The core subject are English, Maths and Science.

When we re-designed our curriculum at Brook Street we adopted the Essentials Curriculum to support the planning and teaching of science but did not make any significant changes to our planning and teaching of the other core subjects, English or Maths. Both of these subject had been going through a regular cycle of monitoring, evaluation and adjustment since the introduction of the new National Curriculum in 2014 and no wholesale change was required. However, this section sets out some of the essential information for visitors to our website about how we plan, teach and assess these subjects. More detailed information can be found in the curriculum document which is available on the previous page. 

English - Reading

Reading is taught by systematic synthetic phonics and small group guided reading. A love of reading if promoted and fostered though the AR scheme, class readers, our school library and through daily English lessons. We use Floppy's Phonics, letters and sound to support planning, teaching and assessment of phonics and the Oxford Reading Assessment System to support planning, teaching and assessment in reading. 

English - Writing

As stated in the National Curriculum, 

The Programmes of Study for writing are constructed similarly to those for reading:

• Transcription (spelling and handwriting)
• Composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).

It is essential that teaching develops pupils' competence in these two dimensions.  In addition, pupils should be taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing.

In July 2025, the Department for Education published a new writing framework.  At the time this was being released, the school was looking into new ways to approach the teaching of writing across the school.  Since, Brook Street School has developed and implemented the I AM A CLEVER WRITER approach.

The I AM A CLEVER WRITER approach empowers teachers with confidence to deliver high-quality first teaching in writing. This approach allows for assessment to drive the identification of new skills and next steps for the children, whilst providing a clear structure to teach and model the skill.  Teachers carefully model through a WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) and allow children to embed a skill before applying the skill independently to their own writing by means of a Star Write. 

Maths 

We use the Lancashire Scheme of work to support our planning and teaching of mathematics and the Lancashire Assessment tools to assess progress in maths. We use a range of concrete, pictorial and abstract teaching tools to support the teaching of maths. 

Science

The science curriculum is very clearly proscribed in the National Curriculum and assigned to individual year groups. As outlined in our curriculum document we use knowledge notes and organisers to support the teaching of science and threshold concepts and milestones from the Essentials curriculum to support the planning and assessment.