English is not only a subject in its own right, but also a central medium for teaching children. Effective fluency in the English language is fundamental for children to be successful in other subjects and in life more generally. Therefore, it is vital in the achievement of our school intent of giving children the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become good local and global citizens.
Speaking and listening is high profile in all that we do within school. Children are taught the skills to be good speakers and effective listeners and opportunities for discussion, drama, storytelling, and debate are fundamental to all that we do. We following the story telling approach within English which is embedded in high quality talking opportunities. Children imitate by learning a section of high quality text off by heart, innovate by adapting the text to make it their own and use this to invent their own high quality texts. An overview of this approach is outlined in our story telling policy below.
Whilst we have included reading as a separate section on our website -because of its importance to all aspects of learning- the teaching of reading is central to our English curriculum. Our reading page outlines how we teach reading skills specifically, but our whole English Curriculum is embedded in high quality texts. Children will undertake their learning journeys alongside some of the most famous authors to have lived: Tolkien, Morpurgo, Dahl - they will be our companions as we progress in our learning. Children will have the opportunity to explore the literary techniques of a variety of different authors and apply these to a range of different genres of writing. They will also explore a range of grammatical constructs and learn how to embed these within their own writing.
An understanding of the technical elements of the English language through understanding key grammar and spelling concepts is also highly important. We have a detailed grammar progression which children follow ensuring they embed these skills and can apply them within their writing and their speaking.
Finally, whilst technical elements are vital, a key element to success in English is children developing a love of English. We develop children’s love of writing firstly by engaging them in high quality story telling sequences structured around exciting texts with a clear real life purpose. This real life purpose is essential and we have written for a range of exciting reasons in the past including creating promotional material for the World Wildlife Federation and writing letters to authors for which we have received replies. In addition to this, we give children regular opportunities for “free writing” whereby they have opportunities to explore their own imagination and create texts which they themselves are passionate about.
English is not only a subject in its own right, but also a central medium for teaching children. Effective fluency in the English language is fundamental for children to be successful in other subjects and in life more generally. Therefore, it is vital in the achievement of our school intent of giving children the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become good local and global citizens.
Speaking and listening is high profile in all that we do within school. Children are taught the skills to be good speakers and effective listeners and opportunities for discussion, drama, storytelling, and debate are fundamental to all that we do. We following the story telling approach within English which is embedded in high quality talking opportunities. Children imitate by learning a section of high quality text off by heart, innovate by adapting the text to make it their own and use this to invent their own high quality texts. An overview of this approach is outlined in our story telling policy below.
Whilst we have included reading as a separate section on our website -because of its importance to all aspects of learning- the teaching of reading is central to our English curriculum. Our reading page outlines how we teach reading skills specifically, but our whole English Curriculum is embedded in high quality texts. Children will undertake their learning journeys alongside some of the most famous authors to have lived: Tolkien, Morpurgo, Dahl - they will be our companions as we progress in our learning. Children will have the opportunity to explore the literary techniques of a variety of different authors and apply these to a range of different genres of writing. They will also explore a range of grammatical constructs and learn how to embed these within their own writing.
An understanding of the technical elements of the English language through understanding key grammar and spelling concepts is also highly important. We have a detailed grammar progression which children follow ensuring they embed these skills and can apply them within their writing and their speaking.
Finally, whilst technical elements are vital, a key element to success in English is children developing a love of English. We develop children’s love of writing firstly by engaging them in high quality story telling sequences structured around exciting texts with a clear real life purpose. This real life purpose is essential and we have written for a range of exciting reasons in the past including creating promotional material for the World Wildlife Federation and writing letters to authors for which we have received replies. In addition to this, we give children regular opportunities for “free writing” whereby they have opportunities to explore their own imagination and create texts which they themselves are passionate about.
