The Federation of St Cuthbert’s and St Sebastian’s Catholic Primary Schools value the diverse ethnic backgrounds of all pupils and families and undertakes a variety of events and lessons to celebrate these. We are fully committed to preparing our children for life in modern Britain promoting fundamental British values.
We have found this approach to be enriching for all parties as it teaches tolerance and respect for the differences in our community and the wider world. Underpinning all of this is a range of curriculum topics which have strong links to our Core Values.
Last year all pupils, from our 2 year olds through to Year 6, explored themes of diversity, respect and tolerance within our Creative Challenge Curriculum topic of World War 1. This is linked with the World War 1 Centenary year and culminated in a service of remembrance in November for our pupils, parents and wider school community. This year, so far, children have recently celebrated the longest reigning monarch in British History, Queen Elizabeth II, and we will continue to celebrate events and projects such as the Rugby World Cup with the ideal that sport is bringing together all nations with a common ethos and values.
Themes across our Creative Curriculum Cycles include:
| Year 1 & 2 | Year 3 & 4 | Year 5 & 6 |
| Viva Espana: Spain | Workhouse to the world: Victorian Britain | Eureka: The Greeks |
| Magical Mystery Tour: Our Locality | Carnival Fever: North & South America | May the Force be with you: The Romans |
| Out of this World: Going Global | London’s Calling: London | Going Global: Cities, Countries & Continents |
| All Aboard: Passport to the World | Gods, Gold & Glory: Aztecs | Tomb Raiders: Ancient Egyptians |
| Here comes the sun: United Kingdom | In my Liverpool Home: Features of the UK |
Across the Federation and throughout each school, our approach to the National Curriculum 2014, combined with our own Creative Challenge Curriculum, is that we embrace and celebrate the many faces of diversity within our world, both past and present.
Our International Schools Award reflects the high profile of our appreciation of different languages and cultures. We are committed to the teaching of MFL, including the teaching of both Spanish (and, in previous years, Mandarin) across our schools. More recently, some children and staff undertook the role of ambassadors for our school, city and country by attending and presenting workshops at the International Head Teachers Conference in Asia. In addition, October 2015 sees our European dimension being continued with staff training in Santander, as part of Continuing Professional Development, enabling them to share educational philosophies and strategies, including the teaching of Core Values, with our European colleagues.
Last summer, we were the first two primary schools in the North West to be awarded the AfPe award for outstanding provision in sport and physical activity. We continuously encourage our children to challenge themselves to excel and emulate the skills and abilities of Olympic and Common Wealth athletes before them. Our extensive Extra Curricular timetables and PE Curriculum are inclusive and offer a wide and varied range of sporting activities allowing the children to accumulate credits in which to graduate from Children’s university.
On a daily basis, our schools undertake daily assemblies that uphold traditional values of empathy, respect and tolerance which are reflected within the displays within our learning environments. These British Core Values are taught within core subjects, SEAL, PSHE, RE and Collective Worship, through the introduction of ‘Philosophy for Children’ sessions and, more recently, holistically through class teaching and on a more general level, the school undertakes daily assemblies which uphold traditional values of empathy, respect and tolerance.