St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

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

Outdoor Education – Erasmus KA1 course

Mr McKaye has returned from his adventures in Dublin, Ireland – hooray!!

He went over to a week long course with other European educators as part of our school’s Erasmus Key Action 1 funded project ‘Up, Up and Away!’ During his time there, Mr McKaye had the opportunity to observe outdoor lessons, discuss and exchange ideas, build practical skills, share teaching ideas and materials for Outdoor Education as well as make links with people from other European countries.

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During the course, they were able to visit to a Green school and experience a Forest School where we learnt how to cook and make crafts from forest materials. Linking Outdoor Education with our Vincentian Value of being stewards of our environment alongside Mr McKaye’s feedback/experience, we recycle as much as possible to reduce classroom waste on a daily basis (e.g. paper, plastics and even fruit for our polytunnel compost). For more information on Green Flag Eco Schools, please visit: https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/about/what-is-eco-schools/

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Most of the practices observed and learned during this week, have been taken and implemented at St Vincent’s here in London such as Forest bathing and how to identify trees and other fauna and flora. In his regular Forest School sessions, Mr McKaye has taught other staff to use lots of team building games to facilitate team bonding using challenging games such as Gutter Ball and some blind folded activities.

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We continue to build and develop our Outdoor Education experiences and learning opportunities across the school from Early Years (Reception) to Year 6, look out for more posts to follow!


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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:

  • Live their lives by the Gospel and Vincentian values instilled in them at school.
  • Understand that everyone has the right and responsibility to live in our world constructively and ensure that we leave it in a better state than when we entered it by living and working through the principles of Catholic Social Teaching in line with the UNCRC (United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child)
  • Experience creativity across the curriculum through specialist art and dance lessons and opportunities to take part in art, music, dance and creative writing competitions.
  • Know the joy of outdoor learning, the rich biodiversity within our school grounds and locality and develop a responsibility for the environment we share as stewards.
  • Understand their place in the world, globally and locally, knowing the history of our school, Mill Hill and the Daughters of Charity and knowing where our diverse community members have their roots across the world.
  • Be ready and well-prepared for their next steps in life, having high aspirations for themselves and for others because they have experienced success and a belief in learning from mistakes.
  • Have a life-long curiosity, stimulated by the driving questions of Project Based Learning approach to the curriculum fostering inquiry and independent learning skills, which give confidence to ask big questions about the world.
  • Be literate and numerate having experienced a rich variety of texts to stimulate and excite the mind while developing skills in investigating and problem solving to enable them to excel in their future passions.
  • Be confident and happy young people that have a broad understanding and tolerance of the world and others around them with excellent communication skills honed by their experience of Restorative Justice and respect of the dignity and wishes of the individual.

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.