English

English at Scotts Primary School

Intent

At Scotts, we know and understand our children. We have listened to our children’s voices, and we have created a curriculum that encourages them to become enthusiastic and engaged with English. We have worked hard to provide our children with rich and varied learning opportunities that help them to become confident and enthusiastic learners. We want our children to have a positive attitude towards communication and to be able to independently express their emotions and their ideas. Through our English Curriculum, we strive to teach the children how important their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills will be in the real world. By giving this context to their learning, the children understand the value of English to them now, and in their futures.

At Scotts we want all of our pupils to be capable readers, writers, spellers and speakers, who can transfer their English skills to other curriculum subjects and who are prepared for the next steps in their education. Our English lessons develop pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. English is often taught in a cross-curricular way, linking up with other areas of the curriculum. We teach our pupils to speak clearly, to convey their ideas fluently and confidently and to ask questions. We know and understand the value of excellent vocabulary and this is developed and practised across our curriculum consistently.

Reading

Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure and to read widely throughout all areas of their learning. We use Little Wandle for our phonics programme and we understand that phonic awareness helps with the development of reading by segmenting and blending sounds. Our children are listened to in their reading regularly, both individually and in groups/whole class situations. Our whole class guided reading sessions cover a wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction books and help to advance the children’s comprehension skills. Parents are given reading guidance and clear expectations about reading at home. We have also hosted reading workshops for parents to attend.

Writing

We develop writing skills so that our children have the stamina and ability to write at the age-expected standard. To support children in moving towards independent writing, we provide a wide range of activities including the use of film and imagery, music, modeled, shared, and guided writing, peer assessment, and discussion. We provide varied and exciting opportunities for writing for purpose and we encourage pupils to see themselves as authors and poets. We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be read aloud and listened to by an audience. We share examples of ‘super sentences’ in our whole school assemblies where children’s writing is celebrated. We also display excellent pieces of writing which gives our children an added incentive to produce quality writing for an audience.

Handwriting sessions are regularly incorporated into our English lessons as well as targeted handwriting practice where necessary. We have developed and participated in a range of extra activities that are used to promote English within the school including World Book Day, A.I.M. High writing workshops, weekly super sentence awards, local library visits, Good to be Different Days, half termly writing competitions, and author visits.

Oracy

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. In school, oracy is a vital tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. 

At Scotts Primary School, we believe that spoken language is essential in the development and achievement of our children across the curriculum. We strive to develop spoken language skills through our rich and varied curriculum, during playtimes and lunchtimes, extra-curricular activities and through the whole ethos of the school. Children are taught how to be effective communicators through oracy projects that feature skills such as performance poetry, debating and presenting. Good oracy skills support wider literacy skills; improvement in oracy is also linked to improvements in reading, writing, and overall attainment. 

Respectful and productive relationships between all who form part of the school community are crucial aspects of our oracy ethos. We place a high priority on supporting the development of good speaking and listening skills amongst our pupils. Correct spoken language and the development of vocabulary is fundamental to learning. Speaking and listening play an important part in a child’s progress in all curriculum areas and teachers plan to develop these skills in a variety of ways. We aim to develop and encourage fluent speakers, with rich vocabulary, who are confident to operate in a wide range of situations.