Curriculum Intent

At St John Bosco Primary School we follow the National Curriculum from Years 1 to 6. Subjects are taught discretely.   At St John Bosco Primary School, we offer a broad, balanced and academically rigorous curriculum for all our children with the intent of closing the gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged. Our curriculum is ambitious for our children with SEND (see SEND policy). We value the pursuit and acquisition of powerful knowledge, and this translates into a knowledge- rich curriculum. The curriculum design is informed and driven by research regarding how memory works to ensure that children are taught in a way that ensures children can remember the curriculum content in future years. The St John Bosco curriculum prepares our children for the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century and raises aspirations to empower our children to add to the body of knowledge in the future.. We are a silver Rights Respecting School and believe that children have the right to become the best they can be (article 29 UNCRC).

Specialist musicians teach brass in Y5 and we have a very active choir. We take part in a number of music events throughout the year e.g. singing at the Hidden Gem and Young Voices as well as visits to care homes to sing for the residents.

PE coaches visit school to teach games and gymnastics and run afterschool sports across all key stages.  We are committed to giving our children as many sporting opportunities as possible, including the Brownlee Foundation Triathlon, St Matthew’s partnership schools sports competition and events with other local schools. 

All our children enjoy specific teaching around vocabulary, knowledge and cultural capital, alongside skills which will enable them to learn independently and efficiently as they grow older.  We provide many opportunities for pupils to develop leadership skills though our GIFT chaplaincy team, Digital Leaders, Pupil Council and Reading Buddies.

Our Early Years curriculum is carefully sequenced in each area of learning, giving specific focus to development of vocabulary and characteristics of learning to ensure our children have the skills they need for KS1.

In summary, St John Bosco is a school where teaching and learning is based upon a language rich curriculum where pupils are exposed to a range of experiences to enhance their knowledge, understanding and long term memory. As a result, pupils at St John Bosco are confident, aspirational, articulate learners who are ready for the next stage of education.

 If you have any questions regarding the curriculum we teach please contact the school.

Phonics and Reading

The Phonics scheme in Nursery is ‘Letters and Sounds’, phase 1. Nursery children begin the Set 1 sounds of Read Write Inc when it is appropriate.  The phonics scheme ‘Read, Write Inc’ is used across KS1 until the children are able to read at the ‘comprehension level’. Children at this level in Year 2 are assessed for Accelerated Reader and use these books to take home. In school they do reading comprehension lessons. Children are grouped across the Year 1 and Year 2 groups according to their RWI reading levels. The children take home Read, Write Inc reading books to read and share with their parents. Children in Reception partake in Read Write Inc lessons daily. Children in Year 1 and Year 2 partake in Read, Write Inc lessons four days a week and 1 day is whole class phonics and reading.

Please visit http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk for access to many ebooks at all levels and other reading activities.

Pupils in Year 3 onwards use Accelerated Reader to develop their reading skills. Accelerated Reader is a computer program that helps teachers manage and monitor children's independent reading practice. Your child picks a book at their own level and reads it at their own pace. When finished, your child takes a short quiz on the computer. Each child has their own log in to the website and read daily in school and is expected to read daily at home. Accelerated Reader sessions are twice a week.

From Year 3 onwards reading is taught through ‘Whole Class Reading’ lessons, three times a week.  Whole Class Reading offers opportunities to model, demonstrate and practise reading aloud with fluency and expression, when children can listen to the expert reader (the teacher) and then have a go for themselves, making their reading aloud sound natural and confident. The reading is followed up by activities that explore reading skills such as retrieval, inference, prediction etc.

Please click on the links on each class page to find the information about what children are learning in class each term.

Links to the National Curriculum objectives and what children are expected to learn in each year group in English can be found below:

English Curriculum Objectives

Handwriting

Our Handwriting Scheme is the Nelson Handwriting Programme.  It is a whole-school programme designed to help all children develop a confident, legible and personal handwriting style and meet higher curriculum expectations. The programme includes resources for pattern practice and motor skills, fun activities to bring handwriting to life and we have an online subscription to help implement the programme in our classes. All classes practice their handwriting daily.

The website link below will lead you to handwriting tips for use at home. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/english/primary-handwriting/

Curriculum Overviews for each class

Updated curriculum overviews for the skills and topics taught from EYFS to Year 6 coming soon.