Our Teaching and Learning Policy outlines how we support effective learning—you can view it by clicking here. It focuses on key priorities for our school, including diversity and inclusion, physical and mental wellbeing, parental involvement, oracy, and our school values.

EYFS

In Early Years, we use the Birth to 5 Matters framework to guide development. We plan lessons around diverse, high-quality texts grouped into broad themes. In the EYFS, children take part in both adult-led and child-initiated learning. In adult-led sessions, teachers have clear learning objectives. During child-initiated learning, teachers may join in play to encourage deeper thinking (known as sustained shared thinking), while still letting the child lead the learning.

Our Early Years themes are:

You can also look at the weekly powerpoints on the Nursery and Reception class pages for some of their learning highlights.

KS1 and KS2 

Our Key Stage 1 and 2 curriculum map outlines what is taught in each year group across all subjects. We have carefully chosen a diverse range of role models to inspire our students, which are highlighted on the curriculum map.

As well as following the national curriculum, we aim for deeper learning through 'Big Questions' that encourage students to explore topics in more detail. We create engaging and inspiring lessons, often using trips and special visitors to bring learning to life.

English and Maths lessons ensure that students develop the core skills they need to succeed.

Reading

We place strong emphasis on fostering confident and enthusiastic readers. Our approach to reading, including our implementation of 'Little Wandle' for teaching phonics and early reading, helps children make strong progress. Parents can access the Little Wandle website to support phonics and reading at home. Additionally, children are encouraged to enjoy a variety of high-quality books, which help build their language skills and imagination. In KS2 we use VIPERS to help children explore texts.

Writing

Our Writing lessons are based on CLPE units and focus on developing language, imagination, and writing skills.

Maths

At St John's, we are part of the London Central adn NW Maths Hub and use the NCTEM 5 Big Ideas for Maths. Fundamentally, this is build on the idea that learning moves on incrementally and that teachers reveal the learnng to children in understandable chunks. We ensure that all children have experiences with concrete resources and pictorial representations in order to do this. 

 In Key Stage 1 and 2, we use the White Rose Scheme as our overarching guide to sequence our curriculum. From this, teachers design lessons that are adapted to the needs of their class. In the EYFS, we use Birth to 5 Matters as our framework.   

Science curriculum map

Science knowledge and skills progression

Religious education curriculum map

RE knowledge and skills progression

History curriculum map 

History knowledge and skills progression

Geography curriculum map

Geography knowledge and skills progression

Computing curriculum map

PSHE curriculum map

PE curriculum map

PE Progression of Skills

Art curriculum map

DT curriculum map

Spanish Curriculum map

Spanish knowledge and skills progression

Music curriculum map

Music knowledge and skills progression

Assessment

Assessment plays a key role in teaching and learning, helping us understand what each child has learned and what they need to work on next. For more details, see our assessment policy.

Homework and Remote Learning 

Weekly homework allows children to review what they’ve learned in school and gives parents a chance to support their child’s learning. You can view our homework policy here.

You can see our remote learning policy by clicking here. We have also published a document for parents that sets out our school's home learning offer. If you have any questions or difficulties accessing any of the home learning, please contact the school office or your child's class teacher.

Spiritual,  Moral, Social and Cultural Development

We also value a broad curriculum that supports each child’s spiritual, moral, social, and cultural growth. Click here to learn more about how we do this at St. John's.