At Wolsingham Primary School, we believe reading is the fundamental building blocks to everything that we learn. We understand the positive importance of daily reading and we strive to create a positive learning culture where reading is loved, enjoyed and part of everyday life. Our school ethos is embedded in our literacy curriculum, and we endeavour to promote literacy skills in all that we do. We collaborate with each other to share ideas through speaking, and we take time to listen. At Wolsingham Primary School, we begin our literacy journey early, immersed in language rich settings where learning to communicate successfully is prioritised. Our literacy skills progress year on year, developing both our knowledge and skills so that we can become confident, successful communicators.
Intent
The English curriculum is structured, cumulative and progressive, designed to develop content knowledge, skills and understanding. Careful planning and delivery ensure there are continuous opportunities for teachers to reinforce and consolidate content to support and secure the learning of all children. Further opportunities are also provided by making connections to the range of subject areas in our broad and balanced curriculum.
Although we separate English into Reading and Writing, we recognise that the skills are intrinsically linked. This interdependence is clearly reflected in the way that we implement our English curriculum and the way we teach it – introducing ideas and developing skills as the children work towards a written outcome. The structure of the curriculum enables the children to have regular opportunities to write for a purpose; where possible the use of a wider topic can provide context. A range of text types are covered, using quality texts as a model to develop children’s understanding of the text type or genre.
At Wolsingham Primary our English curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
- develop fluency in reading and with good understanding
- develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- acquire a wide vocabulary and an understanding of grammar
- write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas and participate in debate.
The English curriculum develops the priorities for pupils at Wolsingham Primary School in the following ways:
Basic skills – we teach children the basic skills of reading and writing that they can then use and apply in all other areas of the curriculum. Reading skills are important to access learning in all other subjects. Writing skills allow children to communicate what they have learnt.
Resilience and perseverance – many of the narrative texts the children experience contain characters who show resilience and perseverance in the plot of the story. Children’s perseverance and resilience are also developed through encouraging them to write at length and via activities where they edit and improve their work.
Social awareness – the texts we use expose children to a variety of social issues and develops their social awareness. They allow them to learn about different cultures and social issues, and encourage them to think about different perspectives. Stories allow them to explore and learn about worlds that are very different to their own.
Knowledge – we give the children knowledge of different stories, authors and text types which will hopefully foster a passion of reading that will stay with them throughout their lives. We give them knowledge of grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure and how to organise texts, so that they can communicate effectively for different audiences and purposes.
Implementation
- Read Write Inc will introduce children to graphemes and phonemes, and support the blending of sounds for reading and segmenting of sounds for spelling.
- A progression of skills and objectives built upon to ensure children will develop as readers and writers
- Daily lessons of reading and writing are taught explicitly to children with a focus on age appropriate objectives
- Daily explicit teaching of handwriting, spellings, phonics and grammar to build basic skills
- Daily opportunities provided for silent, independent reading
- Daily opportunities to listen to stories, non-fiction texts or poetry as a whole class.
- Long term writing plan followed to ensure coverage of text types and genres
- Read Write Inc. spelling programme used in Year 2
- Spelling Shed spelling scheme used across Key Stage 2
- Show case books implemented to demonstrate writing
- Animations, images and picture books used as stimuli for writing.
- Class novels used across all KS2 classes to promote modelling for reading
- Children will have enrichment experiences to promote speaking and listening and performances
- Visits from authors to promote a love of writing
- Writing for a real-life purpose
- Use of IT to record and perform the children’s writing.
- Children will have the opportunity to edit and improve pieces of writing.
Impact
As children progress through the English curriculum at Wolsingham Primary School they will:
- Speak confidently in a range of situations, for different purposes and to different audiences
- Develop a love of reading, enhanced by library visits, author visits and access to high quality texts
- Explain their reading preferences and be familiar with different authors.
- Gain new knowledge by reading across the curriculum
- Form letters accurately and develop a fluent cursive script, taking pride in their written work
- Write independently, confidently, creatively and imaginatively across a range of genres, for a variety of audiences and purposes.
