English at Boarshaw Primary School
The aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. At Boarshaw Primary School we want ALL our learners to be confident speakers, competent writers and readers for life! We aim to do this by having pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary at the very heart of our curriculum.
Developing Language
English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching; for children, understanding the language will provide access to the whole curriculum. Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects.
Oracy is woven throughout our English curriculum because we know that talk is an important foundation for reading and writing.
Children are given regular opportunities to discuss texts, share ideas, explain their thinking, ask and answer questions, retell stories and rehearse sentences aloud before writing. Through partner talk, group discussion, storytelling, drama and performance, children develop their vocabulary, confidence and ability to communicate clearly.
These speaking and listening opportunities help children to deepen their understanding of what they read and gives them the language and ideas they need to become confident, successful writers.
Writing
We have an ambitious writing curriculum that aims to develop every child into a confident, creative and enthusiastic writer. From the earliest stages, we build strong foundations by enriching children’s vocabulary and developing their speaking and oral storytelling skills. Children are encouraged to talk through, rehearse and develop their ideas before writing, helping them to organise their thoughts, express themselves clearly and allow their creativity to flow onto the page.
Early Storytellers
Early writers (Nursery - Year 1) are called Storytellers, as we understand that before children can write successfully, they need to develop their speaking and listening skills, oral language, storytelling, imagination, fine motor control, vocabulary and understanding of how stories and language work.
Pupils begin their writing journey through Story Dough, before progressing to Drawing Club and Curious Quests, where they continue to develop their confidence in communicating and creating their own ideas.
Story Dough helps children develop their imagination, vocabulary and storytelling skills through playful, hands-on activities with play dough.
Drawing Club uses exciting stories, pictures and animations to inspire children to talk, draw and begin bringing their own ideas to life through writing.
Curious Quests takes children on exciting challenges and adventures, giving them meaningful reasons to talk, read and write while developing their creativity and confidence
The Author’s Purpose
Once pupils have these foundations for writing, they transition into Authors, who write for a purpose (Years 1-6). The key concepts within the Author's Purpose are to tell children why they are writing that text, provide a clear intent and reason for writing and to produce an outcome at the end which is published and celebrated.
We use 4 main types of writing - to entertain, to inform, to persuade and to discuss. Writing experiences in class feel 'real' for our pupils helping final pieces to feel meaningful.
These year groups follow a simple teaching sequence to ensure pupils can understand a text. This includes unpicking a text and thinking about what the author intends to do with this piece of writing. Pupils then have the time to focus on developing the key skills needed to write that type of text. This can be through shared or guided writing. Then they are able to plan and write their own text.
Punctuation and Grammar
The Twinkl scheme for Grammar is followed in all classes (Years 1 - 6).
To help support sentence writing, all year groups start each academic year by focusing on the Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar (PVPG). This approach treats grammar as cumulative, focusing on mastering subjects, verbs, and clauses to build, punctuation accuracy, and sentence complexity from Years 1-6.
Ready for PVPG overview
Year 2 PVPG overview
Years 3-4 PVPG overview
Years 5-6 PBPG overview
Teachers also use Alan Peat's Exciting Sentences to help support pupils with adding variety to their writing.
Spelling
Statutory spellings taken from the National Curriculum form the focus for each year group. The Twinkl scheme of work, is followed in Years 1-6. New spellings are introduced every Friday in all classes and revisited throughout the week. This can be in SPAG flashbacks at the start of English lessons or recapped during handwriting lessons. A spelling test will take place at the end of the week on Friday.
Spellings are sent home in spelling books as part of homework.
Weekly spellings are displayed in the classroom for pupils to refer to and errors in spellings identified during marking. Pupils are expected to practise the correct spelling or to use a dictionary when completing corrections.
Reading
Children are taught to read fluently, understand extended prose (both fiction and non-fiction) and encouraged to read for pleasure in school and at home. We do everything to promote wider reading and to help our pupils develop a lifelong love for books. Emerging readers take home high quality picture books to help encourage book talk.
Our phonics scheme, Rocket Phonics is used in school to help pupils to learn to read and all reading books are closely matched to graphemes which pupils have been taught.
Pupils who have completed the phonics scheme, continue to read banded books on our whole-school reading scheme, Rising Stars Reading Planet.
All pupils can select and take home books from our library.
Please see our Reading and Phonics Curriculum webpage for further information.