English Curriculum Statement
Curriculum Intent
At Roose Community Primary School, we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion.
Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014 and the Pathways to Write programme 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
- be competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
These aims are embedded across our English lessons and the wider curriculum. We will provide the means for children to develop a secure knowledge-base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. Rigorous assessment and review will ensure that we are able to provide targeted support so that all children experience success in English; we believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.
Curriculum Implementation
Early reading is supported through the Success for All phonics scheme. Regular training and development days ensure that staff are equipped to teach with the expertise and skills required to promote excellent progress, as well as a love of reading. In KS2, when children have completed the Success for All programme, they develop deeper reading skills by explicit modelling of skills by the teacher. These skills are then practised and applied independently. Reading for Pleasure is promoted by staff reading and modelling the excitement and expression that story telling brings. The children are also encouraged to read regularly using the ‘Strive for Five’ scheme. All children are encouraged to visit our school library and use books from the class libraries and share recommendations with others.
When planning English lessons, teachers make links to other areas of the curriculum to ensure that cross curricular links provide further context for learning. Teaching blocks follow the ‘Pathways to Write’ scheme and focus on fiction, non-fiction or poetry, in line with the 2014 National Curriculum and comprehension, grammar and writing are embedded in lessons. Discrete comprehension lessons are also taught weekly. Lesson sequences build progressively towards an extended piece of writing. Handwriting is also taught both discretely and within English lessons. The outcomes in KS2 are recorded in English/handwriting books to promote a high level of pride and presentation across all written outcomes.
Assessment for Learning is embedded in English lessons and children are active 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 work. Summative assessment for English is carried out termly.
Curriculum Impact
The organisation of the English curriculum has developed a community of enthusiastic readers and writers, who enjoy showcasing their developing English knowledge and skills. Children are confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas. Outcomes of work in both English and topic books evidence the high quality of work and the impact of varied and cross curricular writing opportunities. These enable children to write across a range of forms and adapt their writing successfully, considering the purpose.
At the end of each year we expect the children to have achieved Age Related Expectations (ARE) for their year group. Some children will have progressed further and achieved greater depth (GD). Pupils falling into the lowest 20% category make progress from their starting point and all pupils are proud of the progress they make.