Our Curriculum:
At St. Cuthbert’s, our aim is to provide every child with a broad, balanced, and ambitious curriculum that equips them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to achieve their very best. We carefully select high-quality programmes and specialist partners to ensure the highest possible outcomes, while also creating a wide range of enrichment opportunities to enhance learning and bring experiences to life.
To support early reading and writing, we follow Read Write Inc., giving our children a strong foundation in phonics. In mathematics, we use the White Rose scheme to develop fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. Across the foundation subjects, we use CUSP Education, which provides a carefully sequenced, knowledge-rich approach to ensure depth and progression in learning.
In physical education, our teaching is guided by GET SET 4PE, with additional expertise from Westmorland County FA and Matt Harris, who enrich our sports provision. For Religious Education, we use Magister and The Vine and Branches, supporting children’s understanding of faith, values, and spirituality. Music is taught using Charanga, complemented by the expertise of Cumbria Music Hub, who work with our pupils to deliver inspiring music opportunities. We also partner with Kendal Dance Academy for high-quality dance provision, and with Woodmatters, who provide our children with memorable forest school experiences.
Beyond this, we work closely with local artists and community groups, ensuring our children benefit from a wide range of creative, cultural, and community-based learning experiences.
At St. Cuthbert’s, we believe education goes beyond the classroom. Our curriculum is designed not only to secure strong academic outcomes but also to develop curiosity, creativity, resilience, and a lifelong love of learning.
How we work with parents:
As a small school we not only get to know our children, but their families too.
We know how important it is to work with you, communicating all that will help you help us to ensure the best for your child.
If you would like to discuss your child’s education, please call into our office and request an appointment with the relevant member of staff. Or, catch us in the yard if there’s something urgent we need to know before the school day begins.
Twice a year, we’ll host parent’s evenings where we will inform you on your child’s progress and achievements. These meetings offer a great opportunity to discuss how they are doing both academically and emotionally.
We also host Reading and Maths meetings to ensure we work productively with parents and we all know shared methods of strategies used.
Please take a look at our whole school Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement
In July 2025, 100% of our Year 6 children left St. Cuthbert’s being able to swim 25 metres.
During the spring and summer terms, we attend weekly swimming sessions at an outside pool at our neighbouring school.
You will also notice that reading is embedded into everything we do at St. Cuthbert’s.
We RWI as our early reading and phonics scheme.
Our children love sharing books and are encouraged to read daily in school and at home.
We have very well resourced whole school and class libraries and love to visit Windermere library as often as possible too.
Learning through play
Play is an essential part of your child’s development. That’s why we’ve made it an integral part of our Early Years Foundation Stage. We want your child to develop many skills through the power of play including language, emotions, creativity and social skills.
We want to nurture young imaginations and impart a spirit of adventure. Our curriculum dedicates time to learning through play, leading to lots of problem solving, working with others, sharing and much more!
Our curriculum overviews
The Curriculum at St. Cuthbert’s is designed to be knowledge rich, with a strong focus on the local area. We are so fortunate to live within the Lake District National Park & incorporate as much of this beautiful natural resource into our curriculum as we can. Some examples include; regular forest school sessions (building on knowledge from humanities), vital summer water sports lessons on Windermere, local history projects focusing on the ‘Windermere Boys’, fell walking to develop our map reading skills and local wildlife studies…
CURRICULUM OVERVIEWS FOR PARENTS:
At St. Cuthbert’s, we believe it is important to keep parents fully informed and involved in their child’s learning. We regularly share updates through Class Dojo and our social media channels, giving families a window into what is happening in each class. In addition, we send home half-termly curriculum overviews which outline what children will be learning in each subject, along with practical ideas for how learning can be supported at home.
See below:
Explorers - N/ R / 1 / 2
Detectives - 3/ 4
Trailblazers - 5 / 6
Early Years
For children in their reception year we follow the Government’s 2021 Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. The children’s learning and development is taught through seven areas of learning.
Three Prime areas:
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Four Specific areas:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Curriculum maps:
Coming soon our brand new CUSP curriculum maps…
RE Curriculum
As a Catholic School, we follow the guidance set out by the Bishops' Conference in 2012. To meet these requirements, we use ‘THE VINES AND THE BRANCHES’ AND ALSO 'The Way the Truth and the Life', which is supplemented by teachers' own planning.
Through our carefully planned RE curriculum, we aim to guide the children to become religiously literate young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills to think spiritually and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in our everyday lives.
Religious Education Curriculum Directory 2012-2025:
Religious Education is a core subject in our school and is taught for at least 10% of the weekly timetable.
In Years 5 and 6, our Religious Education curriculum is based on the delivery of the RE Curriculum Directory, supported by the 'The way the truth and the life' Catholic Primary Religious Education Programme, which guides the teaching and learning of Religious Education throughout the school. Our RE curriculum enables the children to explore key questions of life from the Christian tradition and how to put what they have learned into context. In September 2024 we are beginning to trial teaching ‘The Vines and Branches#’ in Year 5 6.
Religious Education at St. Cuthbert’s
At St. Cuthbert’s, Religious Education lies at the heart of our curriculum and daily school life. We follow the Religious Education Directory – To Know You More Clearly (2025), in line with guidance from the Diocese of Lancaster. From Nursery through to Year 4, our teaching is based on the new RED, supported by Vine & Branches and, from September 2025, Magister Catholic Education publications.
In EYFS, R.E. is taught through the Foundation Stage syllabus, providing a strong foundation of faith. In Key Stage One and Two, we follow a two-year rolling programme:
Years 1 and 2 alternate between the Year 1 and Year 2 syllabus,
Years 3 and 4 follow the Detectives pathway,
Years 5 and 6 follow the Trailblazers pathway.
This structured approach ensures full curriculum coverage, progression, and continuity as pupils move through school.
All RE lessons are delivered through high-quality teaching that allows children to encounter Jesus Christ as the living person at the heart of their studies, while respecting each child’s individual religious identity. We also enrich the curriculum with the celebration of special religious events and saints’ days such as St. Cuthbert’s Day, St. Joseph’s Day, and the May Procession in honour of Mary. Each term, we also hold a whole-school RE Theme Day, where children work in mixed-age house groups to explore an aspect of the Church or one of our School Values.
Our RE curriculum is strengthened through a close partnership with our local Parish, where children help prepare liturgies and take part in celebrations. We also value the strong partnership between home, school, parish, and the wider community. Alongside this, we are working towards the CAFOD Live Simply Award, embedding values of stewardship, faith in action, and service.
We strive to make Religious Education engaging, memorable, and meaningful. Our children often tell us that they love their RE lessons, which is evident in the enthusiasm seen in every classroom and throughout the school environment.
If you would like further information about the RE curriculum or provision in a particular year group, please contact our RE Lead, Mrs Lucy Bone, who will be happy to help.
