English
Our Intent - What are we trying to achieve through our curriculum?
Our English curriculum is designed to ensure that every pupil develops a secure command of spoken and written language and a lifelong love of reading and literature. We build this through a carefully sequenced approach that combines high‑quality texts, explicit skill progression, and consistent whole‑school systems for reading and writing.
At the heart of our writing curriculum is the I’m a Clever Writer programme, which provides a clear, structured progression of writing skills from Early Years to Year 6. This approach ensures that pupils learn to write with increasing accuracy, control and independence. We enrich this journey through the use of carefully chosen picture books, which inspire creativity, deepen comprehension, and expose pupils to rich vocabulary and diverse literary voices.
Reading is taught systematically and rigorously. In Early Years and KS1, pupils follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme, ensuring they develop strong early decoding skills. As pupils move through the school, the Little Wandle Fluency programme supports the transition from decoding to fluent, expressive reading. In upper KS2, pupils use Accelerated Reader to further develop reading stamina, comprehension, and independence, helping them to read widely and often for both pleasure and information.
Across the school, our English curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding, supported by high‑quality phonics, fluency practice and structured reading systems.
• Develop the habit of reading widely and regularly, encountering a broad range of authors, genres and text types.
• Acquire a rich vocabulary, secure grammatical understanding and confidence with the linguistic conventions of spoken and written English.
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage, engaging with texts that broaden their cultural and imaginative horizons.
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their style and language for different purposes, audiences and contexts.
• Use talk as a tool for learning, articulating ideas, reasoning verbally and engaging in meaningful discussion.
• Develop strong speaking and listening skills, enabling them to present, debate, perform and collaborate effectively.
Through this integrated approach, we aim to nurture confident, articulate and enthusiastic readers and writers who are equipped with the language skills they need to succeed both academically and beyond school.
