What Makes St Mary's R.C. Primary School Exceptional?

What Makes St Mary’s R.C. Primary School Exceptional?

We are incredibly proud of our school and believe it is a unique and special place for children to learn and flourish.

Our Vision

At St. Mary’s School we believe in a broad, balanced curriculum to develop each child to their full potential, on their journey to becoming happy and confident individuals. We want children to gain a love of learning in a safe, welcoming environment in partnership with our Teachers, parish, parents and carers with Our Core Values of Jesus Christ central to everything we do.

Our Mission Statement

Our school values are at the core of everything we do. They underpin our teaching and learning, and provide an environment which prepares our pupils as confident, happy citizens.

St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School is rooted in the Gospel Values and the vision of Saint Mary. Saint Mary tells us:

“God is love and He loves us as we are.”

We value one another in a caring community, reflecting God’s love and compassion for all.

We follow Mary’s example to pray, grow in faith and place our trust in God.

We inspire to be the best we can, use our gifts and talents from God and celebrate our achievements.

We live out Our Mission within the following Core Values:

Love – we love each other, including those we find it hard to love.

Respect – we value the views and ideas of others and appreciate that there are different ways of looking at things.

Faith – we believe in God, have belief in ourselves and others.

Inspire – we are motivated by the achievements and talents of others and want to set the right example in our lives.

Achieve – we strive to do our best, we won’t give up when things get tough and will help each other the best we can.

Our Values and Aims 

• Be distinguished by its care for all members, meeting individual needs with fairness, understanding and justice.

• To celebrate and enjoy experiences of success, friendship, happiness and sharing.

• To develop lively and enquiring minds and consolidate the skills and abilities necessary to secure success of the highest personal academic achievement.

• To provide an education which will prepare each pupil for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.

• To affirm, nurture and develop the faith and spiritual growth of its members.

• To learn to respond to the needs of others, to respect other races, religions and ways of life.

• To promote an active partnership between school, the home and the parish.

• To seek to be a vital, responsible and integral part of local and wider communities.

 So, what makes St Mary’s R.C. Primary School exceptional?

St Mary’s Curriculum Journey

St Mary's Curriculum Intent

St Mary’s Catholic ethos and core values are at the heart of everything we do. We intend to provide an engaging and inclusive curriculum, embracing the community in which we live. Our curriculum will create independent, creative, curious, resilient and reflective learners. 

Our curriculum encourages positive attitudes to learning. The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values and the understanding of cognitive science, promoting metacognition and self-regulated learning. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, as well mental health and well-being, are prioritised to ensure children have concern for others and an appreciation of diversity. Children leave St Marys, as confident individuals, well equipped to participate fully in the next stage of their education.

We have carefully planned our curriculum ensuring it is accessible for all, especially for those children with disabilities or special educational needs. Our curriculum complies with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.   

St Mary's Pledge

At St Mary’s, we pledge that while our pupils attend our school they will be given a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities.   

Cultural Capital

What is Cultural Capital?

Cultural Capital is the knowledge, behaviours and skills that children need in order to prepare them to be successful in society. It draws on their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence with the aim of exposing children to different life experiences. It helps children achieve goals, become successful and support their next stage of education and in the world of work.

What does OFSTED say about Cultural Capital?

OFSTED defines cultural capital

“As part of making the judgement about quality of education, inspectors will consider the extent to which schools are equipping pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Ofsted’s understanding of this knowledge and cultural capital matches the understanding set out in the aims of the National Curriculum. It is the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said, and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.”

How is Cultural Capital implemented at St Marys?

At St Mary’s we aim to provide our children with experiences and opportunities to explore the world around them, ask questions and take part in interesting and stimulating experiences.

Here are a few of our experiences:

•   Finding out about the local area and visiting different around Swinton

•   Visit to Lark Place, Salford

•   Harvest time - Supporting Loaves and Fishes, our local charity who work with                      homeless people

•   Sacramental Programmes; First Communion and Reconciliation

•   Dance, yoga, gymnastics, cross country, cricket, swimming and netball – coaches/after      school clubs

•   Sharky's Journalism & Wheelchair rugby with Sale Sharks

•   Trip to Bury Fusiliers Museum  

•   Bikeability

•   Whole school Mad Science Assembly.  Mad Science after school club

•   Carol Services

•   Christmas productions, Christmas Party Day and Christmas Jumper Day, supporting           the Save the Children charity

•   NSPCC Number Day

•   Guitar lessons

•   Walk to School Initiative. 

•   STEAM and Maths challenges

•   Odd Socks Day for Anti Bullying Week

Curriculum Implementation

Our carefully designed curriculum balances the National Curriculum expectations and a range of valuable experiences which allow our children to grow and flourish. Clear planning allows the curriculum to be dynamic and adapt to the context of the school and the needs of our children. 

Our outstanding classroom environments, along with our Kagan strategies, promote, stimulate and engage quality thinking and reasoning.

Our curriculum is progressive and supports retrieval practice, spacing and interleaving to ensure knowledge is learnt and not forgotten. A range of continuous professional development supports all staff to further develop curriculum pedagogy. Our marking policy is an opportunity for children to reflect on their learning, improve their work and deepen their understanding. 

All areas of the curriculum have their own:

• Subject intent
• Scheme of work
• End of unit/year expectations
• Clear progression maps for knowledge and skills
• Tiered vocabulary
• Subject leader

Curriculum Impact

We are proud of our curriculum monitoring, which has been in place for many years and is very well established.  Learning is measured through careful assessment of the knowledge and the application of skills across the curriculum. 

The impact of our curriculum is seen in:

 High standards: performing at or above national and local averages.

 Strong progress; improving year on year.

 Quality experiences which are memorable, worthwhile and challenging.

 Teaching which is personalised, innovative and child led.

 Pupils who are confident and can engage in discussion with their peers.

 Learners that are resilient, independent and confident global citizens.

 Individuals who value and respect one another and have an appreciation of a diverse community.

Our subject leaders create annual action plans, which feed in to the School Improvement Plan. This ensures each subject is the best it can possibly be. More information about each subject can be found under ‘Key Information’ tab.

Our teachers have outstanding knowledge of the subjects they teach. They check pupils’ understanding, offering support and challenge for all groups of learners.  This is as a consequence of extensive professional learning (both internal and external) and can be seen in lessons through: live marking, pupils’ responses to marking, mini plenaries, pre teaching, unit cover sheets showing subject knowledge before and after learning and post unit assessments, which ensure pupils make strong progress from their starting points.

Personal development

St Mary’s School consistently promotes the personal development of pupils and goes beyond the expected, so that pupils have access to a wide, rich set of experiences. Opportunities for pupils to develop their talents and interests are of exceptional quality.

We have a wide range of extra-curricular and enrichment activities at St Mary’s.

For example, children take part in:

 Forest Schools

 High quality PE

 Science projects such as GSSfS

 High quality Music

 Art projects

 Play Leaders, Guardian Angels, Prefects, Missionary Disciples

 School Council, Arts Council, Eco Council

 Many afterschool and lunch time clubs such as: Cross Country, Science Club, Maths Club, Lego Club and Eco club.

We have a whole school approach to mindfulness and health and well-being.  This is promoted through our Jigsaw scheme and our RSE Ten:Ten scheme.  We celebrate events such as Mental Health Week and Anti-bullying Week.  Our Pastoral Lead runs several high-quality support groups; Time to Talk, Circle of Friends, Restorative Justice and Pyramid Club.

St Mary’s prepares pupils for life in modern Britain effectively, developing their understanding of the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, tolerance and respect. The school promotes equality of opportunity and diversity effectively. This is evidenced across the curriculum, particularly in our creative weeks, Caritas Days, celebration days, educational visits and enrichment days involving outside agencies such as the Pop Project. 

Pupil Leadership

We believe our school has a pupil led culture where children take on key leadership roles and their voice is heard. We value the work of our pupil leaders, using it to shape the teaching and learning that happens at our school. We are moulding leaders of the future, ready for work, ready for the world. We strive to craft confident and articulate leaders, who can share their views to any audience and apply their leadership skills to real life situations.  We have leaders on our School Council and Arts Council.  We listen to pupil voice in our regular subject pupil voice monitoring.  We have invited children to a Full Governing Body Meeting to talk to the Governors and express their views on school life. 

Brilliant Behaviour

Behaviour and attitudes are exceptional. All members of St Mary’s have high expectations for pupils’ behaviour and conduct. These expectations are commonly understood and applied consistently and fairly.

Bullying, harassment and violence are never tolerated. Pupils work hard with the school to prevent all forms of bullying. Anti-bullying week, assemblies, Jigsaw lessons, online safety teaching and the role of our ‘Guardian Angels’ all ensure instances of bullying are extremely rare. Pupil and parent questionnaires are regularly distributed to ensure that stakeholders are happy with the way school deals with rare instances of bad behaviour/bullying.

Our pupils consistently have positive attitudes and commitment to their education.  Our core values of Love, Respect, Faith, Inspire and Achieve are at the heart of everything we do.  We praise and celebrate positive behaviour in classes and in our celebration assemblies.

Feeling Safe

Our pupils are safe and they feel safe. This is evident in our pupil questionnaires.  We promote all aspects of pupils’ welfare to ensure pupils feel safe at all times. The children have the opportunity to develop their understanding of their own welfare through sessions such as: online safety, road safety, School Council campaigns, bike-ability and PSHE lessons

Pupils’ SMSC development equips them to be thoughtful, caring and active citizens in school and in wider society.

Attendance

Pupils have high attendance, come to school on time and are punctual to lessons. When this is not the case, the school takes appropriate, swift and effective action. As a consequence of regular and consistent communication with parents/carers, weekly updates, rewards for good attendance and punctuality in assemblies, newsletters, termly tracking and liaison with the LA Early Intervention Team, data remains above the national average.

We are Leaders!

Leaders ensure that teachers receive focused and highly effective professional development, which consistently translates into improvements in the teaching of the curriculum. This includes weekly Key Stage meetings, weekly staff meetings, whole school inset days, peer coaching, team teaching, shadowing of more experienced teachers and partnership work with cluster and other schools. The impact of the professional development on the curriculum is evidenced in subject leader monitoring, well organised and consistent subject leader files and ambitious subject action plans.

Staff consistently report high levels of support for well-being issues.  Some ways in which we have addressed staff wellbeing are: staff well-being days, a review of planning, staff questionnaire, acceptable length of staff meetings, shared playground duties, new staffroom, Guardian Angels, PPA taken from home and the effective implementation of key policies (eg Protecting staff and pupils from abuse policy). The impact of these systems is clear in the positive responses in one to one Professional Development Interviews, staff questionnaires and informal staff feedback.

Parents

We value our parents and encourage their engagement in their child’s time at St Mary’s.  Our parents are engaged through the school app, school website, school twitter page, the weekly newsletter, an active PTA, parent/carer workshops and information sessions (eg RSE, phonics, early reading).  We also have a ‘Support for Parents’ tab on our website.  Here, we try and add information to support parents in everyday life.  There are pages regarding food banks to online safety.

Governors

Our Governors understand their role and carry this out effectively, ensuring school fulfils its statutory duties, for example equality and safeguarding. Governor minutes evidence governors systematically challenging senior leaders so that the deployment of staff and resources, including the pupil premium, PE and sports premium and SEN funding, secures excellent outcomes for pupils.

Governor monitoring of safeguarding (including the Single Central Record and key health and safety policies and procedures), teaching and learning, the curriculum, vulnerable groups, end of key stage SATs and school finance are discussed in committee meetings and Full Governing Board Meetings to ensure significant impact.

Safeguarding

Safeguarding is highly effective at St Mary’s and is of paramount importance within school.  We display child friendly posters around school.  These show the key people the children can speak to if they need to.

Staff are trained on induction and refresher training is provided at least annually. Our CPOMS system enables a consistent approach to recording concerns and alerting appropriate staff and external agencies, when relevant. Leaders’ work to protect pupils from radicalisation and extremism is exemplary.

The Headteacher, Mrs Raynor, is our designated Safeguarding Lead.  Mrs Raynor works closely with the Safeguarding Governor to complete an annual safeguarding audit, which is shared with the Local Authority. All governors are safeguarding trained.

Awards

Our school has achieved many awards, which include:

 Primary Science Quality Mark (currently working towards)

 Arts Mark

 School Games

 Music Mark

 Eco Award

 Dyslexia Friendly schools