Curriculum INTENT

Curriculum Intent Statement

At John Burns Primary School we:

• provide a high-quality, broad and balanced curriculum that is relevant to the needs of the children;
• place great importance on a curriculum that develops the whole child. Through our motto and school values, we foster an environment where the social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of each child is considered; 
• provide opportunities within and outside school, through educational visits, residential trips and visitors, to support our delivery of the curriculum;
• offer a range of extra-curricular activities after school hours and during lunchtime to promote physical health and wellbeing;
• have high aspirations and firmly believe that pupils are entitled to an ambitious curriculum that is accessible to all, including children with SEND and disadvantaged backgrounds; and
• have planned and sequenced a curriculum with distinct end points and themes which run through each subject leading to an accumulation of deep knowledge and skills in these subjects.

The curriculum is designed to be challenging, engaging and exciting so that children can reach and exceed their potential in all subjects.

It equips pupils with not only the minimum requirements of the National Curriculum, but ensures they are prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Curriculum Design

The curriculum at John Burns is completely bespoke and ensures children access key concepts and skills to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding as historians, geographers, artists and designers.

Our topic curriculum of linked themes is based around a concept called ‘The 3Ps’ and includes the following foundation subjects: Art & Design, Design Technology, Geography and History.

Teachers are careful to use the subject names when teaching to ensure that pupils understand that they are accessing a broad and balanced curriculum through a thematic approach.

Other National Curriculum subjects are taught discretely at John Burns. These subjects include: Computing, English, Maths, MFL, Music, PE (including Swimming), PSHE/Relationships Education, RE and Science.    

The term ‘3P’ represents an important Person, Place and Point (time/date). Each year group (Year 1 to Year 6) has a termly 3Ps topic. Each 3P topic provides the focal points around which the learning is planned and taught.

The 3Ps approach outlines the three key areas to focus learning each term. It ensures that pupils have the opportunity to go beyond more traditional programmes of study so that the curriculum is relevant to the children.

The children will be expected to learn by heart three key pieces of information for each 3P topic as they move up through the school. The idea being that by the time they leave John Burns they are equipped with the powerful substantive and disciplinary knowledge they need in order to transition successfully into Key Stage 3.

We view the design of the curriculum as an evolving and fluid process which takes into consideration: the needs and character of our children; the children’s prior learning; children’s experiences; the community in which school exists; the statutory curriculum (National Curriculum) and educational research which is evaluated and relevant to our school. 

We have designed a curriculum which teaches what matters to our children so that they know more, remember more and understand more.

Click here to see our Curriculum Overview.