Statement of Intent

Our English curriculum aims to teach children how important their reading, writing, speaking and listening will be in the real world. By providing pupils with a breadth of experiences, we offer them opportunities to develop their ability to communicate fluently in writing and speech as well as to listen with understanding.  We positively promote reading through an extensive range of books in order to enable our pupils to become confident, knowledgeable and enthusiastic readers.

We firmly believe that at Lodge Farm Primary that every pupil no matter what their learning need is, will leave our school with the ability to read fluently and confidently in any subject and will have developed a lifelong love for reading and their own, individualised style of writing.

 Reading

Reading is a fundamental aspect of English, which impacts all areas of the curriculum. At Lodge Farm, we aim for our children to be passionate readers by exposing them to a wealth of quality texts that grip their imagination and immerses them into the world of books.  We also aim for children to leave our school being able to use their knowledge of phonics to read fluently and widely whilst being able to express their preferences and opinions about the texts that they read. They are given every opportunity to succeed and become readers who see the value of reading as a life-long skill.

 Reading for Pleasure

 When our children leave our school, we expect them to be avid readers, who read fluently and widely, and are able to express preferences and opinions about the texts that they read. We want them to read for pleasure, having had access to a wide range of text types, genres and authors in order for them to make informed opinions about their favourites. Through choosing quality texts and the knowledge they have gained from these texts, we want children to be able to understand more about the world in which they live.

 Approach to Writing

At Lodge Farm, we believe that writing is strengthened by instilling a love for reading within our pupils. We value the importance of reading to supplement writing, providing a purpose and a context to writing. We believe that pupils who are provided a reason for writing will demonstrate flair and effective writing composition, leading to high quality outcomes.

 Every half term, the English curriculum is taught by studying a high quality text where writing opportunities are derived from. Each week, the children are taught to develop an understanding of the texts through reading comprehension - exploring the key themes, events, and plot of the texts being studied. From this element of the curriculum, pupils are taught the grammar from the National Curriculum which is taught to correspond to the genres being written as part of the writing process. Children are then supported in how to apply the grammatical content taught in identifying features of a high quality modelled text, before progressing to plan, write and edit a written piece which is fit for purpose and audience. 

Spoken Language

We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and be able to use discussion to communicate and further their learning. We are very aware that some of our pupils’ early language acquisition is limited and this is why we believe that providing a language rich environment, with a strong focus on oracy, is essential to the success across the curriculum.

Handwriting 

At Lodge Farm Primary, we teach letter formation using the Little Wandle formation phrases, which makes a link between the mnemonic and the letter. Once children have established letter formation, we use the Nelson Handwriting programme to teach handwriting. 

Little Wandle Handwriting formation

Downloads

1. English Policy

2. Handwriting Policy

3. Reading Policy

4. Class Texts

   Recommended Websites

   The following websites are recommended in supporting children in all areas of English.

   The Poetry Archive

   Children’s Poetry

   Love Reading-recommended reads. Good for finding new authors!

   Storynory-please encourage your children to listen to such stories at home.