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Romero Child Charter – ( Romero–Child–Charter–Brochure–Final.pdf (romeromac.com) this document provides details of all the of the experiences that all our children will have the opportunity to participate in whilst at school from Nursery – Year 13 at Cardinal Wiseman. It provides a pathway that aims to develop the whole character of our students, with Jesus as our model of faithful living, readying them for their future lives as they prepare to take their place in the adult world. There are six strands to the Romero Child Charter and within each strand the experiences build sequentially on those that have gone before. This means that there is a seamless transition between each stage of education. So, whether a child is progressing from our Early Years provision to Key Stage One, or from our primary education to secondary education at Cardinal Wiseman, we – as an Academy – have a clear vision of how we can further develop their character to prepare our children for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life.
PSHE – We follow Ten:Ten for our progressive PSHE curriculum and supplement this with additional workshops and assemblies and the use of Jigsaw.
The development of the Thematic Curriculum placed pupils’ SMSC development at the forefront of our thinking. This is woven throughout the curriculum with the following areas significant areas.
Values Questions: All themes are also framed in a values questions which brings children’s learning back to reflect on the social, moral and cultural elements of the topic and incorporate their spiritual thinking. An example of this question can be seen in our Year 3 Greek topic. The Ancient Greeks applied their values of loyalty, glory, intelligence and hospitality into everyday life. These values shaped their civilization. How do we use our values and virtues to shape our daily lives?
Year 1- Me and My World: Within the topic, we consider the local environment and our understanding of what makes up our local area. This looks at elements of how our local area has a varied social and cultural make up.
Year 3- Europe: From a Geography perspective, we explore the social and cultural diversity of countries within Europe. This has taken on increased importance for our children following Brexit and ensuring that they have an understanding of key elements of this. This is also an area where a number of our children (and families) are able to share culture. With such a large proportion of our school being from Eastern Europe this is a key identity element.
Year 4- The Ancient Greeks: The key focus for SMSC and British Values within this topic lie in the heart of democracy. We explore the creation of democracy and make links to how this has evolved into our government system today and the elements of democracy we see in our school. This is further enhanced in KS3 at Cardinal Wiseman.
Year 4- Rainforests: The rainforest provides a perfect platform to explore geography and the make-up of different climates. This topic holds the big question of ‘Should we care about deforestation?’ Considering the morality of questions such as this are central to our curriculum. This topic is being further redesigned for a wider consideration of our role within climate change.
Year 5- Africa: This Geography focused topic focuses on the continent as a whole and addressing misconceptions that exist. Within the topic we consider our moral obligation to help those in need whilst exploring the spiritual, social and cultural diversity within and across countries. During our working party group, we at St Gregory’s were insistent that this should be a topic as it provides an opportunity for one of our biggest ethnic groups to see direct representation in our curriculum. We harness this identity by including parents and families heavily within this topic.
Year 5- The Industrial Revolution: The Victorian focus of the topic is underpinned by a consideration of the rapid change brought about by the Industrial Revolution. This is explicitly related to the social and cultural impact on Victorians and how these are witnessed and experienced today.
Year 6- World War 2: The WW2 topic looks at the moral dilemma of whether war can ever be justified. This big question is debated in depth and is supported by considerations of the social and cultural impacts during the war and since. Key development such as the role of women in the British workplace are explicitly explored.
Year 6- Natural Disasters: The Geography focused theme looks at the structure of the earth and how earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters are formed. This is then built on by considering our social obligation to help those who have experienced disasters. This has previously involved planning and delivering support packages to disaster areas.
Year 6 – Survival of the Fittest: Entrepreneurship project that involves looking at local community involvement from a business perspective and how children can be inspired to be aspirational in the future vocation choices. (Social and Cultural).
Wider application can also be seen in other areas of the curriculum. We have evaluated the texts we use in Reading to ensure a more varied range of authors, issues and main characters to ensure all four elements of SMSC are experienced on a daily basis. This can be seen through lessons such as the recent Reading lesson in Year 3 where they used the book ‘Brave Ballerina’ by Michelle Meadows, that explores the story of Janet Collins, the first African American principal dancer at the Metropolitan Opera House. Exposing children to inspirational figures and stories such as this is part of our efforts to inspire and motivate our children and discuss SMSC issues regularly.
Our Art curriculum has been designed to move away from what our external Art consultant described as “lots of dead, white artists”. Instead, the artists selected have chosen with a consideration of cultural and social representation. A key example of this, is our work in Year 5 based on Yinka Shonibare, a British born artist of Nigerian heritage whose work features brightly coloured African styled fabric informed by his dual nationality.
We follow the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s Curriculum Strategy for Religious Education in Catholic Schools called “Learning and Growing as people of God”. As part of the strategy the children learn about what it is to live as Christians today, how the Church is organised from global to parish level and also the opportunities which exist for them to participate in the life of the Church. This is supplemented by reflection questions which bring children’s learning back to how this gives them models or lessons for being model citizens today.
We have now taken Catering, IT, Finance and HR as central functions by the Shared Services Team. One of the benefits we have seen is that we can tailor and exploit opportunities by working with our staff in these core functions.
For example, now catering is in-house, we use this as an opportunity to develop food technology and experiences for the children that fit into our subjects. Furthermore, with IT being consistent across all eight schools and being on one domain, we have shared experiences for example, poetry workshops with all Year 3 4 5 classes on Teams prior to Christmas. We also can deliver virtual experiences to the children for assemblies/ enrichment opportunities. These experiences in turn, develop the personal development of pupils, helping them to
In line with our Romero Child Charter strands: Romero Experiences; Romero Thrives; Romero Shines our Children at St Gregory’s have an abundance of first-hand, memorable experiences as a basis for learning in context:
Children at St Gregory’s have the opportunity to discover develop their talents which are celebrated regularly. This also links to the ‘Romero Shines’ strand of the Child Charter.
At St Gregory’s, we believe every child can be whatever they want to be and provide them with the opportunities to succeed in adult life in modern Britain. Our past pupils are a testament to this e.g. our current Principal, Megan Scullion, is a former St Gregory’s and Cardinal Wiseman pupil. We monitor personal development through pupil and parent voice.
Catholic Church, Sikh Gurdwara, Mosques in Coventry – feedback from these visits also notes how respectful our children are.
