Curriculum

Our Junior School Academic Curriculum

We pride ourselves on creating an environment where your child loves to learn.

Our personalised approach achieved through smaller classes and expertise in teaching girls means each child can thrive academically and personally.

We balance the necessary formal approach to learning needed for children to have a secure grounding in the key building blocks for literacy and numeracy with opportunities for active, purposeful learning woven into our school day. We assess and track pupil learning carefully through each term, especially in literacy and numeracy, so that we can be confident that the children are making the progress we expect at every stage.

"We go beyond traditional academics to deliver a well-rounded, ambitious education. Our approach to STEM is forward-thinking and dynamic, emphasising digital skills and innovation to prepare students for a rapidly evolving world.

Activities like Junior Duke add an enriching layer by building character and resilience through experiences that complement classroom learning.

Our dedicated Junior School Librarian, helps to shape our youngest of readers by promoting literacy through her many clubs and activities - storytime, book and poetry. Meet our Librarian and find out how she inspires a love of reading.

By using programmes like Mathletics and Times Tables Rock Stars provides engaging, gamified ways for girls to master core skills while staying motivated. By continually auditing and adjusting our curriculum, we ensure it stays relevant, fresh, and impactful for every pupil." Junior School Teacher

Our curriculum is designed with an active approach to learning, prioritising STEM, digital skills, and leadership development. We embrace collaborative lesson planning and success criteria, shared and tailored to each student, which helps our pupils feel more connected to their learning journey. This student-led learning not only enhances their enjoyment of school but also builds confidence and independence.

As our children progress through primary their timetable enables a breadth of lessons covering not only core learning in literacy and numeracy but also subject specialists in Music, PE, Art, and Languages enriching our primary curriculum.

We employ teachers with strong educational histories themselves and as a Junior School team, we bring expertise across many areas of learning.

For our classes in the lower primaries, we have a dedicated classroom assistant working alongside the class teacher so that the learning of all children is supported both individually and also within a group setting.

Girls clock classroom edinburgh stgeorges

Curriculum Structure

In the Junior School, digital skills are developed by classroom teachers. Much of the learning is play-based, and with a focus on engagement and gamifying learning. A range of iPad-specific applications are used to make learning fun, and to demystify technology; parallel to this, students engage in lessons using laptop and desktop computers, gaining important hand-eye coordination skills, and initial exposure to the Microsoft 365 apps they will rely on as they progress through the school.

Find out about our whole school approach to E-Learning and digital skills

Our Support for Learning team works alongside class teachers to provide specialist assistance to students in developing early literacy and numeracy skills. Our Early Intervention programme works hard to ensure all students have a strong foundation for literacy and numeracy.

P1 and P2

In P1, pupils may participate in our Early Intervention programme, which aims to ensure all the students have a good foundation for literacy. By intervening early, it is hoped that the foundation will be achieved through consolidating class work. The length of time students participate will vary depending on their individual needs.

In P2 our Early Intervention programme also helps those children who need support with early numeracy skills as well as early literacy skills.

P3, P4 and P5

In P3, P4 and P5 students identified either by class teachers or outside agencies, as requiring support in meeting their long-term targets, are taught either individually or in small groups. This means that students in Junior School with identified additional support needs have access to a specialist member of staff who works in conjunction with their class teacher to ensure that their individual needs are met.

Find out about our whole school approach to Support for Learning

St George’s boasts three distinct library spaces which includes one in the Junior School. Across the three libraries, the collection includes over 12,000 books, magazines and journals, over 500 ebooks and audiobooks plus subscriptions to 9 online research databases.

Classes in Primary 1 through Primary 5 attend library lessons once a week. They’re led in a library activity or story time with the librarian before having an opportunity to browse and borrow books and enjoy quiet reading time individually or in small groups. Find out about our school libraries.

Brette, our dedicated Junior School Librarian, promotes literacy through her many clubs and activities - storytime, book and poetry. Meet Brette

Read the students' accounts of recent enrichment activities in the Junior School:

Digi Club: Preparing for a Spooky Coding Competition

In Digi Club, we are working towards a coding competition. We have to code and create a monster-themed Hallowe'en project...

Maths Week

On European Day of Languages, which fell during Maths Week, the Primary 5s undertook an exciting project for the Junior School. We carried out a survey to find out the languages that our junior school students spoke at home...

Hike to Scald Law

Primary 5 went on a hike to Scald Law, which is one of the biggest hills in the Pentland Hills. Before we went on the trip, we looked up Scald Law on Google Maps and we marked the route and carried our own maps...

Tinsel, Sprouts, and Storytelling: Sibéal Pounder's Festive Visit

Author Sibéal Pounder paid a special visit to St George’s. Primary 4, 5, 6, and Remove came together in the Lower School Hall to hear from the bestselling visiting author.

Sibéal Pounder is well loved for her series Witch Wars and Bad Mermaids, but this morning she was here to talk all things Christmas. Sibéal brought festive cheer as she shared the inspiration behind her book Tinsel and her newest novel, Sprouts. Read full story