English

At The Colleton, we pride ourselves in our creative, integrated and meaningful approach to the teaching of the English curriculum. We strive to provide exciting programmes of learning, filled with engaging and diverse stories, both in books and on film, an array of poetry, both classic and modern and rich experiences to inspire our own writing and drama activities. We endeavour to develop our children with an enduring love of reading, an engagement with rich language and literacy skills that they will carry them through their lives.

Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 to enable all children to:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding;
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information;
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language;
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage;
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences;
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas, and;
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

The learning of the English curriculum happens most effectively when taught within meaningful contexts of stories, poems and factual information across the curriculum.

Topics and activities are rigorously planned to build on skills and concepts as our children progress in their learning journey throughout every team, developing higher order and diverse vocabulary across every subject.

Reading and writing activities are undertaken within every subject area, a cross-curricular approach that ensures the children understand the purpose of their learning activities, the audience it is for and are therefore more motivated to achieve and succeed. Children have regular opportunities to edit and share their writing more widely, often producing their own anthologies and books.

Early reading and writing are developed through the use of Twinkl Phonics, a systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP), that has been adapted carefully by experienced teachers to ensure the needs of the children are being met. Throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, reading is supported by a number of engaging reading schemes that hook children’s interest and excitement for books and reading as well as build on crucial reading skills. If any child has found reading a challenge, specific support programmes are put into place. These continue into Key Stage 2 so that every child can succeed. This support is also in place for any child with specific writing, spelling or handwriting difficulties.

Rigorous assessment and review ensure that we are able to provide targeted support and learning experiences so that all children can achieve in English. Assessment for Learning is embedded in our practice; children are actively engaged in reviewing the successes in their work and identifying, with support from their teacher, target areas for development to ensure a continuous and individualised approach to improving their learning.

In every year group, children have the opportunity to regularly visit both of our exciting thematic libraries, to select from our well-stocked shelves of appealing books.

We have many events throughout the year that promote reading and writing, including our well-loved book celebration and book fair weeks, where the children have the chance to meet established authors, read with different children from other teams, dress up as a favourite book character and take part in reading challenges like ‘radical reading’ and our sponsored read with Usborne Books.