St John’s Catholic Primary School

Welcome to St John’s Catholic Primary School. We are located in a single-storey building, with pleasant grounds and a secure ball cage for the children to use at play times.

We also have a planting area which the children love to use in which in the past has been used to grow vegetables, fruit as well as flowers. We are also very lucky to be sited backing on to the Stave Hill Eco-Park, an area which we use as an additional resource for class based activities.

There are 7 classes, one for each year group, with a maximum of 30 places in each class. There is also a nursery class with part-time and full-time places. Nursery and Reception classes have their own separate, well equipped outdoor play space.

St John’s is a good school where the children’s behaviour has been identified as being ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted (April 2016). Our curriculum too has been judged as ‘outstanding’, where the range of trips, visitors and activities are recognised as enriching the children’s learning experience.

To develop in children an excitement and curiosity about the world around them and a love of learning.

At St. John’s we aim to stimulate children’s curiosity and challenge them to explore learning in depth, as encouraged by the National Curriculum. We recognise that children need to learn skills, in order to equip them with the learning tools essential for life-long learning. Therefore planning focuses on skills to enable children to become Historians, Artists, Musicians etc.

We value Learning Outside the Classroom as a key part of this; we endeavour to ensure the pupils learn from real and practical learning experiences. In addition to this we recognise the need to offer pupils these essential wider life experiences and therefore seek to make the most of the opportunities presented by living in London. As a Green Flag School we recognise the importance of environmental awareness being part of the curriculum.

Teaching of phonics begins in the Nursery and continues throughout Reception and into Years 1 and 2 using two programmes – ‘Letters and Sounds’ and ‘Big Cat Phonics’ – which teach the letters in a specific sequence, and in growing complexity, with words taught alongside the sounds. Children may progress quickly through each phase or may need extra support as they move through each of the phases.

Reading at St John’s is taught in two ways – individually or in Guided Reading sessions. Our reading scheme includes the Oxford Reading Tree series and children will take home a book appropriate to their reading level. It is expected that parents will read with their child every day.

Now Press Play is an educational resource that uses sound, story and movement, to immerse children in the world of their topic. Through a series of active and stimulating lessons, Now Press Play captures children’s interest and accelerates their learning. It brings the Curriculum to life and is an engaging start to a topic or a wonderful way to deepen learning. The children put on wireless headphones and are plunged into the world of their topic.

St. John’s school received its fourth Eco School Green Flag Award in March 2016. The Green Flag itself flies proudly above the school and is a reflection of what we value as a school.

We aim to develop in our pupils an awareness of looking after the environment and this begins in the Nursery, where the children have compost bins for their fruit peel. This is developed throughout the school in the curriculum – with each class studying an environmental theme such as the 3 R’s (Recycle, Reuse Reduce), Climate Change, Water etc.