English

English

Home > Curriculum  > Subjects > English

Ensuring children are able to speak, read and write confidently is one of the absolute core jobs of formal education. We take this duty seriously, and have several schemes and systems in place to ensure high quality teaching and learning of English skills throughout the school.

Reading and Writing

In Reception, children take part in Drawing Club to develop their mark-making and early writing skills while strengthening their oracy and communication. Through exciting stories, imaginative adventures, and creative drawing opportunities, children are encouraged to talk about their ideas, share their thinking, and create their own stories. Drawing Club helps to spark children’s imaginations, build confidence in expressing themselves, and foster a love of storytelling and creativity.
Following on from Drawing Club, children in Reception begin the Talk for Writing approach, which continues throughout Key Stage 1. This enables children to become confident storytellers, orally retelling and rehearsing texts before moving on to writing them independently. They learn to innovate familiar stories by adapting characters, settings, and events, helping them to develop creativity and a strong understanding of language structures.
In Key Stage 2, pupils build on these foundations by reading and discussing high-quality texts, planning their ideas carefully, and writing for a range of purposes and audiences. They develop their vocabulary, grammar, and understanding of different text types, enabling them to write confidently and effectively in the appropriate style and register.

Oracy

Promoting pupils’ speaking and listening is a core objective in the school, and structured talk tasks are used in every lesson across the curriculum. Discussion guidelines are introduced in every class to allow children to develop their skills in formal structured conversation proficiently and confidently. Children in Year 3 and Year 4 also have weekly sessions with our LAMDA coach, who provides inspirational support with performance and presentation skills.

Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar

The teaching of these key planks in the current national curriculum is primarily embedded in English lessons. However, in order to give children additional opportunities to rehearse their skills and develop their understanding, we also follow the Nelson handwriting scheme and Read Write Inc’s spelling programme throughout the school.

Overview of Writing units

Writing Overview EYFS & KS1

Writing Overview KS2

Resources for parents

Handwriting phrases for helping your child to form letters

How we teach reading- answers for parents

Ten top tips for reading stories to your child

Translate »