St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

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

Utopia – Erasmus+ KA2 Project findings.

Developing skills for cross-curricular teaching in a community-based and outdoor environment.

St Vincent’s participation in a KA201 Erasmus+ Utopia project has come to an end after two years!

The main objective of this project was the professional development of primary school teachers. We wanted to support and develop high-quality and innovative teaching methods, upgrade existing skills and embrace the challenges of the future. We aimed to achieve change through self- and whole school improvement and exchanging of good practices. 

In a partnership of seven primary schools from Belgium, London, Wales, Slovenia, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria, complemented by specialists from the university of applied science Thomas More University, Belgium and specialists from the Department for Education and Children of Wales, we organised learning and training activities, both physically in training events and project meetings including online, to facilitate the exchange of good practices to enhance the motivation, knowledge and skills of teachers, to make teaching more effective and to foster a culture of lifelong learning in the schools.

The overall project aims were to further deepen our pupils’ learning, knowledge, skills and understanding holistically in authentic and imaginative outdoor contexts, nurture their wellbeing through connectedness with their environment and continue to extend their cultural capital to prepare them for their futures as enquiring, resilient and productive global citizens.

Through the Utopia Project, St Vincent’s school have taken part in international visits both in person and online meetings. We have had the opportunity to exchange ideas with our European partners and training provided with a focus on Cross Curricular and outdoor learning, with staff members going on visits to Belgium, Athens and most recently to Wales. It was an amazing opportunity to learn from and with our EU partners. Thank you one and all!

As part of Professional development across EU education systems, each partner school created examples of Good Practices linked to their curriculum that were shared between EU countries. To see the variety of classroom activity resources available across a range of age groups please visit the Utopia website: https://www.windekind-utopia.be/

For the latest news or more useful information on international projects or opportunities and what local schools are doing, please visit https://www.connectgloballearning.co.uk/. Make sure you read the fantastic updates in the Newsletters section!

As part of it’s final report – here is a magazine created by Utopia partners to celebrate all the highlights and achievements of this Erasmus+ KA2 project. Enjoy reading!

Journal_utopia14_06_22-1Download

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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.