English

At Greenbank, we believe that English is at the heart of everything we do. The children live in a world in which communication, reading and writing are all essential parts of every day life, this is why the staff at Greenbank are committed to helping all of the children reach their full potential.

English is at the heart of every child and adults life. We live in an environment where Literacy is all around us and we use the fundamentals of writing and reading in our daily lives. This is why at Greenbank we believe that English should be at the heart of all aspects of school life.

Intent

It is our intention that our pupils acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to become independent learners and communicators. We strive to ensure that all our pupils receive a well-rounded learning experience when reading, writing, speaking and listening. We recognise that well developed Literacy skills can open a world of academic success for children and we understand the importance of language in our lives. Staff at our school are committed to ensuring we do our very best to help the children in our care become successful readers, writers and linguists. By the time children leave Greenbank, they will be equipped with the skills and mind set needed to reach their full potential in English. The children are provided with opportunities to explore and practise a range of genres from EYFS to Year 6. Teachers plan lessons that instil and encourage a love for reading, a passion for writing and a confidence to verbalise their creativity. The desire to embed and consolidate Literacy skills is reflected across our curriculum. Confidence in basic language skills enables children to communicate creatively and imaginatively, preparing them for their future journey through education and beyond.

Implementation

At Greenbank, children are given daily opportunities to explore and develop their reading, writing and oracy skills through a number of rich, engaging and creative activities in order to prepare them for the world they live in. We understand that children need to be able to listen to and recall genres orally before writing their own, which is why we use Talk for Writing and Literacy Counts to help develop children’s oracy skills. This involves the children orally retelling a text through the use of pictures and actions. Then the children analyse the texts to explore the different features and use of language/punctuation. The children then innovate the text they have learnt to make it their own. In the final week the children produce their own pieces of writing which include planning, drafting, editing and publishing. We strive to ensure children can communicate clearly in written form and become masters of language. We promote reading throughout our Curriculum and children are given opportunities to develop their reading skills every day. We use Whole Class and Guided Reading session as well as Reciprocal Reading to improve pupils’ reading and comprehension skills.

There is a strong emphasis on phonics in EYFS and KS1 to develop children’s early writing ability. From the end of Year 2 upwards the children will begin to learn spelling patterns and rules. Children will take weekly spellings home to learn which are based on phonic sounds or spelling rules that they have been taught. Writing across a range of genres is effectively modelled by class teachers then practised by the children. The children learn how to develop the whole writing process from planning to publishing.

We teach children at Greenbank to write using a cursive script from the beginning of their time here. We know that using a cursive script helps most children become more confident, fluent writers and also helps improve spelling. We believe that good presentation skills are important as we want children to value their own work and for others to do the same.

At Greenbank Primary School, we promote lots of cross-curricular writing opportunities to allow children to apply their writing skills across a variety of subjects.

We understand the importance of writing and language in our lives and we are committed to ensuring we do our very best to help the children in our care become creative writers and successful readers.

Impact

We strive to ensure that our children’s attainment is in line with or exceeds their potential based on their varied starting points. We measure this using a range of materials, whilst always considering the age-related expectations for each year group. Children will make good progress in Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening. We intend the impact of our English curriculum will ensure our pupils are academically prepared for life beyond primary school and throughout their educational journey.