St Joseph’s aims to put the child at the heart of the curriculum. The school provides a broad, balanced, challenging, and relevant curriculum that is vigorously planned, professionally implemented, and systematically evaluated by a dedicated and experienced staff. The intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, cultural, and physical development of each individual within a happy, caring environment is of prime concern. Emphasis is placed on developing competence in basic skills while promoting self-esteem, discipline, and confidence within the individual.

All pupils will follow the Revised Northern Ireland Curriculum, which is set out as follows.

There are seven areas of learning:

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• The World Around Us
• Personal Development and Mutual Understanding
• Religion
• The Arts
• Physical Education

Key skills will be developed to prepare our children for life in the 21^st century. They are:

• UICT and Digital Literacy
• Communication, Speech and Language
• Mathematics
• Socialising
• Teamwork
• Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking

Various teaching approaches are utilised while catering to class, group, and individual interests and needs. Effective teaching is achieved by differentiation, the careful matching of activities and contents of lessons to the individual needs and abilities of the children in our care. To make the curriculum as meaningful and practical as possible, a topic or thematic approach is often adopted.

The religious education of our children is vital within our curriculum content as it permeates the lives of all children in our school. Children will receive 3 sacraments during their time at school: First Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

The staff meets regularly on matters relating to the planning and development of the curriculum, ensuring the continuity and progression from year 1 to year 7.