The curriculum aims to foster a love for reading, writing, and discussion, while aligning with the National Curriculum. Its goals include enabling children to read fluently and with understanding, develop a reading habit for pleasure and information, expand vocabulary, and write clearly for various contexts and purposes. The school emphasises oracy skills, encouraging debate, presentations, and explanation. English is integrated across all subjects, ensuring high standards of all English skills to support learning and enable children to be lifelong learners. 

Implementation

The curriculum is inspired by overarching topics, ensuring students engage with a range of different texts. These texts, chosen for their literacy, historical, and cultural value, drive writing activities and broaden students’ perspectives. The school promotes a love of reading through a well-stocked library, events like World Book Day, Winter Warmers and Accelerated Reader.

Phonics and early reading are taught daily, reinforced through the “Little Wandle - Rapid Catch Up” program, ensuring all students make progress. Reading lessons focus on fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills (inference, prediction, retrieval, etc.). Writing lessons develop skills through planning, drafting, and editing, often linked to other curriculum topics.

Oracy skills are nurtured through activities like presentations, drama, and group discussions. We use “Plan It Spelling” to support the teaching of spelling. We teach all children to form letters cursively and legibly. Feedback is an integral part of learning and is used to help children make progress, both verbal and written. 

Progress is assessed through formative methods (questioning, feedback) and summative tools (NFER tests, independent writes, SATs). Writing is formally assessed through cross-curricular tasks, moderated within the school and the trust. Termly pupil progress meetings help refine teaching strategies, and feedback from parents and children informs the curriculum effectiveness. Regular monitoring by leaders ensures a high-quality English curriculum for all learners.