English
Statement of intent for the English curriculum
Pupils are provided with a high-quality education in English that develops their ability to speak, read and write with great fluency. The curriculum ensures that pupils master the mechanics of both reading and writing and develop a love and a true interest for English. So that they can communicate their thoughts, ideas and emotions confidently and effectively.
The English curriculum is taught to ensure that our pupils acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to become life-long learners and linguists. Our pupils receive a well-rounded learning experience when reading, writing, speaking and listening which equips them with the fundamental tools to achieve. The curriculum follows a logical sequence where pupils' knowledge, skills and vocabulary which are built upon year and year. Pupils are immersed in the wonders of quality texts to instila love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination through our Book-led curriculum.
The English curriculum is derived around a sequence of high quality age-appropriate texts. Each book is used to create opportunities to develop reading fluency and comprehension, with a focus on key reading strategies and skills; develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum; explore the writing structure and features of different genres, identify the purpose and audience; plan and write an initial piece of writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting.
English is a core subject of the National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 and Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (Listening and attention; Understanding. Speaking Reading Writing). The curriculum is a prerequisite for educational and social progress as it underpins the work undertaken in all areas of the curriculum. The acquisition of language skills is of the upmost importance. Therefore, the teaching of all aspects English is given a high priority within school due to the context of the pupils' cultural language heritage and in the knowledge that the vast majority of pupils have English as an Additional Language. Confidence in basic language skills enables pupils to communicate creatively and imaginatively, preparing them for their future journey through education and beyond.
Reading
Reading is an integral part of the curriculum. All children from Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their reading skills across the curriculum, including for example Phonics sessions, Guided Reading lessons, Accelerated Reader, reading for pleasure, whilst ensuring a balance of fiction and non-fiction texts are available.
Writing
All pupils from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. Pupils develop a clear understanding of the writing process in order to establish themselves as an author in their own right. Through the book-led curriculum, we foster pupils' interest in writing and offer a reason and context for writing. This approach enables the pupils to write for purpose and audience, as they are taken on a writing journey which builds upon their knowledge of writing for context and purpose. Pupils explore a variety of genres, from which they plan, draft and re-draft their writing. This supports pupils' development on their knowledge of genre features, audience, language and effective composition. The exposure to high level vocabulary to is broadened to allow pupils to apply their understanding of vocabulary and grammatical features across the English curriculum.
Curriculum
Pupils are taught how to understand the relationships between words, word meaning, implied meaning and figurative language within writing lessons, whilst ensuring that they are supported in their spelling strategies. Pupils are also taught to control their speaking and writing consciously and to use correct standard English.
Book-Led Curriculum Approach to Writing
We believe that writing is strengthened by instilling a love for reading within our pupils. We value the importance of reading to supplement writing, providing a purpose and a context to writing. We believe that pupils who are provided a reason for writing demonstrate flair and effective writing composition, leading to high quality outcomes. Every half term, the English curriculum is taught by studying a high quality text where writing opportunities are derived from this. Each week, the pupils are taught to develop an understanding of the texts through reading comprehension by exploring the key themes, events, and plot of the texts being studied. From this element of the curriculum, pupils are taught the grammar from the National Curriculum to correspond to the genres being written as part of the writing process. Pupils are then supported in how to apply the grammatical content taught in identifying features of a high quality modelled text, before progressing to plan, write and re-draft a written piece which is fit for purpose and audience.