Curriculum
English, Maths, Science.
The three subjects that anchor every school week. Reading runs through everything; maths is built on confidence with number; science is hands-on, curious, outdoor when it can be.
The core subjects
What we teach, and how.
Each subject below has a short summary of how we teach it at Swiss Gardens, followed by the school's full curriculum statement as a downloadable PDF. The statements set out the intent, sequence and end-points for the subject across Reception to Year 6.
Phonics for Reading
From early in the autumn term in Reception, we teach reading systematically using Song of Sounds, a synthetic phonics programme. Children build from sounds to words to sentences to stories; the phonics programme runs to the end of Year 2 and remains the foundation for Years 3–6.
Phonics is taught daily in Reception and KS1. Children take home decodable books matched to where they're at — not too hard, not too easy — and parents are invited to take part with short demonstration sessions. The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1 is built around the sounds we've already taught.
Phonics curriculum statementEnglish
A reading-rich English curriculum: high-quality texts, daily story-time, shared writing, and a progression in grammar, spelling and handwriting that runs from Reception to Year 6.
Our English work is anchored by the books children read together. Each year group has named author residencies (Julia Donaldson in Reception, Steven Lenton and Nadia Shireen in Year 3, and so on) — the same author across a half-term gives children real depth. Writing follows reading: children write in the genre they've been studying, with clear models. Grammar, spelling and handwriting are taught discretely and applied across the curriculum.
English curriculum statementMathematics
Concrete, pictorial, abstract — children build understanding with objects and pictures before working with numbers alone. Number facts are practised until they're automatic; problem-solving is the goal.
We teach maths in daily lessons across the school, following White Rose Maths from Reception to Year 6, with mental-arithmetic practice woven through the week. Times-tables are practised systematically from Year 2 onwards. We aim for fluency before speed: children should understand why a method works, not just that it does. Reasoning and problem-solving — applying number skills in unfamiliar contexts — runs through every year group.
Mathematics curriculum statementScience
Curiosity-led, hands-on, and outdoor when it can be. Science teaches children to ask questions, plan investigations, and trust evidence — habits of mind they take into every subject.
Each year group covers the National Curriculum strands (biology, chemistry, physics) through topic-led teaching. We use the school grounds, the Meads, and Shoreham itself as outdoor classrooms. Year 3's Super Shoreham unit takes children to the river and beach for plant and habitat work; Year 4 studies states of matter through investigations; Year 6 covers evolution, electricity and the human body before secondary school. Practical, recorded, discussed.
Science curriculum statementMore curriculum
The wider curriculum.
Foundation subjects (History, Geography, Art, DT, Music, MFL, RE, PSHE, Computing) and PE each have their own statement. Year-group pages show how the term-by-term topics fit together.
Want to see how it lands in the classroom?
Year-group pages show the term-by-term topics, the books we read, and what success looks like by the end of each year.