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English

Our English Curriculum

At Green Lane, we are committed to ensuring that all of our children have the secure foundations in English that they need to succeed in the next stage of their education and their future aspirations, whatever they may be.

‘Reading and writing float on a sea of talk’ – James Britton

We recognise that vocabulary and language underpin good literacy which is vital for academic and social progress. Our curriculum driver, Communication, is at the heart of our English curriculum, and our wider school, as we strive to equip our children with the fundamental knowledge and skills to become accomplished and enthusiastic talkers, readers and writers. We build on our children’s unique starting points to allow each and every child to fulfil their potential. Alongside developing our children’s core literacy skills, we aim to spark their love of reading and writing through our text led approach, opening up worlds of knowledge, imagination and opportunity that will inspire them long into their future.

We want every one of our children to leave us with a passion for literature and the core literacy skills and knowledge to thrive as they continue their educational journey and beyond.

‘One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world’ – Malala Yousafzai

Our cohesive English curriculum has been designed using the Early Years Framework and National Curriculum with a clear progression within and across year groups and key stages. The teaching of all aspects of English is in high priority. As soon as our children begin their journey at Green Lane, phonics is taught in line with our carefully selected scheme, ALS Phonics, taking into account our children’s individual needs. They are then supported to apply their phonic knowledge and skills in: shared and guided reading and writing, independent reading and writing and across the wider curriculum. Within these sessions and through our text led approach, our children also develop their vocabulary, reading fluency, comprehension, transcription and composition including grammar and punctation.

Our quality texts and rhymes have been carefully selected for their ambitious vocabulary and sentence structures, to inspire our children’s love of literature and to provide opportunities to read and write across a range of genres, both fiction and non-fiction. These genres are revisited within and across year groups so our children can become confident in how to communicate for different purposes and in different contexts. Discrete teaching of handwriting aims to ensure that correct letter formation is embedded and work is presented neatly.

Our expert teaching of vocabulary, reading and writing works in tandem with our language rich, enabling environments which aim to support our children’s independent application of their knowledge and skills.

Repetition is key to our curriculum with the aim that the fundamentals, such as decoding and transcribing, are embedded into long-term memory so our children are free to comprehend and think, compose and write creatively and effectively.

Throughout each unit of work, progress is tracked formatively towards key objectives which have been devised based on the Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum to ensure that every child receives the appropriate support and challenge they need to achieve their best, including those who are disadvantaged and have Special Educational Needs. Verbal feedback is in high priority so our children know how to improve their work and deepen their understanding. Phonics is assessed rigorously in line with our scheme, ALS phonics, and any children not on track receive support and intervention in line with their needs. Summative assessment judgements are completed once a term and these are moderated at a school and trust level to ensure accuracy and to share expertise. Informal and formal monitoring, pupil progress and moderation by subject leads and SLT ensures that a high standard of quality first teaching is sustained and practitioners know how to improve outcomes for all of our children.

At the end of Reception, our children are assessed against the Early Learning Goal for reading and writing. Our children take the statutory phonics screening check at the end of Year One and the statutory reading tests at the end of Year 2 which are used to support assessment against the Teaching Assessment framework for reading. Children are also assessed against the Teacher Assessment Framework for writing at the end of Key Stage One.

Our Rhyme Spine

At Green Lane, We believe that the teaching of nursery rhymes and immersion in an environment where nursery rhymes are valued, is vital in providing quality early literacy experiences for our children and promoting a love of language and literature. As our children learn and recite nursery rhymes, they are learning new vocabulary, developing their awareness of rhythm and rhyme and internalising linguistic structures as well as playing with pitch, volume and voice inflection in enjoyable, developmentally appropriate ways. We aim for our children to learn the importance of sequencing as they explore the patterns in rhymes which will feed into them being able to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story.

Learning nursery rhymes supports our children’s physical development as they learn to manipulate their mouth and tongue muscles to make the different sounds in the rhyme, as well as developing their gross motor skills through joining in with the actions. Both are crucial for reading and writing.

In Reception, our children move on to performing the rhymes they have learnt for their peers, which develops self-confidence and our curriculum driver, Communication, as our children learn how to present their learning to an audience. Nursery rhymes are also shared with our families as an enjoyable, accessible activity that promotes good literacy.

For these reasons, we have developed our Nursery Rhyme Spine, which ensures that our children learn a wide variety of rhymes, through a carefully thought out progression, during their Nursery and Reception years, with many opportunities to practise and revisit previously learnt rhymes.

Our Reading Spine

Our reading spine incorporates our core quality texts that are shared and revisited with our children throughout the year in each year group. This may be during whole class reading time or as part of longer units of work. These texts have been carefully selected to represent a diverse range of authors and characters and to expose our children to Lemov’s five key text types: archaic, narratively complex, non-linear, symbolic/complexity of plot and resistant which are crucial to building knowledge as a developing reader. Through discussion of their rich vocabulary and powerful themes, we aim to develop our children’s language and comprehension whilst instilling a love of reading through repeated opportunities to read them for pleasure.

Our Reading Assembly Spines

Our Reception and Key Stage One assemblies are based upon key rhymes and texts that have been selected to:

  • build our children’s growing knowledge and enjoyment of a diverse range of literature including poetry, rhymes, fiction and non-fiction
  • reflect our local and global community with texts, characters, significant people and authors from a range of cultures and backgrounds
  • provide opportunities to make links between texts and discuss key themes including those related to current world events
  • expose our children to a wide range of vocabulary
  • support ‘whole child’ development through discussion around key themes from our Relationship and Health Education including mental health, friendship, gender, families and our school values

Our Favourite Five

In each class, our children have regular opportunities to vote for their favourite books which become part of their ‘Favourite Five’. This may include books that they have shared together as a class, enjoyed in a previous year group or have selected from accessing the school library. These books are displayed in the classroom for our children to access and are revisited and enjoyed through class reading time. Through ‘Favourite Five’, our aim is to foster our children’s love of reading and build their repertoire of familiar stories and texts.

Speaking, listening, reading and writing are the foundations of all our human interactions and good knowledge and skills in these areas are key to future opportunities in life.

Early literacy begins before babies are even born so the right support at home can make all the difference when it comes to your child’s future success.

Here is a link to a BBC Bitesize page where jobs that use English are listed. Whether it’s a receptionist, an actor, firefighter, doctor, solicitor, a customer service assistant or an influencer, good English knowledge and skills underpin all these careers.

Jobs that use English – BBC Bitesize

We love the Little People, Big Dreams series  about inspirational people throughout history.

Tom Percival writes beautiful books to help children understand big feelings.

These wonderfully illustrated books inspire us all to follow our dreams.

Joseph Coelho is the children’s laureate and writes amazing stories and poems.

Have a look at our reading spines for some more information about books and authors that your child will be reading at school.

The most important thing is that your child enjoys what they are reading whether that is fiction, non-fiction, poetry, magazines, recipes, websites, instructions or anything else they like!

Local places to visit

 

Your local library – St Barnabas is just an 8 minute from walk from Green Lane! They have a great range of books, friendly staff who can make recommendations and lots of special free events.

The Curve theatre – they have lots of performances of well-known stories that all the family can enjoy.

Your local bookshop has a wide range of books to choose from and is very happy for you to spend time reading the books before you buy one. They usually have cosy areas to curl up in too.

Useful websites for families

 

Oxford Owl at home has a great range of e-books as well as tips for parents/carers

BBC Bitesize has a wide variety of resources to support speaking, listening, reading and writing

Oak-National Academy has a whole range of English lessons produced with the support of the Department for Education

Authorfy has masterclasses with famous authors and creative writing opportunities

Spelling Frame has activities to help your child learn and practise spelling rules

Phonics this video tells you how to pronounce all of the English letter-sound correspondences (GPCs) that your child will learn in phonics. Remember to complete your child’s weekly phonics home learning using the videos on Seesaw.

Where next?