Intent

At St Mary’s We aim to provide a broad and stimulating curriculum that equips our students with the necessary knowledge, skills and aptitudes to lead safe and successful lives. St Mary’s encourages all students to be active contributors to the community we serve. As well as living healthy physical lifestyles, St Mary’s aims to create aspiring individuals that enhance their God given talents, whilst demonstrating and nurturing potential.

We recognize that each student is valued and celebrated in the unique image of God, and we encourage the diverse range of personal values explored in our personal development programme.

Our Curriculum for Life programme is rewarding yet challenging with a key purpose to shape and develop cognitive fluency. We deliver content that is aligned with the guidance from the Department of Education, but also with a focus on well- being and social and emotional mental health. This is to ensure that we nurture the whole child, equipping our students with the confidence to excel in their seven-year learning journey at St Mary’s as well as becoming successful citizens in the wider community.

Our curriculum for life programme prepares our students for the ‘tests of life’ in an ever-changing society and we believe the development of character is displayed in the positive decisions we make beyond the classroom, with Faith, Hope and Love underpinning everything we do.

We aim to embed a curriculum that builds on prior learning and fosters positive future choices and actions.

Our curriculum embraces challenging and complex material whilst always being time and age appropriate.

We adhere to statutory guidance that allows for us to build in the wider community pathing the way for our future stars.

We always ensure our content is inclusive and diverse whilst also exploring the British Values. We understand the context of our community and aim to remove barriers, building resilience and reinforcing that ‘life is a journey’. St Mary’s creates environments to optimise learning, and the Curriculum for Life knowledge is creative, purposeful, and meaningful.

St Mary’s is passionate about developing the oracy of students and we aim to create cross-curricular links to embed interconnected learning.

Curriculum for Life at St. Mary's - Implementation

Our Curriculum for Life content covers all personal, social, health and economic education as well as CEIAG. As part of our broad and balanced curriculum, the programme includes the teaching of RSE (Relationships, Sex and Health education).

We ensure that the teaching about human love and relationships is guided by our faith as well as equipping all children with the clear and relevant information they need to maintain successful and happy relationships and healthy minds and bodies.

Ten Ten’s RSE programme, ‘Life to the Full’, will teach Relationship, Sex and Health Education within the context of a Christian understanding of human sexuality rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Catholic Church.

Please see more information regarding Ten Ten and our RSE content delivery here.

Our curriculum follows a thematic approach, and content is reviewed and regularly amended and in response to wider social issues. Fortnightly lessons are delivered with the use of booklets from expert teaching that allows our content to be accessible.

We are passionate about Investing in our pupil's personal development programme for students to grow in God’s image. In our long-term plan, we focus on the statutory content whilst ensuring we have pathed the way to developing social and moral skills.

We aim for our students to express themselves without judgement in relevant matters whilst immersing themselves in a learning journey.

We encourage our students to have a voice at the centre of their wellbeing and mindfulness whilst letting their light shine.

Key knowledge is assessed via our ipsative model with baseline activities and reflective pieces undertaken in each lesson. This allows our teachers to draw on prior knowledge and develop new knowledge areas. All of which ultimately leads to students leaving with key messages and actions to ‘impact their future learning’.

Curriculum road map

Year 7

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Emotional regulation- Starting a new school

Half Term one

• self confidence & resilience

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Making new friends
• Online and mobile safety

Half Term 2: Careers

• What is a career?
• What is an entreprenuer?
• My future career

Half Term 3: Sexual health and relationships

• Puberty
• Intimate relationships
• Sex and fertility

Half Term 4: Healthy lifestyle

• Mental health - Stress management

Physical health

• Physical health- Exercise

Mental Health

• Personal hygiene/dentistry

Half Term 5: Families and relationships

• Challenging bullying
• Healthy Relationship values
• Strereotyping and discrimination

Half term 6: Life skills

• First aid /CPR

Safety

• Water safety/railways

Finance

• Safe online gaming/AI genereated images
• Finance

Year 8

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• What is a drug?

Half Term one

• Vapes

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Risks of alcohol
• Online Influencers

Half Term 2: Careers

• Employability skills
• Writing a cv application?
• Managing my earnings - My future career

Half Term 3: Sexual health and relationships

• Indecent images/upskirting
• Sexual attraction and feelings
• Sexual attraction and managing feelings
• Managing sexual attitudes

Half Term 4: Healthy lifestyle

• Mental health- Managing anxiety and depression

Physical health

• Physical health- health services/checking yourself

Mental Health

• Digital resilience, AI and digital footprint

Half Term 5: Families and relationships

• Relationships- How to act in public spaces
• Healthy relationships- How to act and deal with relationship break ups
• Relationships- Challenging harmful attitudes

Half term 6: Life skills

• Prejudice/equality/Sexual orientation

Safety

• Who runs the UK?

Finance

• CPR/emergency response
• Finance

Year 9

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Peer pressure?

Half Term one

• Knife crime

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Online grooming
• AI chatbots and deepfakes

Half Term 2: Careers

• Skills and how to use AI effectively
• Options subjects
• Labour market & Hybrid working

Half Term 3: Sexual health and relationships

• Contraception
• Sexual consent
• Sexual images

Half Term 4: Healthy lifestyle

• Eating disorders/body image

Physical health

• Diet and exercise

Mental Health

• Sleep importance

Half Term 5: Families and relationships

• Families and Managing conflict
• Relationships- parenting
• Relationships- Coercive control

Half term 6: Life skills

• Gender reassignment

Safety

• Extremist online communities

Finance

• Misinformation/conspiracies/scams
• Understanding Tax

Year 10

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Drugs Convictions & substances online

Half Term one

• Misogyny

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Incel culture
• Online- Influencers/misinformation

Half Term 2: Careers

• Different career routes- University & college
• Different career routes- Apprenticeships
• Work experience

Half Term 3: Sexual health and relationships

• Pressures associated with sex/safe sex
• Coercive relationships/sexual harassment & violence
• Pornography efffecting relationships

Half Term 4: Healthy lifestyle

• Mental health- Managing grief and loss

Physical health

• Disease prevention- Body modification (sunbeds/piercings)

Mental Health

• Medical consent- vaccinations & gillick competence

Half Term 5: Families and relationships

• Domestic abuse- Violence against women/victim blaming
• Work experience - Preparation
• Work experience - Preparation

Half term 6: Life skills

• Hate speech & Gender reassignment

Safety

• Gambling and addiction

Finance

• Laws in relation to crime/weapons and violence
• Finance - manging debt /credit

Year 11

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Risks of gang involvement

Half Term one

• County lines

Half Term 1: Relationships/Influnces/Online influences

• Alcohol and spiking
• Online exploitation & scams

Half Term 2: Careers

• Employability skills
• CV's and interviews
• Post 16 Options

Half Term 3: Sexual health and relationships

• Contraception
• Unwanted pregnancies/miscarriages
• STI prevention

Half Term 4: Healthy lifestyle

• FGM

Physical health

• CPR

Mental Health

• Self examination and screening & blood donation

Half Term 5: Families and relationships

• Financial literacy
• Gambling and mental health
• Exam support