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Our English Intent
English teaching at our school supports our school vision of ‘Inquisitive minds shape our world’ through providing teaching that allows all children to flourish creatively and positively with the aim to achieve academic excellence.
Our school believes that the teaching and learning of reading is integral for children to access the whole of the National Curriculum. We want to ensure that all children who attend our school build a love of reading, initially through robust, systematic teaching of phonics, before nurturing a culture and environment where children learn to read for pleasure and to support their wider learning. We do this through exposure to and engagement with a broad range of high-quality, challenging and exciting texts across curriculum subjects. Vocabulary acquisition is a key aim; children at our school will develop this through exposure to these rich texts, embracing our rich and varied literary heritage, as well as through discussion. This then feeds into the children’s vocabulary choices in writing tasks.
The intent of our English curriculum is for all children in our school to become writers who feel inspired to write creatively, coherently and with purpose. We aim to provide the stepping-stones in grammar that build progressively, so that the children we teach can adapt their writing appropriately for genre, developing their voice as a writer, and with an awareness of the reader. We value the importance of high quality speaking and listening, and our enriched curriculum provides a wealth of opportunities for children at our school to grow in confidence in speaking to a range of audiences, developing the skills to listen to others and agree and disagree well. We strive to immerse children with a spectrum of experiences, which enhance their cultural capital, whilst celebrating their individuality.
Book Boxes
Each class has three ‘Book Boxes’. One is for fiction books, one for non-fiction books and one is a poetry box. Each box has a quality text linked to learning in class (either current learning or to reinforce ‘sticky learning’), our mascot, a small art sketch book and art materials as well as a delicious hot chocolate to enjoy whilst snuggling up to read.
The children are challenged to produce art work linked to the book. This could be their favourite part, the setting, a character that they love, fascinating facts that they have found…anything at all!
The children are so excited to take these boxes home and produce great pieces of work which they then share with their peers. We love these boxes!
Year 2 Brilliant Book Awards
We have been very lucky to be signed up to the award.The Brilliant Book Award (BBA) is our exciting reading club for children aged six to seven years. Throughout the spring term children are encouraged to have lots of fun, sharing stories and voting for their favourite book to win a Brilliant Book Award. We have been gifted four different stories which we are reading in class and at home and completing a variety of activities linked to the stories. At the end of March we will vote for our winner!
The children in Year 2 have cast their votes! They have spent many hours reading the stories in school and at home with their families so it was tricky to choose our favourite. Our first place vote was given to Agent Llama and second place was given to Marv!
Drum roll please…here is the news you have all been waiting for! The votes have been counted and the winner of the Brilliant Book Award (BBA) 2023, as voted by Lancashire’s fabulous Year 2 pupils, has been decided….
Literacy
Comprehension ELG
Children at the expected level of development will:
– Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary;- Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories;
– Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play.
Word Reading ELG
Children at the expected level of development will:
– Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs;
– Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending;
– Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.
Writing ELG
Children at the expected level of development will:
– Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed;
– Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters;
– Write simple phrases and sentences that can be ready by others.
Year 4 are learning about the Loch Ness Monster. They have been researching facts to help them create a quiz and a magazine article all about the mysterious creature. Some of the children have created pictures at home and even used Lego to create their own Nessie and the lake!
