English Curriculum at Burrsville Infants Academy
At Burrsville Infants Academy we ensure our English curriculum encourages children to be enthusiastic learners and to enjoy reading and writing.
What are the aims of teaching English?
The National Curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:
- read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
- appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
- write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
- are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate
At Burrsville Infants Academy English lessons are planned with a balance of reading and writing, as well as speaking and listening. A wide range of genres and texts are used to support and stimulate our English lessons which expose our pupils to a variety of vocabulary and English skills. We collaboratively update our topic and English working walls throughout our unit of work as new skills are learnt. Texts and units are chosen to enable clear cross-curricular links to foundation subjects allowing pupils to develop their English skills daily throughout the curriculum, and each year group builds on previous taught skills and experience to ensure progression as they move up the school. Time is given to consolidate learning by giving children the opportunity to reflect/edit and up skill their work.
Pupils are taught to write for a variety of purposes and audiences, producing both fiction and non-fiction genres. They are given opportunities to explain, discuss, role play, recount events and to express ideas, thoughts and feelings.
Pupils are given opportunities to read from a wide range of material for enjoyment and to locate information. All children are encouraged to read daily in and out of school. In school children to listened to read 1:1 as well as during whole class shared reading where each lesson links to a reading domain to ensure children are able to discuss and understand the vocabulary, make inferences and predictions, explain and retrieve key information and sequence the main events in a text.
Teachers also read regularly to the class which provides further opportunities for children to talk about what they remember from last time, be involved in lots of questioning and discussion and very importantly be stimulated to read more themselves! It may be that spelling, punctuation and grammar teaching may be planned around the class book also.
All year groups at Burrsville Infants Academy receive daily phonic lessons following Read, Write, Inc. as well as handwriting lessons to build fine motor skills and develop pupil’s letter formation as well as their ability to write with increased fluency and stamina.
See below some photos of our KS1 children participating in a variety of cross curricular writing and English lessons. We enjoy sequencing, participating in role play, using technology, being creative and taking part in real life experiences such as food tasting, exploring the sensory garden, experiencing mini-beats and animals that link to our texts, trips the the theater, local library and science experiments to engage children in reading in writing.
These activities help us with our instruction writing, poetry, recounts, non fiction reports and narratives.
Interventions include:
- Precision teaching
- Alphabet arch
- Phonological awareness
- Additional phonic sessions
- Speech and language sessions
- Lexia – reading programme for identified children
Throughout the year a range of reading, writing and creative after school clubs also take place for children to offer them the opportunity to develop their skills and help to create a enthusiasm for the subject in different contexts.
In order to achieve these aims, we greatly welcome home support in developing children’s reading and language by sharing stories and discussing topics covered in school. We ask children to practice their spellings and sight words as well as to read regularly at home and to read a variety of texts such as their school book, on bug club, comics and books at home, recipes and instructions, directions and road signs!
We look forward to seeing you for a reading or writing focus open morning, phonic session or a bedtime stories event soon!
