School Development

Boxes of books

As a school we continue to strive to further develop the learning, teaching and experiences offered within Norris Bank.

Following on from the success of last academic year, the Governors and I are proposing to build on our successes and develop the school further in the following four key areas based on data analysis and feedback from the Local Authority:

  1. GROW
  2. Catch-up and Pupil Premium
  3. Maths
  4. English
GROW

We are going to:

  • Further GROW a broad, balanced and creative curriculum which is engaging for both child and teacher and builds on their skills progressions
  • To develop a ‘Big Build’ week which focuses on a foundation subject skill from conception through to completion 
  • GROW more opportunities for outdoor learning and use of the garden
  • Embed even more opportunities for child led learning within the curriculum 
  • GROW all of our teaching to 100% outstanding and develop support staff specialisms 
  • Develop and GROW the schools ICT equipment 
  • Further GROW our Early Years practice and to use ‘tapestry’ an online learning app to capture assessment and learning
  • GROW our middle leaders through working with external providers and the teaching school
  • Further grow our parental engagement 
Catch-up and Pupil Premium

We are going to:

  • Continue to raise the attainment of our catch-up and pupil premium children 
  • Support children with their social and communication needs through interventions such as Lego therapy, the school garden, nurture and well-being groups and speech and language programmes
  • Support our children’s emotional difficulties with additional support from our SENDCO and ELSA teachers
Maths

We are going to:

  • Monitor that the new EYFS curriculum  runs seamlessly into Year 1 national curriculum and beyond
  • Extend our development work with the North West maths hub and trial ‘lesson studies’
  • Embed the consistent use of and understanding of mathematical vocabulary 
  • Further develop a consistency in approach to practical activities and the resources used across school
  • Ensure that Lower KS2 are preparing effectively for the statutory year 4 times tables check
  • Implement our whole school calculation policy
  • Enable children to have an understanding of the use of maths in the outside world
English

We are going to:

  • continue to raise standards in writing
  • Further develop teacher and support staff’s expertise in delivering effective strategies to improve spelling
  • To further embed the schools approach to the teaching of phonics
  • Ensure our children have a greater understanding of sentence construction and a consistent approach to its teaching
  • Continue to foster a love for reading: book clubs, reading challenges etc.. 
  • Develop reading partners between classes and across school
  • Encourage children to use more ambitious and challenging vocabulary in their writing through using a range of DEAL drama strategies