Our Curriculum
At Higham St John's School, we believe passionately that all our children should receive a curriculum that is broad and balanced, enabling all children to succeed. To achieve this, we provide a learning experience that is both challenging academically, yet enables all children to develop their personal talents to the maximum in a safe, nurturing Christian environment.
We have designed a curriculum that both challenges and excites children in their learning. We are currently redesigning our curriculum and will post updates as we progress throughout the year. We will be engaging with the children, parents, governors and other stakeholders throughout this process.
Please refer to our 'Statement of Intent' Document on the right-hand side of this page for more information on our curriculum development.
The National Curriculum
We follow the National Curriculum, which is a statutory requirement for what needs to be covered within our school. We have tailored this for our children including asking them at the beginning of the year to tell us what their 'Hopes and Dreams' are for the year ahead. These experiences will be woven into the curriculum that we deliver.
Phonics and Early Reading
We use the 'Letters and Sounds' programme for teaching phonics within the Early Years and Key Stage 1. This involves daily phonics lessons in addition to the children's daily English lesson.
We provide a session on how we teach phonics early on each academic year, so that you can support your child at home.
This site provides an excellent overview of 'Letters and Sounds', alongside games and activities that can be played at home. If using the games, please check with your child's teacher to see which sounds have already been taught, rather than try to teach new sounds at home.
A Typical School Day:
8:55am - Registration and Early morning work
9:10am - Phonics / multiplication tables / morning work
9:30am - Maths
10:15am - Morning Break
10:40am - Guided reading
11:00am - English
11:55am - lunchtime
1:00pm - Lesson 4 (see individual class timetables)
2:00pm - Afternoon Break (lower school)
2:15pm - Lesson 5
2:55pm - Worship
Extra-Curricular Activities
We offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities over the course of the year, both during and after school. We also regularly compete against other schools in a range of sports through the Sports Partnership. Our clubs are delivered by qualified sports coaches, specialist music teachers and our committed teaching and learning staff team.
Examples of activities we have offered in the last two years include:-
Football, Cricket, Cookery, Gymnastics, Multiskills, Cheerleading, Netball, Dance, Judo, Choir, Storytelling with iPads, Club Francais, Tag Rugby, Fitness, Art Club, Dodgeball, Musical Theatre, Balloon Modelling, Movie Club, Magic Club & Mini Olympics.
Musical Tuition:- Guitar, Violin, Woodwind, Recorders, Ocarina & Vocal Coaching
Note: There is a small charge for activities.