John Clare Primary School Curriculum Intent

At John Clare Primary School, our curriculum is all the planned activities that we as a school organise in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. It includes, not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum (for Key Stage 1 and 2) and Early Years Framework, but also the range of extra-curricular activities (trips, clubs, residentials, experiences) that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of our children and motivate them to become life-long learners. It also includes the ‘hidden curriculum’, or what the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave.

At John Clare, we aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people, who can work and cooperate with others, whilst developing knowledge, skills and positive attitudes to learning, in order that they achieve their true potential and personal best.

Our curriculum is based upon exploring the concepts below in the world around us, which we believe will help our children tie together topics in meaningful ways. Throughout their learning journey with us, children return to the same concepts over and over to gradually deepen their understanding of them.

Our concepts:

Legacy and family – these concepts help our children build a sense of identity and how our world is shaped from those around them and those that have lived before.

Democracy and transformation – these concepts help children understand how they and others can influence change in the world around them.

Conflict and power – these concepts develop children’s understanding of broader influences on the world.

Our curriculum also promotes respect for the views, spiritual and moral development of each individual child, as well as their intellectual and physical growth. We take our responsibility to prepare children for life in modern Britain and ensure that the fundamental British Values are introduced, discussed and lived out through the ethos and work of our school.

We aim for children to leave our school with enquiring, curious minds and life skills embedded. They leave us ready for their next learning journey at secondary school and are responsible, independent, evaluative and risk-taking, whilst having respect for the world now and in the future.