English

English Intent

‘The overarching 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.’

National curriculum 2014

Writing

At Seymour Primary School, we follow the Talk for Writing programme, which allows our children to become successful storytellers and authors. We encourage our children to become curious about their own and others’ writing, including authors, poets and peers. Along their writing journey, children will be courageous in developing their own ideas and becoming an independent writer. Our curriculum aim is for all children to leave Seymour being able to: confidently communicate and express their ideas in writing and speech; use a rich and wide vocabulary; write clearly, accurately and coherently; and for a range of different purposes (including creatively and informatively).

Reading

Learning how to read is an entitlement of all children at Seymour regardless of their background, when they join, or if they have a Special Educational Need. We follow the RWI phonics programme, Accelerated Reader programme and the TKAT Reading Spine, which allow our children to become fluent, confident readers. By the time children leave Year 6, they will be analytical and capable readers with an awareness of different authors, and that they can explain and justify their own opinions. Children will develop their compassion, curiosity and courage through learning to read, reading for pleasure and reading a wide range of genres.

English Implementation

At Seymour Primary School we teach English through “Read Write Inc” (RWI), Accelerated Reader, TKAT whole class reading spine and Talk for Writing. 

We are a passionate and dedicated “Read Write Inc” (RWI) school and believe phonics are the vital foundations for our children becoming successful readers. Our younger readers follow the “Read Write Inc” (RWI) scheme when learning to read. This scheme places an emphasis on developing a strong understanding of synthetic phonics as well as reading for meaning, so children quickly develop understanding of texts alongside their ability to decode words.

We believe developing children’s fluency and comprehension skills is vital. We successfully use the Accelerated Reader programme from Year 2 onwards to encourage children with reading at home and support them to further develop their reading skills. 

We feel it is important to expose our children to a rich and wide variety of books that promote children’s passion for reading for pleasure. We follow the TKAT’s whole class reading spine to develop children’s ability to become skillful readers by encouraging them to think critically and questions concepts while reading.

The Talk for Writing approach is successfully embedded throughout our school from Early Years to Year 6. The approach enables children to become confident and independent writers by teaching them the toolkits to be able to write for a variety of purposes and audiences. We underpin our English curriculum by having a core reading spine of quality fiction, poetry and non fiction that all children draw upon when reading as writers and writing as a readers.