Curriculum Overview

Inspired by our vision,

“Rooted and Established in God’s Love: Nurture, Grow, Fly”

Ephesians 3:17

our curriculum is carefully designed to develop the whole child academically, spiritually, socially and emotionally.

Guided by our Christian EAGLE values of Empathy, Aspiration, Generosity, Love and Endurance, we provide a bespoke and ambitious curriculum that celebrates individuality whilst enabling every pupil to develop the knowledge, skills and experiences needed to flourish. These values are woven through school life and help our children to “soar” both during their time at St John’s Stonefold and beyond.

We recognise that the curriculum encompasses everything pupils experience during their time at St John’s Stonefold. Alongside academic achievement, we place great importance on children’s spiritual, moral, social, cultural, physical and personal development.

This reflects the national curriculum’s expectation that schools provide a balanced and broadly based curriculum which promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Through our curriculum, we aim to develop children who are:

• Knowledgeable, with secure foundations for future learning.
• Curious, asking questions and developing a genuine love of learning.
• Confident, believing in themselves and their ability to succeed.
• Resilient, persevering when learning is challenging.
• Creative, thinking imaginatively and expressing their ideas in different ways.
• Compassionate, demonstrating empathy, kindness and respect.
• Independent, taking responsibility for their learning and choices.
• Aspirational, believing that their future possibilities are limitless.
• Responsible, making positive contributions to their community and wider society.

Our curriculum equips pupils with the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to thrive as kind, confident and driven members of our vibrant rural community and the wider world.

Ambition for Every Child

We have high expectations for all pupils. Learning is designed to challenge, inspire and enable children to achieve highly, regardless of their starting points.

Knowledge and Skills

Our curriculum identifies the important knowledge, vocabulary and subject-specific skills pupils need to acquire. Learning is carefully sequenced so that children build upon what they already know and can make meaningful connections between new and previous learning.

Inclusion and Adaptive Teaching

Our curriculum is for every child. Teaching is adapted to remove barriers to learning and ensure pupils with SEND, disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs can participate successfully and achieve positive outcomes.

This builds on the inclusive approach evident across our current curriculum and school improvement work. Our school self evaluation, for example, identifies an adapted curriculum and appropriate support and challenge for pupils with SEN as features of provision.

Vocabulary and Communication

We recognise that confident use of language and vocabulary enables children to access learning successfully. Subject-specific vocabulary is explicitly taught, revisited and progressively developed throughout the curriculum.

Remembering More

Learning is deliberately revisited so that important knowledge becomes increasingly secure. Teachers make connections with previous learning and provide opportunities for pupils to retrieve, practise and apply what they know in different contexts.

Personal Development

Our curriculum goes beyond academic learning. Through PSHE, RHSE, collective worship, our behaviour curriculum, safeguarding education, online safety, pupil leadership, clubs, visits and wider enrichment, we prepare pupils for life beyond primary school.

In EYFS, learning is built around the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and provides secure foundations for later learning. Our current 2026/27 EYFS overview includes themes such as Super Me, Once Upon a Time, Colour My World, Pets, Plants & Ponds, Wild Thing! and Journey.

Across Key Stages 1 and 2, pupils experience a broad range of curriculum subjects. The statutory primary national curriculum sets programmes of study and attainment targets for subjects at KS1 and KS2, with languages statutory at KS2.

Our curriculum planning identifies:

• What pupils will learn.
• The important knowledge and skills they will develop.
• Key subject vocabulary.
• How learning progresses over time.
• Opportunities to revisit and apply prior knowledge.
• Appropriate assessment opportunities.
• Meaningful enrichment and wider experiences.

Our whole-school curriculum overview is reviewed by subject leaders so provision can be refined and developed where necessary.

They help staff maintain a clear understanding of curriculum content, progression and expectations and support consistency across mixed-age classes.

These are primarily professional planning and curriculum leadership documents rather than pupil exercise books.

Teachers use their knowledge of pupils and subjects to ensure learning is engaging, purposeful and appropriately challenging. Learning builds upon prior knowledge and provides pupils with opportunities to explain, investigate, practise, retrieve, reason, create and apply their understanding.

Across the curriculum we promote:

• Explicit teaching and modelling.
• Carefully sequenced learning.
• High-quality questioning.
• Subject-specific vocabulary.
• Retrieval and revisiting of important knowledge.
• Adaptive teaching.
• Independent thinking.
• Discussion and collaboration.
• Problem solving and enquiry.
• Appropriate use of technology.
• Opportunities to apply learning in meaningful contexts.

We want children to be active participants in their learning and to understand that challenge, effort, perseverance and making mistakes are important parts of becoming successful learners.

We recognise that pupils learn in different ways and may require different levels or types of support. Teachers use adaptive teaching, appropriate scaffolding, targeted intervention, resources and technology to remove barriers whilst maintaining ambitious expectations.

Our aim is not simply for pupils to access learning, but for every child to belong, participate, achieve and flourish.

Early reading and phonics are taught systematically through Read Write Inc., with pupils developing the decoding and fluency skills necessary to become increasingly independent readers.

Reading, language development and high-quality texts are used throughout the wider curriculum to broaden pupils’ vocabulary, deepen subject knowledge and open windows onto experiences beyond their immediate community.

Our pupils have opportunities to develop confidence, character, resilience, leadership and responsibility through:

• PSHE and RHSE.
• Collective worship.
• Our EAGLE values.
• Behaviour curriculum.
• Safeguarding and online safety.
• Pupil leadership.
• Educational visits and visitors.
• Clubs and extracurricular activities.
• Sport and physical activity.
• Charitable projects.
• Community involvement.

Through these experiences, pupils develop their understanding of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs, alongside respect for equality and diversity.

Our ambition is that pupils leave St John’s Stonefold well prepared academically and personally for their next stage of education and for life in modern Britain.

Educational visits, visitors, practical learning, performance, sport, creativity, outdoor learning, church and community experiences provide opportunities for children to apply their knowledge, encounter new experiences and develop confidence and independence.

These experiences help broaden horizons and support our ambition for pupils to develop high aspirations for their futures.

Teachers use a range of assessment approaches appropriate to individual subjects, including questioning, observation, retrieval activities, pupil discussion, assessment tasks and review of pupils’ work.

Subject leaders monitor their curriculum areas through approaches such as pupil voice, learning walks, curriculum reviews and scrutiny of learning. This helps leaders evaluate whether the intended curriculum is being learned and identify priorities for further improvement.

Parents, carers and members of the public who would like further information about our curriculum are also welcome to contact the school office.