Curriculum

Year Group Overviews

If you are unable to attend our meet-the-teacher sessions, please find annual overviews for each year group below. These will help you understand the themes taught in each year group, so you can support your child. For full details of the content taught in each subject area, please view the curriculum documents. 

For all curricula and overviews relating to Tinies, Nursery, or Reception, please visit the Early Years page.

Strong Foundations

Strong Foundations are at the heart of everything we do at Sutton Manor Community Primary School. We believe children learn best when they feel safe, supported and confident within calm, consistent and ambitious environments. Strong Foundations help children develop the knowledge, behaviours, routines and communication skills needed to be successful both in school and beyond.

Our approach ensures children progressively develop the habits, attitudes and foundational knowledge needed for future learning, while also supporting wellbeing, independence and positive relationships.

Communication and Language

Adults prioritise high-quality interaction, explicit vocabulary teaching, storytelling, discussion and language-rich environments throughout the school day. We use resources and assessments such as WellComm, Mighty Writer and repeated reading to help children develop confidence as communicators.

Reading and Vocabulary

Reading is central to our curriculum from the earliest stages. Children experience repeated stories, systematic phonics teaching through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised and carefully planned vocabulary development to build fluency, comprehension and enjoyment of reading. See the information below about our English structure for details on how this is covered.

Writing

Children have daily handwriting and spelling sessions. This includes direct teaching as well as practice and application sessions.

Mathematics Fluency

Mathematics is carefully sequenced to develop fluency, automaticity and confidence in number. Children revisit learning regularly and apply mathematical understanding through direct teaching and purposeful provision. Children in Y1-6 undertake weekly arithmetic and reasoning reviews. Children in Y1-4 take part in a daily fluency programme.

Curriculum information

English

English is taught daily through carefully structured lessons which develop reading, writing, handwriting, spelling, grammar and oracy. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced so children progressively build fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and confidence as readers and writers over time.

Reading is prioritised because we recognise it as the foundation of future learning and one of the strongest indicators of future success. Children begin their reading journey through systematic phonics teaching using the Little Wandle Programme, they move through stages of fluency while developing comprehension skills.

Throughout school, comprehension skills are taught explicitly and progressively so children learn how to understand, analyse and discuss increasingly complex texts independently.

The English structure

Writing is carefully sequenced so children progressively develop stamina, creativity and independence as writers. Daily handwriting, spelling and grammar sessions help children secure foundational knowledge which is then applied within English lessons and across the wider curriculum.

Children begin with short and incidental writing linked closely to reading and discussion before progressing towards longer and more independent writing outcomes. Writing is always linked to purpose and audience so children understand why they are writing and how language choices change depending on context.

As children become more confident readers and writers, they are expected to increasingly apply their knowledge independently across all curriculum subjects.

Mathematics

Mathematics is taught through a carefully structured and progressively sequenced mastery curriculum which develops fluency, reasoning and problem solving over time. Teaching prioritises strong foundations, regular retrieval and repeated practice to ensure children develop secure mathematical understanding and confidence.

All classes follow a structured plan, which focuses on a shape of the week and a fact of the week.

Foundation Subjects

Success at Sutton Manor is about achieving across the full curriculum. We believe all children should develop secure knowledge, strong foundations and the confidence to apply learning across a wide range of subjects and experiences.

In each foundation subject, the curriculum is carefully organised around key strands and the pedagogy of each subject. This ensures children not only develop progressively sequenced knowledge and vocabulary, but also learn how to think, work and communicate as historians, geographers, scientists, musicians, artists and citizens. For example, children develop scientific enquiry in science, enquiry and fieldwork in geography and history, and understanding of modern life, relationships and wellbeing through PSHE.

Learning is deliberately sequenced so children revisit and deepen prior learning while making clear connections between concepts, skills, and subject-specific knowledge. Our curriculum is designed to ensure children remember more over time, apply learning confidently and develop increasingly sophisticated understanding as they move through school. High-quality teaching, retrieval practice, vocabulary development and carefully planned progression support children in achieving well across the curriculum.