Our Curriculum
From the moment pupils arrive at St. Gabriel’s they experience a rich and stimulating education offering both breadth and depth where the aim is to inspire, intrigue and challenge pupils’ thinking. Every child is immersed in knowledge-rich experiences with opportunities to work with experts to enquire and create knowledge. The golden thread throughout our school experience is to equip pupils with the skills to become life-long independent learners. Your child will develop a deep understanding of the wider world, their own community and how they will be able to make a positive difference.
At the heart of our curriculum lie three core values: pursuit of academic excellence; the explicit development of metacognition; and crucially, character education.
Academic Excellence is fundamental within our curriculum model. The children’s acquisition of a deep body of knowledge within subject disciplines, will enable them to express their learning to the highest standard. When children achieve excellence, this gives them the confidence to challenge themselves further. Through this process of experiencing success, they will develop character, for example grit, determination, self-efficacy and courage.
Character Education Whilst academic success remains a core priority, developing character is also an essential element of our curriculum model. Our curriculum gives children opportunities to make a positive impact on society. We want them to grasp the possibilities and opportunities of life beyond the classroom, to enable them to thrive at each and every challenge they face in life and make a difference to themselves and those around them.
Metacognition Our curriculum not only focuses on achieving character whilst pursuing academic excellence, but also emphasises deep learning through developing the skills of metacognition. We use an enquiry approach to drive our learning experiences, making the reflective learning process explicit. In addition to this, tools for thinking will be taught to support children’s higher-order thinking, synthesis of knowledge and creating of new thinking. However, metacognition can only be developed within a knowledge-rich curriculum.
