St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

“Caritas Christi Urget Nos –

The love of Christ urges us to care for each other and strive for excellence in everything we do.”

Poplar Class Outdoor Learning Adventures

In Poplar Class this week, we have been on an exciting outdoor learning adventure! The children have embraced the wonders of God’s creation, exploring nature and deepening their understanding of both the world around them and the stories we learn in our faith. Through imagination, play, and discovery, our Year 2 students have developed important life skills and had great fun along the way.

Journey from Egypt to the Promised Land
In our Religious Education lessons, the children have been learning about Moses and the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. To bring this important biblical story to life, we pretended to take the same journey as Moses and his people. The children put themselves in the shoes of the Israelites, imagining what it must have felt like to walk through the wilderness, trusting in God to lead them to safety.

We acted out different parts of the story – imagining crossing the Red Sea, wandering through the desert, and even looking for food to sustain us! The students were encouraged to think about the faith and perseverance of the Israelites, helping them to connect the story with their own experiences of patience, teamwork, and trust in God’s guidance.

Learning the Compass: A Game of North, South, East, and West
As part of our geography and outdoor learning, the children have been mastering the points of a compass—North, South, East, and West. We turned learning into a game, where the children had to listen carefully to directions and then move to the correct point of the compass. There were plenty of giggles as they dashed across the playground, navigating their way just as the Israelites followed God’s pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness.

Through this game, the children not only learned practical skills like how to find their way using a compass, but they also strengthened their listening, concentration, and teamwork. It was a brilliant way for the children to experience movement, have fun, and develop their understanding of directions, all while building links to the biblical journey we’ve been exploring.

Exploring Our Forest School: Discovering God’s Creation
Poplar Class has also spent time in our wonderful Forest School, where the children have been exploring the plants and animals that call our forest home. This hands-on experience has helped the children to see the beauty and diversity of God’s creation up close. They have been searching for different types of plants, looking for creatures like squirrels, birds, and insects, and learning about the habitats that these animals live in.

The children are becoming keen nature detectives, identifying the different species they find and discussing how we can take care of the environment. It has been inspiring to see their curiosity grow as they discover the intricate details of life in our forest school, from the texture of tree bark to the colours of autumn leaves.

Connecting Learning to Our Faith
At every step of our outdoor learning journey, we have been reminded of the incredible world God has created for us to enjoy and take care of. The children have learned that, just like Moses and the Israelites trusted in God to guide them through the wilderness, we too can rely on Him as we explore new things and face challenges.

Our outdoor learning activities have encouraged Poplar Class to develop a love for nature, an understanding of geography, and a deeper connection with the stories of our faith. Most importantly, the children are learning to see how everything in creation points back to God’s love and care for us.

We are so proud of the enthusiasm, joy, and teamwork that our Year 2 children have shown during these outdoor adventures. We look forward to more opportunities for outdoor learning, where the wonders of the world around us can inspire new discoveries and deepen our understanding of God’s plan for us.

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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.