We have given careful consideration to our curriculum content, opportunities for language acquisition and our children’s charter in order to provide our pupils with a rich primary school experience, ensuring a level playing field for all. All children have strengths, interests and skills which need to nurtured and developed. Our offer at St John Fisher School affords a broad range of opportunities for all in order to close the gap of inequality.

Language development is key in ensuring that pupils can converse at a high level and have a good grasp and fluency with tier 2 vocabulary. Whilst this is achieved primarily through the classroom, it is also further enhanced by the vast array of experiences we offer beyond the classroom, which some pupils may never otherwise encounter. Our children's charter ensures that all pupils not only visit places of interest or experience opportunities linked to our curriculum but also those that we see as rite of passage as a primary aged child. Among those included are opportunities to take part in sporting activities, perform, visit the seaside,  experience live music, theatre and sport to name but a few.

See the table below for our trips, opportunities and experiences offered by class and then following on from that opportunities beyond the classroom for various groups and clubs to further enrich our pupils time here at St John Fisher School.

Whole Class Opportunities Throughout Our School

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

We are fortunate that we have Class VR in our school. This enables our pupils to use virtual reality in their lessons to bring their learning to life. VR is used right across the school, throughout the curriculum. Children can visit space, the pyramids in Egypt or explore the depths of the ocean to name but a few of the vast range of resources available to us using VR. This is a high quality resource which really enhances our curriculum. Using 'Augmented Reality' children are able to virtually handle artefacts and explore objects such as the heart in 3D which helps pupil engagement, making learning more memorable.

Opportunities for groups within school

Mini Vinnies (Y4,Y5 and Y6 pupils)

This group meet regularly to look at ways that we can support those in need. This includes visiting the local SVP food bank and making grocery packs for the fortnightly collection. They also lead on gathering collections of toiletries and chocolates for the homeless in Birmingham. Our Mini Vinnies also organise community activities such as Parish Bingo afternoons and afternoon tea in the school hall. This facilitates opportunities for our children to support the elderly within our community too.

Caritas Ambassadors (Y5 and Y6)

This group meet to think about putting their faith into action. They have written to the local MP about their views on the refugee and asylum seeking process. They have also visited St Chad's Sanctuary in Birmingham to find out about what newly arrived people experience and support available to them. We are proud of achieving the 'School of Sanctuary' status which was awarded to us in 2022.

School Choir (KS2)

We have an amazing school choir! They sing every week after school have have taken part in some wonderful opportunities to perform. They perform at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, St John Fisher Church Christmas Carol Service, St Thomas Aquinas Concerts at Easter and Christmas, Redditch Palace Theatre, Birmingham Symphony Hall Youth Proms and even at Resorts World Arena as part of the Young Voices choir. 

Eco Committee (KS2)

Our Eco Committee challenge us to think about the ways that we can more sustainable and look after our world. We are proud to be and Eco School and Ambassadors for the Green Flag Award. We are currently looking at ways to 'Live Simply' in line with the CAFOD programme in order to live more simply, live in solidarity with people in poverty and live sustainably with creation.

School Council (KS2)

Our school councillors ensure that pupil voice is heard in our school. They meet regularly to suggest improvements to our school and also lead on projects to raise funds such as the Macmillan Coffee morning or swap shop events to promote sharing resources within school. The school councillors are elected by their peers to represent their views at meetings.

Whole School Experiences

Learn to Swim!

We take our children to the state of the art pool at Birmingham University Sports and Fitness Centre. Our children receive high quality swimming tuition in 2-week blocks where they are attend for 45 minute lessons every day. We have found this to be the most successful approach in ensuring children are competent swimmers. Children leave our school able to swim 25 metres and attend booster sessions if needed to ensure they are confident swimmers ready for secondary school.

Sport Opportunities

We pride ourselves on the wide range of sports we offer here at St John Fisher School. Through our primary cluster of Lumen Christi Schools we take part in a number of events throughout the year which not only look at different sports but also different outcomes from each event. These can be categorised as follows.

INSPIRE events are non-competitive festivals created to inspire a targeted group of young people who would benefit most from a positive physical activity experience e.g., Wellbeing Festival, Personal Best festival.

DEVELOP events are for pupils who enjoy friendly competition but do not want to solely focus on winning and losing. Develop events will have a strong emphasis on the School Games values and will primarily focus on supporting the development of the physical, personal, emotional and social health.

COMPETE events are for pupils who are competitive in nature and enjoy performing and competing against others. Compete events will be developed using the School Games principles of competition, ensuring SMILES for all.

An example of primary cluster events timetabled for this year is below...

In addition to this we are also members of the Birmingham Catholic School Sports Association (BCSSA), the Kings Norton football league and also get involved in events led by the local School Games Organiser at local secondary schools such as dance festivals, table tennis and basketball tournaments.

Sports Week each year is a time for our school to introduce our children to new sports and opportunities as well as incorporating our annual sports days where we share our love of sports with our families too. KS2 sports days are at a local athletics stadium to give our children have the experience of running on a real track and access to high jump, long jump and throwing activities using the best facilities available to us.

After School Sports Clubs

We are fortunate to have good links with BCFC as their training ground is nearby. They offer football coaching to our girls and boys after school. We also offer clubs after school such as Dodgeball, Gaelic football, Multi Skills etc. from Reception to Y6.