a course of study decided by the Department for Education.

Structure of the National Curriculum

At St Mary’s RC Primary school, there are three phases in total:

Early Years: ages 4-5 (Reception); the National Curriculum does not cover this phase.
Key Stage 1: ages 5-7 (Years 1-2)
Key Stage 2: ages 7-11 (Years 3-6)

For Key Stages 1 and 2, there are three core subjects

English (spoken language, reading, writing, including grammar and punctuation)
Mathematics (including number and place value, calculations, fractions, measurements, geometry)
Science (including ‘working scientifically’)

In addition, there are foundation subjects; for Key Stages 1 and 2, these are:

art and design
computing
design and technology (DT)
geography
history
music
physical education (PE)

A language is also a foundation subject in Key Stage 2 – however we’ve been teaching French to all our children in class 3 to class 5 for four years now.

The National Curriculum

English

History

Maths

DT/Art/Design

Science

Languages

Computing

Music

Geography