"Since my child moved to St. John's, his confidence and love of learning has been phenomenal." Year 2 Parent 

Find information about what is taught in each subject across school below. 

Should you require additional information, please speak directly to your child's class teacher or to Mrs Howley (Curriculum Leader.) 

See below for information about what your child learns in their current year group. 

Curriculum Intent Statement

At St. John’s CE Primary School, we aim to make every day full of wonder, excitement, challenge and fun, equipping today’s children for tomorrow’s world.

The aim of the curriculum at St. John’s CE Primary is to provide the knowledge and aptitude needed for our pupils to develop as independent, confident, successful learners with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.  There is a high focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding alongside physical development, well-being and mental health. The school provides a highly inclusive environment where learners enjoy their education and pupils at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. In compliance with our duties in the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Education al Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, we ensure that the curriculum is accessible for those with disabilities or special educational needs.

At St. John’s, the development of knowledge and understanding is carefully planned to ensure coverage and progression through a 3D curriculum. This is structured in a way that makes remembering inevitable. Themes and concepts are developed and embedded from EYFS to Year 6, building on what has been taught before to ensure learning is transferred to pupils’ long term memory. Subject-specific vocabulary is taught and embedded across school as part of this process. Subject leaders play an important part in the success of the curriculum by sequencing, planning, monitoring and evaluating the knowledge that is built upon across school in their subject. They are explicit about the substantive concepts developed over time and the disciplinary knowledge needed to excel in their subject. Careful planning across subjects also allows background knowledge to be developed to enrich the curriculum, providing further depth and breadth of understanding. In response to the Covid 19 pandemic, staff have prioritised and adapted the curriculum to address any gaps in learning.

Our use of enquiry-based learning across school also allows knowledge to become embedded into long term memory as it allows children to understand the relationship between the parts of knowledge accumulated over time. Our pupils deepen their understanding of topics by exploring their own questions and making hypotheses before evaluating the evidence provided and adjusting their hypotheses. By allowing our pupils to apply this process to a range of real contexts, which engage and excite the children, we ensure that understanding does not become context bound allowing pupils to transfer their knowledge from one context to another.

Our curriculum provides pupils with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills.  The children's own community, its heritage and traditions are frequently used as a starting point for engaging interest. A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning.

Our approach to ‘Learning to Learn’ and use of ‘The Learning Pit’ creates independent learners and opportunities for children to work in teams and develop social skills both indoors and out. This curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality first teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate. Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour. Children feel safe to try new things. High quality visits and visitors enhance the curriculum, provide opportunities for writing for a purpose and raise aspirations.

Our pupils are offered a wide range of experiences to extend their understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. Skills, attitudes and values are developed to prepare the children for the next stage of learning (key stage 1 and 2 ready and secondary ready), and enable them to be successful in the community. We believe that effective learning takes place when there is considerable emphasis on active involvement, opportunities to talk both imaginatively, expressively and to explain and clarify thinking. We make meaningful connections across subjects. The school expects everyone to develop and show a sense of responsibility and self-discipline whether alone, together, at work or at play, and to support policies on equal opportunities through our ‘No Outsiders’ approach. We actively promote British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs to prepare our pupils for life in modern day Britain. We also provide opportunities for our pupils to learn about the contribution of Britons to innovation, excellence and changes in the world.