English
English curriculum intent
At Foundry Lane Primary School, we have designed the English curriculum with the intent to develop all pupils’ spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, spelling and vocabulary in order for them to become life-long learners, who are able to use the components of the English curriculum creatively and with independence. We understand that a firm understanding of English is the foundation of the entire curriculum and that children who are confident and skilful readers and writers will be empowered to thrive in all other areas.
Foundry Lane places a strong focus on Early Reading. Phonics is taught systematically following the Read, Write Inc programme to equip pupils with excellent phonic knowledge and skills. We adopt a determined and rigorous approach to teach phonic awareness and secure word recognition to ensure that all children have the fluency and automaticity required to access all reading material and to fulfil potential across all areas of the curriculum. The teaching of reading develops pupils’ comprehension skills through a rich and varied range of engaging and high-quality reading material which appeal to all pupils, including reluctant readers.
In reading lessons, reading texts are ‘warmed-up’ with knowledge and vocabulary being taught in order for pupils to access reading materials. Teachers model their meta-cognition of reading for meaning, and reading skills are practised. Throughout the school, children will be heard reading individually and in groups to develop reading fluency and accuracy across a wide range of contexts throughout the curriculum.
At Foundry Lane, we value the positive impact parents and carers can have with reading, and guidance and support is provided for supporting reading at home. We promote a love of reading and encourage our pupils to be avid readers, who read fluently and widely for both learning and pleasure.
Reading at home:
We expect children to be reading at home every day. This can be done with an adult or independently. In Year R and KS1, they must fill in their Reading Log . See the document below for advice about reading with your child.
In writing, learning journeys are underpinned by ‘The Write Stuff’ approach, which brings clarity to the mechanics of writing. Writing sessions are organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they immediately apply to their own writing.
The approach ensures that all pupils are exposed to high-quality texts that stimulate quality responses to reading, high-quality writing and purposeful speaking and listening opportunities. Our curriculum ensures that all children have a variety of opportunities to write fluently for different purposes with interesting detail on a number of topics throughout the curriculum. Writing is taught through a number of different strategies including rich speaking and drama activities to develop pupils’ vivid imaginations and the experiences that will equip pupils to become skilful writers. All lessons develop writing skills so that our pupils learn to write with grammatical accuracy and are able to apply spelling patterns correctly. Handwriting sessions, using the Kinetic Letters programme, are taught discretely and embedded into the English lessons.
