English

Vision

At Locking Primary School our English curriculum promotes language development which enables pupils to communicate effectively and to appreciate the richness, magic and power of the written word. It enables children to see language as a source of pleasure and enjoyment and use it to develop powers of imagination, creativity and inventiveness.

Programme

We follow the Primary National Curriculum for all aspects of the English Curriculum. Developing a love of reading, and the importance of this for our children both now and in the future, lies at the heart of our English curriculum.

• Learning journeys are led using a quality text as the stimulus, this may be fiction (including poetry) or non-fiction.
• In Early Years, English is planned around early reading, early writing and phonics.

Reading

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We recognise and value the importance of developing confident readers with a love of reading, in all its forms. We passionately believe in children hearing authors and illustrators talk about the craft of writing and illustrating and strive to provide as many opportunities as possible for this to happen, especially through visits to our school.

Staff enthusiasm for reading and knowledge of classic and current children’s literature is also a high priority. Beyond the English lesson, children are exposed to and immersed in a wide range of stories, poems and other texts through book events and story-time. Book corners celebrate our reading culture and offer a cosy book nook in each class. We are currently creating a library so that it is a special place for children to immerse themselves in books.

We have a wonderful library full of high-quality fiction and non-fiction books which child and parents are able to access so that they can continue to immerse themselves in a range of books at home and school.

Writing

We believe in immersing our children in texts through reading and analysing the skills of an expert writer. This is important as through this emersion, children become aware of the language skills of a writer and use this as a model for their writing. Using this model, children develop greater competence in the conventions of spelling, punctuation, sentence structures and text organisation.

Through our curriculum, children will develop:

• a strong command of the written and spoken word
• the ability to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• the confidence and competence to produce high quality writing
• a good understanding of grammar and punctuation and its use in effective written communication