CURRICULUM

 

Academic Excellence, Character Development and Faith Formation are at the very heart of Saint Richard Catholic School, and this is evident in our curriculum. Our teachers empower all students to excel academically, creatively, physically, and spiritually through a challenging curriculum based on national and state standards. The outcomes within this curriculum, developed in our diocese through the Notre Dame Ace Collaborative for Academic Excellence, provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, and our teachers exceed those expectations in a variety of innovative and challenging ways that meet the needs of all learners. This results in a curriculum that ensures rigor, a commitment to Catholic education, and a prioritization of skills and standards. In addition, we choose to advance our academic excellence even further through collaborations with entities such as the Whole Schools Initiative, Project Fit America, and STEM programs, so that students experience higher order thinking and real-life application of knowledge through the arts, technology, engineering, and physical activity. Our commitment to engaging students through the latest technology challenges students in all content areas and provides them with real-life preparation and application of their learning. Our special education services provide a quality education to students with a variety of exceptional learning needs. We are so proud of the quality curriculum that we have to offer at Saint Richard Catholic School and of the efforts that our students and our teachers put forth each day to advance the excellent, Catholic education we have offered for more than sixty five years

Students expand their knowledge, recognize their strengths, and develop interests through special area classes in art, music, physical education, technology, and foreign language, and in after school CASA enrichment classes. Our Catholic faith is emphasized, modeled, and taught as part of the regular curriculum, through weekly Mass attendance, and through special area classes in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

Learning is personalized for all students using differentiated instruction, balanced literacy, and an emphasis on multiple intelligences. Students experience their learning in action in our science lab, our learning lab, and our computer lab. In Pre-K 3, Pre-K 4, and Kindergarten, children experience a hands-on, multi-sensory, literacy-rich approach that engages students in the learning process and provides them with an excellent foundation for learning. The curriculum includes integrated language arts, mathematics, music, social studies, science, dramatic play, and physical activities, as well as activities to develop social and emotional skills. Lower and upper elementary students build on the love for learning achieved in previous years by continuing to utilize multi-sensory, hands-on approaches that ensure student success in all subject areas. Balanced literacy, Orton-Gillingham Multisensory Phonics, guided reading, writers’ workshop, and a combination of small- and whole-group instruction are used for direct instruction of essential skills in language arts, whereas a hands-on, lab-based, workshop approach, with emphasis on small group instruction, create an outstanding learning environment for math and science.

The curriculum and the highly qualified teachers, counselors, administrators and staff members of Saint Richard Catholic School prepare students for future success in an ever-changing world and ensure an atmosphere where students are challenged to maximize their potential and to develop a love of learning that will last a lifetime.

 

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