Enrichment & Cultural Capital

At St Margaret Mary Catholic Primary School, Cultural Capital is realised through all aspects of the curriculum – exposing students to a large variety of subject areas and arts; promoting character-building qualities that lead to creating well-rounded, global citizens, and of course the more typical expectations of education.

Knowledge

Knowledge Rich Curriculum

Local History/Geography Study

Poetry Anthology & Shakespeare

Museum and Gallery Visits

Cultural Trips

Places of Worship Visit

Character Driven Curriculum

Aspiration

University of Cumbria Links

Carlisle College Links

Glasgow University Visit

Performing Arts and Theatre Visits

Sporting Links and Live Sport

Young Voices

Rewards and House Cups

Service

Cumberland Council Office Visit

Houses of Parliament Visit

Scottish Parliament Visit

Give it Up Days

Multicultural Cumbria - British Values

School Council & Parliament Week

Northern Saints

Prayer

Carfin Pilgrimage

Lancaster Cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral

Jesuit Behaviour Principles

School Prayer Life

Holy Days of Obligation

Mass

Performing Arts

At St Margaret Mary Catholic School we have made a pledge to develop the Performing Arts as part of the well-rounded curriculum. Further to this, as a Catholic school, it is our duty to embrace, promote and develop every child’s God given talents. Whether children decide to perform on stage or help out behind the scenes the creativity of our children is embraced.

In the summer term, each year group has timetabled dance sessions throughout their week and music lessons are delivered by a specialist teacher. Our extracurricular timetable includes dance, drama and choir; furthermore, we also offer private music lessons to children from Yr 1 upwards.

Our school participates in many festivals, these include the Shakespeare Schools Festival and Carlisle District Music & Drama Festival. Children have the opportunity to celebrate the richness and depth of human expression in all of its forms.

Through creative expression, children learn to comprehend our world better and are therefore better equipped to navigate the challenge beyond at Secondary School. The Arts helps build the confidence of our children and the talent that children discover through the arts can form habits which transcend all areas of study. Our school offers children the chance to grow and express themselves to their peers – this again is developed further through the arts.

Over the course of the year our children perform in many productions, both in school and on a professional stage. These performances give them a chance to showcase their acting, singing and dancing skills.

Sport

Our large playing field and array of sports equipment enable us to offer a wide variety of sports including:

athletics
badminton
basketball
cricket
cross country
dance
gymnastics
hockey
netball
rounders
football
rugby

Our school has many sport teams ranging from gymnastics to football. Our extensive after school clubs allow access to many sports outside of the curriculum and our children participate in various competitions and festivals across the school year.

Furthermore, our children also get the chance to dance in professional festivals across the school. We believe it is our duty to ensure that our children get the chance to showcase their talents and develop their skills.

All pupils follow a physical education programme that aims to promote health and physical development. Competition is encouraged through internal house competitions and fixtures against other schools and through the involvement with the Cluster Sports Partnership.

Activities also include Irish dance, cheerleading, cycling and swimming. We also ensure that, as well as promoting sport and competition, we focus on healthy living and each child is trained in first aid.

The highlight of our sport calendar is Health & Fitness Week - this is a whole week dedicated to sport. Not only does this include our sports day and Race for Life event, but it allows our children a taste of new sports such as boxing, taekwondo, canoeing and archery.

We also take our children to a variety of sporting events for them to experience elite sport first hand. We see this as a massive part of developing sports across the school.

Extra-Curricular Clubs

As well as After School Club, our school offers a wide variety of clubs over the course of the year with timetables being updated regularly to cover all ages and interests. Clubs have included traditional sports such as football as well as new sports such as Gaelic Football. We have also ran clubs such as Archaeology Club for KS1 and The Planeteers for KS2.

With regards to the arts, we offer things such as KS1 and KS2 choir, Street Dance and, amongst other things, Drama Club. Recent clubs have included Minecraft, Happy World Club, Pokemon, Battle Bot Robotics and Animation Club.

We aim to provide the best opportunities for all our children, no matter their age. Please contact the school for more information on what after-school clubs are currently available.