English

Intent

The Schools of Woolton Hill believe that the English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literacy heritage and develop a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and are able to adapt their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying their knowledge of spelling rules and patterns.

We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and who can use discussion to communicate and further their learning.

We believe that children need to develop a secure foundation of English skills, which follow a clear progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.

Implementation

These aims are embedding across our English lessons and the wider curriculum. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum and framework, which follows the three-part model. This allows children to become engaged and inspired by the rich texts through creative lessons, which follow on to embedding key grammar skills within a given topic. Ending with a final piece of writing which is edited and finally published in various forms. Throughout these lessons, teacher ensure pupils are provided with purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion, using rich and varied texts and resources motivate and support children.

The Schools of Woolton Hill identify children who need additional support with their reading and writing and therefore tailor interventions to suit the child and their needs. We ensure our lowest readers and pupil premium are read to additionally within school. We also run phonic interventions for those children who did not pass the phonic screening by the end of Year 2, where we screen the children to target their gaps and effectively and efficiently teach them phonics.

We recently introduced the three-part model for writing which outlines the learning journey for writing. All teachers begin a unit of writing by completing a learning journey which outlines the objectives to be covered during the unit. Teachers then plan and differentiate the learning to support all children within their classes to ensure their needs are met. We help each child maximise their potential by providing help and support where necessary whilst striving to make children independent workers once we have helped equip them with the skills and confidence that they need.

Reading is celebrated in classrooms around the schools through reading corners, book recommendations and sharing class novels together.

We have recently renovated our school libraries so that the children have a place where they can visit to share books and enjoy reading.

Impact

The impact on our children is clear; progress, sustained learning and transferable skills. With the implementation of the writing journey being well established and taught thoroughly in both key stages, children are becoming more confident writers and by the time they are in Upper Key Stage 2, most genres of writing are familiar with the children. Therefore, we can focus on creativity, writer’s craft and sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills.

Termly assessment is showing that most children at The Schools of Woolton Hill are achieving age-related expectation within English. Each year we have children achieving Greater Depth at the end of both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 in both reading and writing.

All aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross-curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in English lessons are therefore transferred into other subjects, showing a consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific grammar and punctuation.