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English at Woodthorne

TEACHING ENGLISH IN SCHOOL

Writing

Our intent is that every pupil at Woodthorne will become a confident, competent writer and develop their own authentic writing voices. Writing gives children a way to effectively communicate with others: to share their ideas, thoughts, emotions, cultural identity and express who they are. Through a text-rich writing curriculum, we will expose children to new worlds, experiences and ideas, expanding their vocabulary and their horizons. Our choice of texts will introduce pupils to a cultural and social context beyond those they are familiar with and provide opportunities for children to study an extensive range of books ensuring that by the time children leave us they are able to access the more complex texts expected of them at secondary school.

Writing is a key life skill which enables children to express themselves, communicate with others and access other areas of the curriculum. It is a complex process which requires motor skills to manipulate pencils and pens, a command of sentence and text structure, grammar and punctuation, an ability to edit and evaluate both their own and others writing, a knowledge of how spoken language translates to the written word, an awareness of purpose and audience across different genres and involves a competency in spelling and handwriting.

Our ambitious English curriculum is designed so that children will gain the skills they need to become accomplished writers, enabling them to be courageous in expressing themselves clearly and confidently for a wide range of purposes. Our children will learn to listen to one another and respectfully critique and feedback on each other’s learning with understanding. This will be embedded through carefully planned opportunities for oracy and peer assessment within each writing cycle.

All children will be provided with meaningful contexts and purposes to achieve excellence in writing across the curriculum. We aim to provide an environment for language development and written work, which is stimulating and is characterised by high expectations of success so that the fullest potential of each individual child may be realised. As competent, confident writers, Woodthorne pupils will have the power to make their own voices heard, to influence others and to influence the lifelong love of learning in others.

Reading

Our ambitious English curriculum is designed so that children will gain the skills they need to become fluent readers, enabling them to be both ambitious and courageous in their text choices. Our children will learn to listen to one another respectfully when sharing thoughts and opinions on books they’ve read and take care of our library, books, reading records and any other equipment by treating them with respect.

All children will be provided with a wide and varied selection of high-quality texts so that they excellence. We aim to provide an environment for language development and written work, which is stimulating and is characterised by high expectations of success so that the fullest potential of each individual child may be realised. As competent, confident writers, Woodthorne pupils will have the power to make their own voices heard, to influence others and to influence the lifelong love of learning in others.

 

Our intent is that every pupil at Woodthorne will develop a real passion and love of reading. We recognise that reading is essential to attainment and success across all subjects. At Woodthorne Primary School, we believe that all children are born readers, and that is it our job to find the inner reader in every child, regardless of their ability, background and opportunities outside of school. The aim of our school is to teach every pupil to read fluently, for meaning and for pleasure.

We know that the ability to read is fundamental to pupils’ development as independent learners, during their time at school and beyond. We understand that reading successfully and with enjoyment is critical to children’s long term life chances. It is central to our ability to understand, interpret and communicate with each other and the world around us. Therefore, reading is given high priority at our school, enabling children to become enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers across a wide range and types of literature, including different text types and genres, books, leaflets, comics and newspapers.

WHY IS ENGLISH IMPORTANT TO OUR CHILDREN?

Ariana - Year 2

It’s important to try and get spellings right and reading helps to see if they’re correct.   Reading is fun because we work on getting faster and faster.

Annabelle - Year 6

It’s important to me because I love being able to express what’s in my imagination.  Reading gives me loads more vocabulary, which I can use in the rest of my English lessons.

Oskar - Year 1

I get to know more words.  I love non-fiction because I like geography texts.

Macey - Year 5

I like having the opportunity to talk about my ideas to my friends as this really helps me to write them down so that they make sense.  I would love to write like my favourite author.

HOW YOU CAN HELP YOUR CHILD WITH EARLY READING

Support for Early Years parents

Our EYFS curriculum has been formulated using the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (effective September 2021), the non-statutory guidance set out in Development Matters (July 2021) and Birth to 5 Matters by Early Education (2021).  In the EYFS at Woodthorne, our intent is to create a balance between adult initiated learning and following our children’s interests. We endeavour to make learning active, hands on and- most importantly- exciting by following each class’ area of curiosity.

Children begin their journey from non-readers to readers at the start of Nursery. In both Nursery and Reception, children are read to on a daily basis during teacher time and child initiated time. Books are available in all areas of learning to encourage children to choose and read freely. Children are continually learning new vocabulary through the use of PILS, ‘words of the week’, and schemes such as Talk For Writing, Talking Circles and NELI. All children visit the school library on a regular basis and Reception children visit the local library. Children choose a picture book to take home each week.

Read, Write Inc Phonics

At Woodthorne Primary School, our children’s reading journey commences through Read, Write Inc Phonics.  We start this journey in Nursery, where children start to explore intial sounds.  In Reception, children start the RWI programme and we aim for children to complete phonics by the end of Year 1.

Parent FAQs
10 Top Tips for Reading With Your Child
Letter Formation Chart
Progression to next group
Red Word Progression
Set 1-3 Sounds
PURPOSE AND GENRE PROGRESSION DOCUMENTS

We want our children to understand that writing has a purpose.  This supports children to see themself as a writer, celebrate their successes and ignite a passion in them for writing.  Below are our ‘Purpose and Genre Progression’ documents, which set out how we do this in Key Stage 1 and 2.

Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4

Click here

Year 5
Year 6

Key English Documents

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Long Term Plans

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100 Books to read

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Policies

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Progression in Language Structures

EYFS   Year 1   Year 2   Year 3   Year 4   Year 5   Year 6

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Guided Reading Sequence