Our aim is that all our children are able to read, write and speak confidently and fluently by the time they leave us at the end of Year 6.  We want our children to read and write spontaneously and with enjoyment.  We strive to develop a passion for English, so this may aid them in later life and enable them to be lifelong learners. All children are expected to succeed and make progress in English from their starting point. 

We aim to enable our children to become lifelong learners, and we see reading as the key to enable this to happen. We encourage our children to develop a love of reading and develop the skills of comprehension and fluency, to fully understand what they read.

Our English curriculum is based on the National Curriculum.  Teachers teach the skills needed to succeed in English, providing examples of good practice and high expectations. Children are taught to apply the skills learnt throughout all aspects of the English curriculum and the wider curriculum. Ambitious vocabulary is taught explicitly and is expected to be applied in everyday situations. 

Reading and Writing is assessed using the school’s assessment systems, where the staff and children work on targets to ensure progress within these areas.  The children are assessed regularly, and targeted support is given.

EYFS have continuous provision that focusses on all elements of the English curriculum.  They also have adult led tasks based around English and are continually assessed using the EYFS framework.

We use two programs to support our teaching of English - 

Reading VIPERS You may have heard your child using the term ‘Reading VIPERS’ and wondered what snakes have to do with reading! This is a mnemonic we use at school to cover the key comprehension skills that we teach as part of the National Curriculum. The term ‘Reading VIPERS’ was created by Rob Smith from The Literacy Shed, a website which provides a wide range of interesting and engaging resources for teaching English. More information is available here.

Active English is an approach to teaching grammar which uses images as visual clues for children to remember various grammatical terminology and use. It is a daily programme of 15 minutes which runs at the beginning of the literacy lesson. Active English supports children in relation to the National Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) assessments, but importantly, this approach supports your child in their writing. As they move into Year 5/Year 6 the Active English program develops so that the grammar and punctuation are applied to their writing focus. This supports the children's ability to apply their skills considering the audience, purpose, and intended effect.