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.
Writing
Mark making is actively encouraged from an early age and handwriting continues as a focus in every year group. There is always a purpose to all writing and each unit finishes with a final independent piece of writing. Pupils are taught the key skills to help them to draft, edit and amend their writing. All writing lessons promote vocabulary rich learning, where pupils are exposed to teacher modelling to help set expectations. Lessons focus on accurate use of punctuation and grammar to help produce quality sentences.
Spelling
Statutory spellings taken from the National Curriculum form the focus for each year group. The Spelling Shed scheme of work, is followed in Years 1-6. New spellings are introduced every Monday 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 planners and also as a paper copy to practise. Pupils can also access Spelling Shed online at the link found here. All usernames and passwords are shared with parents at the beginning of the year. Spelling Shed is a fun way to practise spellings, with each stage corresponding to your child's year group.
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.
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.