Our Curriculum Subjects
At Norbury Manor Primary School, we provide an ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum from the Early Years through to Year 6.
Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that children build their knowledge, vocabulary, understanding and skills over time. New learning connects to what children already know, while opportunities to revisit, retrieve and apply important knowledge help children develop increasingly secure understanding.
We have high expectations for all pupils. Teaching is adapted and appropriate support is provided so that children with different starting points and needs can successfully access and participate in our curriculum.
The programmes and schemes referenced on this page are resources that support the delivery of the Norbury Manor curriculum. Teachers use their professional knowledge of our pupils and the curriculum to select, adapt and supplement these resources where appropriate.
For detailed information about what is taught in each year group, please visit our Curriculum Maps page.
English
Early Reading & Phonics
Our Vision
We want every child to develop the strong foundations in phonics and early reading they need to become a confident and fluent reader.
What Learning Looks Like
We use Read Write Inc. Phonics (RWI) to support the systematic teaching of early reading. Beginning in the Early Years, children learn the sounds represented by letters and groups of letters and how to blend these sounds to read words.
Children read carefully matched, fully decodable books so that they can practise and apply the sounds and words they have been taught. As children become increasingly secure and fluent, they progress into our wider reading curriculum.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Children's phonics and early reading development is assessed regularly. Teachers use assessment to identify what children have secured, provide additional teaching and practice where needed, and ensure children progress when they are ready.
Reading
Our Vision
We want every child to become a fluent, confident and thoughtful reader who enjoys reading.
Through reading, children encounter new knowledge, vocabulary, people, places, cultures and ideas. We want children not only to learn to read but to choose to read.
What Learning Looks Like
Once children are ready to move beyond fully decodable texts, they access increasingly challenging books through their classrooms and school library.
Children progressively learn to:
- read accurately and fluently;
- understand and use increasingly sophisticated vocabulary;
- retrieve information;
- make inferences and justify ideas using evidence;
- predict and summarise;
- discuss authors' choices;
- compare and discuss texts;
- express and explain their responses to reading.
Alongside appropriately challenging reading material, children select Reading for Pleasure books based on their interests.
We also use Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress as additional digital resources. These provide opportunities for children to practise phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension at school and at home.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers build a picture of children's reading through listening to them read, discussion, questioning, comprehension activities and assessment.
Information from Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress provides an additional source of assessment information and helps teachers identify children's next steps.
Writing
Our Vision
We want children to become confident, creative and purposeful writers who can communicate their ideas effectively for different audiences and purposes.
Children should leave Norbury Manor able to draw upon secure knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, spelling and text structure while developing their own voice as writers.
What Learning Looks Like
Our writing approach has evolved from our experience of Talk for Writing and has been further developed through professional learning, including the DfE curriculum webinars.
High-quality texts provide models of effective writing and introduce children to rich vocabulary, sentence structures and the features of different genres.
Children move through a carefully planned teaching sequence:
Explore and analyse → Learn and practise → Plan → Compose → Revise and edit → Apply independently
Teachers explicitly model writing and provide guided practice before children apply their learning with increasing independence.
Grammar and punctuation are taught explicitly and, wherever appropriate, children are expected to apply this knowledge within meaningful writing.
Children write for different purposes and audiences within English and across the wider curriculum.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's writing through their independent application of taught knowledge and skills.
Children's writing is considered over time rather than relying upon a single piece of work. Assessment identifies what has become secure and what needs to be taught, practised or applied next.
Spelling
Our Vision
We want children to become increasingly confident spellers who can draw upon their knowledge of sounds, spelling patterns and word structure when writing independently.
What Learning Looks Like
Early spelling develops alongside phonics. As children progress, Read Write Inc. Spelling supports our systematic teaching of spelling.
Children develop their knowledge of:
- phoneme-grapheme correspondence;
- spelling patterns and conventions;
- root words and word families;
- prefixes and suffixes;
- word structure;
- strategies for remembering particularly challenging words.
Children are encouraged to apply their spelling knowledge within their independent writing.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess spelling through taught activities and children's independent writing. This enables teachers to identify patterns that have been secured and those requiring further teaching and practice.
Mathematics
Our Vision
We want children to become confident, fluent and successful mathematicians who enjoy mathematics and can use what they know to reason, make connections and solve problems.
We want children to understand mathematics rather than simply remember procedures, while also developing the fluency and automatic recall that allows them to tackle increasingly complex mathematical thinking.
What Learning Looks Like
We have developed our own Spiral Maths curriculum, drawing upon mastery principles and high-quality mathematical resources.
Important mathematical knowledge and concepts are revisited, strengthened and developed over time. This helps children connect new learning with what they already know and gives them repeated opportunities to deepen and apply their understanding.
Our mathematics teaching develops three interconnected areas:
Fluency – developing secure mathematical knowledge, number facts and efficient calculation methods.
Reasoning – explaining mathematical thinking, identifying relationships and patterns, making connections and justifying answers.
Problem Solving – applying mathematical knowledge and selecting appropriate strategies to solve familiar and unfamiliar problems.
Where appropriate, children experience all three within their mathematics learning so that they move beyond simply finding an answer to being able to explain, justify and apply their mathematical thinking.
Our I Do, We Do, You Do approach supports children as they move from explicit teacher modelling and guided practice towards increasingly independent mathematical thinking.
Teachers use practical resources, representations and mathematical images where these help children develop conceptual understanding before moving towards increasingly abstract mathematics.
Multiplication & Times Tables
Secure multiplication knowledge is an important foundation for later mathematics.
Children therefore have dedicated times-table teaching and practice, alongside opportunities to apply multiplication knowledge within their wider mathematics lessons.
We use Times Tables Rock Stars as an additional resource to help children develop the speed, accuracy and automatic recall of multiplication and division facts.
Regular practice helps children build fluency so that recalling multiplication facts places less demand on their thinking when they encounter more complex mathematics.
Assessment – Cold and Hot Tasks
Assessment is an integral part of our mathematics teaching.
At the beginning of a mathematical concept or unit, children complete a Cold Task. This helps teachers establish children's starting points, identify what they already know and uncover gaps or misconceptions.
Teachers use the outcomes to adapt their planning and teaching so that learning responds to the needs of the children.
Following teaching, children complete a Hot Task linked to the same mathematical concept. Teachers use this alongside children's work and their ongoing assessment to evaluate what children have learned and the progress they have made.
The process therefore supports a continuous cycle:
Assess → Identify starting points → Adapt teaching → Teach and practise → Reassess → Identify next steps
Mathletics
Children also have access to Mathletics, which provides additional curriculum-linked opportunities to practise and consolidate mathematical learning at school and at home.
Teachers can allocate activities appropriate to classes, groups and individual learners and use information from the programme alongside their wider assessment.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers continually check understanding through questioning, observation, discussion and children's independent work.
Children's ability to apply knowledge through fluency, reasoning and problem solving provides important evidence of how securely they understand a concept.
Cold and Hot Tasks, times-table assessment and ongoing classroom assessment help teachers identify progress, misconceptions and gaps in learning, informing what needs to be taught, revisited or practised next.
Science
Our Vision
We want children to be curious about the world around them and develop the scientific knowledge and thinking they need to understand and question it.
What Learning Looks Like
Our science curriculum progressively develops children's knowledge within biology, chemistry and physics, alongside their understanding of how scientists investigate the world.
Children learn to work scientifically by asking questions, observing, comparing, classifying, measuring, planning and undertaking investigations, recording results, interpreting evidence and drawing conclusions at an age-appropriate level.
Practical science provides purposeful opportunities to explore concepts and apply scientific knowledge rather than being an activity separate from learning.
Switched on Science is one of the resources used to support the planning and delivery of our science curriculum.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess both children's scientific knowledge and their ability to work scientifically.
Evidence comes from discussion, questioning, assessments, children's written and practical work, investigations and opportunities to retrieve and apply previously learned scientific knowledge
History
Our Vision
We want children to develop a curiosity about the past and understand how people, events and societies have shaped the world in which they live.
What Learning Looks Like
Children progressively develop knowledge of British, local and wider world history.
Alongside historical knowledge, children learn to think historically by exploring:
Chronology | Cause and consequence | Change and continuity | Similarity and difference | Significance | Evidence
Children encounter historical sources, ask questions and consider how historians use evidence to develop interpretations of the past.
Rising Stars History is one of the principal resources supporting the sequencing and delivery of our history curriculum, with an emphasis on historical enquiry, knowledge, concepts and vocabulary.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's ability to remember and connect important historical knowledge, use appropriate vocabulary and apply historical thinking.
Discussion, questioning, children's work and opportunities to retrieve previous learning help teachers establish how securely knowledge has been retained.
Geography
Our Vision
We want children to develop a lasting curiosity and fascination about the world, its people, places and environments.
What Learning Looks Like
Children progressively develop knowledge of their locality, the United Kingdom and the wider world, alongside an understanding of important human and physical geographical processes.
They learn to use geographical tools and methods including maps, atlases, globes, data and fieldwork.
Learning expands children's understanding from the local to the global, while geographical enquiry encourages them to ask questions about places, environments and the relationships between people and the world around them.
Rising Stars Geography is one of the resources supporting our curriculum, including geographical enquiry and the development of subject knowledge, concepts and vocabulary.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's developing geographical knowledge, vocabulary and ability to apply geographical skills through discussion, written work, map work, fieldwork and opportunities to retrieve and connect previous learning.
Art & Design
Our Vision
We want children to develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and creativity to express ideas through art and appreciate the work of artists from different traditions, periods and cultures.
What Learning Looks Like
Children progressively develop artistic knowledge and techniques through experiences including drawing, painting, sculpture and other media.
They explore the work of artists and designers, investigate techniques and ideas and use these experiences to inform their own creative work.
Art & Design and Design & Technology are taught in alternating half terms, allowing children to become immersed in each discipline. Twinkl PlanIt is one of the resources supporting our provision.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess how children's knowledge, techniques and ability to make purposeful creative choices develop over time.
Sketchbooks, discussion, observation and completed work provide evidence of children's developing artistic understanding
Design & Technology
Our Vision
We want children to become creative and practical problem solvers who can design and make purposeful products in response to a need.
What Learning Looks Like
Children experience the design process:
Investigate → Design → Make → Evaluate
As they progress through school, they develop their ability to select and use appropriate tools, materials, components and techniques and evaluate their work against its intended purpose.
Cooking and Nutrition forms part of our Design & Technology curriculum, allowing children to develop food preparation knowledge and skills while designing and making food products.
Twinkl PlanIt is one of the resources supporting our DT curriculum.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's developing design knowledge, practical skills and ability to explain and evaluate their choices throughout the design-and-make process.
Computing
Our Vision
We want children to become confident, creative, knowledgeable and responsible users of technology, prepared to participate successfully and safely in an increasingly digital world.
What Learning Looks Like
Children progressively develop knowledge and skills across computer science, information technology and digital literacy.
They learn about programming and coding, digital systems and how technology can be used to create, organise and communicate information.
Teaching also develops children's understanding of how to use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly.
Switched on Computing is one of the resources supporting our computing curriculum and the development of coding and wider computing skills.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's understanding through discussion, questioning and the digital products and programs they create.
Children are increasingly expected to select and apply previously learned computing knowledge and skills independently.
Physical Education
Our Vision
We want children to develop the physical confidence, competence, knowledge and enjoyment needed to participate in physical activity and lead active, healthy lives.
What Learning Looks Like
Children participate in regular PE lessons that progressively develop physical skills alongside teamwork, decision-making, cooperation and healthy competition.
Our curriculum provides experiences across areas including games, gymnastics, dance, athletics and other physical activities.
Children also develop their swimming and water-safety skills during Key Stage 2.
We use Complete PE to support the planning and progressive delivery of our PE curriculum.
Physical activity extends beyond formal PE through wider opportunities across school life.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children through observation and application of skills in increasingly challenging situations.
Assessment considers children's physical competence as well as their developing understanding of movement, tactics, cooperation and decision-making.
Music
Our Vision
We want children to develop a love and appreciation of music and the confidence to express themselves musically.
Through listening, singing, performing and composing, children develop creativity alongside their musical knowledge and understanding.
What Learning Looks Like
Our music curriculum is supported by Charanga, which provides a progressive approach to developing children's musical knowledge and skills.
Children have opportunities to listen and respond to music, sing, play instruments, improvise, compose and perform.
As they progress through school, children develop their understanding of musical elements and vocabulary and learn to apply these when creating and responding to music.
Performance is an important part of music at Norbury Manor. Children have opportunities to share their developing skills through assemblies, performances, productions, Challenge Week and wider school events.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's developing musical knowledge and skills through observation, discussion, performance and composition, including their ability to apply previously learned skills in new musical contexts.
Spanish
Our Vision
We want children to develop confidence and enjoyment in learning another language while developing curiosity about languages, communication and other cultures.
What Learning Looks Like
In Years 3–6, Language Angels supports the delivery of our Spanish curriculum.
Children progressively develop listening, speaking, reading and writing, alongside vocabulary, pronunciation and grammatical understanding. Pasted text
In EYFS and Key Stage 1, children begin exploring Spanish through songs and age-appropriate language experiences.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess how well children can understand and communicate increasingly complex language through listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Children are encouraged to retrieve and reuse previously learned vocabulary and structures in new contexts.
PSHE
Our Vision
We want children to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead safe, healthy, responsible and fulfilling lives.
What Learning Looks Like
Our PSHE curriculum supports children's understanding of themselves, their relationships with others and their place within their community and wider society.
Learning includes relationships, physical and mental health, keeping safe, identity and equality, financial understanding and preparation for the future.
We use You, Me, PSHE, developed by Islington Council, as a resource supporting our curriculum.
PSHE also connects strongly with our RESPECT values, Skills Builder essential skills, safeguarding and wider personal development work.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's developing knowledge and understanding through discussion, questioning, activities, reflection and their ability to apply learning to age-appropriate situations and scenarios.
Religious Education
Our Vision
We want children to develop knowledge and understanding of religions and worldviews while learning to discuss beliefs, values and important questions with curiosity and respect.
What Learning Looks Like
Our RE curriculum follows the locally agreed Religious Education syllabus, supported by appropriate curriculum resources including Twinkl PlanIt.
Children learn about different beliefs, practices, traditions and places of worship and consider how people's beliefs can influence the ways in which they live.
They are encouraged to ask questions, make connections and respectfully discuss different perspectives.
How We Know Children Are Learning
Teachers assess children's developing religious literacy, subject vocabulary and ability to make connections and explain ideas through discussion, questioning and their work.
Assessment focuses on what children know and understand, rather than assessing a child's personal beliefs.
Find Out More
Curriculum Maps
Want to know what your child will learn and when?
Our Curriculum Maps provide more detailed information about the content taught within each year group.
Further Information
If you would like further information about our curriculum or a particular subject, please contact the school office, who will direct your enquiry to the appropriate member of staff.