English

Reading and writing are the key to the entire school curriculum; therefore, at Windy Nook Primary School, we put a strong emphasis on the teaching and learning of English.

Our curriculum intent is driven by the need to prepare our pupils for their journey in literacy, enabling them to thrive in society. The implementation of our English curriculum is taught using quality texts which in turn encourage quality writing. Lessons are started by re-visiting familiar basic skills in spelling, grammar, punctuation and handwriting to embed learning. The impact of teaching and learning is regularly monitored and assessed within school to show that children can apply key reading, writing, spelling, speaking and listening skills independently in a range of contexts and subjects.

In the Early Years, English is linked to Communication & Language Development & Literacy Development. For further information please refer to the Evidencing Subjects in the Early Years at Windy Nook Primary Document or click on the link for Birth to 5 Matters.

A focus is placed on the systematic approach to the teaching of phonics and early reading in Early Years and Key Stage One. Throughout the school, the children are encouraged to read a range of texts to give breadth and balance to their reading. Guided Group Reading lessons are planned according to the needs of each phase and it is not a ‘one-fits-all approach’ – children in Key Stage 2 doing guided reading in a whole-class model. Each phase in school has class authors and poets which they study during the course of the year. An emphasis on pupils developing an enriched vocabulary helps further develop reading and writing skills.

The development and acquisition of writing skills is taught partly through daily handwriting, spelling and grammar and punctuation (GAP Buster). It is the repetition of these key skills which has led to the English curriculum being bespoke to the needs of our learners here at Windy Nook.

When looking at the elements of writing that will enable our children to write effective longer texts (e.g. sentence structure, composition and effect, cohesion etc.) children undertake extended writing lessons every week. Writing skills linked to their genre of study (e.g. expanded noun phrases for a setting description) are taught, planned, drafted, written and edited as a longer piece of writing. Writing units typically last 2-3 weeks so that children can have time to analyse model texts, read and glean good practice, draft ideas with teacher input, then move on to planning their own texts. The expectation across all year groups is that the standard of writing should be the same in all subjects. All genres of writing are covered throughout the year, by each year group.

A range of media, books and topical issues are used to deliver stimulating English lessons. Digital media, in a variety of forms, is used to inspire learning. Across the English curriculum, we have embedded the use of film, images and music to develop our reading and writing skills. Using images, text and music as our stimuli, we discuss and analyse in order to develop our inference and deduction skills.  These transferrable skills are applied to our reading across the curriculum.