St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”
Psalm 133.1

Global Scholars

The Global Scholars program is in 25 countries and 50 cities where students in year 5 and 6 communicate directly in e-classrooms with peers across the globe. This educational environment, enhanced by multimedia communication, creates opportunities for the children to build important global and general learning competencies. The posts and projects of international peers are primary texts for them to learn about other cities, the common global topic they are studying, and the skills needed to solve a global problem.

This year, the focus is on ‘World of Water’ and the children will have opportunities for students in cities around the world to exchange ideas and perspectives while learning about the role of water in their lives, cities and the world. Students will investigate how water shapes everyday life, how cities manage water, the impact of human behaviour on water security, and solutions to local and global water challenges.

Students also build the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours that comprise the indicators of global and general learning outcomes as identified by Global Cities. They will have learning outcomes which are grouped into five thematically-linked indicator clusters: perspective-taking, understanding and appreciating culture, respectful communication, critical thinking, and collaboration. At the end of the year, students synthesise their learning in Community Action Projects that address water issues in their cities.

Please see our blog below for how we are incorporate this program into our learning:

Curriculum Intent

At St Vincent’s it is our INTENT is to enable ALL children to thrive through the opportunities we provide them with, in order to:

Curriculum Context

St Vincent’s is a 1.5 form entry school with 285 children ranging from 4 -11. Children come predominantly from the parishes of Sacred Heart in Mill Hill and St Anthony’s in Edgware.

Children come from a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds, speak 17 different languages and hail from 26 different ethnic groups. The curriculum we present, and promote, to the children is an endeavour to reflect these differences by providing opportunities to explore the different countries, languages and customs our children are part of through the projects they investigate. We have looked closely at the context of our school, the backgrounds of the children and how life is for a child growing up in North London today. We have used the underlying principles of our Catholic Faith and the example of our namesake St Vincent to create a set of values which lie at the heart of our curriculum.

We are aware of the changing nature of society and the pressures faced by young children as they enter the next stage of their education. The rise in Mental Health related issues has been widely documented across the media. Therefore, issues such as internet safety and the enormous impact across society of social media are at the forefront of our minds when planning our curriculum. With the current worldwide concerns relating to Covid 19, racial justice, equality and diversity, as well as gender and economic background, we feel it is our duty to prepare the children through a concerted focus on building independence, resilience and communication skills linked to our Vincentian Values.