Curriculum Intent Statement for English

In English, we develop the children’s Knowledge and Skills in line with the school’s vision for a Knowledge and Skills based curriculum.

We inspire Creativity through thought-provoking concepts and variation which encourages our pupils to think creatively.

We encourage Discovery through posing problems that we solve with our peers to gain greater understanding and independently to consolidate our understanding.

We foster a Curiosity by encouraging our children to think differently and from different perspectives.

We develop Independence through carefully designed learning in maths to equip pupils with the skills needed to succeed.

We instil Resilience through our mastery approach to maths, continually challenging all pupils.

As a result, the children Respect and Value Literacy and become Life-long learners.

English

All areas of the curriculum involve both teachers and pupils in using English. It is the most important means by which we communicate with others. Therefore it is our aim to ensure that we enable all of our pupils to develop the use and understanding of Standard English to their full potential in all aspects of speaking, listening, reading and writing, including spelling and handwriting

Phonics 

At our school, Phonics is taught daily throughout Foundation and Key Stage 1. We use a structured approach to systematic synthetic phonics, based on 'Little Wandle'.

Our approach to phonics uses an integrated synthetic phonics programme to teach both reading and writing.  Progress is assessed every half term.

Details of the results of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check can be found on the 'School Performance' tab.

Reading

We believe that Reading is the single most important transferable skill that we can equip our pupils with. Consequently, reading has both high priority and a high profile at our school.

Reading takes place throughout the school day and learning outcomes linked to reading are taught in English lessons, as well as  in other areas of the curriculum, where appropriate. 

During this time children are taught through the use of extracts and whole novels, where teachers and TAs model the reading process. Higher order reading skills, such as inference and deduction are taught, as well as grammatical and punctuation conventions. Analysis and comprehension activities involving “real” texts are used to develop skills in these areas.

Children read every day and many children take part in our daily readers programme. We encourage reading for pleasure as it is central to the high value we place on books. Through a variety of text based units, children are taught the fundamental skills of reading, writing and speaking and listening. Units are based on both fiction and non-fiction writing and high quality children's literature is used as a context for a whole unit.

Writing

A major focus is on grammatically accurate and fluent writing. Teachers model the writing and planning process through writing sessions in English,  where ideas are collected and developed. Children work in groups, pairs or individually to write narrative and non-narrative texts based on a range of appropriate genres. Grammar, Spelling  and Punctuation are contextually taught in English lessons as well as a discrete subject. 

Objectives taught in English sessions are also used to develop writing across the curriculum and we use a well developed and researched approach which encourages oracy alongside writing development. This is called 'Talk4Writing'.

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