English
At Peatmoor Community Primary School we believe that a high-quality English curriculum will develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We want to instil both a love of reading and books in our children. We want them to be avid readers; children who read fluently and widely and who are able to express preferences and opinions about the texts that they read. We want them to read for pleasure, having access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors and for them to make informed opinions about their favourites. We want to produce children who write with confidence and accuracy for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst developing their own individual flair. We want our children to be able to write with grammatical accuracy and be able to apply spelling patterns correctly using a neat handwriting style. We aim to expose our children to a wide range of vocabulary so that they are able to decipher new words, then use them in their writing and when speaking both informally and formally. We also aim for our children to apply all of these English skills to all areas of the curriculum.
English is taught as a whole class so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Our English lessons develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. English is often taught in a cross-curricular way, linking up with other areas of the curriculum. We teach our pupils to speak clearly, to convey their ideas fluently and confidently and to ask questions. We understand the value of excellent vocabulary and this is developed and practised across our curriculum. We encourage pupils to express their ideas, discuss their ideas and to develop more sophisticated vocabulary. Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read widely through our reading scheme and school library. We follow and use the LCP Phonic scheme for our phonics programme, using various resources from other companies to supplement the scheme. Phonic awareness helps the development of reading by segmenting and blending sounds and the children will be heard reading regularly, both individually and in groups. We are using the Big Cat Collins reading scheme along with other schemes to supplement this including, Oxford Reading Tree, Project X Alien adventures and Jelly and Bean. As a school, we also recognise the importance of parent partnership and the key role that they have to play in promoting English skills.
Our guided reading and whole class reading sessions cover a wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction books and help to advance the children’s comprehension skills. We develop writing skills so that our children have the stamina and ability to write at the age expected standard. We provide varied and exciting opportunities for children to know, understand and be able to write in a range of genres, both fiction and non-fiction and structure their writing in a style suited for its purpose. To do this, children are given different sources of inspiration for their writing including: books, texts, video clips, pictures and their own experiences. During the writing process, children are given the opportunities and time to plan, draft, compose and then edit their own writing.