Intent, Implementation and Impact
Intent
To ensure that every child becomes a reader, a writer and confident speaker by the time they leave our school.
To promote and instil a love for reading, writing, and high-quality literature into pupils of all ages.
To deliver an English curriculum which is sequenced to develop the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
English is a core subject of the National Curriculum and 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, and the teaching of all aspects English is a high priority within school. Confidence in basic language skills enables pupils to communicate creatively and imaginatively, preparing them for their future journey through education and beyond.
It is our intention, when teaching the English curriculum, that our pupils acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to become lifelong learners and linguists. We strive to ensure that all our pupils receive a well-rounded learning experience when reading, writing, speaking and listening, which will equip them with the fundamental tools to achieve in school and beyond. It is our intention to immerse pupils in the wonders of quality texts to instil a love for reading, a passion for discovery and a confidence to explore their imagination, particularly through our Awe and Wonder days, with workshops from visiting authors and poets.
We aim to provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that will develop pupils’ ability to speak, read and write with great fluency, 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 effectively.
Writing is an integral part of our curriculum. All children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. It is our intention that pupils develop a clear understanding of the writing process in order to establish themselves as an author in their own right. We foster pupils’ interest in writing and offer a reason and context for writing which enables the children to write for purpose and audience, as well as to explore a variety of genres, planning, drafting and re-drafting their writing. In order to establish this, pupils will develop their knowledge of genre features, audience, language, and effective composition. It is our intention to broaden our pupils’ exposure to high-level vocabulary. We intend that pupils will be taught to control their speaking and writing consciously and to use correct Standard English.
Implementation
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. Pupils are taught the grammar from the National Curriculum which is taught to correspond to the genres being written as part of the writing process. Children 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.
Reading for Pleasure
We firmly wish to instill a love for reading within our pupils. We believe that establishing a deep love for reading is giving our pupils a life-long gift that inspires their imagination, and by exposing pupils to high-quality vocabulary, significantly impacts on pupils ability to express themselves.
It is also important the pupils understand what they read. We ensure understanding by developing a personalised reading plan for every child, led by our dedicated reading mentor.
In addition, throughout the school year the importance of reading is enhanced through World Book Day, author and poet visits, and fortnightly library visits
We endeavour to ensure we provide our pupils with a ‘language rich’ environment and we have a wide range of texts including a display ‘100 much read books’ display. Our PTA ensure that all children have a new book at Christmas and Easter, and also purchase books for every pupil from visiting authors and poets.
Each week, we spend time enjoying reading for pleasure in our classrooms during a dedicated reading for pleasure time.
Language Acquisition & Vocabulary Development
Within our classrooms, we explore ambitious vocabulary across the wider curriculum to ensure we acquire an understanding of tricky language across the wider curriculum. We aim to share our vision of high aspirations for all of our pupils through our high expectations across the wider curriculum; by setting these high expectations, our pupils are aware of the standards we expect in all lessons and learning opportunities.
Impact
We strive to ensure that our children’s attainment is in line or exceeds their potential when we consider the varied starting points of all our children. We measure this using PIRA tests for reading, GAPS tests for spelling and grammar, and National Curriculum writing descriptors for assessing writing, whilst always considering the expectations for each year group. We strive for children to make at least expected progress in Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening from their last point of statutory assessment or from their starting points in EYFS.
We intend the impact of our English curriculum will ensure our pupils are academically prepared for life beyond primary school and throughout their educational journey. We aim to foster a love for reading and writing across the genres.
