Our English curriculum is designed to equip children with the skills to become proficient and enthusiastic readers and writers and to foster a lifelong love of English by providing many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion.
Links across the curriculum • • • • • •
Reading for understanding across the curriculum. Speaking and writing for a range of audiences and purposes across the curriculum. Accurate use of technical and subject-specific language. Links to inference and deduction skills in humanities. Expressing creativity in oral and written responses in e.g. Art. Articulate reasoning in e.g. Maths and Science.
Big Ideas
• • • • • •
Fluency in speaking, reading and writing. Reading for both pleasure and information. Writing for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Acquiring a wide vocabulary. Understanding and application of spelling, punctuation and grammar conventions. Appreciating our rich and varied literary heritage.
ENGLISH at YPS Content and Sequencing
Children access speaking, reading and writing opportunities as part of continuous provision in EY as well as planned learning opportunities. Exciting half-termly themes in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 serve as the vehicle for children to engage with increasingly challenging high-quality texts and stimuli that provide rich opportunities for speaking, reading and writing. The skills/knowledge are identified and developmental. Areas developed are: Spoken communication Decoding (using appropriate phonics strategies) Comprehension Vocabulary acquisition Spelling (using appropriate phonics strategies) Planning, drafting, writing and editing Wider knowledge of authors and texts
Retrieval Practice • Knowledge, skills and vocabulary identified. • Low stakes quizzing to develop long term memory. • Deepening knowledge initiative allows for retrieval of theme based knowledge and learning beyond this. • Key concepts are revisited • Vertical and horizontal links across the curriculum supported by shared understanding of retrieval practice strategies.
Outcomes
•
• • •
Lesson sequences have clear outcomes and these are used to assess against. Work in books demonstrates clear skills progression across phases. Self and peer assessment opportunities help children to identify next steps. Celebration of work through competitions, assemblies and engaging displays.
Inclusion
Everyone has access to the English National Curriculum. Support is provided for those learners who require it, including physical, audio and visual adaptations. Some learners access targeted interventions (e.g. spelling, handwriting) as part of a support offer around their needs.