St Joseph ’ s Catholic Primary School in the Borough A Voluntary Aided Catholic Primary School Mr. Luiz Bento – Year 3 Teacher Little Dorrit Court Redcross.

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in the Borough

A Voluntary Aided Catholic Primary School

Mr. Luiz Bento – Year 3 Teacher

Little Dorrit Court Redcross Way

London SE1 1NJ

Saint Joseph’s is a Catholic Primary School for Catholic children between the ages of 3 and 11 years. There are 8 classes of mixed ability children from a wide range of cultural and social backgrounds. The school serves the parishes of The Precious Blood and Our Lady of La Salette, but also takes children from other parishes in SE London.

What is special about our school?

What do pupils learn about?

We aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which offers the best education for our children. And since ultimately everything relates to God, every part of the curriculum has a spiritual dimension.

In the Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception), the curriculum is organized into six areas of learning:•Personal, Social and Emotional development•Communication, Language and Literacy•Mathematical development•Knowledge and Understanding of the World•Creative development•Physical development

The learning in Key Stages 1 and 2 follows the National Curriculum. Teachers plan an exciting and stimulating curriculum in order to promote active learning. A variety of learning styles are used to encourage independent and group learning and to developing thinking skills.

Weekly Timetable

Literacy - English• All children have a daily English lesson and the

basic skills of speaking and listening, reading and writing are given a high focus in all curriculum areas.

• ReadingEach classroom has a wide selection of books to encourage the children to want to read and to stimulate their interest in reading. We also have a large well stocked school library.

• WritingFrom the moment the children come to school, they are eager to share their ideas and to put them down on paper. In the early years the children’s own “writing” plays a vital role in their language development. They will be encouraged to write for a wide variety of purposes.

• SpellingAs the child develops, he/she will want to spell more and more words correctly and the teacher will work individually with each child to develop spelling and literacy, as well as punctuation.

• Speaking and ListeningThe children are provided with a variety of situations and stimuli e.g. class and group discussion and drama activities to encourage both these skills.

Mathematics

• Key Stages 1 and 2 follow the National Numeracy Strategy, which is taught throughout the school. This means that approximately an hour a day is set aside for the teaching of Numeracy. The curriculum is broken down into the teaching of number concepts with a daily session on mental maths and the teaching of topics such as length, weight, capacity, time, money and shape.

RE• As a Catholic school, Saint Joseph’s has a

special role to play in the education of young Christians. Our approach to religion does not seek to ‘compartmentalise’ but rather tries to develop children’s ability to see God at work within the context of everyday lives. Our RE teaching (approx 10% of teaching time) focuses mainly on the  Learning and Growing as the people of God programme which is topic based and taught from nursery to Year 6.

• Years 1 to 6 also learn about two other faiths – Judaism and Islam. This is to help the children understand the importance of different beliefs and to know that there are similarities between faiths.

Background InformationAt Saint Joseph’s, our teachers plan, teach and assess to a high standard and ensure that all children make progress commensurate with their ability.

Children with additional learning needs are well supported and each class has a full-time, highly trained Teaching Assistant or Nursery Nurse who works with the Classteacher to support the children’s learning across the curriculum.

Each term we monitor the progress of each child and target additional support where necessary.

Extra Curricular Activities

Children in KS2 have the opportunity to join:

•Football Club•Breakfast Club•Maths Club•Book Club•Art Club •Gymnastics sessions•Choir (during lunch-time)•School Council

Local area attractions• Borough market• The Shard• Tower of London• Tower Bridge• Tate Modern

• The Globe Theatre