Curriculum

Our curriculum reflects who we are as a school.

It is shaped by our Christian vision, our local community, the needs of our children and our ambition to open up the wider world to them.

Throughout their journey at Brinscall St John’s, we want children to:

KNOW
Develop secure and increasingly sophisticated knowledge across the curriculum.

UNDERSTAND
Make connections between new learning, previous learning and the wider world.

DO
Develop the skills needed to think, question, investigate, create, communicate and solve problems.

REMEMBER
Revisit and apply important learning so that knowledge becomes secure and can be used confidently.

SHINE
Become confident, curious and compassionate young people who recognise their own potential and use their gifts to make a positive difference.

Learning at Brinscall St John’s is deliberately sequenced.

For each area of the curriculum, we consider:

Where have our children come from?
What knowledge, vocabulary and skills have they already developed?

What is the important learning now?
What do we want children to know, understand and be able to do?

How will learning build?
How does each lesson and unit connect so that children develop increasingly secure understanding?

Where will this learning go next?
How does today's learning prepare children for their next unit, their next year group and ultimately the next stage of their education?

This means teachers understand not only what they are teaching, but why it matters within the child's wider curriculum journey.

We identify the most important knowledge and vocabulary within each unit.

Children are supported to connect new learning with what they already know, explicitly taught the vocabulary they need to think and communicate effectively, and given regular opportunities to revisit and apply their learning.

Our aim is not simply for children to complete work.

We want them to learn it, understand it, remember it and use it.

Every child at Brinscall St John’s is entitled to access an ambitious curriculum.

Children have different starting points and may need different levels of support to reach the same ambitious goals. Teachers therefore use adaptive teaching to respond to children's needs while maintaining high expectations.

This may include carefully chosen resources, modelling, scaffolding, additional practice, changes to how information is presented or additional adult support.

Children who need more support receive it, while children who are ready to deepen their understanding are challenged to explain, reason, connect and apply their learning in increasingly sophisticated ways.

Our curriculum journey begins in our Early Years provision.

The knowledge, skills, vocabulary and experiences developed in Reception provide the foundations for learning in Key Stage 1. These foundations are then deliberately built upon as children progress through Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

Subject leaders understand how their subject develops from EYFS to Year 6, ensuring that learning becomes increasingly ambitious as children move through school.

By the time children leave Brinscall St John’s, we want them to be ready for the next stage of their education – equipped not only with secure academic foundations but with curiosity, independence, resilience and a genuine love of learning.

Our curriculum develops hearts as well as minds.

Our values of:

Kindness • Respect • Resilience • Courage • Friendship • Forgiveness

are woven through school life and help our children understand the people they are becoming.

We create opportunities for children to reflect, ask big questions, encounter different perspectives, appreciate diversity and consider their responsibility towards other people and the world around them.

Through our curriculum, collective worship and wider school experiences, children are encouraged to recognise their own gifts and understand how they can use them to help themselves and others shine.

Learning extends far beyond individual lessons.

Visits, visitors, outdoor learning, sport, performances, workshops, cultural experiences, community links and opportunities for courageous advocacy enrich our curriculum.

These experiences are carefully chosen to broaden children's horizons, build cultural capital and provide memorable contexts in which children can apply and deepen their learning.