At St Clement's and St John's we have created a curriculum that we are proud of. One that provide our children with the tools to succeed both academically, emotionally and socially. We value all God’s Children, 'I know the plans I have for you’ says the Lord...'plans to give you a future and a hope'. (Jeremiah 29:11) Our mission statement cements our believe that all children will and can achieve.
Our curriculum encompasses the formal requirements of the National Curriculum with an aim to enrich every child's school experience by creating an environment where they are encouraged to succeed and be the best they can be.
Below is further information about our curriculum offer with links to specific curriculum pages.
Our Curriculum Drivers
Communication is one of our curriculum drivers. We recognise the importance of ensuring that our pupils are able to speak well, listen carefully, read fluently, write accurately, apply mathematical knowledge and communicate their feelings. The development of these skills is a key driver behind our curriculum. At St Clement’s, we use the term ‘communication’ to capture this definition.
Our school values also drive our curriculum and are embedded throughout. They are confidence, compassion, creativity and curiosity.
Our Curriculum Subject Pages
Our Curriculum Intent
At St Clement’s & St John’s Infant Schools, we strongly believe in developing the whole child. We not only want to educate our children but we want to nurture them into well-rounded individuals who love their learning, themselves and one another. We aim to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of all our pupils.
We are passionate about providing our children with an interesting, rich, broad and exciting curriculum that not only enables the children to be successful learners whilst at St Clement’s, but also inspires learning for life. As an Infant School, we aim to give our children a safe and secure start to their formal education. We know that getting the basics right, building foundations emotionally, socially and academically at this early stage, will support their future successes if done well. St Clement’s aim is to prepare our children for their next steps both within education, as well as for those opportunities, experiences and the responsibility of their adult lives.
In order to promote the development of well-rounded individuals, with a lifelong love of learning, our school values of: confidence, compassion, creativity and curiosity run throughout our entire curriculum and are embedded within everything the children do.
Confidence
'Be strong and courageous… Do not be afraid, for God is with you and will not leave you.' Deuteronomy 31:6
We want all of our children to love their learning and to have confidence in their knowledge, skills and abilities. Our children are supported in developing, embedding and mastering skills and a level of resilience that allows them to preserve and overcome challenges.
Compassion
'Be kind and loving to each other. Forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ'.
Ephesians 4:32
We want our children to learn to be kind and patient with others and with the world around them. We support the children in being able to learn together reciprocally and to show respect, understanding and forgiveness. The children learn to consider the needs of others and to help one another, making a difference within their community and to the world in which they live and grow.
Creativity
'God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.' Jeremiah 10:12
We want our children to celebrate the beauty within themselves and their world. We help them to develop skills and attributes which empower them to explore new ideas, in new ways and to ‘stretch their brains’!
Curiosity
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
Matthew 7:7
Our curriculum is designed to inspire our children and encourage an eagerness to find out more! Our children are presented with endless opportunities to conduct research, ask big questions and explore all areas of learning and of life, including faith.
Our curriculum is purposeful and meaningful for the children at St Clement’s School and it is our intention to ensure that opportunities, experiences and successes are endless for each unique pupil. As a staff team, we have a passion for offering the highest quality education to our pupils and we work hard to ensure that barriers to success are overcome for all of our children, particularly any disadvantaged or vulnerable pupils.
The design and delivery of our curriculum is progressive and ensures a seamless transition between year groups and Key Stages. Our subject leaders across the school continuously reflect on the impact of our curriculum within each subject area to ensure that it remains of highest quality and is tailored to each cohort of children, dependent on their needs and interests.
We strongly believe that our children will be most successful within their learning and development when, as a school; we have a strong connection with home and work together in a partnership. We have a high focus on engaging parents with their child’s learning through a variety of methods such as parent consultations, workshops, information evenings and online resources, videos and learning activities. We believe that these opportunities really empower parents to be able to support their child’s learning using a consistent approach with school, particularly during a school closure period.
Curriculum Implementation
At the centre of our curriculum is a commitment to develop each child as whole and to ignite a lifelong love of learning. We believe in a broad and balanced curriculum where all subjects are valued and equip our children with a breadth of knowledge and skills – providing them with memorable and enriching experiences and lifelong skills.
At St Clement’s and St John’s Infant School, we have developed a topic based approach to learning which links subjects together and is fully mapped to cover the skills that underpin the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and the National Curriculum. We believe that our topic themes increase pupils’ enjoyment and engagement and progressively develop the children’s knowledge and understanding through careful sequencing.
We understand that knowledge does not sit as isolated information within the children’s minds but learning is defined as an alteration in their long-term memory. We see this as a process that begins with prior knowledge and has a logical sequence of steps that lead to a defined outcome, either at the end of the lesson, topic, year or key stage. We understand the importance of a curriculum in which skills are transferable and allow children to make links within their learning. We always start from the child’s prior knowledge and our progression maps ensure that skills are developed in a logical sequence of steps and in sufficiently small ‘chunks’ to enable our young children to process them into their long-term memory.
Although we offer an engaging, broad and rich curriculum, as an infant school, we also recognise the importance of focusing our attention to ensuring that our Early Years and Key Stage 1 children are able to read, write and use mathematical knowledge and concepts. We know that all of our children need a solid grasp of these basic skills in order to be successful as they move through their educational journey and into later life. This is the non-negotiable, key driver of our curriculum.
Impact
We use a range of both formative and summative assessment processes here at St Clement’s and St John’s Infant School to help us identify our children’s next steps in learning and to enable us to make accurate judgements of both attainment and progress. These assessment procedures also allow us a staff team to review and reflect upon the impact of our curriculum design; making improvements and amendments where necessary. Some of our assessment and monitoring procedures happen in the form of;
Please see specific subject areas in regards to the assessment procedures for specific subjects