INTENT

Our English curriculum promotes love of language and expression, where our children understand the reason and purpose behind language in the wider world. Language allows opportunities for the children to reflect and question what they read and hear, using their critical voice. It is then imperative that these skills can be applied across other subject areas.

Our children will be nurtured to become lifelong imaginative and creative readers, writers and speakers and thinkers who can use this language power to challenge and question the world around them. Reading is the foundation of achieving social equality and levelling the playing field of opportunities for our children.

Our primary aim as teachers is to develop every child as a reader and writer.

Aims of English

• To enable children to speak clearly and audibly in ways which take account of their listeners;
• To encourage children to listen with concentration in order to be able to identify the main points of what they have heard;
• To enable children to adapt their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands;
• To develop children’s ability to reflect on their own and others’ contributions and the language used;
• To enable children to evaluate their own and others' contributions through a range of drama activities;
• To read with confidence, fluency and understanding;
• To show interest in books, read with enjoyment, evaluate and justify their preferences;
• Understand phonics and use this knowledge to read and spell accurately;
• To help children enjoy writing and recognise its value;
• To enable children to write with accuracy and meaning in narrative and non-fiction;
• To increase the children’s ability to use planning, drafting and editing to improve their work;
• To develop a fluent and legible handwriting style.

We try to include as many events, such as author visits and our Book Fairs, to promote a love for English.